Trade Marketer Wish List: Better Targeting, Measurement

June 15, 2017

Shopper marketing has gained in importance over the past 5 years, according to a slight majority of survey respondents to a study from Criteo [download page] conducted by Millward Brown. Participants – all of whom have had budgetary authority over trade spend in some form – noted that the biggest trade advertising challenges in need of improvement are measurement / attribution and trackability.

As such, when asked about their wishes for trade spending, the top responses centered around:

  • The ability to use shopper data to target the same consumer whether on a desktop, on a phone, or in store (average score of 3.68 on a 5-point scale); and
  • New, simpler methods developed to measure effectiveness (3.61).

E-Commerce Potentially Disruptive, Yet Problematic

Another key desire for respondents is for personnel schooled in long-time trade marketing techniques to expand their skillset to include online. That’s likely a reflection of the impact online sales are having: half of respondents rated it as disruptive or hugely disruptive to their industry.

But e-commerce doesn’t come without its own challenges. Survey respondents pointed to a number of them, ranging from Amazon setting prices to conflicts between brand and retailer domains and the complexity of process.

These are also seen as threats, with Amazon’s control of pricing and the complexity of marketing management considered threats by roughly half of respondents.

For now, though, the biggest impediments to trade spend on digital are the ROI being too small and the volume of online shopping being too small in the respondent’s product category.

Going forward, these challenges will need to be faced, as most trade marketers expect to be working with newer digital technologies such as voice-activated assistants (e.g. Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri) and voice-activated household devices, including Amazon Echo and Google Home.

While these technologies are rather nascent in use, more than 1 in 10 households with smart speakers are already using them to order products, according to recent research from comScore.

About the Data: The report is based on a survey of 100 marketing executives who have had budget authority over trade spend in some way during the past 10 years. Half of the respondents are from the CPG sector, with the remainder from Consumer Electronics, Apparel, Toys and Health & Beauty. All respondents are from companies with at least $5 million in revenues, and more than one-quarter work with companies with at least $500 million in revenues.

45th Parallel Design Ad

Explore More Charts.

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This