DEMOGRAPHICS CONVENTIONS

KELLY GATES

When it comes to targeting kids, tweens and teens, Shaw's Supermarkets in East Bridgewater, Mass., enforces a number of effective strategies in its Center Store aisles. The supermarket chain uses everything from the creative packaging of its own private-label goods to merchandising techniques and partnership promotions that include private labels, vendors' products and out-of-store events.

Bernie Rogan, spokesman for Shaw's, said local teens are lured into the stores and prompted to purchase Center Store items through the use of partnership promotions. "From time to time, we have promotions that coincide with various performing artist groups in Boston," said Rogan. "When someone buys specific products that are promoted during the event -- either from our private-label line or from a vendor's line -- they'll save money on concert tickets for the participating artists." These promotions are often advertised in the over four-and-a-half million Shaw's circulars Rogan said are sent out each week.

To attract younger consumers, Shaw's focuses on merchandising tactics that grab the attention of children. In the bulk candy section, the stores display giant lollipops on vertical stands to attract little kids and, consequently, their parents to the bins.

And, Shaw's also attributes much of the attention it receives from young consumers to creative packaging of its own private-label items. Rogan said products like Shaw's Own Brand kids cereals are adorned with colorful artwork, depicting clowns and cartoon characters that children often find appealing.

Much of these demographic promotions and targeting strategies are recent additions to Shaw's marketing program. "We are far more promotional than we have been in the past because we're really going more head-to-head with our main competitor in this market: Stop and Shop, an Ahold company," he said.

Many retailers, like Shaw's, are leaning toward in-store demographic targeting techniques to attract shoppers of all ages and genders. "There's no better place to reach a demographic group than in the stores where consumers are actively making decisions," said Rich Landy, vice president of business management for News America Marketing, a full-service consumer promotions company based in New York.

Before grocers can target specific demographics, they must first obtain information on the different groups of consumers. "The name of the game in this business is to figure out who the shoppers are in the stores, what they want, and then make sure your supermarkets are providing exactly that," said Karen Brown, senior vice president of the Food Marketing Institute, a trade organization based in Washington, D.C..

"What's particularly important in the Center Store is the product mix -- not only which products are there, but also the size of the products. If your local consumers are large families, then family-pack meals might be right, but in areas with more senior citizens, you might sell different products in smaller sizes," she added.

To gather such crucial demographic information, most retailers rely on research organizations like ACNielsen, Schaumburg, Ill., and Information Resources Inc., Chicago, as well as their own consumer purchase information.

Many also retrieve specific consumer data from the manufacturers of the products that are sold within the Center Store aisles of their supermarkets. Pathmark Stores, the supermarket chain based in Woodbridge, N.J., depends heavily on the demographic information provided by its vendors.

"We really rely on our vendor community to give us information on their targeted consumers. If we can reach the shoppers who'll buy their products, we'll ultimately have more purchases in our stores," said Rich Savner, spokesman for Pathmark Stores. "A big part of targeting specific demographics involves phsychographics too, like using certain colors and mediums to attract different ages, ethnic consumers and genders. Our vendors often supply us with that type of information too."

When the demographic groups are identified, retailers must then focus on attracting customers to their stores. "Hosting events is a good way to attract specific demographics," said Brown. "A lot of retailers allow other organizations to host events like nutrition fairs, festivals or educational kids events that target specific consumers.

"And, for families, many retailers have family-focused promotions where they offer coupons or discounts to amusement parks and other leisure events."

And, once in their stores, there are a number of tools retailers can use to entice shoppers to make purchases: in-store circulars, shelf talkers, floor decals and other point-of-purchase signage, strategically placed and merchandised displays, in-store events and partnership programs that entice highly specific groups of consumers.

Landy said many of News America Marketing's clients reach out to precise consumers through the use of multiple point-of-purchase media at once.

"Once retailers have identified a demographic group, they can use several in-store tools to encourage that same consumer to go to other aisles and purchase other items specific to that demographic group too," he said. "A retailer targeting the elderly might have an endcap display with vitamins that also has signage encouraging the same shoppers to go into the aisles and purchase Quaker Oats oatmeal that is enriched with additional vitamins.

"It's like creating meal solutions, only retailers are suggesting other Center Store items that are also commonly purchased by that particular demographic group."

Chip Hoyt, senior vice president of co-marketing for the DVC Group, an integrated marketing services agency based in Morristown, N.J., sees many retailers using simple merchandising strategies to promote items to different demographic groups. "The cereal aisle is the best example of how retailers merchandise their shelves to reach different age groups," said Hoyt. "The top shelf is typically dedicated to adults and kids' cereals are often on the middle shelf, lower to the ground."

However, when it comes to signage, Hoyt said many retailers are trying to clean up their aisles, reducing the amount of point-of-purchase promotions that are in today's stores. "Some of the bigger stores like Wegmans and Publix are adopting clean store policies that don't tolerate many signs," he said. "A lot of the marketing that attracts different consumers are moving from the shelves and aisles and onto the packages themselves -- on-pack shelf-talkers, on-pack sweepstakes and on-pack coupons."

And, until someone out there discovers a foolproof solution, Pathmark and others like them are following a simple rule.

"There's certainly a 'nothing ventured, nothing gained' attitude amongst retailers who are trying to target demographic groups and a lot of testing is going on to find the most efficient, effective in-store ideas," said Savner. "There's no corner on the market for creativity and we all avail ourselves of the best avenues to improve our strategies."