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MarketResponse reveals adaptive CX opportunities at ICXA Symposium

The capstone session at the recent ICX Association Symposium featured 'The Domain of Shopping' study, which identified six distinct shopping segments based on the motivational model MarketResponse Int'l developed as part of its brand research practice.

March 11, 2016

The capstone session at the recent ICX Association Symposium in Tempe, Arizona, featured "The Domain of Shopping" study presented by Mark Murray, managing director of Minneapolis-based MarketResponse International.

The study, fielded in collaboration with the ICX Association, identified six distinct shopping segments based on the motivational model MarketResponse developed as part of its brand research practice.

"Today, consumers shop with dramatically different levels of product knowledge and needs. It challenges even the best of interactive experience designers," Murray said. "This initial work in shopper understanding goes a long way to defining the needs of individuals based on their confidence or concerns when they're in their shopping mode."

Described as "Adaptive Experience Design," Murray's presentation was intended to provide an actionable platform for personalizing shopping experiences through interactive tools able to "adapt" to discrete shopping segments.

"Regardless of someone's novice or expert status within specific product categories, 'how they shop' is a distinct and different paradigm," he said. "Being able to identify and adapt to shopping preferences provides a competitive advantage realized each time an offer is presented or customers access your channels."

Murray has authored multichannel experiences for global brands in retail, telecom and banking. Earlier this year, he expanded his relationship with research firm MarketResponse, and now heads the firm's Research-To-Work practice.

The results of this study, fielded in early January of this year, were presented for the first time at the Symposium held in Tempe on Feb. 16.

"The opportunity for retailers is to quantify these shopping segments within their category and develop the adaptive experiences which satisfy the varied and specific needs of the shopper," Murray said.

Kathy Doyle, executive vice president and publisher of Networld Media Group (this site's parent company) and a driving force behind the growth of the Interactive Customer Experience Association, said, "The insights MarketResponse revealed through their shopper segmentation exceeded expectations. Mark demonstrated how retailers should adapt based on an individual's shopping confidence across the breath of digital and interactive tools available to them. It's a powerful basis for experience design.

"We're thrilled with the approach and the findings we were able to share at our Symposium," she said. "They feed directly into our goal to heighten the relevance of interactive experiences in all the industries we support at Networld Media Group."

In his ICXA presentation, Murray explained that while "personas" or "archetypes" had been useful experience design springboards, they fail to provide the level of insight, tracking and quantitative measurement required to become an actionable platform for a retail franchise.

According to Murray, "By applying methods rooted in social/psychological theory these segments guide experience design based on how the individual shops and most importantly, buys. It opens to the door to enhanced data integration, personalization and predictive modeling capabilities in ways traditional shopper marketing has yet to imagine."

The Interactive Customer Experience Association, based in Louisville, Kentucky, connects B2C brands to technology that elevates the customer experience. MarketResponse International is a full-service global research firm based in Minneapolis that works for brands in medical, financial, automotive, industrial, government and consumer products.