Rethinking Retail: A Marketer’s Guide to Decoding Consumer Preference Through Data Analytics

Retailing has changed rapidly in recent years with the pandemic accelerating the long-term growth of e-commerce. Drawing on a unique data set drawn from hundreds of thousands of interviews over almost two decades, this book takes a close look at changes in consumers’ shopping preferences, behaviors, and influences.

Across a range of topics, the authors argue that the rise of e-commerce has coincided with a decline in consumer preferences--what people buy and where they buy it. This presents challenges for both retailers and manufacturers.

The authors propose that the answer lies with consumers. A focus on consumers is fundamental to designing effective marketing strategies and campaigns. However, retailers and brands often have different perspectives about consumers. This book bridges that gap. The broad scope of topics and longitudinal data give retailers and brand marketers a roadmap for building and maintaining consumer preference in a rapidly changing and challenging environment.

Martin Block is a Professor Emeritus in Medill’s Integrated Marketing Communications program at Northwestern University, USA. Block teaches graduate level marketing mix models, marketing research and analytical techniques, sales promotion, advertising management, direct marketing and entertainment marketing courses.

Frank Mulhern is the Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor of Integrated Marketing Communications at the Medill School at Northwestern University, USA. He is the Director of the Retail Analytics Council, a research center on retail technology, data and analytics. He specializes in research on retail marketing, the role of technology and analytics in retailing and e-commerce, and the integration of digital media and marketing.

Larry DeGaris has conducted more than one hundred sponsorship measurement studies for many of the world’s leading sponsors, including Bank of America, Pepsi, Home Depot, UPS, and many others. As Executive Director of the Medill Spiegel Research Center at Northwestern University, the home of IMC, Larry champions an integrated approach to marketing measurement with a focus on developing and integrating direct measures of effectiveness for below-the-line marketing.

Don E. Schultz (1934-2020) was Professor of Integrated Marketing Communications at the Medill School at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, as well as President of Agora, Inc., a global marketing, communication and branding consulting firm. Schultz was recognized as a seminal authority on Integrated Marketing Communication around the world, along with pioneering work in marketing accountability, branding, internal marketing, and marketing metrics. He was the author or co-author of 31 books and over 150 trade, academic, and professional articles.