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06.28.2002

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For more Hartman Group articles on Consumer Expectation and Experience...

NATURAL SENSIBILITY
The Way to the Consumer's Heart is Through Experience

Wellness Trends 2002

Creating the Buzz: Marketing Eco-Products to Today's Wellness Consumers

This issue of HartBeat is excerpted from a recent N|sight Magazine, The Hartman Group's bi-annual publication exploring the dynamics of the health and wellness arena.

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Experience, Expectation And The Shopping Trip

A key in understanding the concept of "the trip" is to understand the difference between how we define "experience" and "expectation." An experience is what has happened or is currently happening to the consumer in a chosen store, and an expectation is what a consumer hopes to have happen while on a shopping trip. Although consumers vary on how they choose a primary store based on past and current experiences, they agree there are certain key expectations linked with the type of shopping trip they take. In other words, consumers may have very different views on choosing a store experience but they agree on what they expect from the various types of shopping trips. To better understand this, we need to look at types of shopping trips any given consumer makes.

TYPES OF SHOPPING TRIPS
There are four types of shopping trips consumers make: list, hobby, impulse and trigger trips. These types of trips are determined by their degree of regularity, whether routine or spontaneous, and their degree of specificity, whether open or focused (see the figure below). After the determination is made regarding where a particular trip falls on the continuum between the degree of specificity and regularity, we establish its type. The typification of a shopping trip illustrates what consumers expect and desire to experience at the store.

The List Trip: The list trip is a routine and focused outing that consumers take most often. On this type of trip, consumers expect to encounter a familiar experience that is based on past visits. There is often little expectation of surprise and, in fact, there is a preference for the trip to be uneventful and systematic. On a list trip, consumers typically expect to experience convenience, reliability and relevance:

The Hobby Trip: The hobby trip is routine and open and taken on a regular basis as an activity. Consumers often describe this past-time trip as browsing without a strong intent to buy. During a hobby trip, consumers often like the thrill of getting a good buy because they are more prone to frequent trips, which allows them to wait for sales and compare pricing. Consumers often expect authenticity, discovery and knowledge on a hobby trip:

The Impulse Trip: The impulse trip is spontaneous and open. Consumers on an impulse trip have either decided to take the trip on a whim of fancy or turn a more focused trip into an open one as they shop. These consumers are delighted with discovery in the store. Some consumers describe impulse trips as shopping to fill a void that they feel emotionally about. They feel satisfaction, even if only temporarily, as they find items that suit them. During an impulse trip, consumers seek discovery, gratification and variety. Here we see a consumer that sets out with the intent to change her mood:

This quote is an example of a focused trip that turned into an open one:

The Trigger Trip: Finally, the trigger trip is best described as the "I ran out of butter" scenario. This trip is spontaneous and focused. Consumers often are seeking a trip to get a practical need(s) met. Whether this need was running out of butter while making cookies or running low on gas, trigger trips are made with the intent to find an item to satisfy an item void. These trips are focused on the item the consumer needs rather than being open to fill an emotional void as on an impulse trip. On a trigger trip, consumers desire availability, convenience and fast service:

For retailers, understanding the various types of shopping trips that consumers make leads to key insights necessary for success. Having perspective on the types of trips that are made to their stores allows retailers to determine factors such as the average amount of money spent on each trip type, the trip types in their store that most often include wellness product purchases, what types of trips consumers most often make to their stores, and so on. For example, if a retailer determines that consumers most often make trigger trips to their stores they had better be in the convenience store business. If not, the retailer may need to look into ways to increase the consumer's time spent in their store and provide the consumer with an experience that encourages more list and hobby trips that are routine in nature.

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