Stage 4 - Getting the Activation Right

(Reading time 20mins)

Introduction

Activation brings the range and merchandising together into a compelling proposition and turns shoppers into buyers. Think about all points along the path to purchase, at home, on the way to the store, at the fixture, in secondary displays and online. Most shopper activation is centred around short term price discounting, but our role in category development is to create plans that grow long term value by changing shopper behaviour.

Defining Activation Principles

Activations help shoppers overcome a barrier or pull a trigger along the path to purchase

Consider these angles when designing the plan:

Shoppers have unique needs – Make sure we think of what shoppers expect from us when they are framing their trips
Get to know your shopper – Use the 5Ws to map the detail
Have a clear objective in mind – What do we want our shoppers to do more of? Focus on ONE behaviour change at the centre of your activations, such as attracting new shoppers (penetration), increasing spend (weight of purchase) or encouraging them to buy more often (frequency).
Build a relevant campaign – Think of the relevance of our plan from the category, brand and retailer perspective
Path to Purchase (P2P) – Map the path to purchase to identify where activations should be focused

Shoppers have unique needs

Easy:
Make it quick and simple to find and buy e.g. using signage to navigate to and around the category
Savvy shopping:
Eye for a bargain e.g. messages to highlight value over price
Trust:
Peer/retail recommendations above brand e.g. using awards or shopper reviews at point of purchase
Rising expectation:
Shoppers expect more! Each year, they expect bigger and better activations.
Fit around me:
Present & accessible where I am e.g. using secondary siting to prompt additional purchases.

Get to know your shopper

Have a clear objective in mind

3 key behaviour changes are the centre of all activations. Campaigns may be made up of many activations.

The strongest activations focus on ONE key behaviour change:

More people

More shoppers to the category – PENETRATION

More often

Existing shoppers buying more often – FREQUENCY

More spend

Existing shoppers buying more units or trading up – WEIGHT OF PURCHASE

Build a relevant campaign

Campaigns are a programme of multiple activations. Our goal is to achieve the triple win by balancing different activations across the campaign, although this may be difficult.

Category led - Driving Category Growth by targeting category or shopper Specific opportunities.
Brand led - Leveraging brand messages in-store, Influencing brand decisions in store
Retailer led - Retailer initiatives and events to draw Shoppers into their store e.g pet week, back to school etc.