Shopping Science

Ng Yoke Thye, 48, Housewife

A full time housewife, weekend is the only time Madam Ng Yoke Thye gets to shop. ‘It’s quite boring to stay at home seven days a week. I feel joyful each time I go grocery shopping'. When Madam Ng shops, she prefers to shop slowly, and she does not like anyone to rush her.

She looks for trusted brand.
Being a businessman's wife, Madam Ng gets good sum of grocery fee from her husband. As such, she is more into trusted brands, but not house brands. 'I only look for Lady's Choice Mayonnaise because the brand had been there for years. The quality must be good'

She’s looking for creative ways to maximize the value of your money.
Madam Ng's daughter gave birth to a baby recently. 'Now that diapers are getting expensive, we try to be as creative as possible to save more money'. According to Madam Ng, Mami Poko diapers is their choice because it comes with removable napkins. Each time the napkins get dirty, Madam Ng will just replace it with a new napkin so that it's more cost-efficient without having to buy new diapers.

Healthier food for her family
She cares for her family diet and wants them to eat more vegetables. However, she does buy snacks for her kids once in a while.
Thoughts starter: What if we can come up with healthier snacks for her family?

Helping her fulfill her fulfill her role as a Mom
'Price is less of an issue for me if the product can benefit my family'. She does pays attention to in-door advertisements, but some advertisements are just shouting the brand. 'I would like to know how the product can benefit my family'
Thoughts starter: Can we have promoters or in-store videos to promote our show housewives how our products can benefit their family?

Giving her more life inspirations  
When Madam Ng shops in the afternoon, in the mind she is already thinking what to cook for dinner. 'When I dont know what to cook, I'll look around the food section for inspirations'.
Thoughts starter: We can help housewives ease housewives chores by giving them inspirations or tips. For example, if our product is food, we might as well provide them a few recipes so that it shoppers sees the value of buying our product.
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Norbayah, 34, admin clerk

Norbayah lives with her husband and three kids (1 toddler, 2 kids) in a double-storey house at Puchong. Monthly, she and her husband needs to pay installments for their cars and their house that they just bought a few years ago.

Pre-shopping – Compare ads to find the best bargain
Eversince she gave birth to her first child, she developed the habit of bargain hunting. Almost every Friday, she buys a copy of The Star to compare prices of groceries products that appear on hypermarket ads. Usually, she shops at Tesco where product prices are generally cheaper than other hypermarkets.

Preparing shopping list
In order to restrict herself from making impulse purchases and exceeding her budget, Norbayah prepares a shopping list. Beside the product items, she lists down her targeted prices. If she finds any product overpriced, she will postpone the purchase or look for cheaper brands within the same category.

Value = Quality goods worth paying for
‘I’d rather buy fresher vegetables from Tesco. Vegetables at Giant might be cheap, but they are not as fresh’. Also, she is willing to pay more for Dynamo because she knows it cleans better than other detergents.

Shopping environment
Other than reasonable prices, she also wants a comfortable shopping environment.
Norbayah prefers shopping on Sunday mornings because it’s less crowded. She could get a parking bay easily, and strolling along the aisle would definitely be a breeze.

The desire to increase family bonding
When we ask Norbayah how can we enhance her shopping experience, she hopes there will be more parent-children activities to increase family bonding. ‘I’m not spending enough time with my kids because I work during the weekdays ’

Post-shopping – Sharing shopping tips with colleagues
Norbayah likes to share shopping tips with her colleagues so that she can help them save money and make value purchases too. They exchange with each other information such as which hypermarket has the cheapest products, and warn one another about brands that try to con consumers by producing inferior quality products.

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Nur Atika, 27, part-time English instructor

Nur Atika lives with her husband at a flat in Puchong, where as their toddler and baby are staying with their grandparents. Shopping is Nur Atika’s favorite past time. She likes to shop when she is not teaching, whether it’s grocery shopping at Jusco or window shopping at Mid Valley Megamall.

Before shopping
Nur Atika does not prepare a shopping list because she knows what to buy. Twice a month, she goes grocery shopping at Jusco as it offers a better shopping environment.

Good shopping ambience is important
When deciding where to shop, price is not her only consideration. She also looks for the good service and the nice ambient. One reason she likes Jusco is because Jusco’s product layouts and lightings make her feel comfortable. In contrast, Giant gives her a very cluttered and messy feeling – From the festive seasons banners hung across the ceiling, to messy price tags, to the chicken slaughtering area that stinks.

Products that matter to family are her priority
She would first shop for necessary items like milk, rice. Then, unnecessary items like snacks and soft drinks. Along the way, she would browse around to see if there is anything her family might want to get. ‘When I see something, I will remember that I don’t have it at home’. She remembers her husband needs Livita energy drink when she sees it along the carbonated drinks aisle.

Price, promotion and budget
There is a set of brands which she always buys, but she’ll compromise either by buying smaller packs or switching to cheaper brands when her budget is tight during end-of-month. She is aware of product promotions, and stocks up when products she need are cheaper than usual. ‘A bottle of 4.7kg Dynamo was at a discounted price of RM19.99 last week, so I bought three bottles’.

House brands
She’s OK with house brands when it comes to tissue paper and batteries. Because they are able to fulfill her basic needs. But when it comes to chilled food like frozen nuggets, she only buys recognized brands like Ayamas or Ramli. ‘I know nuggets of other brands are cheaper, but I don’t trust their quality’.

Brands sensitivity towards cultural differences
Nur Atika makes it a habit to check product label of food products. She felt disrespected when she once saw a non-Halal (food that are not suitable to be consumed by Muslims) sauce product being placed on the common gondolas. ‘They should show some respect for the Muslims by clearly separating Halal and non-Halal products’.

Shopping should be more fun and entertaining
Nur Atika also feels that current hypermarkets should be more entertaining. Currently, she feels there is no reason for her to linger in the hypermarket once she has finished her purchases. Hypermarkets is only a place she goes to when she needs to buy something. Her suggestions include KTV centres, cinemas, and bowling centres.

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Introduction

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Capturing shoppers’ minds and hearts is not difficult as long as we understand the science behind shopping. Through thorough understanding of shoppers’ psyche and shopping habits, Saatchi & Saatchi believes each understanding about shoppers can be translated into effective sales-increasing solutions. The more we understand shoppers, the better we know how to connect with shoppers, the stronger affinity built between shoppers and our brands (ask us about Lovemarks :-D )

In this blog, we'll showcase shopping stories of our consumers. We follow them go shopping to understand what/ who influences their decision making process. Along the way, we'll help you identify opportunities and solutions that will make shoppers choose your brand over your competitors.