BrainTrust Query: How should supermarkets manage the 'long tail' of in-store media?
Supermarkets typically have 30,000 to 40,000 distinct items on their shelves, of which less than five percent contribute more than half the store's sales. In fact, the typical household only buys about 400 distinct items in an entire year, many of those purchased over and over, month after month. The aggregate of all these frequently purchased items constitutes the "big head" of products in the store. The other 95 percent constitute the "long tail," that sells very little on a per item basis, but taken all together, provides substantial sales.
This concept can be applied to the various media in the store, too. Taking media to mean whatever is used to communicate (mediate) from the merchant to the shopper, the packaging of the products in the store is a major component of that communication, although advertisers typically only think of media as flyers, signs, digital displays, shelf-talkers, etc.
Turning from the media to the shoppers themselves, there are a quadrillion "media" exposures annually in stores around the world, of both the package label and other signage/displays. This is based on mind/eye biology, and reflects that the shopper is always seeing something. The eye sees communication coming in from all sides - received more as colors, shapes and iconic images, than as textual messages. Quantifying and analyzing media consumption is quite complex, but not beyond the reach of scientific metrics.
TNS, for example, uses a discrete video camera hidden in an earpiece, called an EyeCam, to track shoppers' exposure to media. Shoppers wear the non-obtrusive device throughout their normal shopping trip thus creating an accurate picture of exactly what appears in their field of vision. Technicians study these videos, noting how long designated media appears in the central portion of the field of vision, the area most likely to impact the shopper. Introducing time as a factor allows a workable GRP (gross rating points) equivalent to be calculated for in-store media. Not considering packaging, here is the distribution of other media in a store:
End aisle displays, free standing product display racks and in-store flyers (weekly circulars) dominate the big head. For about 25 percent of the shoppers' time in store either an end cap or free-standing display will be in view. There is no doubt why 40 percent of purchases across all stores come from these secondary displays - the non-gondola items. Although only one in five shoppers carry weekly circulars to the store, they refer to them so frequently during the trip that they also make it into the big head ranking.
The rapid fall off in exposures for all other advertising is striking. Floor, shelf and freezer door ads, display bins, couponing and signage all make up a portion of the long tail media. Even though 80 percent of the shopper's field of vision in center-of-store aisles is packaging, when exposures are distributed over those tens of thousands of items, each individual SKU (item) receives very little exposure. The long tail is very long, indeed!
Therefore, retailers need to keep in mind that all media is not created equal in terms of its reach and effectiveness. The prices vendors pay for the medium should reflect on its location in the big head or long tail. It is essential to match the cost with the benefit, meaning effectively placed targeted long tail media can be just as effective in terms of retail ROI as the big head. Which method is right for you? Weigh the differences and make both the big head and long tail mediums work together for your benefit.
Discussion Questions: How would you suggest retailers apply TNS' long tail theory of supermarket in-store media? Should it simply a matter of investing more in the "big head" media, or are there extenuating circumstances you can think of?
Reproduced
with the permission of the Journal of Advertising Research
© Journal
of Advertising Research, Volume 48, Issue 3, pp. 329-38