Platt Retail Institute 2012 In-Store Marketing Trends and Opportunities

We have read a variety of prognostications for all matter of big trends for  2012. At PRI, we do not pretend to know and see all, but we have spotted  several noteworthy developments that have been building for a while and represent significant business opportunities.


2012 holds many promises in terms of retail innovation. Smart phones,  mobile POS, experimental devices, and digital signs quickly come to mind.  As retailers leverage these technologies into their stores, the challenge of presenting a uniform, cross-channel message experience becomes  exceedingly complex.  Add to this equation all of the data that retailers collect  and achieving an integrated in-store marketing approach presents both a challenge and an opportunity.


Several themes we see presenting themselves to address this in 2012 are: 
• Business Analytics.
• Marketing Metrics.


Business analytics enable a retailer to understand and predict customer  behavior. Data mining results in segmentation and analysis, against which  multi-channel campaigns are executed and measured. Although not frequently linked with analytics and metrics, we are also of the view that content must be a part of the equation. 


We use the term Digital Marketing Systems to describe the end-to-end platform that embodies:


1. Behavioral merchandising (powered by business analytics).
2. Automated content management and generation.
3. Return on promotion.


Behavioral merchandising embodies business analytics that result in understanding, predicting, and influencing consumer purchase behavior instore by messages delivered via a digital communication network. The objective of behavioral  merchandising is to stimulate the consumer buying process by mass customization of targeted messages. At its core, behavioral merchandising advocates that by providing consumers with meaningful store, product, and service information, customer trust and loyalty can be increased. 


Automated content management refers to content that is created based upon directions received from business analytics. It encompasses the systems and processes to create, manage, optimize and distribute content on a cost effective, timely basis in response to instructional sets received from the www.plattretailinstitute.org behavioral  merchandising process. Automated content management drives  down production costs, dramatically reduces production time, and greatly expands the ability to “mass customize” high quality digital messages systemwide.   


Return on promotion is an advanced set of digital message performance metrics. Traffic, conversion rates, and results (POS data or inventory movement, for example), are monitored in response to in-store promotions. ROP provides the promoting firm with feedback on the impact of its displayed content. This information enables the brand to determine its return on investment, and continue to fine tune its content strategy. The network operation, in response to this feedback, will be in the position to instantly adjust pricing relative to demand. As well, this information is shared with the business analytics, so that the messaging intelligence is constantly improved upon.  


In 2012, automated solutions that deliver the intelligence, content, and metrics to produce successful integrated in-store marketing campaigns will be a big business.



Platt Retail Institute (PRI) is recognized worldwide as an industry-leading expert in research and consulting to retailers, media companies, financial institutions, hardware, software, transmission, and other business enterprises seeking to impact the customer in-store experience. PRI serves as a knowledge bridge between the academic world and industry, by synergizing the wealth of knowledge being produced at the university level with the need for more advanced yet practical business research and insight at the customer level. In addition to its global consulting expertise, PRI also publishes pioneering industry research.