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A group of top executives from some of the nation's leading companies -- including PepsiCo Americas Foods, Wal-Mart, Nestlé, Kimberly-Clark and The Walt Disney Co. -- gathered at the University of Tennessee Thursday and today to help the College of Business Administration launch its Shopper Marketing Forum.

"Shopper marketing" is understanding how one's target consumers behave as shoppers and leveraging this intelligence to benefit the company or brand, consumers, retailers and shoppers," said forum organizer Dan Flint, UT's Proffitt's Inc. Professor of Marketing.

"The way shoppers are influenced by signage, coupons, packaging, in-store radio, promotions, etc. -- all of this is shopper marketing. It is the strategy of engaging consumers while they are in the 'shopping mode' to build brand equity and persuade them to make purchases."

New techniques

The economic downturn, coupled with changes in shoppers' behavior and attitudes, has forced companies to think about new ways to entice customers to buy their products, Flint said.

For instance, research shows that, 70 percent of the time, shoppers choose what brand to buy while they are shopping; 8 percent of buying decisions are unplanned; and only 5 percent of customers are loyal to the brand of one product group.

"It is the hottest issue in retail and consumer package goods," Flint said. "And few other universities are paying serious attention to it -- so far."

Some of the issues the Shopper Marketing Forum is exploring: collaboration among supply chain partners in retail; improved metrics and return on investment (ROI) for marketing initiatives; gaining deeper insights into shopper thinking, behavior and value perceptions; and enhancing shopper experiences through state-of-the-art technology such as social networking and virtual simulations and displays.

Business forums

UT already has two forums: the Supply Chain Strategy & Management Forum and the Sales Forecasting Management Forum, both under the umbrella brand of Demand Supply Integration Forums. The forums are research-based think tanks that bring UT faculty together with company executives to address key industry issues. Member companies pay a fee to belong to the forums and attend the twice-yearly meetings.

Through forum discussions, faculty members -- and sometimes doctoral and MBA students -- learn about the types of research that can be done on campus to help businesses. Business members, who sometimes choose to fund particular areas of research, then get "first dibs" on findings. Business executives also get to know UT students who might then be recruited for employment.