Shopper Marketing Summit – Navigating the Path to Purchase
Posted on Mon, Apr 18, 2011
Today’s marketers face a huge challenge in building brand equity to attract more customers – if you’re not 2 steps ahead of your customer on the path to purchase; you’re not in the race. Companies are investing in “insights” to better understand their customer’s shopping behavior, so they can build consistent marketing programs to meet them at every turn, bringing them full circle to cart.
At this week’s Shopper Marketing Summit in Chicago, the buzz was about creating a 3600 marketing campaign to increase “earned and shared” media to drive sales. Sounds easy right? Not so fast Einstein. Earned media involves syncing up all your online properties into a consistent marketing campaign, including search, display, social, mobile, video and viral campaigns. The more difficult task is tying these efforts back to the store level - your retail partners (or shared media). If your retail partners are not in sync, your brand integrity may be at risk.
Here’s the catch - planning an aggressive marketing program is hard enough, but today’s tech-savvy consumer has often made up their mind before stepping in-store. Google coined this ZMOT, or the “zero moment of truth.” Smart marketers are capitalizing on ZMOT with somewhat risky measures – including entertaining the consumer, here’s an example of what Kraft did recently to spoof their own brand: http://youtu.be/oL9ZbDFcvzM
The reality - today’s shopper is consuming more media through social and mobile applications, in fact mobile is steadily catching up to PC use. Google estimates mobile search will surpass the PC by the end of 2011. Brands that are distributing fresh content via emerging digital media channels are cashing in. The takeaway - throw out conventional thinking and test the new digital trends to see what works for your brand. Make it visible, fun, fresh and entertaining – it can pay off huge dividends!
Some of the factoids shared this week?
- The consumer is in charge – 83% rely on ratings and reviews
- 70% of global consumers watch online video
- Mobile subscribers will double by 2020, exceeding 10 billion
- Low consideration products are getting more clicks – CPG
- 41 million consumers have already used QR codes
Lastly, what did we learn about the agency’s role and the lonely media planner? Marketers agreed that agencies need to embrace emerging technologies and become experts in shopper marketing. Agencies like MARS, Ryan Partnership and Catapult are ahead of the curve in offering their clients the creative tools to drive incremental purchasing. By bravely testing new technologies, they can consult with their clients as to which tools are good investments for optimal results. Brands want more than impressions on a spreadsheet, they want innovative ways to reach consumers across the path to purchase. Winning at retail is not optional.
The bottom line: Your customers are looking everywhere for information – online and in-store. It is imperative to have a full understanding of how your best prospect makes each buying decision, and being there for them at every step along the path to purchase with a consistent, informative, brand-oriented message.
This post was contributed by Mike Flanagan, Shopper Marketing enthusiast and Regional Sales Manager at Searchandise Commerce.