Shopper Culture

Dear Customer; Please come inside - Thanks Mgmt.

On my way home from skiing this weekend I stopped in a small town called Dillon to fill up on gas and this sign at the pump caught my attention.The hunter orange sign was offering a 5 cent discount to anyone willing to pay for gas with cash. Now, I don't usually carry cash and the convenience store ATM fee would have cost far more than the dicsount I could have recieved, so I ignored the offer and payed at the pump with my credit card. But it got me thinking about why they were pushing such a significant discount. Is it because convenience stores are trying to cut down on the transaction fees credit card companies charge, up to 7.6% according to NACS. Or is this some sort of an invitation to draw pump payers into the store? According to a 2006 convenience store case study done by Envirosell, 46% of those who purchase gas don't even enter the store. With a tightening economy and rising gas prices many consumers may opt to just pay at the pump and leave. When you are paying more attention to your wallet things like energy drinks, chips, pop and gum all seem like "luxury" items. And in a business where the sale of gas accounts for such a small precentage of their profit, convenience stores need a draw to get people back into the store. Are c-stores hoping for an impulse purchase of things consumers are less inclined to buy if they aren't within reach? In the current state of the economy we plan on seeing more taticts like this executed by c-stores.

Sony vending and airport convenience

This is neat.  As seen at Dallas Fort Worth airport.

It is one of a series of vending machines that Sony has been testing (since 2006) that brings the different parts of it's organisation together in retail. Operating under the name "Sony Access" the vending machines showcase and sell multiple formats of Sony recordable media, batteries, headphones, Walkman MP3 players and CD players, Sony digital cameras, Sony Pictures DVDs and UMD videos, Sony Music CDs, Vaio PC accessories and PlayStation games and PSP players.

The vending machines are placed well. This machine pictured was in a high traffic area in the airport and very visable and there is no cannibalization from other Sony channels (at least not in Dallas airport).

While I was sitting there many people walking by stopped to have a look.  It is an interesting concept, attractive concept and clearly great at raising awareness of, and generating interest in, the brand and its offerings - but I didn't see anyone buy anything.

This got me wondering. Given the high end nature of some of the products available, would shoppers want to see and touch the product before they buy?  Will consumers see vending of such products in a similar light as the Internet where holding the product before purchase is less important?  Does this just bring another level of convenience to a captive audience with time to kill?  Or appeal only to a specific, confident segment (likely to be in an airport)? Does the brand just accept the trade off between brand awareness and actual sales?

And on the theme of convenience, just around the corner was a neat consumer service. Here you can rent a laptop by the hour.  Just in case you have forgotten yours!  It is part of a charging station for phones, PDAs and laptops. So I guess you could charge your machine, rent another, work on that important document, then port it over to your machine.  You can also print out what you create.  Only thing is, surely if you have your own laptop you can use it while it is charging - or is that just a mac thing?  Again, it wasn't doing brisk business and all the available laptops were in the machine.

Just need to find out how the Sony Access concept is performing.

Impulse Shopping

We marketers love the impulse buyer, but the feeling isn't always mutual. In most categories, retailers and manufacturers create point-of-purchase advertising that encourages the shopper to buy something that wasn't on their mind or on their list when they entered the store. Many Americans are happy with this, but many others are not, but oblige anyway. So if you are in a category that relies on impulse purchase it would be important to understand the distinction between shoppers for whom such purchases are guilty pleasures and those who just feel guilty.

Certain types of retailers will see more impulse buyers than others. Things like clothing, toys and sports stores are more likely to see things bought on impulse as a guilty pleasure. So the cues that are given to shoppers need to help make them feel OK about buying on impulse.

In most categories, especially low-cost items such as a bar of chocolate, is often easily justified at the checkout. Those who often buy on impulse against their better judgment may resent retail advertising and store communication that encourages them to buy.

According to some Gfk Roper research from June 2006, sales are a good way to assuage those shoppers who feel guilty about buying on impulse. Everyone loves a bargain. But advertising (or most likely product placement to maximise unplanned purchases) that persuades people to buy things they don't need or can't afford also evokes some of the most negative feelings people have about advertising. So the need to address consumers' mixed feelings is critical.