Valentine’s Day 2013 Using Location Analytics and In-Store Mobile Surveys to Understand How America Shopped For Valentine’s Day

© 2013 Locately. All rights reserved.

Executive Summary

Valentine’s Day is a seasonal highlight for many Americans – and an important date on the shopping calendar for both retailers and manufacturers. Some shoppers choose a more traditional approach, with a focus on chocolates and greeting cards for a spouse or partner. Other shoppers purchase candy and toys for children, or maybe a thoughtful gift card for a favorite teacher or relative.

For Valentine’s Day 2013, Locately decided to go one level deeper and explore some key questions around shopper behaviors: How do males shop differently from females as Valentine’s Day approaches? And what are the true impacts of retailer and manufacturer efforts to drive activation through innovative shopper marketing campaigns?

To answer these questions and understand the “whys” behind shopper choices, Locately conducted a custom next-generation intercepts study around Valentine’s Day 2013. We invited shoppers to opt in and share their GPS data via the Locately app on their smartphone. In-store mobile surveys were triggered automatically when shoppers visited mass merchandisers, grocery stores, drugstores, and warehouse club outlets. The outcome: real-time, in-context visibility into what actually happened on the shopper’s path to purchase and inside the store.

Valentine’s purchases became top of mind for shoppers starting February 11th (the Sunday before Valentine’s Day). Shoppers focused primarily on chocolates, candy, or other non-chocolate confectionery, and often added a special trip into their shopping routine. Key opportunity areas:

•Last-minute is critical for the Valentine’s shopper. Consider 1-day or 2-day promotions on the 13th and 14th. Leverage the store circular/flyer to build awareness. Once the shopper is in the store, special deals and displays will generate maximum visibility.

•TheValentine’seventisagreatopportunityfor non-preferred retailers to enter the consideration set. Most shoppers find that one trip is not enough to fully meet their Valentine’s Day needs. Pre-store activation via flyers and circulars can prompt shoppers to explore beyond their favorite retailer.

•Brandshaveanopportunitytocombineastrongcore message with shopper-centric adjacencies to achieve optimal cut-through. Multi-brand activations from manufacturers like Hershey and Nestlé drove both awareness and impact.

Key Findings

TruePanelisTsTory

Atlanta shopper bypasses Publix to visit Kroger after seeing Kroger Valentine’s deals advertised in his Sunday paper.

WHO49-year-old white male, college graduate, household income $50k-75k .

PREFERENCES•HereportsinamobilesurveythatKrogerisnot

his favorite store and he is not a Kroger loyalist•However,Krogerisconvenientlyclosetohome

(1.1 miles away)

BEHAVIORS•BypassedPublixtovisitKrogerasthelaststopon

a multi-stop trip, the evening before Valentine’s Day (Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe’s were also readily accessible)

•20minutesinstore•Spent$17onHershey’schocolate,flowers,and

a greeting card•Noticedin-storeshoppermarketingactivations

for Hershey, American Greetings, and Hallmark

© 2013 Locately. All rights reserved.

Leaves residential area3:37pm

Arrives Home

Arrives at Kroger

4:17pm

Spends $17 on Valentine’s items at Kroger

key takeaway: Women take the lead in last-minute shopping for Valentine’s Day, but the period Feb 11-14 is critical for both males and females. Prevent out-of-stocks during this important time window to broaden the brand consideration set and drive incremental revenue.

Longitudinal Visit BehaviorsShare of Visits that included a Valentine’s Day itemintheBasket

Items in the Basket (for Valentine’s Day)

key takeaway: Chocolates and other treats for Valentine’s Day are the shopper’s #1 priority. However, food and beverage for a Valentine’s Day meal is also important, as are gift cards and/or greeting cards. Retailers should consider in-store adjacencies to promote cross-category activation.

Awareness and Impact of Shopper Marketing

key takeaway: Breakingthroughtheclutterofin-storemarketing is critical for brands looking to drive Valentine’s Day items into the basket.

in-sToreshoPPerMarkeTing84% of shoppers who purchased items for Valentine’s Day were aware of in-store marketing activations•ShelftagsadvertisingsalepricesonValentine’sitems

drove the strongest awareness (51%), followed by special Valentine’s Day product displays (36%)

Pre-sToreshoPPerMarkeTing57% of shoppers who purchased items for Valentine’s Day were aware of marketing activations before they reached the store•Thestoreflyer/circulardrovethestrongestawareness(41%)

Top In-Store Manufacturer Activations Share of visits for which shopper was aware of in-store marketing, by manufacturer

key takeaway: Hershey’s took the #1 spot among both males and females, generating strong awareness around flagship Kisses and Reese’s brands. Shoppers commented on helpful innovations that leverage logical adjacencies, such as the Hershey+Hallmark “Say Something Sweet” inline display at Walgreens.

Hershey

Nestlé

Hallmark

Cadbury

Kraft

AmericanGreetings

51%

49%

31%

37%

26%

19%

22%

19%

8%

22%

5%

13%

Female

Male

© 2013 Locately. All rights reserved.

Valentine’s Shopping Behaviors

source for photos: Path to Purchase Institute

Walgreens

VALENTINE’S DAy 2013 STuDy RESuLTS

key takeaway: The average shopper who purchased items for Valentine’s Day needed more than just a single trip to get everything they wanted. This represents a great opportunity for “non-favorite” retailers to compete for share of wallet.

1.3 visits per shopper

$20.73 per visit on Valentine’s items

29Minutes per store visit (7% longer than normal)

23% of visits were to “favorite” retailer

33%

Food and/or beverage

27%

Gift cards and/or greeting cards

Chocolates, candy, or other confectionery

61%

Walmart

10%

Flowers

7%

Other

23%

17%

15% 7% 6% 4% 4% 3% 3% 2% 3% 2%

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14Date in February

Shar

e of

Vis

its

Female Male50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

76SummerStreet,5thFloor,BostonMA02110617.501.3544 | info@locately.com

© 2013 Locately. All rights reserved. Do Not Duplicate Without Permission. “Locatelytm ” and related trademarks are trademarks of Locately.

About Locately Locately is the leader in location analytics and location-targeted mobile surveys. The Locately technology platform processes huge volumes of GPS data from opted-in mobile phones to understand which stores people visit, which travel routes they take, and why. Locately delivers location-based mobile and online surveys to engage with consumers on the path to purchase or after they have visited specified venues of interest: the “next-generation shopper intercept.” Locately’s innovations have been featured in MIT’s Technology Review, Forbes, and Fortune Magazine (CNN Money).

In August 2012, Locately was acquired by Service Management Group, a Honomichl Top 30 full-service market research firm.

LEARN MORE

Toaccessallshoppercommentsandadditionalretailer-specific or manufacturer-specific breakouts, please email info@locately.com to schedule a customized webmeeting.

Methodology and Study Scope

This report includes data from n=408 shoppers who opted in to share their GPS location with Locately from February 3 through February 17 via Locately’s smartphone app. Shoppers received reward giftcards for location sharing and for completing location-triggered in-store mobile surveys at select retailers. Analyses for this report include a total of n=542 in-store survey responses from shoppers buying items related to Valentine’s Day. Participating panelists completed surveys in 42 states.

“Hallmark buy 1 get 1 coupon.” – Shopper at Publix,

Sunday 2/10

“Hallmark had the cutest vases.” – Shopper at Walgreens,

Sunday 2/10

“Hershey - Hearts, chocolate, very valentine.” – Shopper at Kroger,

Wednesday 2/13

“Bigvalentineschocolatesignage from nestle.” – Shopper at Target,

Wednesday 2/13

What Shoppers Said About This year’s Displays

Customer Quotes