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09.29.2010

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Consider Choice: Part II

If choices are something we all desire and something we deploy routinely as we make our way through our lives, one would think we would ask more questions than we do about this curious idea, this important marketing tool, this routine behavior. Through our work and research we have identified six distinct categories of choice. In this week's white paper, we compare and contrast these categories as archetypes and as models of behavior distilled for purposes of learning new ways of thinking and talking about choice.

The following excerpt explores the nature of spontaneous & experimental choice in store. For more insights into choice, download our free white paper:

In-Store Choices

Two categories of choice include those typically occurring inside store, choices frequently studied carefully under Shopper Insight frameworks.  

1) IMPULSIVE CHOICES

Our shopper ethnography research suggests the clear presence of spontaneous or impulsive choices occurring within the confines of a given retailer. These are choices to purchase specific products that were not otherwise planned, on a list, or in one’s “shopper mindset” before they entered the store.

As we know, these choices can significantly increase “basket size.”

We find two dominant—and related—impulsive choices, those occurring within categories and those occurring at shelf. By impulsive choices within categories, we are referring to the tendency to add one or more products from categories not otherwise planned or in one’s “shopper mindset.” For example, while shopping for diapers and soap, one might decide to grab a bag of chips. Importantly here, we find that while the decision of which bag of chips to purchase is finalized at the shelf, the more general decision to grab chips is not consistently driven by retail merchandising strategies. Moreover, while every decision occurs at shelf, we find that spontaneous category purchases (i.e. bag of chips, sack of candy, frozen pizza) most commonly defer to habituated flavor or product preferences while at shelf.

In other words, when we are speaking of impulsive choices within categories, we are suggesting that one would get the urge to purchase a bag of pretzels, arrive at the shelf, and (typically) purchase one’s habituated preference. In this scenario, there is little room to influence either the urge or the product selection .

In the case of spontaneous decisions occurring at shelf, there are a wide variety of factors driving this behavior, as most on the Shopper Insights arena are well aware. Those factors and behaviors are too complex to consider in any detail here, but our position is that there are effective merchandising and communications strategies that influence these spontaneous decisions at shelf. These behaviors are well documented and the shopper insights strategists have found some in their efforts.

2) EXPERIMENTAL CHOICES

The final category of in-store choices includes another class of choice that typically occurs at shelf. Here we find consumers engaged in what we term experimental choices. By this we mean consumers shopping within a specific category (e.g., soup), often with expressed habituated preferences, which are sometimes inclined to try different brands or products based on innovative flavor profiles, unique ingredients or higher quality impressions.

These decisions are to be distinguished from the at-shelf decisions common to shopper insights work because in this case, the impetus behind the experimental behavior resides in the product itself and not the positioning, packaging, communication, merchandising solutions proposed by shopper insights research.

Here the goal is to capture the shopper’s attention at shelf with a product that is demonstrably unique, interesting or innovative.

Click to read more

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WHITE PAPER DOWNLOAD

As consultants, marketers and analysts in the US, the idea of choice is implicit in nearly everything we do. Join us as we explore choice, its relevance to consumer culture and its role in marketing and shopper insights.

Download the whitepaper now >>

WEBINAR

This two part series on choice will also be presented as a FREE webinar. Join us this Thursday at 10am, PST for an in-depth look at the insights explored here.

Register today >>