Retail relies on personalized advertising

German retail companies are planning significant changes to their advertising activities at the point of sale (POS) by 2020, according to a press release issued on Tuesday. Sociographic changes in the shopper base, a resulting need to change their own business strategy and increasing competitive pressure will lead to a reorientation of advertising and marketing measures in the retail sector. As a result of these changes, the length of campaigns will decrease and advertising will become much more personalized. At the same time, German marketing experts expect a noticeable increase in campaign budgets.

The lion's share of this is accounted for by printed advertising, the importance of which is increasing during this change process. These results were determined in a comparative study conducted by the market research company Coleman Parks on behalf of Epson among 500 marketing and advertising managers from the retail sector in five European countries. The study, entitled "Vision 2020", makes it clear that more than 90 percent of German retailers expect to change or expand their current target group by 2020 in order to generate continuous growth.

As part of the study, Epson surveyed POS marketing experts in Germany, Italy, France, Spain and the UK on the use of digital and printed marketing materials. 75 percent of the German advertisers surveyed believe that a reorientation of their business towards a different socio-economic target group will be necessary for the success of their companies by 2020. This puts them well above the average of their colleagues from Europe (57%). However, such a change is not possible without addressing individual target groups at the POS. 77% of respondents from Germany will therefore rely on significantly more personalized advertising campaigns in the future (Europe: 62%).

Fast and close to the customer

According to the experts, individual campaigns will be much shorter in 2020 than in the past. While just over half (54%) of German retailers currently plan their advertising measures for a period of one week or longer, 57% of those surveyed expect campaigns to change several times a week in 2020. While around 4 percent of all measures currently run for a few hours, retailers expect this to be the case for 18 percent of campaigns in 2020. The vast majority (63%) of companies surveyed in Germany also stated that they intend to significantly increase their marketing budget over the next few years in order to adapt to changing requirements.

Large format printing faces new challenges

High-frequency, personalized campaigns also place new demands on the production of advertising materials. 71% of German respondents expect the volume of POS print advertising to increase by 2020, while a further 68% expect electronic forms of advertising to grow. The vast majority of advertisers rely on large-format materials: 88% of all respondents are convinced that these forms of advertising are best suited to draw customers' attention to certain products.