I sometimes get the feeling that, once everyone has figured out exactly how to translate their unique shopper insights into relevant, localized, customer-centric marketing programs, retailers are going to act just like they did 75 years ago.

You'll have consumers who frequent particular stores because they feel understood and appreciated there, because they know that the products they need and the services they want will be available within those walls, because they feel like that retailer cares about them as individuals.

Treating customers as individuals with particular wants and needs wasn't called "shopper marketing" 75 years ago. I don't think retailers even had a term for it -- unless it was something general, like "good business sense." But it was practiced on a daily basis at every successful store.

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