This post was created in partnership with CVS Media Exchange
For retail brands, the holiday season is a critical time to get consumers into stores to shop. And because shoppers have such varied preferences and habits, marketers must have a nimble holiday playbook. Some consumers may prioritize convenience, for instance, while others may value the ability to shop last minute.
During an ADWEEK House Advertising HQ panel co-hosted with CVS Media Exchange, Zoë Ruderman, chief content officer at ADWEEK, sat down with industry leaders to talk about this special time of year for marketers and retailers.
The modern holiday shopper
Wendy Liebmann, CEO of WSL, opened the conversation by explaining that there is no single type of holiday shopper. Whether it be generational attitudes, income disparities, or even how much planning a shopper does, Liebmann said that “every holiday shopper today is many shoppers.”
The opportunity, Liebmann explained, lies in gathering consumer data through multiple touchpoints during the season.
“If we can map those appropriately, then we can connect the right story to not just the right person, but the right moment,” Liebmann added.
Gretchen Reisner, executive director and head of client success at CVS Media Exchange, shared that there’s also not one kind of shopping trip. That’s why she prefers to call them “trip missions.” For instance, while a shopper may classify as a “planner” and start early in the season with a list, oftentimes an unforeseen trip mission is needed for a last-minute gift.
“The biggest thing is trying to figure out what signals we have that show this is a last-minute shopping trip,” Reisner said. “So, as you’re thinking through how you want to reach these consumers, how you want to influence them, and which channels you want to influence them in, you need to pull apart those signals and look at what that means for how you’re messaging everyone.”
Convenience as a new shopping value
Shoppers are still looking for value, but according to Reisner, what constitutes “value” has changed. She cited data from CVS’ loyalty program, ExtraCare, that proves shoppers prioritize convenience.
“We’re a smaller format store, which means you can get in and get out and get a whole bunch of things that you need on your list very quickly,” Reisner said. “And I think that kind of value comes into play because value is not just price. It’s time, it’s how far you have to go, and whether a store is conveniently located.”
Kelly Solomon, chief digital marketing officer at Revlon, offered the brand perspective, explaining that convenience also means offering product assortments and routines.
“We build those routines into kits or bundles to make sure that when you are running through a CVS, grabbing whatever you need, that it is very easy and convenient to grab that product or gift,” Solomon shared.
Leveraging shopper data
A retailer like CVS sits on large amounts of data, and Solomon wants the full picture when it comes to informing a marketing decision with a retailer.
“We don’t just want to understand how one marketing channel is performing, how digital is performing, how the stores are performing. No, we want it all together. We really want that end-to-end view,” Solomon said.
Reisner agreed, saying data can influence several decisions like “channel selection, timing, and evolving messaging.”
“What we’ve all been talking about is aligning to not just the right audience, but aligning to the right trip mission,” Reisner added.
