The Great One, Wayne Gretzky, probably the most talented hockey player that ever lived once stated:
"A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be".
If you think about that, he is essentially attributing his success to his ability to predict the immediate future of the hockey puck. Gretzky had an uncanny ability to assimilate massive amounts of information about his opponents and team members, and then make decisions based on that data. The end result...he scored more goals than any of his peers, and it is a record that may not ever be broken.
In today's changing landscape of consumer purchasing behavior, I think that retailers can learn a lot from Gretzky's advice (works in Chess too, if you are the cerebral type).
Let's face it, consumers not only have choices about who they buy from, but how they buy and where. That is creating a dramatic shift in how retail marketers need to message and drive store/website traffic, and it also creates challenges for merchandisers and store operations leaders as well.
Case in point, my son wanted a Steelers jersey in time for the Super Bowl, and even though there is a Dick's and a Sports Authority located about 5miles from my house, I decided to buy it on line. Why? Because I wasn't certain I would be able to find a Troy Polamalu jersey in his size, in black in Tampa Bay Buccaneer territory. I ordered it using my Motorola Droid, and my buying decision was based on using an online retailer that had my credit card info stored already.
Think about what just happened. Because of convenience and access, my buying behavior was influenced by a number of related small events, that combined with a deadline date (ship and recieve before the Super Bowl), made my decision really simple.
So what does that mean? If you assume that the consumer is the hockey puck, what is the best strategy for a retailer to score? Should the retailer be where the consumer is, or where the consumer will be?
My simple answer is both. A retailer needs to gather information about where their customers are going to shop and how. What is important is they also need to gather that information in context. For example, if you are looking for ideas about how consumers use facebook to shop, well why not ask them while they are in a facebook session? If someone is out and about and uses a smartphone heavily, well doesn't it make sense to gather idea via a mobile device such as an iPad or a Droid phone(OK, OK or a Blackberry)? Gathering information and ideas from customers in this manner will provide retailers with credible, predictable behaviors because the info was gathered in context. Guess what? Credible information leads to better decisions, and can guide retail business unit leaders to make their decisions about where their customers will be, and provide their customers with appropriate resources to make their buying decisions simpler....and faster....and larger.
In closing, Gretzky was a great scorer of goals, because he could anticipate where the puck was going to be and when he arrived at the puck, he had the skills to execute. He scored more, because he had more chances. Retailers need to give themselves more chances at shots on goals.
