Have you seen The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook?

This comprehensive and practical guide to the latest ideas in customer-focused marketing hands you over 200 packed pages of strategy, best practices, do's and don'ts, practical know-how, facts and figures, and ideas to optimise your marketing strategy, boost sales, market share, increase ROI and profit.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)

Post-recession shopping behaviour shifts

The recession has changed consumers' mindset about shopping, and most people have already developed new rules for the retailers with which they choose to deal. As a result, retailers need a greater understanding of the changed roles they play in consumers' lives in order to meet those expectations and maintain customer loyalty.

The study, entitled 'Re-Imagining The Retail Store', identified five key findings that retailers should consumer when implementing new strategies:

1. Don't let technology undermine the shopping experience
   Retailers tend to view in-store technologies as a better way to connect with their customers, but customers don't agree. While people do want to experience a seamless transition between the physical and virtual store by using technology, they also want educated and friendly service when visiting the physical store. Technology is not a suitable substitute and this practice can damage an already fragile relationship.
2. Shoppers are promiscuous
   Consumers tend to shop around, and their loyalty is hard earned. The recession has taken a toll on consumer confidence and people's perceptions of retail business. Customer loyalty has to be earned by understanding in detail the expectations of the shopper and delivering every time.
3. Price is attractive, but it's not the whole story
   Consumers will not accept a trade-off involving low price versus quality experiences and merchandise. Today, people are more than happy not to spend their money if they feel that retailers do not give them a sufficient reason to purchase.
4. Breaking the rules
   If you're not winning by following the rules, break them. There are two clear ways to win in store-based retailing - excel within your store archetype or take a radical path to greatness and create a new store format that breaks out of category conventions and delivers a unique experience.
5. The basics are still powerful
   It may not be exciting, but there is work to do and profit to be made from making the basics of retail even better. Retailers are struggling to get the basics right and people are visibly frustrated. Going back to basics can help to improve customer appeal, retention and, ultimately, profitability.

According to Dr Alan Treadgold, head of retail strategy for Leo Burnett Worldwide, "The retail landscape continues to evolve and move further away from being just a place to purchase a product. It's an experience. As retailers listen to their customers and understand their behaviors, they can create an experience that people come back to time and time again."

A white paper detailing the study's findings and conclusions has been made available for free download from the Leo Burnett web site - click here (Google Docs web-based document; no registration needed).

Have you seen The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook?

This comprehensive and practical guide to the latest ideas in customer-focused marketing hands you over 200 packed pages of strategy, best practices, do's and don'ts, practical know-how, facts and figures, and ideas to optimise your marketing strategy, boost sales, market share, increase ROI and profit.

Learn the insider's tricks and techniques to turn every customers into a 'super spreader' for your brand. It's better than free advertising. Once you start this ball rolling, your brand can grow rapidly through word-of-mouth, advocacy, influencers, and customer loyalty. Super-charge your company's marketing strategy, build up your market share, and make more sales through repeat business and customer loyalty.

Find out what works - and what doesn't - and who's succeeded, and how they did it. See how the world's top brands keep their competitive edge against all odds.

The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook walks you step-by-step through the techniques, metrics, reporting, analysis, marketing models, technologies, tools and innovations for successful marketing strategies - both traditional and emerging - with expert guidance from thought leaders in every major market. Find out the best ways to gather, analyse, and act on customer data to increase profitability, build your brand, empower your customers, beat the competition, reduce churn, and increase customer profitability. This is a marketing book you simply can't afford to be without.

This book aims to hand you all the facts, figures and research data you need for the best decisions for a more profitable, more engaging marketing strategy. It also highlights all the facts, forecasts and trends identified by our experts from the global Marketing Factbook's vast database of market data, news, studies, research and articles, and presents you with an invaluable library of ideas and practical support you can call upon at will.

With The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook at your side, you'll have instant access to a true goldmine of easily adaptable and up-to-date strategies, walk-throughs, trends, research and market data, plus all the supporting arguments you need to build a solid, profitable marketing strategy.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)