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02.25.2005

“HartBeat” is The Hartman Group's FREE online newsletter, providing insight, analysis, information and strategy to give business leaders the knowledge and vision to build sustainable brands.

For more Hartman Group articles on SHOPPER INSIGHTS, click here...

February 03, 2005 "Understanding the At-Home Shopper Experience"

January 06, 2005 "5 Myths in Consumer Shopping Behavior"

October 14, 2004 "8 Common Blunders in Consumer Insights"

March 15, 2004 "Luxury Consumption"- Part I

March 19, 2002 "Luxury Consumption"- Part II

December 27, 2002 "Re-Thinking Our Traditional Notion of the Mass Marketplace: The Emergence of a New Paradigm"

December 20, 2002 "Re-Thinking Our Traditional Notion of the Mass Marketplace: What Happened to the Mass Market?"

June 28, 2002 "Experience, Expectation & the Shopping Trip"

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Shopper Insights: moving Beyond 'need States' And 'trip Types'

"I need to pick up some milk." This common prelude to the all-too-familiar "fill-in" shopping trip does a lot to tell us generally what brought this consumer to the store. Yet, even though we know the consumer is there to pick up some milk, the shopping behavior and product choices made on this given trip can still vary widely: Will she grab-and-go? dart-and-weave? circle the perimeter? shop the aisles? impulse buy? Will she buy soymilk? chocolate milk? whole milk? organic milk? skim milk?...

To uncover meaningful insights about shopping behavior, we need to draw off of an understanding of cultural and social influences within store as well as home experiences. To do so, we have developed a framework, or model, focusing on what we call "cultural occasions" for shopping behavior. This model presents a holistic perspective that is designed to complement traditional analyses of shopping behavior, such as need states or trip types, by providing a context from which to view various aspects of behavior.

Using this framework, we have greatly expanded the context from which to analyze shopping behavior because the "old" way of studying behavior is far too narrow and simplified to take into account the complex, constantly changing nature of consumer behavior (especially with regard to the impact of the home environment and developing trends).

What is important about cultural occasions is not that they provide us with a better way to classify shopping trips, but that they provide us with additional information that we can use to further our understanding of shopping and shopping trips.

For example, even when the type of trip is the same, shopping behavior can vary substantially depending upon the cultural occasion. Taken a step further, consider the following examples of a "fill-in" trip with the goal/need of purchasing milk. The scenarios below follow one shopper, Julie, in three distinct "fill-in" shopping trips to purchase milk. While the trip type is the same, the shopping behavior and resulting purchases are different for each:

Fill-In Trip Scenario #1: Julie is the mother of Emily, a 2-year-old girl who loves to drink milk. Just before 5:00, Julie remembers that she is out of milk and will need to swing by the grocery store on her way home from work. She stops at the grocery store near her home, walks into the store, heads toward the perimeter and proceeds directly to the dairy case. She has approximately 10 minutes to get in and out of the store. Julie is tired and focused on getting milk. She does not check prices or loyalty card signage, but reaches for a half-gallon of organic milk of the brand she always buys for Emily. She heads to the register and leaves for home.

Analysis: Julie has been influenced by cultural trends in parenting that increasingly give meaning to ideas such as organic food and beverages for children. These ideas include notions of responsibility and nurturing, and carry over to tasks such as shopping for milk. The "After-Work Supplement" occasion signals that her behavior in the store will have a lot to do with efficiency and little to do with price or attention to in-store marketing tactics.

Cultural Trend:

Cultural Occasion for Shopping:

Purchase:

Fill-In Trip Scenario #2: Julie has decided to invite friends over for dinner. She has learned that one of these friends has stopped drinking milk beverages due to complaints of "lactose intolerance." Julie's plans are to bake her grandmother's old-fashioned biscuits, and the recipe calls for milk. She wants to please her friend but is not sure what to use as a substitute for milk. Dinner is tonight, and she is short on time, so Julie decides to go to a specialty grocer where she believes she may find additional information about lactose intolerance and ideas for substitutions. Julie goes directly to the dairy case and requests help from the store staff. Within minutes, she settles on the store brand of soymilk and several other "goodies" that made their way into her basket while she waits at checkout.

Analysis: In this example the health trend towards awareness and perceptions of lactose intolerance as well as the mainstreaming of soy give meaning to Julie's task of shopping for milk. Julie had heard of soymilk but had not tried it for herself. Her motivation is based on pleasing others while still being able to provide a special meal. The "Crafting a Special Recipe" occasion is an exploratory occasion where Julie is most likely to learn about new products, interact with store staff and switch brands.

Cultural Trend:

Cultureal Occasion for Shopping:

Purchase:

Fill-In Trip Scenario #3: Julie works out twice a week and tries to eat healthy on these days. Because she is ravenous after working out, she usually stops into the nearby grocery store on her way home to find a quick snack to eat. Julie recently read in her health magaizine that she should consume a post-workout snack that has a high level of protein. One of the magazine's suggestions for a tasty snack was chocolate milk. After her regular Tuesday night workout, Julie goes to the nearby grocery store and checks the ingredient labels of the two chocolate milk brands. She chooses the one that contains more protein. While she is at the store, Julie also checks out some of the bottled waters fortified with vitamins and minerals and chooses one that claims to be for "stress relief."

Analysis: Julie chooses a product that satisfied her need for a healthy "reward" for her workout efforts, both her physical need for replenishment and her emotional need for a treat. At the store, Julie browses the beverage aisle looking for other new health-oriented beverages. She also spent some extra time in the store reading nutrition labels in order to find a product appropriate for her needs. Additionally, the "Workout Fuel" occasion put her in the mindset to purchase the fortified water on impulse.

Cultural Trend:

Cultural Occasion for Shopping:

Purchase:

To summarize, Julie has engaged in three separate "fill-in" trips all centered on the need to purchase milk. Various cultural occasions and influencing trends have resulted in Julie's purchase of three different milk beverages from three different channels. She has also exhibited different styles and tactics of shopping during each store visit.

Conclusion

By giving us a context for shopper behavior, cultural occasions create a solid foundation for predicting and influencing shopping behavior as a meaningful activity in consumers' lives and draw our attention to additional determinants such as:

Time spent preparing versus shopping (i.e., how do consumers allocate their time between these activities on different occasions)
Style of shopping (e.g., perimeter/dart and weave, cart/basket, focused/exploratory, etc.)
Tactics consumers use at store and in the home (e.g., collecting vs. using coupons; how and when lists are used, etc.)
Key categories of focus by occasion
Key channels utilized by occasion
Differences between objective and emotional goals
What and/or whose goals are being served

To begin thinking from this perspective, you may need to ask some different questions (e.g., "On what occasions is shopping behavior influenced primarily by the home, the store or a combination of both?"), study different things (e.g., cultural trends and home experiences), and employ different methods (e.g., ethnography combined with statistics). The reward, however, is a deeper understanding of the context of shopping and purchase behavior, which can open up opportunities for manufacturers and retailers to be catalysts of change and remain relevant in consumers' lives.

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