With UK shop price inflation rising at its fastest rate since last spring, and costs up 5% year-on-year, consumers are more price-sensitive than ever.
For FMCG brands the challenge lies in persuading shoppers to choose their product when budgets are tight and cheaper own-label options are tempting.
In a supermarket environment overflowing with choice, unconscious cues such as colour, packaging, scarcity and emotion, can influence decision making in seconds.
Brands that can understand and activate these subconscious motivators can nudge shoppers toward their products, even in a cost-of-living crisis, writes Amy Hawksley-Blackburn, Head of Sales at savi.
The rise of retail media and shopper marketing
The path to purchase is no longer linear and shoppers can be influenced by a Facebook ad, a friend’s recommendation, or a promotional email before making a decision at the shelf. Nowadays, customers engage with an average of nearly six touchpoints, making the understanding of purchasing decisions more complex than ever.
Traditional advertising alone no longer carries the same weight. The brain often resets when faced with shelves of competing products. Which is why retail media and shopper marketing – ads and activations at the point of purchase – have become two of the most powerful ways to build brand affinity.
It’s at the point of purchase when shoppers are most open to persuasion. With investment in retail media booming, forecast to reach £2 billion by 2027 (IAB UK), some brands are now allocating half of their marketing budgets towards this channel.
But throwing money at digital screens and aisle takeovers isn’t enough. To cut through, creativity must connect with how people actually buy through emotion, intuition, and psychological shortcuts known as heuristics.
Understanding the sales triggers behind shopper decisions
To better understand these unconscious motivators, marketing behaviour consultancy KHWS partnered with Durham University Business School to explore how purchasing decisions are made, and how they can be turned into nine practical sales triggers. Each represents a proven psychological lever that influences unconscious purchase behaviour.
These range from anchoring your brand to a single, powerful proof point that communicates value, to encouraging trading up (or down) as people naturally gravitate to the middle ground. Instant gratification highlights the instant appeal of your brand, as people value short-term over long-term benefits. Reinforcing your brand’s values, such as sustainability or heritage, helps build credibility.
The sales trigger model allows individual brands to identify their most effective sales triggers and use them to influence buying behaviour at shelf or on a screen.
Global spirits brand: Shopper marketing and category leadership – sustainability with substance. In an increasingly crowded rum market, this leading global spirits brand’s eco-friendly credentials weren’t visible to shoppers. KHWS identified that ethics and values were key motivators in the category. By reframing in-store messaging to highlight sustainability: ‘Great-tasting rum, now greener’, the brand connected with ethically minded shoppers and stood out on the shelf.
Premium herbs and spices brand: Category leadership – justifying the premium. Competing with supermarket own-label herbs and spices, this premium herbs and spices brand needed to justify its higher price. The brand spotlighted its global farming partnerships and flavour innovation. In-store QR codes offering coupons and recipe inspiration added interactivity, turning the aisle into an engaging brand experience that made ‘trading up’ feel worth it.
Leading breakfast cereal brand: New messaging – from ‘nation’s favourite’ to locally grown. KHWS identified that this leading breakfast cereal brand’s messaging wasn’t explaining its premium. It dropped its tired slogan and replaced it with a powerful, authentic truth: home-grown British wheat from farms within 50 miles of the factory. The brand tapped into growing consumer demand for sustainability and local sourcing.
Mobile coupons and the psychology of value
As demonstrated by the premium herb and spices brand example, coupons can smartly encourage trial. Increasingly we’re seeing mobile coupons emerge as one of the most powerful ways to connect value perception with measurable sales impact.
Our own research shows that coupons remain the most valued shopper incentive, outperforming both loyalty points and BOGOF deals. In a time of financial pressure, 57% of shoppers state that coupons have the most influence over their shopping behaviour, more so than loyalty points (53%). And 1 in 4 consumers say coupons are essential to their weekly shopping budget.
From a brand’s perspective, 76% of consumers are more likely to try a new product with a coupon offer, and 30% say coupons increase their brand awareness, helping them make purchasing decisions. Categories like healthy foods, snacks, and beverages, such as alcohol and soft drinks, are seeing an increase in redemption rates year-on-year.
Mobile delivery has transformed the coupon format with social media unsurprisingly the strongest distribution channel. This year, we have seen more brands embed mobile coupons within their own apps. QR codes have also proved popular, with 26% of shoppers stating they’re happy to receive an offer via a QR code, proof that digital convenience taps into that primal craving for instant gratification and value reassurance.
Coca-Cola #TakeATaste mobile campaign
Wanting to boost the appeal of Coca-Cola Zero Sugar with their Gen Z audience, Coca-Cola worked with technology, DOOH and media agencies to create a captivating and innovative DOOH campaign. Using cutting-edge AR technology, QR codes were placed on DOOH screens at bus-stops, in shopping malls, and even on a big screen in Piccadilly Circus, which when scanned allowed consumers to play an AR game where they needed to ‘grab’ a virtual bottle of Coca-Cola Zero Sugar on their mobile device.
In return, they were rewarded with a mobile coupon to claim a free 500ml bottle of Coca-Cola Zero Sugar across 3,000 UK Tesco and convenience stores.
Results surpassed benchmarks fivefold with 68% redemptions from activated coupons. It outperformed like-for-like redemption records by an astonishing 17 times and eclipsed the all-time redemption record by an impressive 2.5 times.
In testing, 57% of Gen Z consumers who saw the ads said they would choose Coca-Cola Zero Sugar over other carbonated drinks compared to 34% saying the same amongst a non-exposed audience, proving the effectiveness of the campaign.
Bridging rational value and emotional connection
In today’s cost-conscious climate, the brands that win won’t be those shouting the loudest about price, but those who subtly align with the way shoppers actually think, feel, and choose in-store.
As shoppers tighten their belts, the most successful FMCG brands will be those that reinforce the connection between shoppers and their brand, either by prompting trial, offering a reward or information validating their choice.
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