The Shopper Economy: The New Way to Achieve Marketplace Success by Turning Behavior into Currency

CHAPTER 2The Shopper Is the Medium

Historically, brands have paid huge sums of money to place advertising on television, in magazines, on the radio, and in stores. Today, advertising monies also go toward banner ads, viral video ads, pop-up ads, and various mobile messages, among others.

Increasingly, at least some of the marketing budget needs to be allocated to the shoppers themselves. This isn’t just for traditional promotional expenses like coupon redemption. This new expense in the marketer’s budget goes directly to the shoppers in exchange for their marketing labor. Shopper behavior, beyond simple purchase, is pivotal to the success of any twenty-first-century marketing campaign. And the reason is simple: the shopper is the new medium. ...