All brands can learn a lot
about convenience choices
Well-heeled soccerati and soft-handed regional celebrities graze shoulders with all manor of grunged up laborers and tobacco perfumed street youth… Wawa is the great melting pot of suburbia!
When you go into a Wawa, the convenience superstore that started life as a Pennsylvania dairy farm and has now positioned outlets up and down the east coast, you’re never alone. Any time, dead of night or break of day, there are observable instances that can benefit your brand.
Usually most stores are bursting at the seams with an identifiable cross-section of the local populace and you can learn a lot by watching how they move through the store, what they’re attracted to, what they purchase and how they interact with service people and other consumers.
Wawa is the perfect 24 hour marketing research laboratory.
Consumer brands and business to business enterprises can glean an amazing amount of useful behavioral information during a Wawa visit. As a testing environment, Wawa stores are are set up as neutral as possible considering they’re a retail operation… The control group is the categorical positioning of product, excellent wayfinding signage and consistent staff behavior. The variable is how each kind of consumer behaves, what they purchase and why.
Try it out next time you visit your local Wawa… you’ll see creatures of habit and come to know them by their type and you’ll recognize impulse buyers and learn what triggers their motivations.
Your brand may not be selling coffee and cigarettes but you are– all businesses are– in the business of understanding your target audience and what motivates them to take consumer action.
