Mindset Moments– a new way to pinpoint purchasing decisions

Time to look at ‘why’ rather than ‘who’
So, is there a better method? We wondered what would happen if, instead of just focusing on the demographics or even psychographics of who is shopping, we concentrate on what’s in consumers’ minds when they are looking for something at a specific point in time. Might consumer mindsets be the key to a more successful communication strategy? After all, it’s these mindsets that cause people to shop a particular way at a specific moment. For example, a successful executive who likes to decide which little luxuries she is going to treat herself to after a tough working day might suddenly go into ‘housewife mode’ on Saturdays when wheeling her trolley around the supermarket with her children, or decide to buy a month’s supply of toilet tissue via the internet because it’s a special offer. It all depends on an individual’s mindset at a particular moment. In other words, context and timing are key. This raises the intriguing question of how to capture different mindsets at crucial decision-making moments.

What’s in a Mindset?
A mindset represents how consumers approach their purchasing decisions. Each consumer may have several different primary mindsets that influence how and when they buy different categories of groceries, and most consumers don’t have only one motivation for purchasing the range of items they choose. For instance, when buying fish and meat, a person might consider quality as the most decisive factor, while being perfectly happy with the budget version of items such as crackers. In fact, the decision-making process is more dependent upon the mindset than upon the person making the decision. Grouping people according to their mindsets can, therefore, be highly illuminating when you want to shine a light on the wide variation in the frequency of shop visits, the different number of SKUs purchased per visit and the decisions that are made in different phases of the shopper journey.

Five Key Mindsets
To discover more, we dived deep into our shopping data from all over the world and came up with five key mindsets that influence how people shop. These cover all sorts of customer behaviours ranging from repetitive or bulk buys to last-minute convenience purchases, fresh food shopping trips, and pilgrimages in search of quality. For instance, one mindset is mostly responsible for triggering shoppers to plan and buy groceries for the whole week. In this mindset, most decisions are made at home and not in the store, so a retailer can leverage this insight by triggering consumers in their home environment. In another mindset, quality is the most important driver, resulting in separate trips to specific stores, which is where most product decisions are made. Knowing this, the retailer can then influence these consumers by offering the type of service they are most receptive to while they are in the store. Another mindset is closely connected to on-the-go purchases. There’s also a mindset in which the fundamental motivation is the flexibility to eat whatever and whenever you want to – especially if you see some temptingly fresh produce, meat or fish. And let’s not forget the mindset in which the highest satisfaction comes from obtaining the best deal.

Master the Mindset Moments
Considering that different mindsets may influence each individual customer at different times, we then examined the moments in which each mindset is more receptive to your marketing message. We’ve called these our Mindset Moments. Retailers can use our insights to influence or respond to these key Mindset Moments, enabling them to make communications more personal and relevant. By mastering the Mindset Moments, you can also reach out to whole segments of your customer base that may otherwise be overlooked because they don’t fit into the traditional definitions of customer types.

So how does this work in practice? Well, for a start it means not just continuing to send your consumers a whole load of undifferentiated offers on a Sunday, just because that happens to fit in with your marketing or store schedule. Instead, we are currently testing our algorithm that recognises the mindset of a consumer based on their purchases. With this algorithm, we can help you pinpoint the best moments and methods to target each mindset and enhance your understanding of the motivations behind each purchase. For example, a consumer with a high number of products, a broad range of categories and relatively low average spend per product, is likely to be in the mindset of ‘repetitive planning’. Whereas a consumer buying only a few products, mostly in one or two categories of which often prepared and with a relatively high average spend per product, is more likely to be an ‘on the go’ mindset. With the aid of our Mindset Moments strategy, you’ll be able to put a sharper focus on your marketing communications. And frankly, it’s really about time. 

by Anna Witteman and Lenneke van der Meijden, Consumer & Business Intelligence at BrandLoyalty.