A global discussion about the impact of shopping culture on brand strategy, led by the strategic community of The Integer Group which is one of the world's largest and most renowned retail, promotions and shopper marketing agencies.
The Dutch chain Ekoplaza has just launched Europe’s first plastic-free supermarket aisle. Shoppers can choose from more than 700 products wrapped in biodegradable materials that look similar to plastic at no extra cost. This initiative comes at a time when the debate around reducing plastic waste from supermarkets and manufacturers is experiencing a new push, with initiatives such as the LADbible Trash Isles and the U.K. government putting the reduction of plastic waste at the heart of its environmental plan.
24% of Britons express “extreme” concern about plastic packaging in grocery stores and 42% want food and drink manufacturers to make recyclable packaging their top priority. What so far has been an issue for a niche audience of committed environmentalists has grown to become a concern for the mainstream shopper. Fueled by small “zero-waste” or “plastic-free” stores popping up all around the U.K. and the fact that recent findings revealed that U.K. supermarkets produce around 1 million tonnes of plastic waste each year, the issue has slowly been picked up by brands.
Shoppers today are voting with their dollars and increasingly making eco-conscious purchases; demand for low carbon footprint alternatives like meat substitutes is on the rise, and information about sustainability is readily available through a Google search. But, as more and more of these options enter the market, which alternatives will shoppers deem “too alternative?” For the meat industry, this question arose over a century ago and is back in the spotlight today.
In the early 1900s, high immigration rates, exploding urban areas, and lack of suitable ranching land led to a meat shortage in the United States. This scarcity was cause for concern among consumers, and the media dubbed it ‘The Meat Question.’ The Meat Question also reflected larger concerns about resources in America as well as the rise of consumer culture, and a solution was highly sought-after.
At one point during the shortage, two innovators and a Louisiana congressman thought they had found the solution: hippopotamuses. They proposed raising hippos in the swamps of Louisiana, land that was otherwise unused. A campaign using phrases like 'water cow bacon' was even launched to warm the public up to the idea of eating hippo meat. Though hippo never made its way into the American diet (largely due to miscommunication), we are still searching for alternative methods of sourcing meat. Lab-grown meat is one such developing alternative; does it have a better chance of catching on than hippo meat?
Mutant carrot or a coveted part of your next meal? Ugly isn't supposed to be cool. It's not very marketable. And only when ugly takes off its glasses and everyone realizes it was beautiful all along does ugly really become a great story. Well today, ugly is taking center stage and is culturally ripe for success. Pun intended, as fruits and vegetables are the place ugly is starting it's rise.
Over the last several months, ugly fruit fever is spreading. Efforts by Ralph's and WholeFoods have provided cosmetically challenged fruits and vegetables to shoppers at discount prices. Food service companies, such as Bon Appetit Management Co., have also started programs designed to buy up uglies and use them in meals across the country. Even America's largest grocer, Walmart, this week will pilot discount sales of weather-dented apples in 300 of its Florida stores.
Happy Arbor Day! Let’s celebrate with a look at trends in paperless coupons.
While paper coupons still dominate the landscape, digital coupon penetration has increased every year since 2012 while paper coupon penetration has slightly decreased according to a recent report from Valassis. And as the user experience at checkout improves, adoption is expected to continue to increase.
Here are some money and tree-saving techniques savvy shoppers have at their disposal:
We’ve all been guilty of it–answering “Yes, of course” when asked if your household recycles when in reality, the recycling bin in the garage hasn’t been emptied in months because it isn’t even close to being full. Earth day, April 22, is a day when shoppers are reminded that everything we do impacts the environment and that we should all try to be a little better. So why is it that the average American household recycles just 34% of its waste every year? Well, first, it has to be clear. A third of consumers are unclear on what is actually recyclable and another 20% admit to placing an item in a recycling bin without knowing for sure it’s recyclable. Next, it has to be easy. 62% of Americans say that if a product is not easy or convenient to recycle, they probably won’t recycle it. Behaviorally, this is not shocking. The more hurdles that exist for consumers to do anything, consumers are less and less likely to actually do it.
So how can brands and retailers help consumers kick their non-recycling habits?
Whole Foods recently announced a partnership with Imperfect Produce to test-run sales of 'ugly' produce in a few of its Northern California stores, which is set to begin next month. This announcement comes after increasing consumer demands for the food industry and retailers to help eliminate food waste—a petition on change.org specifically called out Whole Foods, as well as Walmart, to take steps towards becoming more inclusive with their produce selections by including more imperfect fruits and vegetables. Giant Eagle has also announced this month that the grocery chain will incorporate 'ugly' produce in 5 Pittsburgh store locations as part of a "Produce with Personality" pilot program.
The demand for organic fruit and vegetables is on the increase. Two out of three Australians are purchasing organic over conventional produce, suggesting that organics have shifted from a niche marketsegment toward the mainstream consumer. With the increase in demand for organic fruit and vegetables, producers have also started offering organic products across a number of other categories, including health and beauty, confectionary, and household. To understand the increased popularity across organics, we will identify three key factors that have driven the trend toward purchasing organic fruit and vegetables.
The #icebucketchallenge has gone viral, reaching our family, friends, neighbors and celebrities a like. Even some companies are getting in on the action, including Integer.
Supporting causes not only resonates with us as people but also as shoppers. It can help shoppers choose between brands at shelf and increase brand affinity.
For decades, brands have been using causes in shopper marketing to sway shopper decisions. But could this recent #icebucketchallenge change the way brands view cause marketing? Instead of donating money or product for every shopper purchase, could brands invite shoppers to participate in their donation efforts? And in turn would that affect shoppers' decisions?
While college-aged consumers may be expected to quickly to embrace the ever-changing trends of eco-concerns, they aren’t necessarily willing to pay to back it up. In fact, 35-44-year-olds are the age group with the largest segment willing to pay for environmentally friendly products. Whether this is because of higher incomes or children in the house that make them think more about the future, is unclear. What we do know is that nearly 1 in 4 are willing to pay to save the environment. Also intriguing is a higher eco-consciousness amongst the 55+ set compared to younger generations. They could be empty-nesters with more disposable income who look at the future with a different perspective than younger Americans or; potentially for some, having grandchildren could give them a renewed sense of consciousness. Whatever the reason, for marketers playing in the Green arena, it’s become apparent that the appeal of environmental friendly products has reached across multiple generations.
For more Green data, you can click here to download the latest edition of The Checkout.
In honor of Earth Month, this issue of The Checkout looks at Green behavior shifts for consumers, how this affects in-store shopping motives, and ultimately, purchase intent.
Behavioral Economics has a shade of Green.
Shoppers are creatures of habit, basing decisions on what is comfortable and familiar. This habitual behavior is often known in the behavioral economics field as the Status Quo Bias, a cognitive phenomenon where people tend to prefer that things remain the same or that things change as little as possible if they absolutely must be altered. This bias often applies to shoppers as many are adverse to change and the introduction of new behaviors. When it comes to acting Green, daily decisions like keeping unneeded lights off are easy to integrate into an already existing routine, whereas introducing a new behavior like carpooling is a whole new routine. Eating local means buying new products in new ways, and routine shopping trips require more of an effort. To change behavior, the incentive to change must be compelling. This gets back to the idea of tangible benefits. If people can’t see or feel an immediate reward for this new behavior—saving money, time, creating social change, etc.— they’ll opt to stick with what they know or reduce existing behavior over taking on a new task. Enabling shoppers to become change agents means helping them overcome deeper psychological barriers within.
For more Green data, you can click here to download the latest edition of The Checkout.
Wandering through the produce aisle these days, you have a lot of choices to make: fruit or vegetable, organic vs. non-organic, and now: local vs. non-local. Hmmm, now I have the choice between supporting local farmers - and therefore my local community and/or region and its businesses - or buying an apple from "somewhere" and feeling no connection whatsoever to its origin. I think I'll go with locally grown.
Tom Thumb has started to provide posters (shown here) in their produce section to not only raise awareness for their Locally Grown produce, but also provide consumers with information about the local agricultural environment. As you can see, this is a poster for the state of Texas. Next time I'm in Carrolton, I'll be sure to check out the fields of Russet potatoes. Or when I'm down in Austin next,maybe I'll take a side-trip and stop by a watermelon stand. This poster makes me want to travel and tell my friends about the variety of produce that's grown around the state. Who knew? I certainly didn't before I wandered into the produce section of Tom Thumb.
Tom Thumb/Safeway has this to say about their policy on locally grown produce:
"In addition to the quality benefits buying locally grown fruits and vegetables reduces greenhouse gas emissions by limiting transportation miles. Sourcing locally ensures the vitality of regional farms, which translates into economic opportunities and development for a broad range of related businesses in the communities Safeway serves." You can read more about their policy here.
Do you know of other produce retailers that celebrate the cities and farms that grow their produce? If Tom Thumb/Safeway started to have Saturday farmers markets, would you go?
Further, what happens if/when this trend continues around the store? We already see similar messaging in some meat departments. What does retail look like when this thinking becomes pervasive in center-store? How will the future of retail balance local community interests with global sourcing?
A simple idea is taking off—pleasing German smart shoppers while displeasing regional newspapers that lose the attractive business of weekly print ads and retail flyers. German online shopping network KaufDA, offers digital flyers of all major retailers—shoppers just go to the homepage, and, based on their IP address, they can see all regional flyers at a glance.
Shoppers can easily:
Change the location and get the appropriate flyers
Sort flyers by channels and distribution
Sort by product category
Look for the nearest stores and have their special offers filtered by channel of distribution
KaufDA is also available as a free app for the iPhone and iPad. With its rapidly increasing penetration rate (current users: 5 million website and 200,000 app users) KaufDA is a pathfinder for digital information. On top of it all, they are also promotiong sustainability: printed flyers account for 2.7 million trees cut each year, and a lot of energy is used for production and transport.
Puma recently made a bold design move that could revolutionize the shoe industry. Only it wasn't the shoe, but rather the shoe box, that underwent a major design overhaul.
The shoe box is so common that most people never give it a second thought. Puma realized that the vast amount of waste created by the single-use shoe box (and possibly also an opportunity to increase manufacturing profitability). They assigned a team of designers, headed by Yves Behar, to tackle the problem.
By focusing on the bag and making the box a reusable shell for transportation, Puma has made a fundamental shift in the way we think about environmental packaging and the changing retail landscape. Exactly how great is the expected impact?
Tesco recently held a two-week "Buy One Get One Free Later" (BOGOL) event in selected UK stores which allowed shoppers who bought participating items to claim their free item the following week, using a voucher they received at the register.
This event proves interesting for two reasons:
1) Tesco received feedback that while customers like BOGO deals, smaller households sometimes can't use the free product before its use-by date. Knowing this, Tesco provided a solution to those households dis-inclined to pantry-load and gave shoppers another reason to shop the solutions-oriented retailer.
2) Tesco' "BOGOL" event wasn't solely shopper-insights driven. In fact, Tesco was in part responding to pressure from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which said in August that two-for-one deals were resulting in thousands of tons of food being thrown away. Defra threatened to introduce legislation to reduce waste if stores failed to act.
In today's market, where shoppers demand customized offerings and time- & cost-saving solutions, retailers and brands must be both flexible and creative when exploring promotional programs. And in a world where environmental concerns continue to dominate headlines and headspace, retailers have both a responsibility and unique opportunity to explore programs and initiatives that satisfy both shoppers wallets and green sensitibilites.
UK based non-profit, Green Thing, capitalizes on a few consumer insights with their current fund raising effort Glove Love. Glove Love, if you haven't heard or read, is an effort by which people donate lonely single gloves (whose partner gloves have been lost) to Green Thing. Green Thing then "lovingly washes" each glove and pairs it with a new mate. These newly paired gloves are then sold for £5 GBP ($7.90 USD). Simple, fun, interesting.
First off, as a sustainability-based non-profit trying to "inspire people to lead a greener life", they definitely take a new approach to the "reuse" portion of recycle, reduce, reuse. And, they do so in a novel way, which creates an engaging story for audiences. This story is supported on the web with social media (facebook and twitter) as well as some great videos on youtube.
(yes, that was Emma Thompson doing the voice over)
Secondly, this appeals to another consumer desire, the desire for truly unique products with their own story. To facilitate this, Glove Love actually asks people to name the gloves they donate as well as describe where exactly the lonely single was saved. That way, each pair has a story of their own. Each pair is truly one-of-a-kind.
While Green Thing certainly will not make millions off this idea, it’s a great program to gain awareness for their cause. By providing one-of-a-kind items with individual stories, they offer shoppers great WOM content to share with their circles of influence.
How many times might each Glove Love owner tell the story of their mismatched gloves? 5, 10, 20 times? If only big brands thought about story-telling this way. How do they, beyond their brand history or product benefits, create stories that their users would want to share with their friends? What might those stories be?
