Interview with Verena Geideck, Interrogare "Almost everyone has bought something that was not planned"

How are purchasing decisions made? Why do consumers decide to buy certain products? These are questions that every brand should be interested in answering. With Shelf Test 2.0, Interrogare presents a method to get to the bottom of shoppers' motives at the POS.

 Interview with Verena Geideck, Interrogare

"Almost everyone has bought something that was not planned"

How are purchasing decisions made? Why do consumers decide to buy certain products? These are questions that every brand should be interested in answering. With Shelf Test 2.0, Interrogare presents a method to get to the bottom of shoppers‘ motives at the POS.

 

The title of your WoM event - "We decode the purchase decision at the shelf" - sounds promising, what excites you personally about the topic?

Verena Geideck: In fact, this topic has been with me since I was a student. Back then, I came into contact with it through fellow students from the FMCG sector in my degree program and wondered how shelves in supermarkets are set up and how this could influence customers. Today, I am in the comfortable position of being able to explain precisely these purchasing decision processes. And not only that, but with the corresponding study data, I can also advise our customers on how to optimize them. So I've been fascinated by this topic for quite a long time and I still find it exciting that changes in shelf placement, package design and seemingly minimal price changes can have a direct impact on sales.

Sign up for Verena Geideck WoM session on purchasing decisions – May 11, at 10h CET, in German. 

Don't we also make purchasing decisions to a large extent unconsciously? If so, is it even possible to reconstruct them? What role does chance play, i.e. factors that cannot be influenced?

Verena Geideck: Purchasing decisions are not purely rational, because the subconscious determines the majority of a decision. Therefore, it is hardly possible to reflect and rationally reproduce one's own buying behavior. That's why we use the Shelf Test 2.0, which combines a shelf conjoint with other proven methods to analyze purchase motivation and also take into account subconscious factors.

 

Numerous factors probably play a role in purchasing decisions. Is it possible to analyse all external factors?

Verena Geideck: Roughly speaking, the purchase decision can be broken down into four phases, each of which can be examined in modular form or all together in one study. First of all, there is the 'attention' phase, in which it is ascertained whether and when one's own product is perceived at all. Then follows the 'impression' phase. Here, everything revolves around the 'how', i.e. how one's own product appears and how it is perceived. This is followed by the 'weighing' phase. The aim here is to find out how many people are familiar with the company's own product, are considering it for purchase, and prefer it to others. In the last phase, the actual decision, the 'action' is analyzed by answering questions such as: Will the product be purchased? What influence do brand, price, positioning on the shelf, etc. have on the purchase decision and what are customers willing to pay for the product? In the interaction of the data and information from all phases, one obtains a truly comprehensive and resilient picture of the purchase decision.

 

Does it make sense as a manufacturer to focus only on those aspects that can be influenced at the POS?

Verena Geideck: Quite clearly no. As a manufacturer, you should always keep an eye on what other suppliers are doing on the market. And how changes to your own products affect the entire market. Especially in the FMCG sector, there are many similar alternatives. That's why you always have to take into account how a change in your own product will affect the competition, and you also have to consider possible reactions from the competition.

 

Why do we often come home with more things in the shopping bag than we actually planned?

Verena Geideck: In that case, we market researchers did a good job together with the companies. The subconscious took over and basal motives and emotions were served - and these can be very diverse.

 

How easily can people be influenced? Is it possible to sell a consumer a product that he or she doesnt actually want?

Verena Geideck: Let's be honest, almost all of us have bought something that was not planned and/or turned out to be a bad purchase afterwards. And that was - as already mentioned - due to the subconscious. The setting was right, the product, the design, subconscious factors were right, motives and needs determined the action - keyword hungry shopping. So it can happen that we buy something that we don't really want rationally, but our subconscious does.

 

The classic shelf test is a proven method in market research. But what are its weaknesses, why was it time for Shelf Test 2.0?

Verena Geideck: The biggest weakness of the classic shelf test is that only one market scenario can be tested. Thus, only one competitive environment, one arrangement of products on the shelf, one product design and one pricing can be considered. Possible reactions of the competition, on the other hand, are not taken into account. With Shelf Test 2.0, we offer the flexibility to run through a wide variety of what-if scenarios. Product features and prices, packaging and positioning, as well as potential competitive reactions can be varied and combined again and again in the simulation to understand the market precisely. In this way, the results not only provide a snapshot, but can be used in the longer term for supply optimization.

 

Who should not miss your web seminar?

Verena Geideck: Anyone who relies on dedicated insights into shoppers and buying processes - whether in the area of new product development or product management of existing products. After all, the right adjustments - whether in terms of content quantities, promotional campaigns, packaging or pricing - can lead to a significant improvement in sales opportunities at the POS in a dynamic competitive environment.

 

 

ABOUT 

Verena Geideck has been a Senior Consultant in the Marketing Research team at Interrogare since 2019 and already has over 20 years of market research experience. She gained her extensive expertise in particular in over 15 years at Kantar (TNS Infratest), where she was most recently Associate Director in the Technology division with a special focus on the telecommunications industry. She studied business administration in Bielefeld. 

 

Interview originally published in German on marktforschung.de - here

 
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