Emerging Trends in Market Research: Takeaways from OmniShopper 2015

Renee Brandon, Vice President of Research for Field Agent, recently presented at the 2015 OmniShopper Conference in Chicago. Year after year this cutting-edge, future-oriented conference draws researchers and business professionals from across the country. In this article, Renee discusses some of her observations from OmniShopper 2015.

Read Renee’s recent article entitled “Surveying Tomorrow: 4 Futuristic Research Tools & Their Challenges,” which served as the basis for her OmniShopper presentation this month.  

Conferences always present a variety of perspectives from a range of professional roles, vertical industries, and market categories. But often in the midst of very diverse presentations, a few recurring themes emerge. Here are a few that jumped out to me while attending OmniShopper 2015.

It’s All About Context

Marketers and Shopper Insights professionals know we cannot treat all shoppers the same way; it is important to define segments based on shoppers’ wants and needs. Dorene Squires of Henkel North America presented data showing that shopper habits and preferences actually change based on the category they are shopping. So a shopper who is brand loyal and not price sensitive for one category might be a deal seeker and a brand switcher in another category.

This idea—that shoppers’ values change based on category, even potentially within the same shopping trip and within the same retail store—has important implications. While we know we cannot view all shoppers as the same, we also cannot treat an individual shopper the same at all times and through every aisle of the store. 

Likewise, Joe Davis of The Coca-Cola Company shared research that illustrates how important it is to understand context. He mentioned that traditional shopper data sources focus on the primary household shopper and miss many purchase occasions, especially purchases by Millennials. So Coca-Cola has designed a study to capture all purchase occasions by all shoppers.

They learned that the context surrounding Millennial shopping trips were indeed very different than trips made by primary grocery shoppers. For instance, Millennials were purchasing food and beverages for immediate consumption more frequently than other shopper groups, a fact that would be missed if these trips were not included.

These presentations really drove home the need to understand the context of each shop and to avoid overgeneralizing about shoppers.

Make That Emotional Connection

With Big Data analytics, more information about how shoppers behave in the store and online is available to us, and this, in turn, is revolutionizing our industry. But nothing beats the power of tapping into the shopper’s emotional state.

Jody Ayers of Walmart presented information about rural shoppers. One of the most impactful findings from the study was the emotional response rural shoppers have to out of stocks. While Walmart has no shortage of data about out of stocks within its stores, Ayers explained how nothing made the issue more real and compelling than hearing an actual rural shopper, who struggles to afford the gas to travel long distances to a Walmart store, describe how “rude” it was when advertised products were not on the shelf when she arrived.

Additionally, Jennifer Jo Wiseman of E. & J. Gallo Winery presented information about the wine shopper. Basket analysis could tell the company that wine shoppers often purchased pasta along with wine, which would suggest pairing wine with pasta for an end cap display. However, exploring the emotional connection that shoppers have with wine demonstrated how such a pairing would do nothing to meet the shopper’s emotional needs. Many of the shoppers were looking for exciting and interesting new ways to pair wines with foods, to create unexpected and impressive experiences while they entertained. Pairing with ordinary foods simply would not connect with the shoppers on an emotional level.

The Power of In-Store Mobile Research

Instead of asking shoppers to recall their in-store experiences, or asking them to generalize about their “typical” shopping behavior, Field Agent utilizes shoppers’ mobile devices to capture in-store, “in-the-moment” behavior, opinions, motivations, and emotions. In other words, Field Agent collects the shopper mind set in context. We gather information not only on what shoppers do, but why they do it, getting closer to their emotional states in the process.

The Internet of Things and the Future of Insights

Learn more about Renee's session at Omnishopper 2015 about the Internet of Things and the Future of Insights in this presentation. See also the blog post relating to it on our blog as well as the OmniShopper blog.