Shopper Digest: Gaining Back Your Shoppers

Consumers have long wielded their purchasing power to send messages to companies whose stances they disagree with. Boycotts can take various forms – from completely avoiding the brand to actively participating in protests to advocate for the brand boycott.

The significance of consumer sentiment in the current market landscape is unquestionable — with enough momentum, it has the power to either drive a brand to success or plunge it into crisis. The ever-changing nature of public opinion can create a ripple effect that brands must navigate carefully.

During a recent widespread boycott, Brand X lost a significant number of shoppers, curtailing their pre-boycott penetration growth trend. With shopper panel data, Brand X was able to compare shopper behaviours with historical data to establish the impact of the boycott with certainty and identify the most critical shopper segments and where the sales losses were coming from.

Shoppers not returning for category purchases after a peak sales period for Brand X sent a clear message by dropping Brand X purchases and switching spends to competitor brands at an unprecedented level during the boycott period, leading to a historical 5-year low in brand penetration.

By understanding how the behaviours of critical shopper groups were affected and their product choices when dropping out of Brand X, the company was able to discern some of the underlying motivations of shoppers. This enabled them to size and minimise threats while amplifying opportunities.

We also helped identify the key and unique products within their portfolio that could retain loyal shoppers and attract new shoppers. Collectively, this enabled Brand X to deploy a multi-pronged strategy that effectively connected to different underlying consumer needs across shopper segments beyond the boycott and reached them through the right channels and retailers.

Through targeted ATL (communications) and BTL (trade strategies), Brand X achieved a monthly sales recovery of 43% in March 2024 compared to December 2023 amongst key affected shoppers.

To conclude, there are unprecedented situations where brands may face challenges in retaining loyal shoppers and recruiting new ones. Therefore, brands should leverage other potential opportunities through effective strategies to regain their shoppers.

In Worldpanel, we can evaluate the differences in purchase behaviour between new category shoppers and existing shopper groups. Based on this understanding, you can craft a more effective marketing campaign tailored to your specific target audience.