The In-Store Marketing Expo (Sept. 6-8 at the Navy Pier, Chicago) will feature as its keynote,  “Blueprint for a New Era: The Retail Commission on Shopper Marketing”, Wednesday, October 7, 2009, 9:30 – 10:30 AM. Registration for the In-Store Marketing Expo :
http://www.instorexpo.com

The keynote breaks from a traditional keynote model, in that it will present the three members of the Retail Commission, who will update the commission’s findings. The three are: Brian F. Harris, Ph.D., Founder & Co-Chairman of The Partnering Group, Inc.; Janet Sparkman, Corporate VP, Customer Strategy & Management at SuperValu; and Diane Wallace, Vice President, Shopper Marketing at Coca-Cola.

The emerging discipline of shopper marketing has the potential to increase sales, improve profits and build stronger brand loyalty by transforming the way consumer product manufacturers and retailers communicate with their customers. But it will only realize that potential if manufacturers and retailers adopt a shopper-centric approach to marketing and develop collaborative business processes to make it happen.

Much of the early momentum behind shopper marketing has been driven by product manufacturers, many of whom have re-formed their companies as shopper-centric organizations. But these efforts won’t be consistently fruitful unless the retail community also finds merit in shopper marketing. The industry encountered a similar watershed moment in the late 1980s, when the concept of “category management” promised to dramatically improve the manufacturer-retailer relationship — if both parties became equally invested in the practice.

Recognizing the need to gain a deeper commitment from retailers, the In-Store Marketing Institute joined forces with Dr. Brian Harris and The Partnering Group to create The Retail Commission on Shopper Marketing in Spring 2009. Harris is credited with facilitating the adoption of category management as an effective business practice by enumerating the benefits it held for both retailers and manufacturers. The Coca-Cola Co., seeking to contribute to their retail partners’ continued success and further the cause of shopper marketing, is generously sponsoring the Commission’s activities.

The Commission’s goal is to establish best practices and guidelines that will let retailers better envision — and achieve — the full benefits of collaborative shopper marketing. The efforts will result in a comprehensive white paper and corresponding presentation at the In-Store Marketing Summit in April 2010.

Attendees of the In-Store Marketing Expo can join Dr. Harris and Commission representatives Janet Sparkman and Diane Wallace, at the In-Store Marketing Expo as they share the progress made thus far in defining shopper marketing’s potential from the retailer point-of-view and outlining the steps necessary to establish a truly collaborative business model for the industry at large.