Published: June 2007 in Marketing@Retail

For years, marketing pundits have made the case that the consumer is in control. They threw around words like “authenticity and interactive media environment.” Still, most CMOs plunged forward, continuing to place their faith in one-way communications like traditional advertising and promotion that consumers, by virtually every survey, said they were tuning out.
        With the consumer earning recognition as Time Magazine’s 2006 “Person of the Year” and Advertising Age’s “Agency of the Year,” it is clear consumers are influencing marketing strategy as never before.
        But with media fragmentation and the explosive growth of blogs, YouTube, and a myriad of other interactive media, how does a CMO reach a target audience without spending their brand into bankruptcy? The one place consumers still attest is a rifle-focus for their attention is a the point of sale, where they make 70 percent of their purchase decisions.
        In fact, P&G’s CEO, A.J. Lafley, refers to point of sale as the “First Moment of Truth.” Interesting that the firm most known for spending more than any other on media communication has developed a company-wide mantra that focuses on the consumer’s experience at point of sale. It also considers the “Second Moment of Truth,” which is how the target interacts with the product when they get it home. Therefore, how marketers present their product to the target at point of sale and how the consumer feels about their product from their personal interaction are the critical drivers for the brand success in 2007.

The most Important Seven Seconds

According to Dr. Stephen J. Hoch, consultant to Proteus and Chair of the Marketing Department at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Schol, competing at-shelf is a concept overlooked by many marketers. “It continues to amaze me how little attention is paid to packaging design and shelf presentation by some companies,” Dr. Hoch says. “Consumers are bombarded by thousands of messages daily. They’re numb to the noise. But when a consumer is at the shelf, he or she is ready to buy.”
        This meeting of buyer and product at-shelf, Lafley’s “First Moment of Truth,” lasts no longer than seven seconds, so the message must register instantly.
        In super center stores that can stock more than 100,000 items, products and package must break through the clutter and quickly signal product benefits.
        Research by Dr. Robert Underwood, an associate professor of business and accounting at Furman University, has found that visuals are crucial to a consumer’s response. He further adds package imagery is even more important when the consumer faces an unfamiliar brand or category.
        It falls to packing design to orchestrate the mix. Marketers must realize that people are not in a buying mode when on the couch watching TV. A powerful package design will catch consumers at the right place at the right time. Combining marketing strategy with design of the product and package is key to success. After all, the consumer journey from package to product to overall experience is the brand.
        Nowhere is the selling environment more challenging than in the big box stores. While creating a package that fits The Home Depot’s shelves may not seem as exciting as a Super Bowl spot, the payoff can be more measureable.

Enhanced Product Design

Dr. Underwood’s research has also shown that package becomes part of the product and a surrogate for brand quality. However, at the opposite end of the retail spectrum, some high-end stores dispense the package altogether and just display the product, letting the customer touch and feel as part of the shopping process.
        After ten years of corporate emphasis on product aesthetics and function, many consumers now expect superior design. They’re willing to pay for it, too, to the delight of company margins. After all, who really wants to own a toaster that costs $10 nowadays? Today, people are paying a premium for products that can do more while producing consistently higher quality finished goods. In categories recently dominated by lowest price, we see the smartest companies creating top-of-the-line products that consumers are willing to trade up for.
        Whether it is because a product is intuitive, looks sleek, is environmentally friendly, offers more features, or flat-out produces a higher quality finished product, consumers are willing to reach into their wallets and pay for a better designed product.
        The game is now won or lost at-shelf in the retail environment. Product design and packaging are critical elements of a brand’s integrated marketing communications strategy and, when done right, designing from a retail-focused perspective is a compelling example of brand building without advertising.

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