Shopper Marketing Strategies Need Distinctiveness for Social Media

Marcus Foley of Tommy argues that shopper marketing strategies often lose their distinctiveness when translated into social media, leading to homogenized brand expression. He contends that social algorithms favor proven patterns, causing brands to converge on similar formats, which undermines brand equity. Foley proposes adding a 'distinctiveness' layer between proposition and activation and introduces Tommy's 'Anti-Algorithm Formula' to help brands build recognizable, ownable social behaviors. Examples like the 'Gonna Need Milk' campaign and the wellness brand Undo's pre-hangover ritual illustrate creating content that is recognizably the brand's own. The article emphasizes that content performance metrics don't guarantee brand memory, and shopper marketers must ensure their social expression is as distinctive as their strategy. Foley suggests three questions: Is it recognizably ours? What got remembered? Who got value?