Historically, allocating shopper marketing budgets has been fairly simple: It’s based largely on the percentage of ACV (all commodities volume) generated by that retailer, but then can be influenced by the “squeaky wheels” in the organization — which leads to highly subjective decision making.
However, as more media dollars shift into the shopper space, and as shopper behavior continues to evolve, the old ways of budgeting aren’t going to cut it. Brands need to develop more strategic, better-informed methods of budget planning that will deliver a bigger bang for their bucks. But what steps should they take to get there?
Marilyn® Says: Informed by the planning and analytics work we do with our clients, here are some tips brands can use to shift their current assumptions toward more strategic budget projections.
- Make sure you’re leveraging performance data. How is your brand performing in relation to the category? Are there financial opportunities to be had at a specific retailer that you didn’t realize?
- Evaluate your retailers to identify the true partnerships. How is your relationship? Are you aligned on goals? Have you historically been able to secure added value?
- Widen your consideration set. Don’t leave any options out of the mix. Review the data and take a closer look at the retailers that aren’t in your Top 5 (like emerging on-demand delivery services) to make sure you’re not missing out on any big opportunities.
The industry’s first end-to-end commerce marketing advisor, Marilyn® lets marketers streamline their data, optimize spending, plan strategy and measure results — all in one platform. The Marilyn® platform helps clients optimize performance by providing a single source of truth for all omnichannel marketing activity, ROI analysis and attribution, and scenario planning. Learn more here.