Igniting Customer Connections: Fire Up Your Company's Growth By Multiplying Customer Experience & Engagement

Chapter 8ROE² in the Grocery AislesHow Do Emotion and Experience Influence Grocery Consumers?

Extensive research in the grocery category, conducted exclusively for Igniting Customer Connections, shows the role of emotions, one of the key elements of experience, in consumer purchase behavior—and uncovers insights that stretch far beyond the category. As we established in our initial discussion of Return on Experience × Engagement (ROE²), the customers' emotional experience—how they feel—is a key factor in driving business outcomes, such as brand commitment and share of wallet (the two measures of ROE² in this research). And here we see that hypothesis proven by the data.

Many people think that customers make buying decisions based solely on a rational approach, analyzing details like price and convenience. In fact, emotions play a larger role in shaping purchase behavior and, more specifically, strengthening the emotional connection to a brand. This trend, as we discovered, is particularly evident in the grocery category.

Grocery competition used to be about convenience and selection. Now it's about branding. Some stores (Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and many more) have transformed what was once considered a boring chore into a memorable destination experience. The result is that many consumers are now committed to a specific grocery brand because they expect to be entertained ...