Reviving that Impulse Spark

Whatever happened to grabbing a box of Godiva chocolates off the shelf simply because you wanted an extravagant treat? Oh, right, it’s not in the budget anymore.

Shoppers are more thoughtful than ever, clipping coupons and carefully writing out lists (and sticking to them once in the store). These new shoppers are very good at resisting temptation, even going so far as to remove items from their carts before they hit the checkout counter. It might be something they really wanted, but in the end it wasn’t necessary.

“Because so many consumers have changed shopping behaviors because of the recession, impulse in the store has to work that much harder,” says Tina Manikas, global retail and promotions officer at Draftfcb.

Here are five ways to make it happen:

1. CUSTOMIZATION: Customize anything and everything. Create unique packs or bundles. This creates differentiation and gives retailers a reason to give you more shelf space.

   “You can’t always control how much signage you get or how often you get your products promoted, but at the end of the day this breaks news for the retailer, [creates] surprise and delight for the shopper, and gets products on the shelf,” Manikas says.

2. MOBILE AT RETAIL: Leverage the portability of mobile phones. Deliver coupons and gift cards to shoppers. Target recently began allowing its gift card holders to save their cards to an account on the store’s mobile site and then simply present their Web-enabled mobile phones to the cashier.

3. DYNAMIC ASSORTMENT: When you break things up, both on a product and an offer level, you can surprise shoppers and spark a purchase. Kmart’s Deal of the Day as a countdown to Christmas was the perfect example, Manikas says. “It’s about how you can create attention by managing the pace of offers and how you serve them up inside the store,” she says.” Kmart put offers in unexpected places in the store. Something was highlighted in key merchandising areas of the store.

4. INCREASE SHOP-ABILITY: Organize product and selection to catch people’s attention and drive purchases. At a Jewel supermarket in Chicago, and maybe beyond, Gatorade reorganized its selection horizontally to make it easier for consumers to select a product by need. The beverages could “roll” off shelf and were tagged by need state or attribute. Campbell’s Soup Co. is redesigning its gravity-fed shelving system at 24,000 retailers nationally to expand the category and improve the shopping experience.

5. LESS IS MORE: Reducing your assortment makes it better for shoppers. And it gets rid of the slow movers, which diminish value to the retailer. “Take a hard look. Do the products really have a differentiated reason to be there? Sometimes there are very superficial reasons to have products on shelf.

Got a retail marketing tip to share? Contact Patricia Odell at [email protected]