BrainTrust Query: The Fifth P - Planning
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from Getting Personal About Business, the blog of Zahn Consulting, LLC
To succeed at breaking through the fog or haze of what is currently standard operating practice in the industry, a look at merchandising through a new pair of eyes is needed. There needs to be a migration from the current "4P's" communication protocols — assortment, price, promotion, product availability — to one that provides communication that shoppers need to help plan their shopping better.
To accomplish that, there has to an awareness of the fifth P — Planning:
- Recognition that the shopping trip is planned using information on paper (not electronic) the overwhelming percentage of times;
- Understanding how people plan their shopping trips and that it occurs at home — because that is where the paper is stored, filed and accumulates;
- Appreciating that news on paper is an essential tool to aiding in the planning of shopping;
- Valuing the kinds of information that help shoppers to formulate plans in preparation for the shopping trip.
While the party line among many is that mail has lost relevance in this electronic age, that thinking just does not stand up to scrutiny and analysis. In fact, paper-based mail is preferred as a planning tool over electronic communications because it is easier to navigate, assemble, disassemble, connect information presented, etc.
In terms of how to do leverage paper-based resources effectively, the following will provide a good starting point:
- Differentiate the substrate (type of paper, size of paper, look and feel of the document) from other mailed pieces to help the recipient of the mail pieces (the shopper) to identify it as the "shopper's assistant" mailed piece from local retailers.
- Create a template for this mail piece that helps the shopper improve their planning for shopping trips. In so doing, accomplish the following:
- Building trust to work with the information
- Answering shopper questions
- Communicating value for the money — preliminary comparison-shopping to aid in planning
- Imagining outcomes, effect or results (will it be worth it; could it work out for me?)
- Providing testimonials from neighbors or others who have achieved results.
The payoff is contained within Table below.
The retailer is able to enter into and sustain a dialogue with the shopper, the manufacturer is able to better position products to meet shopper needs, and the shopper is able to feel in better control of her destiny.