It is a very interesting time to be in retail right now. The news is certainly filled with stories of the trials and tribulations of the industry – globally and in Australia.

We know that the general trend in a cautious economy is to save. Therefore, while there is money in countries such as Australia and China, consumers are getting more apprehensive about parting with it. In situations like this, the biggest challenge retailers will face turning shoppers into buyers and getting them to reach the last five feet for their products.

Two opportunities in the FMCG segment are: occasion based marketing and trip type marketing. These two factors were highlighted at a recent presentation by POPAI and Shopability on Approaches to Shopper Marketing. The premise for these two opportunities is that society is getting increasingly time poor and consumers are choosing retailers that lure them with offers of a more convenient lifestyle – easy to prepare meals, product bundling that tackles the entire occasion of a mealtime, etc.

While the forecasts look grim, marketers are taking more interest than before in converting consumers at their point of purchase as this is where the buck ends. A look around at the food ads will show you that brands have increasingly been focusing on the occasion of meals and bundling products to drive awareness and sales. Advertising isn’t as focused on product benefits as it used to be and that works well for us as we’ve been talking about integration into the broader marketing campaigns for a while now.

So when I meet with clients, I’ll be speaking to them about the opportunities that lie ahead and how POP and collaborative Instore activations can help increase their sales than focus solely on the current economic climate.

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