Surely there is nothing is more straightforward than buying toothpaste.
But for a growing band of marketing experts in the UAE, hard science is applied to seemingly mundane shopping trips, where purchase decisions are made in seconds.
Businesses spent an estimated US$442 billion (Dh1.62 trillion) on advertising last year, according to a global report by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
But such brand-building efforts often fall flat at the last minute, given that an estimated 70 per cent of consumer decisions happen in-store, and the majority of purchases are made on impulse.
This is where "shopper marketing" agencies step in. Distinct from traditional advertising, customers are tempted to buy brands highlighted in advertising campaigns, posters and stickers inside malls, shops and supermarkets. Similar techniques are used online to help boost sales of a particular brand.
For agencies such Saatchi & Saatchi X, shopper marketing is an exacting science: the company employs a "vice president of shopper psychology", who examines the emotional decisions behind consumer purchases.
Saatchi X is one of several agencies to have launched in the UAE in recent years, all focused on the "first moment of truth" - the few seconds when a consumer initially notices an item in-store or online, and decides whether or not to buy it.
Nassim Nasr, the general manager of the shopper marketing agency Integer MENA, says brands "literally have seconds" to make an impression in retail outlets. "People will always be loyal to brands. But they'll only be loyal until another brand comes along offering something better. It's like marriage," he says.
"Maybe when I left the house I decided to buy that specific product. However, that doesn't mean that I'll buy that product no matter what. When it comes to the point of sale, that's when it gets dirty."
In-store promotions are in abundance at the Geant hypermarket at Ibn Battuta Mall in Dubai, where a visual barrage of shopper marketing material greets customers.
One striking example is a promotion for Sensodyne Repair & Protect toothpaste. The campaign features a dozen stands with LCD screens and slogans giving more information about the product, which promises to "actually repair sensitive teeth".
Richard Nicoll, the managing director of Saatchi X in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena), says the Sensodyne campaign is intended to stop consumers just before they reach the toothpaste aisle, in the hope they will remember the brand when they get there.
"It's good because it's quite disruptive … and the use of technology is interesting," says Mr Nicoll, whose company did not work on the campaign in question.
Such a promotion could make a consumer consider a product they might not have done otherwise.
"There can be 50 different brands of toothpaste, but you as a shopper are instantaneously deselecting pretty much all of them apart from your immediate consideration set. And that happens within seconds," says Mr Nicoll.
"Shoppers don't select, they de-select. You can't go through the merits of 50 different brands of toothpaste, unless you have nothing else to do in your life."
Other shopper marketing material at Geant includes a display of cleaning products by Scotch-Brite, and branded racks of Gillette deodorant. Many of the displays are intended to make a particular product stand out - both physically and in the terms of a brand's claimed "unique selling point".
Eddie Maalouf, the chief executive in the Mena region for JWT Experience, a shopper marketing agency, says part of the aim of shopper marketing is to distract consumers from their normal routine.
"Short of throwing cold water over people and upsetting them, [shopper marketing] is about stopping someone who's on autopilot mode, and showing them something that's relevant and exciting," he says.
Shopper marketing also focuses on the growing use of barcodes on packaging, which consumers can scan with their smartphones for more information about a product.
Such practices are part of a growing industry in the Middle East. A new entrant to the market is TracyLocke, a shopper marketing agency based in the US, whose clients include PepsiCo, Pizza Hut and Nokia.
The company's first operation outside the US will be in Dubai, where it hopes to launch operations by the end of this year.
Babu Subramaniam, the managing director of the advertising agency DDB Dubai, who is also heading up TracyLocke in the Middle East prior to its launch, says there is a greater demand for shopper marketing in the wake of the recession.
"Post-boom, every client has to work the market that much stronger," says Mr Subramaniam.
And so, while the global advertising spend is forecast to grow to $578bn in 2015, companies are becoming increasingly aware that such brand-building could amount to nothing when it comes to the "first moment of truth".
As Ron Askew, the chairman of TracyLocke, puts it: "It is at the shelf where the decisions are made in the end."
