Paradigm shift: Consumers as shoppers

MANILA, Philippines - The growing number of competing brands, coupled with an increasing number of critical thinking shoppers, is one of the current challenges marketers and business owners face. According to an official of the Philippine Marketing Association (PMA), knowing one’s consumers is just the beginning. To weather these challenges, it is necessary to go beyond knowing and understanding how they behave as shoppers.

“If you are selling in a retail setting, you must be aware of the behavior of your consumers when they shop. Discerning why consumers buy, what influences them, what hurdles their purchase, where they buy, is vital information in successfully achieving your sales targets,” explains Donald Patrick Lim, Overall Chairperson of the Asian Marketing Conference.

Lim is referring to a discipline called “Shopper Marketing,” which is described as brand-marketing for retail, focusing on consumers as shoppers. It looks at a market as active shoppers rather than passive consumers.

While this trend has been utilized by multi-national companies such as P&G and Wal Mart, convincing key decision-makers in the Asia-Pacific region of its importance remains a challenge. According to Lim, there are some hesitations and misunderstandings of the concept since adopting it would require a reinvention and retooling of earlier applied strategies.

As an organization that aims to enable Filipino marketing professionals to become global marketers, the Philippine Marketing Association holds a yearly National Marketing Conference. But for this year, it has been upgraded to an Asian Marketing Conference entitled “Asiannovation2: Unleash the Asian Marketing Masters” and happening on July 19-20, 2012 at the Rizal Ballroom of Makati Shangri-La.

 “This is a great opportunity for Filipino marketers and key decision-makers to gain insights and a better understanding of emerging theories and practices in marketing such as Shopper Marketing. We are glad that Michael Robinson, a Shopper Marketing expert, will be among the speakers,” says Lim.

Robinson has been actively engaged in Shopper Marketing in the Asia Pacific Region, serving as the South East Asia Managing Director and APAC Shopper Marketing Director of Momentum Worldwide.

“There are a lot of challenges to businesses today and we can’t hold ourselves back. We should always be equipped with new knowledge, skills, and tools to achieve successful business strategies and marketing campaigns. There’s still a lot to learn,” advises Lim.

For more information on registration details about “Asiannovation2: Unleash the Asian Marketing Masters,” contact the PMA secretariat at 634-5722, 634-4890, 638-7700, 0927-715-6676, 0917-881-8PMA (672), e-mail [email protected], or visit www.asianmarketingconference.com.