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The Sell: How a cupcake can change your shopping habits

by Mimi Nicklin (@MimiNicklin) Every three months or so, I use this column as a review of existing shopper work ‘on the ground’to summarise the current state of the nation. This time, I was reminded how much I love doing this by something as simple as a cupcake painted in blue and white…

It was game day, the Currie Cup final, and the Cape was proud, excited and nervous all mixed into one. From as early as 8am, the men were dressed in Western Province shirts and the traffic lights were alive with hawkers selling, well, anything that allowed for a stripe. I, being the non-rugby-fan shopping addict that I am, chose thatmorning to grocery shop.

It is estimated that, at any one time, there are 600+ live activations (promotions, sampling, activations, offers) in most large grocery stores in South Africa and,that Saturday, Checkers Hyper was buzzing. I could barely walk for a sample, prize or tasting heading my way.

The Sell: 50 Shades of Same

by Mimi Nicklin (@miminicklin) It seems to me that in general people like to talk ‘shopper’, and agencies like to claim ‘shopper’, but that often underlying this trendy new money maker is a disinterest from the industry that is so powerful that the discipline is not only an afterthought, but avoided all together.

The perception is that the ‘in-store bit’ is the less interesting, less exciting sister of the rest of the communications mix.Whilst we know this is the final and critical point of actually selling the product, it gets dismissed, forgotten or left to the last minute. The shopper conceptgets left with no time to research, to create or to innovate, with a belief that an on-pack sticker or a busy wobbler will be enough to convert the habitual shopper mom as she flies down the aisle.

In a previous life I may also have fallen into this group of people so I am not totally naïve. I know that producing a TV ad is more glamorous than designing a gondola end, and I know that the photography behind a print adcan, literally, stop one in their tracks. However, I have spent thelast few days wondering why it is that ‘shopper’ in the USA, Europe and even Asia is a discipline full of change and innovation and excitement, yet in SAwe are so often stuck with‘matching luggage’ linked to the consumer campaign that fades into the clutter of retail messaging. Why can’t we see what the rest of the world is seeing so clearly?

The Sell: Shopper data — a ‘blockbuster’ debate between Minority Report and Zero Dark Thirty

by Mimi Nicklin (@miminicklin) I don’t know about you but I find it very irritating every time I read a newspaper article or report that quotes the Tom Cruise film, Minority Report, as a reference to how ‘psychic’ we are becoming when it comes to shopper data analysis.

The Sell: Driving bigger baskets. Learnings from Mickey Mouse

by Mimi Nicklin. Walt Disney once said “People spend money where and when they feel good.” This understanding led Disney to found one of experiential retail’s biggest-ever successes.

The Sell: Is ‘pretty’ enough?

by Mimi Nicklin (@miminicklin) I strongly believe in the power of brands and of the emotional connection we have with them. When you look into the psychology of buying you notice it is often based on those emotional connections that we have made as consumers of these brands.