Why aren’t retail media predictions talking about the customer?
Jodie Koning, general manager of marketing and insights for Woolworths’ retail media arm Cartology, wonders why nobody is talking about the driving force behind the entire industry – the customer.
Fragmentation. Measurement. Standardisation. Privacy. Personalisation. Effectiveness. AI. Digital. Omnichannel. ROI.
Did I miss any 2025 buzzwords? The themes surrounding retail media in 2025 are clear, but while I look at the headlines in Retail Media trends, I can’t help but notice that they ignore the driving force behind the surge of Retail Media – the customer.
For Retail media to evolve and be effective for brands, it has to work for the customer and the changing behaviours of those customers should have everyone curious. In today’s media landscape, it is simply not enough to know how to reach an audience at a predetermined frequency. We are an industry stuck on reach, frequency, brand versus performance and disconnected trade and brand plans. What’s missing in these discussions is a deeper understanding of customers, their changing needs and the opportunity for brands to impact and influence that customer both short and long term. Let’s take a look at the five customer behaviour themes to be on the pulse of this year.
Thank you, Jodie. That is a valuable article. I love the phrase ‘bricks and clicks’ and the all-time message to care for customers.
The buzzwords missing in the article were gouging, duopoly, misdirection and coercion.
The ongoing saga of pricing in the Australian supermarket world makes it clear that for both Coles and Woolies it’s not at all about the customer. Ok, maybe it is in the sense that it’s all about getting as much money out of customers and into their margins. To say otherwise is hard to believe.
For all the distraction in the article, Retail Media seems to be primarily about doing to suppliers what they do to customers: extract as much money as possible. What would make for interesting reading would be a report of the share of investment of in-store inventory split by suppliers and non-suppliers.
Anyone think it will deviate much from 100:0?
Retail media isn’t about ‘buy media, get shelf space’. Doesn’t work like that. But funnily enough, if you market your product effectively and it sells, then that product probably will end up being stocked in all sorts of places, won’t it. Nothing strange about that.