What product categories are most active in shopper marketing?
Most people think of shopper marketing as primarily a CPG phenomenon. Certainly, the leading CPG companies -- Procter and Gamble, Kraft, General Mills, Unilever, Clorox, Nestle, Coke, Pepsi, SC Johnson, Kimberly Clark, etc. -- are among the most active in the discipline. This stems from the following:
- Relative size and sophistication of these companies
- High levels of marketing spend in CPG
- Proportion of total marketing spend that goes to in-store in these categories
Within CPG, the activity is most pronounced in high spend categories like soft drinks, refrigerated, laundry, household cleaners, cereals, and convenience foods with high margins.
But this is by no means a CPG-only phenomenon. Shopper marketing is permeating many consumer categories from electronics to consumer durables like washers and dryers. I'm told even some auto makers are getting on the bandwagon because of the primacy of in-store experience in auto purchase decisions. Since there are relatively few categories where in-store spending isn't significant, expect to see more and more shopper marketers in virtually every consumer category over time.
