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Shopper marketing finally getting respect it deserves

January 18, 2009

Adweek: While 21 million people waltzed over to their sets to watch an average episode of Dancing With the Stars last year, and American Idol cast its spell on still more (35 million for the season finale), those audiences pale when compared to the crowds that pack the aisles of the big-box retailers. Costco, Walgreens, Safeway and Kroger boast weekly shopper counts of 20 million, 30 million, 44 million and 68 million, respectively. Passing through the revolving doors of Wal-Mart locations across America each week are 150 million people.

Now consider this: While TV's audiences have been fragmented by the addition of hundreds of new channels, retail has been concentrating its consumer base via consolidation. Ten to 15 years ago, the top 10 retail accounts of the typical packaged goods manufacturer represented 20 percent of sales. No more, says Peter Hoyt, executive director for the In-Store Marketing Institute. "Due to consolidation and the rise of megachains," he says, "those top 10 customers now represent as much as 80 percent of sales-more, in many cases."

It's the confluence of these economic forces over the past decade or more, says MEC Retail partner David Sommer, that has allowed shopper marketing to truly come into its own. "The dynamics have changed, and now the one place you can still aggregate a mass audience is in-store," he says. "That's a big media buy, and if you hit shoppers with an ad message, 'This is relevant,' you'll get a response that can be measured via a sales lift."

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