The Shopping Process for a Modern Consumer www.costsavingmarketing.co.uk /modern-customers-shopping-habits/

Do I invest in sales people or in marketing and advertising? #DearTanya CaseStudy

Every business needs to allocate budgets for their sales force, marketing, advertising, product development, stafftraining, updates for software, IT, new hardware…the list goes on and on. Most recently I was invited to be part of amarketing research group with deals with optimising budget allocation. The client is a big corporate company whichowns a couple of luxurious cosmetic brands. When I was approached by the company they wanted to explorewhether investing more aggressively in digital marketing will help increase their profits in the UK.

What was the task?

Find out how important sales advisors are when consumers make their choice of what to buy. Ultimately answeringthe question “What is the importance of digital marketing in the decision making process for their target market?”.

What is the target market?

Female, late 20s to late 40s, women who are aware of luxurious brands; women who are not obsessed with buyingthe latest cosmetic trends but willing to spend as much as needed to receive the results they are looking for.

What was the methodology used?

We followed the journey of 50 shoppers who are part of our target market. The shoppers were told that we want toexamine their shop habits in-store (not online). They were not told what type of cosmetics to buy or which cosmeticbrand to shop from. They were given £100 to spend on cosmetics in a shopping centre where our client had theycosmetic counter. After their shopping day all of the shoppers were interviewed using the same set of questions.Other shopping observations were also taken into account.

What were the criteria for the experiment?

1. Is the positioning of the products important for shoppers with regards to the way they interact with the brand(for example, are the products available freely so customers can pick what they wanted and try it withouthaving to talk to a sale assistant OR the products were behind the counter and potential customers had to askfor a sale assistant before they could try the products).

2. Were customers buying from brands they have seen before?

3. Were customer using technology to make up their mind about the products they wanted to buy?

4. Are shoppers using technology while making their choice in-store.

There were 45 different criteria all related to buying patters.

What was the result?

I really don’t want to bore anyone here with data or statistical analysis. As you can imagine I am not allowed todiscuss the results. However, I would like to comment on a particular observation which I would include here. Theobservation is based on dialogue and the interview after the shopping session. Read the case study and let meknow what you think. Let’s call the customer Ann for the purposes of this case study.

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The scenario

Ann was given £100 to spend on any cosmetics of her choice in one of the biggest shopping centres in London. Theshopping centre offers 34 different cosmetic counters which Ann can choose from. Ann, 34 year old female, feelsbetter about approaching counters which allow her to try the products without having to talk to a sales assistant. Shehas been shopping for baby clothes for an hour before she decides to head over to the cosmetic counters and enjoysome quiet time just walking around at her own pace. She prefers to shop alone. Ann was after a night cream as shehas heard a colleague talking about overnight products and how effective they are. She has heard some hype aboutnight oils but she cannot stand any sticky/oily feeling on her skin so she decided to hunt for a night cream. She felt£100 will be enough to find a good night cream but she was willing to pay more depending on how long the productwould last. “It’s all about finding a product which is a good value for money” Ann said. After 50 minutes Ann startedto feel slightly frustrated. So many counters, so many products, so many product descriptions and labels which toldher nothing about the products (e.g. inspired by the tender moon light…Ann observed “it would have helped if theproduct description would tell me what type of skin this product is suitable for”). Ann didn’t want to talk to salesassistants as she felt she might be pressured into buying something she didn’t really want or need. When a salesassistant approached Ann said she is fine just browsing. After 50 minutes, Ann called her mum to ask what nightcream she uses. Her mum tells her she had bought it from a food retailer. Ann commented “My mum bought hernight cream from a food retailer. Why wouldn’t you spend a bit more money and buy a proper night cream? I reallydon’t think her recommendation was helpful. Plus, why would I take her recommendation – we have different skinproblems because of our age and probably need a different type of night cream anyway.” Ann decided to useGoogle’s help. Ann didn’t go to sit in a coffee shop to use Google, she just went to a quiet corner, dropped her otherbags, took out her mobile phone and went online. She Google-d night ” best night creams cream reviews”. Sheclicked on some of the links on the first page which lead her to a beauty forum. She didn’t have the time to read allthe posts on the forum. She ignored the forum; too tedious when looking for a fast answer. However, Ann made amental note to read forums before she purchases her next cosmetic purchase. She returned to the Google resultpage and clicked on a website which offers star rating for products. She spotted a product she has seen onInstagram and saw the product rating was four stars. Instead of reading all the 345 reviews (345 reviews is good,this product must be popular she thought), she clicked on the lowest 1 star review. The review was 1 star becausethe reviewer who used the night cream had very dry skin and the products didn’t work for her. Ann disregarded thebad review because:

1. “I don’t have dry skin so not really bothered about super deep hydration.”

2. “The product is anti-aging and it claims to plump up the skin not to leave it moisturised so the review is notthat very relevant.”

Ann read a couple of other 2 star reviews but decided that if the majority are 4 star and 5 start reviews, that’s good.Ann scrolled down the Google result page and saw 5 blog reviews for this product. She doesn’t read the reviews butshe thinks the product must be popular if there are so many beauty bloggers creating buzz about it. Ann decided tofind the beauty counter and go for that product. She has heard of the beauty brand before, although she has nevertried their products, so she is confident now she wants this product. Ann went straight to a sales assistant and askedfor the product as she struggled to find it on her own. The sales assistant showed her the product on the counterencouraging Ann to try the product so she can feel the texture. Ann declined as “it’s a night cream, not botheredabout the texture that much”. Ann was ready to buy the product. However, the sales assistant wanted to talk to Annabout her skin, what Ann has used before, whether Ann needed a day cream or an eye cream so she can maximisethe benefits of using a night cream. Ann politely said she was in a rush and she has made up her mind so she justwants to quickly grab the product and leave. After Ann paid for the product on the till, she was given a voucher to usenext time she shops from the brand. To receive the voucher Add has to fill in a survey online. Ann shared that “that’snot an attractive voucher. I just spent £87 on a night cream and they want me to spend 30 minutes answeringquestions to give me £5 off. Next time they want to reward me as a customer, they’d better offer me a sample ofanother product or a discount on my current purchase. I wouldn’t care about my next purchase at the moment

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because if this night cream disappoints me I won’t buy another product from this brand regardless of the discountvoucher.” Ann admitted that she had made up her mind about the product before she went to the beauty counter. Annalso told me that she doesn’t really trusts sales people because their job is to sell not to give you advice. Sheappreciates that they are there if she needs advice but she finds it overwhelming when sales people want to sellmore than she wants. She says that she hates pushy sales people. However, Ann said that her cousin is a salesadvisor for a make-up brand and she appreciates why some people would need help “investing in a beautyproduct”. Ann did not buy a product from my client’s brands. Ann is still unaware which brands we were gatheringthe marketing research for.

Based on the case study above, would you cut costs on sales advisors and invest inmarketing?

Things to consider: I am also fully aware that this is the experience of 1 person which is not representative of thewhole target market for the brand. The purpose of this case study is to illustrate the buying process for a modernconsumer. I do take into consideration that spending £100 on a night cream is not the same as trying to buy a newbespoke kitchen – the money, effort and skills involved is completely different and the buying process is probablealso very different. Thank you for reading! Let me know what you think! Tanya

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