A recent study by Synovate found 21 percent of shoppers loyal to a particular brand often require it to be on sale before making a purchase, often going to another store for a better deal.
The findings came from an online survey of 650 grocery shoppers looking into shopping behavior around 18 grocery product categories.
"We termed this shopping style 'System Beaters'," said Joel Rubinson, SVP of Synovate, who believes this buying behavior has developed as consumers became conditioned by manufacturers and retailers to expect price deals before buying.
"The irony is your most loyal customers are often system beaters because they are the ones that have studied your promotional patterns most closely," Mr. Rubinson told Brandweek.
The level of system beater shopping behavior varies across categories, Synovate found. Of the categories studied, this shopping behavior was most common among ice cream brands, with 36 percent of the category bought by system beaters. Other categories showing this shopper tendency were laundry detergent, 30 percent, and carbonated soft drinks, 26 percent. Some categories had much lower levels such as yogurt at 12 percent.
While this may pose challenges for maintaining profit margins in certain categories, Mr. Rubinson believes it also opens up marketing opportunities for retailers.
"Retailers might say, 'Why would I want them, all they do is buy on sale!' but the fact is they'll fill up their carts on gourmet coffees and other full-margin items," Mr. Rubinson told Brandweek. "You just need to lure them in with sales in the categories where they are system beaters."
He adds, "Manufacturers and retailers will lose sales if they do not match retailing approaches with the shopping style of individual shoppers."
Mr. Rubinson believes the research underscores that designing a retailing approach for a category and a particular brand should start with the predominant relationship that shoppers have with a product category as reflected by their shopping style. For example, another shopping style Synovate found was 'Explorer'," or shoppers buying on impulse and because they find the category fun to shop. A different marketing technique could be used to target this shopping behavior.
"For them, variety and information is more important than dealing. It is possible that in-store communications and signage work best with this group," said Mr. Rubinson. "Another shopping style is 'preference planners' who plan their purchase down to the brand level, but who are on auto-pilot because they know exactly what they want to buy. It is less likely that in-store communication gets through to them. Also, if you do not stock this item, the retailer is likely to lose a sale."
Discussion Questions: Are system beaters good or bad for retail? Should manufacturers reconsider promotion practices to manage the level of system beating shopping behavior in their product categories? Is the industry doing enough to incorporate shopping styles such as system beaters into their marketing strategies?