Shopper Culture

Can you really tell shoppers what to buy?

An interesting piece in the Weekend Wall Street Journal this Saturday prompts a question regarding how shoppers are engaged to buy a product.  The article talks about high-end boutiques and retailers in New York City calling or emailing consumers to tell them which expensive items their loved ones would like or might be interested in.  It's part of a growing trend by these retailers, both on and off-line, to increase their holiday retail sales...and for some consumers it's a god-send, yet for others it's an unwanted intrusion.

While the article depicts a fairly "narrow" circumstance, it does point to the opportunity to engage consumers differently.  The idea of reaching out to consumers to guide their purchases is not new - we've all received Catalina coupons in grocery stores that offer an incentive to buy a like (or competitive) product based on our purchase the clerk just scanned, and it's hard to avoid Amazon's "If you like this, you might also like this" approach to suggestive selling (which, by the way, really works).  Starbucks this past year began leveraging Apple's iPhone and the iTunes music service - shoppers walk into a cafe to buy a latte, hear music in the store, and are automatically contacted via WiFi on their iPhone with a message "If you like this song, please hit 'purchase' " and the song is downloaded to their phone. 

There are new technologies coming that will further enhance these opportunities to reach out to consumers and "help" their shopping. The advanced mobile phones from Europe and Asia that store credit card data on handsets and read RFID tags are coming to the U.S.

And the ability to scan UPC codes at shelf with a mobile handset and automatically receive product information and, more importantly, consumer reviews to help select (or worse de-select) a particular product at the exact moment of purchase decision is right around the corner.  The downside is that consumers can also then determine where to go to find the best price for that product, which might not be in that particular store.  But rather than feel defensive, brands should embrace that "moment of choice" for the shopper to proactively engage the potential buyer with information (and better yet an experience) that helps them close the sale right then and there.  And ideally sets up a repeat engagement with that same buyer the next time they're in the market for the product.

Brands need to think about a broader range of influences on their shoppers.  The myriad of communication vehicles traditionally deployed to reach consumers will continue to be important.  But it's the combination of those elements with new, different contact points that will create the newest, best ways to influence purchase behavior.  As shopper behavior shifts, so the need for brand behavior to change increases, and finding ways to effectively reach out and "suggest" a specific purchase is something to add to the communication arsenal.  While right for some brands, it is appropriate behavior for all?

Contributed by Marc Ducnuigeen

* by invitation only

It seems our desire for exclusive shopping knows few bounds.  A new service launched in Europe at the start of 2007 called Claseo aims to bring exclusive fashion retailing for men and woment together with a social network environment of like minded people. 

You can only gain access to the site, and therefore the brand's clothing, if you are invited by an existing member.  It's the ultimate in audience direction of a brand.  As well as an ultimate in bragging rights and social one up man-ship.

As the public area of the site states:

Claseo offers uniquely designed fashion which is not available to the public. We want to connect outstanding and like-minded individuals around the world – both online and offline.

Claseo fashion items are strictly limited and equipped with a visible identification code that makes each item unique. The exclusive design makes Claseo bearers stand out in any crowd. In order to be able to purchase Claseo apparel, you need to be invited by a current member of Claseo. This means that Claseo members choose the people who are eligible to wear Claseo designs. Invitations are limited.

After you have ordered a product at our online store, you automatically become a member of our lifestyle-oriented online portal. Here, you can reconnect with your friends, get to know interesting people and find valuable information about lifestyle oriented topics. Furthermore, community members decide about the looks of every new collection and also hand in their own design suggestions.

This way the members of Claseo actively particpate in the development of the brand.

We think this is a neat Disruption in the category.  Of course  social exclusivity has been around for eons, but we find the combination of an on-line and off-line element of the experience, along with the ability to let the audience direct the development of the brand, really interesting and smart.  We have always been able to identify people in a crowd who have the potential to be PLU (people like us) by their overall attire. It's easy to spot the people you think you're most likely to hit it off with when at a social gathering, but this kind of 'special hand shake'  is an interesting twist that converges these two worlds.

As with all things exclusive, someone eventually tries to take it a little more mainstream.  So where does something like this go?  Would we see this at Gap or Banana Republic in the US?  Could we see Nordstrom or Selfridges launching an exclusive service in this way that helps their shoppers identify each other in a crowd? What about Top Shop in the UK would be interesting. Where else could we see this concept going? Who could you see doing this in your market?