I downloaded a song onto my iPhone the other day that I hadn’t heard in a long time. It was a real treat and the sound was truly amazing. I got to thinking about what it took for me to enjoy that song. It was originally produced in a recording studio that captured and digitized the voice, then stored in some digital format somewhere, later distributed and sold through a retail channel (iTunes), transmitted through cyberspace to my phone, and then reproduced into my ears for my enjoyment.
All those major systems (recording, digitizing, storing, transmitting, and reproduction) are in and of themselves very complex and remarkable. And every single system, each with its own set of challenges, needed to work perfectly or I wouldn’t have had a quality experience and enjoyed the music.
Creating a great and successful in-store shopping experience strikes me as similar. Depending on how you count them, for a CPG company there are several major systems involved in repeatedly delivering an excellent shopping experience so consumers buy from you: marketing, marketing research, agencies, sales, supply chain, finance, vendors, information technology, and retailers to name a few. Every one of these systems has its complexities and challenges. And they all need to be designed to work together so when the shopper reaches the shelf, they hear beautiful music.
Put the Shopper Insights in Action 2011 conference sponsored by IIR USA on your calendar. It’s being held July 11-13 at the Swissotel in Chicago. It promises to be the premier event for learning how the best and the brightest make beautiful music for shoppers.
