Women are helping lead the transformation of retail marketing, building more digitally native experiences that appeal to a diverse audience of consumers.
At a recent Brand Innovators livecast on Women in Retail Marketing, executives from leading brands including Johnson & Johnson, Trax Retail and Three Wishes talked about how to build strong brands that appeal to a diverse group of consumers.
“It’s not a surprise to think that consumers expect more from businesses and brands,” said Aliya Ali, director of omnichannel shopper marketing at Johnson & Johnson. “We’ve known that for some time because they want to align themselves with the values of a brand and ethos that they feel and appreciate. We have known that for some time, but post-pandemic, consumers have a higher expectation of the digital journey and what continues to be that driving force is convenience. It is getting your brand page to load in less than three seconds or developing a multichannel experience with delivery or multi feature functions; convenience continues to be that key.”
Tina Adolfsson, vice president of marketing at Trax Retail (Survey.com), expects retail shelf space to transform to adapt to consumer demand.
“Retailers have agreed that there is a lot of variety and diversity in their shopper mix so healthy options are going to come in, allergy-free options are going to come in; all of that is going to just happen,” said Adolfsson. “I don’t think that we need feet and feet, yards and yards of some of the basic products where traditional manufacturers have bought up that shelf space. It is no longer necessary.”
Appealing to parents is important to Three Wishes, a cereal brand that offers high-protein, low sugar cereal options. The challenge is to get their attention on the shelf.
“Retail is a really fascinating thing to get into because cereal especially, is one of the longest aisles, with the most color and characters,” said Margaret Wishingrad, co-founder/CEO at Three Wishes. “To stand out in an aisle is a really difficult thing so for us, we spent a lot of time going into stores and making sure the packaging worked there. We really did the homework to stand out for the 10 seconds that consumers spend walking down the aisle.”
