Activating Cause Marketing on Packaging

On July 20, 2012 in a post on cause marketing activated on packaging I wrote this:

“Regular readers know how much I like activating cause marketing on packaging. That’s because once someone is in the store, the last opportunity you have to reach them with a cause marketing appeal is when they see it on the packaging.”

That was rational reasoning and long experience talking. Now a new study I came across from POPAI, the global association for marketing at retail, confirms my rationale.

Called, the 2012 Shopper Engagement Study, the research finds that 76 percent of Americans make their decisions about what they’ll buy once they’re in the store. That’s up from 70 percent in 1995.

What to conclude from that tidbit? Here’s what POPAI writes in their topline report:

“When we look at the data from POPAI’s series of long running shopper research projects aimed at providing new information on how shoppers behave when they are in different types of stores deciding which categories and brands to buy we see that it all comes down to one thing – in-store marketing.”

POPAI segments shoppers into four basic profiles: Time Stressed, Explorer, Trip Planner and Bargain Hunter. The Time Stressed and the Explorer represent 55 percent of all shoppers and it’s these two profiles that are most likely to purchase on impulse. Both also have the highest average basket prices.

The Explorer wants to be inspired on their shopping trip and reads the weekly circulars. The Time Stressed has no time for that and seldom shops from a list.

It is these two groups that cause marketing on packaging ought to be aimed at.

For the Explorer try to get your cause marketing effort recognized in the weekly circular. For the Time Stressed be sure to provide a quick-reading summary of the benefits of the promotion on pack, no matter how much other copy there is.

Packaging is one of those things that you can test with customers and prospects. So you can try different headlines, graphics, pictures, bursts, etc. to see what moves people and what doesn’t. It’s not enough anymore just to put a charity logo on pack and expect the best.

Instead, test, test, test.

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