This blog features information from Euromonitor International‘s latest White Paper, Understanding the Path to Purchase: 2021 Global Consumer Types. To download the full report, click here.
Beyond the norms
Everyone knows the typical buyers personas that CPGs can serve. Separate them by gender, age, location, income level – it’s fairly easy to create a broad picture of your perfect client and speculate on what will appeal to them in-store.
But what happens if you throw out those stereotypical demographics and look at your consumers in another way?
By profiling your customers based on personality, motivation and where they sit on the path to purchase, you can gather a much greater understanding of the in-store KPIs that make the biggest difference to them. It’s well known that 70% of purchasing decisions happen in front of the shelf, so getting your consumer profiles right can be make or break for your profits.
What to ask?
To narrow down the motivations of your consumer, there are a number of questions you can ask both yourself and them.
Firstly, you need to follow the usual steps of narrowing down your demographics and finding out who your consumers are. However, this is just the start.
Once you have your base consumer, then you can get started on really understand them.
Questions for yourself can include, but are not limited to:
- Which consumer needs are driving your pipeline?
- How are consumer habits/preferences changing?
- How can you tailor your product to fit consumer values?
- Where will your sales and marketing budget make the most impact?
Questions for clients can go a little deeper:
- Do they enjoy shopping?
- Do they plan their purchases in advance or decide in the moment?
- What are their concerns with shopping?
- Do they use technology to research a product? Does this research impact their spending?
- Do they look for guidance and reviews prior to purchase?
- What will stop them from buying a product?
- Who cares about sales and low prices?
- Do they look for brand names only?
With these questions and more in mind, Euromonitor created 10 types of consumer profiles for CPGs to consider in their retail strategy.
The KPIs that matter
By breaking down these personas, it’s much easier for you to understand which KPIs should be your main focus. When you find that there’s inevitably overlap, you can save time, money and efficiency by targeting these alone. It may seem counterintuitive, but tracking less KPIs really can lead to more profit down the line.
As you know, these will always vary depending on your industry. There are some specific KPIs that can’t be applied here, but let’s take a look at the to-level KPIs that would have the biggest impact on Euromonitor’s top five consumer profiles.
The Undaunted Striver
The Undaunted Striver wants to be the best and have the best. Making up 17% of the global population, they’re willing the spend the extra money if it means they can keep their trendsetter status.
The KPIs that apply here?
- Brand Recommendation
- On Shelf Visibility
- On Shelf Availability
- Price Monitoring
- Share of Shelf
Focusing on Brand Awareness and having a strong omnichannel approach is the best strategy for this profile.
The Secure Traditionalist
The Secure Traditionalist is part of the 16% of the population that doesn’t enjoy shopping. They’re happy with where they are in life and want to get in and out of the store as fast as possible.
The KPIs that apply here?
- Out of Stocks
- On Shelf Visibility
- On Shelf Availability
- Promotional Compliance
- Secondary Placement
Anything that can make the purchasing decision easier is a winner with this consumer.
As you can already see, OSA and OSV are evergreen KPIs that hold significance in almost every scenario.
The Empowered Activist
The Empowered Activist cares about the world and prioritises authenticity above all else. The will do extensive research before any purchases to make sure the product and brand aligns with their values.
The KPIs that matter here?
- Brand Recommendation
- Price Monitoring
- Promotional Compliance
For a persona that relies heavily on research, it can be easy to assume that their mind is already made up before they enter the store. However, if any employee recommends a sustainable brand or they see a promotion that lies outside the norm – maybe a link to a charity – it could make the difference between a win and a loss.
The Impulsive Spender
More than anything else, the Impulsive Spender loves a bargain. They’re always open to new products and – as the name suggests – don’t typically research brands before deciding what to buy.
The KPIs that matter here?
- Promotional Compliance
- Price Monitoring
- Secondary Placement
- Out of Stocks
- Share of Shelf
With this profile, if you have a discount, you have a sale. Almost going against everything research tells you, Impulsive Spenders aren’t driven by a prior want or need, but rather what they see on the shelf in front of them.
The Minimalist Seeker
The Minimalist Seeker cares about necessity over novelty. Striving to only purchase products the explicitly need, they aren’t swayed by flashy promotions and designer labels.
Which KPIs matter here?
- On Shelf Availability
- On Shelf Visibility
- Out of Stocks
- Price Monitoring
These are the consumers that are affected by clear packaging the most. It’s incredibly hard to way them to buy something they don’t absolutely need, so clear, concise packaging and availability is what’s key here.
If only it were that easy
Ultimately, the KPIs that you 100% need to track all fall under the umbrella of the Perfect Store.
However, perfect store execution looks different depending on your industry, the size of the retailer, the category of your product, and so on. Cutting down the number of KPIs you track is essential to streamlining your sales strategy, but it requires information from before (such as this blog), during and after the path of purchase.
This information can be troublesome and time consuming to collect, so finding the most efficient and actionable method to do so is crucial. CPGs can fall into the trap of ‘this is how we’ve always done it’, which actively works against you in the long run. Shopper behaviour changes all the time, so to keep up with consumers and the KPIs that matter most, you need to be open to change too.
If you’d like to learn more about how your team can use image recognition to complete more efficient stores audits, read the full outlook in our white paper “SCANNING THE SHELVES – How Image Recognition Helps Consumer Brands To Boost Their Retail Execution” here.
