{"id":11959,"date":"2014-02-10T08:07:52","date_gmt":"2014-02-10T08:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beyondphilosophy.com\/?p=11959"},"modified":"2019-10-03T12:18:38","modified_gmt":"2019-10-03T16:18:38","slug":"engaging-subconscious-shopper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/engaging-subconscious-shopper\/","title":{"rendered":"Engaging the Subconscious Shopper"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you buy a product at a grocery store are you on \u2018auto-pilot\u2019 or are you engaged with your shopping experience? A new Neilson report called, \u201cCategory Shopping Fundamentals<\/a>,\u201d provides some great information on this. Let me explain, when my wife Lorraine asks me to pick up some milk at the store I am just one of a huge number as, according to the survey, nothing has more power to drive consumers to the store than milk (59% of instances), closely followed by pet food (56%) and baby food (52%).<\/p>\n

When I shop I tend to go into the store, grab a basket and navigate the aisles with her list in mind. I am on \u2018auto-pilot\u2019. I grab the milk and make my way to the checkout. I am still on auto- pilot. But my regular readers will know that my subconscious mind is scanning things whilst my conscious mind is thinking of other things, what work have I got to do when I get home, did I book the fishing boat for the weekend, will I get home in time to see the game\u2026<\/p>\n

As I walk around my subconscious mind interrupts my conscious mind and says \u201cwow, look, cookies on special offer!\u201d I step out of my auto pilot and put the cookies in my basket and then switch auto pilot back on. For the briefest of moments I went into being an \u2018engaged\u2019 shopper. According to the survey I was engaged and conscious about my surroundings.<\/p>\n

What happened to me at the store happens in countless grocery markets across the nation, and probably the world. Nielsen\u2019s survey tells us that US consumers only choose consciously about 50% of the things that end up in their cart. The rest of the items in there are the result of shopping subconsciously.<\/p>\n

The Nielsen study, which analyzed over 50,000 purchases from 100 fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), also tells us that people only left home to buy 72% of what ends up in their cart. That mean the rest of the cart, or the other 28%, is what we call an \u2018impulse buy\u2019. These impulse buys are good news for branders and marketers everywhere, as it indicates that there is hope for them to make it in the cart even if it isn\u2019t on the shoppers mental \u2018shopping list\u2019 when they left home for the store.<\/p>\n

Part 1: Early Engagement of the Subconscious Shopper<\/strong><\/p>\n

When it comes to customer experience<\/a>, most organizations focus on the conscious side of their experience. This is the rational part of a customer\u2019s interaction with them and includes things like how quickly you respond to questions or how reliable the shipping date is, etc. But, unfortunately for these organizations, this is only half of the reason that a consumer chooses the product.<\/p>\n

The subconscious experience<\/a> makes up at least half of the reason that a person does something. This part is harder to quantify and control. This is one our most popular modules in our Customer Experience Management (CEM) Certification training<\/a>. Ignoring the subconscious part of a customer experience is not going to help a brand grow, or even survive, in today\u2019s fast-changing market place.<\/p>\n

Part 2: Nabbing the Impulse Buys<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nielsen reports that 72% of what goes in the cart was headed there before your shopper left for the store. But that does leave about 28% of the items up for grabs. These are the impulse buys and if you play your brand engagement strategy right, you can nab these purchases at the last minute.<\/p>\n

The cookies were not on my list when I entered the store, but they were certainly in my basket on my way out of it.\u00a0 This is one of the 28% of the items that Nielsen attributes to the \u2018impulse buys\u2019. So the second part of a marketer\u2019s strategy needs to get the impulse buy from buying a product to buying their product.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at this from a food retailer\u2019s point of reference. Nielsen identifies the top 5 Unplanned (Impulse) Food purchases. These include:<\/p>\n