How to do better store visits

Learning to look through our shoppers eyes

Its all about perspective, asking why, and how we judge

HE see? What does HE think? What does HE feel?

What does

SHE see? What does SHE think? What does SHE feel?
What does

There are three ways to improve:

1. Take a different perspective: You need to step outside of who you are and become one of them.

2. The power of asking Why: Just observing something is useless. We need to ask ourselves why did she do that or why is that good. We must form hypothesis to be proven, or disproven.

3. The way we judge: We must appraise what we see impartially. The shopper merit is determined by the shopper, not us.

There are 10 weaknesses to our approach

1. We are not our shoppers 10. In store staff know more that you do 2. Shoppers go shopping to shop, not survey brands

9. Are you decided upon at the shelf or not

3. Shoppers dont manage brands, they buy and consume them

8. We need to learn from other categories

4. We go when we want to; not when they need to

7. We do not judge the competition fairly 6.Winning beauty contests does not equal sales

5. Shoppers assess value differently to us

Fact: We are not our shoppers

Insight: Unilever managers are not representative of our shoppers. We are well paid, educated and come from within the industry. Action: When in-store you must step outside of who you are and force yourself to think and act like a typical shopper. Helpful Tips: Go to stores that you do not normally shop at. Go to places where you do not normally go to. Make sure you do store visits and shopper connects when you travel to other countries and markets. Look at products you do not normally buy. Research before hand and find out where the bulk of the population sits on the LSM scale. Give yourself an imaginary budget similar to the average. Think about their household, their children, their budget and their mode of transport. Write down a list of what you think they would need (not want) and what their budget would roughly be. Think about these two things while in store above all else.

One of us

One of our Shoppers

Fact: We go when we want to; not when they need to

Insight: Shoppers shop on certain days and at certain times. If you want to observe shoppers in their natural habitat doing what they normally do, you need to go there when they are most likely to be there and in that mode. Action: Do your store visits at the most popular shopping times on the most popular shopping days. Plan your trips well in advance.

Helpful Tips: Do your homework and find out before hand what are the busiest shopping times and days (as a rule of thumb, working people shop outside of working hours). Use basic logic and common sense; weekends are prime shopping times for modern trade shoppers & 5:00am is a prime shopping time in a wet market.

Fact: Shoppers go shopping to shop, not survey brands

Our tools of trade

Insight: Shoppers usually have a reason to go shopping. When you go into a store, what is your purpose? Usually it is to see how your product looks on shelf or to see what the competition are up to. These are two very different objectives. Action: You must walk into a store in a shopping mode (not a survey mode). The store will look and feel very different. Do a shop not a store visit. Helpful Tips: Take a mock-up shopping list as you would when you go shopping personally. Follow this list and shop with a trolley or basket. Walk the entire store following a typical shopper route. Spend adequate time in each aisle/category; dont just go to your section. Log what you discover as you go. Take photos if you can. If you are not permitted to, make sketches to bring your insights to life.

Their tools of trade

Fact: Shoppers dont manage brands; they buy them

Insight: When we, (ie Unilever employees) go into Helpful Tips: store we zero in on our beloved brands and Ask yourself, what would your products. We block out other things when mum see or notice if she was actually we need to focus on those other shopping right now. things just as much as our own. Shoppers did Learn to blur your eyes as you not spend 18 months and have to pass four look at displays, shelves and IPM gates to write their shopping list. products. This will help to show Action: You must disconnect yourself from your you what shoppers see, not brand. The bias of ownership in-store will what you want to see. handicap your ability to see through a shoppers eyes.

Fact: We can learn from other categories

Insight: When we go into a store 90% of the time we go straight to our category and look at our brand. Action: Look at as many categories as possible to learn from others. Observe what they are doing and ask why they are executing in this way. Helpful Tips: Pick the category directly opposite yours in the aisle. Write down 3 things that the category or brands are doing to convert shoppers in that category. Take each three then apply them to your category to see if they fit or would work. If they would not work write down why. If they would work write down how you would execute it in your category with your brand. Back at the office find out if this has been done in any other markets or in your country before to investigate how effective it was.

Fact: We judge the competition unfairly

Insight: We judge things in store based on industry metrics and standards, not on the actual shopper merit. We tend to criticize the competition and post rationalise our execution in-store. Action: Dont apply industry criteria to what you see in-store. You need to look and judge in-store execution in a way a shopper would.

Helpful Tips: Look at your competition and try to post rationalize their execution. Take your products and find three things wrong with them as a stress test. Go to a completely foreign category pick up two products and compare them as if you were buying them. Now go back to you section and do the same for your product and a competitors product. Observe 5 shoppers in a row. What did they touch or pick-up. Ask yourself why those products were engaged and why others were not. If they picked your competitors products go and look at them afterwards (yourself) asking the same question.

Fact: Winning beauty contests doesnt equal sales

Insight: We tend to judge the quality of our execution in-store based on what we think looks good; not what our shoppers think looks good. Stand out on shelf is much more important than beauty when it comes to driving sales and market share. Before they can buy a product, a shopper must be able to see it and understand it. Action: When judging your products at the point of purchase look at them for how well they: 1. catch the shoppers attention amongst their surroundings 2. Tell you what they are and what they do 3. convey the key selling points / close the sale Helpful Tips: Stand well back from your products location in store when you look at them. Blur your eyes; can you still see the important selling points? Walk along the aisle and try to find and understand your products without stopping. Could you read the brand and variant? Could you understand what your products are and what they do in 5 seconds?

Fact: Shoppers assess value differently to us

Insight: Shoppers measure value in-store through a mix of elements and a host of trade-offs.
Action: Try to compare and contrast value by assessing it in the same way a shopper would given the circumstances. We need to do the same value trade-offs that a shopper would do at the point of sale.

Helpful Tips: Look at the product size impression. Does it look bigger or smaller compared to the logical alternative? Dont just look at the volume or weight. Learn to look at the number of usage occasions (ie doses or washes in laundry). For promotional activity, look at the percentage saved and also the cash saving. How compelling is this in real terms for a shopper. Look at the deal and ask yourself would I buy that?

Fact: Shoppers buy because of years of history, personal bias and emotional links
Insight: Shoppers arrive at a store having made many decisions already. They will have subconsciously chosen the outlet, the budget, and their their list. Even more important, they arrive with well-developed preferences for brands, based on associations built up over time from a host of sources. Action: Make sure you cleans yourself of your personal biases. Try to think of how they would be subconsciously preparing to shop in the store you are visiting. Helpful Tips: Pick a typical shopper out from the crowd. Build a hypothetical story up of who he/she is. At a polite distance observe him/her throughout the trip. Ask yourself was that driven by what she encountered at the point of purchase or was it something predetermined (ie decided upon out of the store). Try to link these back to your brand and ask yourself; are you decided upon already or at the shelf in-store.

Fact: In store staff know more than you when it comes to shoppers
Insight: We can learn a lot from the staff who work in-store and interact with shoppers daily. In-store staff can help us to understand what makes shoppers do what they do and most importantly what converts them. Action: When in-store, make an effort to interact with the staff. Talking the store manager, the merchandisers, our promotional girls and sales push teams can teach us allot. Helpful Tips: Think carefully about how you engage with them. Approach them in a non threatening way. Ask them open ended questions. Dont just tell them about your brand. Find out off them what is selling and what is not. Ask them why. Ask them why our products are easy or hard to sell.

How to prepare for your Store Visit

2. As you enter

1. Before You Go

3. As you do the shop 4. When you check out

5. When you get back

Store Observation Flow Diagram

3. As you do the shop 5. When you get back 2. As you enter 1. Before you go 4. When you check out

1. Before you go

Select your store (or stores) wisely. Think about what you want to get out of the trip. Write it down clearly and succinctly. State your objective. Do your desk research on the channel, the retailer, the store. Know where you are going. Do your desk research on the catchment area (the region, the location the street the shopping centre etc.) Do your desk research on the shopper profile you expect to encounter (LSM, Culture) Dress appropriately. Try not to stand out. You need to blend in; you will be more effective. Take along your mobile phone to take photos (if you are allowed) Prepare your mock-up shopping list Establish your realistic mock-up budget

Most importantly: Make sure your list and your budget reflect the typical shopper; not yourself.

2. As you enter
Observe transport types, and accessibility. Pay particular attention to how the majority of shoppers are arriving and leaving the store you plan on visiting. Also look closely at car parks and how full or empty they are. Look at the surrounding buildings, stores or shops. Pay particular attention to what else is for sale in the immediate area, centre or mall. What type of catchment area is it. Where are people moving to and from. Pay careful attention to the people in the area. Note their numbers, their movements and their activities. Are they male or female. How are they dressed. Do they have children or partners with them. Look at those going in and those coming out of the store. What method are shoppers using; a trolley, a basket or something else. Think about their LSM; is there consistency or is there diversity.

Most importantly:. Make sure you take this last chance to step outside of who you are and become one of your shoppers.

3. As you do the shop

Make a quick sketch of the store layout and any noticeable features. Pick up a basket or get a trolley. Do your full shopping trip now. Use the list you have prepared. Try to stay in line with the budget you have set. . Now that you have completed this task, reverse the process and replace all the products you have just selected one by one. Each time you do this ask yourself why did I chose that product? Note the reasons down. Try to use criteria like, display, standard price, promotional price, pack size, claims, POS, stand out on shelf etc. At this point also note down the route you took. Make specific points on where you visited versus where you did not. Most importantly note down why you excluded these aisles or areas. Think about influences like, signage, POS, category adjacencies and the overall store flow. After you have competed this exercise now take some time to observe other shoppers. Try to spend just as much time observing them as it took to do yours. Make a note of the time it takes others to; shop each aisle, select each product. Its also vital to observe what mode they are in. Are they (i) impulse buying (ii) selecting on autopilot, or (iii) thinking carefully about it. Are they reading any of the following: POS, Signage, Pack Details (front & back). Are they being helped or handicapped by others with them (ie kids). Think about what sort of mission they are on for example, top-up, weekly stock up or emergency. Think about their mood. Are they enjoying this or is it a chore. If there are store staff available ask them what is selling and what is not. Make notes based on what they tell you.

4. When you check out

Take stock of the cash registers and what the queues are like. Are they long and if so how long is the wait. What offers and what messages are being communicated at the checked out area. What type of products are on display. Are they impulse lines or not. Consider how others are paying for their baskets. Are they using cash or credit. Are they using loyalty cards or coupons? Observe how shoppers are leaving the store and watch for what type of transport they are using. Are they walking, riding a motorbike or bicycle, driving a car or catching a form of public transport (eg bus). Think about how easy or how awkward it is for them to manage their shopping bags. Are they struggling or are they managing it easily. Think about how long it would take them to get home and if items like ice cream would melt or eggs would get broken. Watch long enough to determine if they are going straight home or if they moving onto their next task or location. Think about what they will do when they get home. How will they be unpacking and storing their products. What type of rooms would be in their house. What sort of meals would they be preparingtry to close the loop.

5. When you get back

Make sure you capture your notes in a way that you can share them. Share these with your team (including your line manager) and also your CMI business partner. Try to form hypothesis for your key observations. Note these in a way that is easily recognised by others. Save or scan-in any material that you collected on your trip like store folders/flyers, brochures, pictures, samples and promotional entry forms. Make sure you save your findings, material and photos in a place that can act like a catalogue. The concept being that you will add to it over time. You can upload your material to: http://teamsites.unilever.com/collab/ShopperInsight/default.aspx if you are a member. And most importantly.for the insights that you believe to be significant, draft a quick email and send them to the AAC Shopper Insight Team. Your contributions will help us build an invaluable shopper knowledge base Anthony.woo@unilever.com Ronald.fernandez@unilever.com Melissa.orchard@unilever.com Neil.munro@unilever.com

A practical guide to improving your in-store observation skills

There are three basic ways to improve your observation skills in-store:
1) Take a different perspective: You need to step outside of who you are and become one of them. 2) The power of asking Why: Just observing something is useless. We need to ask ourselves why did she do that or why is that good. We must form hypothesis to be proven, or disproven. 3) The way we judge: We must appraise what we see impartially. The shopper merit is determined by the shopper, not us.

Headline
1. We are not our shoppers

Insight

Action
When in-store you must step outside of who you are and force yourself to think and act like a typical shopper.

Unilever managers are not representative of our shoppers. We are well paid, educated and come from within the industry. Shoppers shop on certain days at certain times. If you want to observe shoppers doing what they normally do, you need to be there when they are. When we go into store we are checking how our products and promotions look, or we are checking what the competition are up to. Shoppers never do this. We must observe shopping not survey brands. When we go into store we zero in on our beloved brands and products. We block out everything else when actually this aspect is more important because that is what we understand the least.

2. We go when we want to; not when they need to

Do your store visits at the most popular shopping times on the most popular shopping days. Plan your trips well in advance.

3. Shoppers go shopping to shop, not survey brands

Observe shoppers not items. Look at behavior not products. Walk the entire store following a typical shopper route. Use a mock-up list and use a trolley or basket. Disconnect yourself from your brand. The bias of ownership in-store will handicap your ability to see what the shopper sees.

4. Shoppers dont manage brands, they buy them

5. Shoppers assess value differently to us

We need to do the same value trade-offs that a shopper would do at the point of sale.

Try to compare and contrast value by assessing it in the same way a shopper would given the circumstances.

6. Winning beauty contests does not equal sales

Stand out on shelf is much more important than beauty when it comes to driving sales and market share in-store. Before a shopper can buy a product they must be able to see it and understand it. We judge things in store based on industry standards, not on the actual shopper merit. We criticize the competition and post rationalise our errors or weaknesses in-store.

Judge your brand in-store by how well it catches the shoppers eye amongst its surroundings. Pressure test your standout by walking past the category without stopping; could you see it? Dont use industry metrics to measure what you see in-store. You need to look and judge in-store execution in a way a shopper would.

7. Judge the competition fairly

8. Learn from other categories

When we go into a store we go straight to our category and look at our brand.

Look at as many categories as possible to learn from others. Observe what they are doing and ask why they are executing in this way. Try to apply these to your category to see if they are relevant. Make sure you cleans yourself of your personal biases. Observe shoppers who buy your category. Did they use in-store stimulus to decide, or did they just grab the product automatically.

9. Are you decided upon at the shelf, in-store or not?

Shoppers arrive in-store having made many decisions already. Most will have decided upon the outlet, the budget, and their list without even a thought. Is your brand decided upon like this or not? We can learn a lot from the people who work in-store and interact with shoppers everyday. In-store staff can help us to understand what makes shoppers do what they do and most importantly what converts them.

10. In store staff know more than you do when it comes to shoppers

When in-store, make an effort to interact with the staff. Talking to the store manager, the merchandisers, or our own promotional girls can reveal allot.