SHOP FLOOR; THE NEW PRIME TIME. Trend No. 1

1. THE FLOOD OF OPTIONS;

We are seeing new products and enhanced features within products introduced at a mind – boggling rate, and the lifestyle of individuals have become increasingly multidimensional and multifaceted. With so many added choices, customers have more purchasing decisions to make and these decisions are more complex than ever before.

Gone are the days when the consumer used to watch a TV ad, “become aware of the brand name” and then walk across to the store and ask for the brand by its brand name. That used to be a done deal!

Today, a consumer is faced with a plethora of brand options to choose from in any category – and not merely from amongst the brands, but also from within the brand. Take for example a rather “simple” decision of buying a tube of toothpaste - it is no longer enough to decide from amongst the brand names, but also from within countless features like, extra whiting, vs. tartar control, vs. mint or other flavors, vs. medicated, vs. specially formulated for kids or older folk, vs. blue or red colored pack, vs. extra volume, vs. what appears cool & new in the retail shelf to even vegetarian or a non-veg and lots more reasons.

A consumer is induced to switch his preference within the brand and overtime also amongst variants across the category. The consumer is less likely to be loyal, more open to experimentation and more likely to change his mind based on what he sees on the shelf.

This flood of options leads the consumer to take his brand decision not based on what he sees on the TVC or print, rather on what he sees on the retail shelf on that day!

Shop Floor; The New Prime Time.

Prime Time ; A boon for brand marketing folks worldwide… it was a time when consumers would sit-back, glued to their TV sets taking in one soap or the other, or a game, or news or a movie and along with it absorbing a healthy dose of creative commercial messages which wet their appetite for the brands.


Logic had it that more the amount of noise created, the more liberal the usage of sexy celebrities, the more dazzling the production quality of the TVC - the higher the resultant brand recall. It therefore, surmised (almost) that the consumer would walk-up to the store, seek out and purchase the brand which had the highest recall in his mind.


As a result this thought process; the brand marketing folks have chased that prime time spot to stay “relevant” in the consumers consideration set. This chase is now a habit – almost a compulsion and an obsession – consider the fact that most of the industry dialogues seem to be completely focussed around the world of that 30 sec TVC.


Getting the consumer to be “aware” of the brand is something which everyone has focussed on for a while, albeit the dependence of mass-media for the same has been the chosen route. Thus it has been the one-way, single message for all, top-down communication which has dominated the thinking process.


However, for a consumer to progress in his mind and actions through his “path to purchase”, he has to undertake a process of 1st changing from a consumer to a shopper into the category and then from a shopper to a buyer of the brand and while awareness creation in the mind of the consumer is a critical 1st step, it is perhaps only the starting point.


The much discussed “path-to-purchase” model (figure 1.1) does a great job of explaining the consumers’ progressive levels of engagement with the brand and defines the path to purchase that a consumer moves through. It also explains the typical media vehicles or other experiential tools which can be used to influence behaviour. The funnel also represents the attrition / reduction of number / volume of consumers’ at every stage of the “path to purchase”.





Interestingly, while this model does not necessarily attempt to comment on the way brands needs to prioritize their overall marketing spends, brands have, over the years mirrored their marketing spends as per the funnel, with the maximum spends going into creating awareness (at the top of the funnel) and minimal amounts in the last mile (at the bottom of the funnel) to ensure conversion and sales.


There was a time, many years ago, when this logic made sense in terms of ensuring a wider reach, effectively informing customers, creating desire, etc. In those days the business logic of marketing would be simple; create a product, create an exciting story around it (read ad), make people aware of the product/brand and ensure it is made available in the shops – consumer will queue up and buy. The more noise you make – the more people will buy!


Today that hypothesis does not hold true. There is a massive shift in the way a brand should allocate its funds across the path of purchase. A brand now has to not merely tweak its allocation of funds towards the path of purchase; it has to completely re-invent its allocation logic.


Time is ripe to reverse the allocation. A brand should and needs to spend the largest share of its budgets in the last mile (lower stages of the funnel) as against on creating “awareness and recall” of the brand.


Let me share some of the current and evolving consumer behavioural trends I have observed, from around the world, which make the need of this change real and urgent, please visit the blog and view the 10 specific trends as I see them;

SHOP FLOOR; THE NEW PRIME TIME. Trend No. 5

5. “ROBO” IS FOR REAL;

It is well understood that the consumer is spending a lot of time online, in a lot of cases much more time than what he spends in front of the TV set or reading print. And this share of time is increasing at a feverish pace.

When online the consumer does his research on the brand, this research can be a combination of self driven or could be triggered by peers on his social networks.

The more expensive the purchase, the more involved and extensive the research.

This is far more relevant because this is where the consumer spends time engaged in the category, seeking and deciding what alternatives he has options of. This is when is willing to form opinions and is willing to read and listen to referrals.

Most importantly, this is one dialogue process where the consumer is completely in control – he not only chooses the time and level of dialogue, if he does not like what he sees he can merely click it away and move else where.

The consumer is not closed to any brand in this stage – he is in fact in a “SELL TO ME” mindset, which has been well captured by Yahoo and exploited to the fullest by Google by their huge success of Adwords platform. This process is radically different from the one way communication which he gets subjected to in a TVC, print ad or a hoarding.

Putting up the brands’ TVC on Youtube.com is not the answer, ensuring that the brand participates in the “search” journey – by providing access to relevant data & information on brand comparison of features, USPs, costs, etc, and enabling communication with the user community and engaging with the user community - is the answer.

While brand owners have started spending an increased percentage of their budgets online (and is growing) – for a number of brands that spend still is backed by the “awareness creation” thought process, rather than focusing on the consumers search for information journey.

This integration of shopping with technology is real. 87% of US consumers research products online before buying them in person or in a store.

However across categories…the major buying still happens off line.

ROBO = Research Online Buy Offline.

This is not limited to B2B products or big ticket purchases like computers, phones or cars, but extends across all categories.

The consumer spends his research time comparing features, absorbing user experience reviews, understanding costs.

All this before he heads out in the last mile, to check out the physical experience and then buy.

To get into the consumers mindset, presence in the last mile needs to be preceded with relevant presence in the online search process.

BTL trends in Russia.

Please read the recent report in The Global Marketer here.

Vivek Sharma's comments in todays Eco Times - refreshing!

It was a pleasure to read Vivek Sharma's (CMO, Philips India) article in the Economic Times today. I am so glad that the marketers are like Vivek are seeing business reasons in focussing on BTL - which has been long neglected.

While BTL initiatives has been over shadowed by the more glamorous 30 sec focussed cousins in the ATL space, it is indeed a sign of the times when brand owners like Vivek say that “Brands should not place their eggs in one basket by merely increasing ad spends.” The times have moved from just creating awareness to inducing sales –
something that BTL does not shy away from.

Please read Vivek’s views here.

Do read the counter view by Anamika Mehta to get a media agency perspective.

Superb Campaign

Our recent work for Aseema Charitable Trust won a WPPED CREAM AWARD in the Direct Category.

You can see the work here; http://www.wpp.com/wppedcream/2009/direct/direct_005.html

Someone deserves to be sacked!!

Here is a classic example of colossal waste of marketing funds.

Came across this billboard today in the morning on the way to my office. The marketing of the niche exhibition on security ( to try and get exhibitors to participate) is being done on an OOH format – complete with a cost of participation. Wondering what percentage of drivers on this busy expressway are qualified to take up an exhibition stall - and who was doing the media & touch-point planning here?

Instead of using one on one marketing, or other niche approaches – which are the understood norm for exhibition marketing – here is an example of trying to reach out to general public to sell space at a security exhibition!

Terrible approach to targeting the relevant TG, and what a sinful waste of marketing funds.

The year the media died.

For anyone in the media, brand marketing, advertising business, this video is a must see! It highlights the new reality better than most long essays. Listen to the Madison Avenues Blues here.

Brands are all about engagement!

"Gone are the days of repetitive, one-way communications urging your target market to buy your product or service. This means your trusted print campaign may not be getting the best ROI. Today's brand strategies have to include methods to engage with your consumers by capturing their hearts, minds and conversations throughout the purchase and relationship cycle, while remaining brand-centric™ at every touch point."
Read the full note on the non-traditional ways of engaging with customers by Desiree Gullan.

Social Media Measurement, ROI and Monitoring

Had been on the look-out for some good content on the subject for a long time. I am still trying to understand the model where-in I can justify Twittering in terms of impact. Then I came across Robin's post wherein he has pulled together a collection of valuable resources, tools, & advice specifically on the topics of social media measurement, monitoring and ROI.

This along with the other digital marketing tools listed in my earlier post/s called My A to Z list of Digital Tools make a far more comprehensive toolkit. Access my A to Z list here.

I am sure you’ll find his compilation useful and some of the social media statistics resources will find their way into your toolkits. Access the list here.

Eye tracking study reveals website tactics.

Eye tracking studies tend to be very informative and reveal valuable information about how people read and interact with websites. Eyetrack III recently published their eye tracking results for news sites. Some of the findings were quite the on lines of what we have commonly believed, however there are some interesting findings too.

Have listed 12 of the findings I thought were most interesting.

1.Headlines draw eyes before pictures.

2. People scan the first couple words of a headline.

3. People scan the left side of a list of headlines.

4. Your headline must grab attention in less than 1 second.

5. Smaller type promotes closer reading.

6. Navigation at the top of the page works best.

7. Short paragraphs encourage reading.

8. Introductory paragraphs enjoy high readership.

9. Ad placement in the top and left positions works best.

10. People notice ads placed close to popular content.

11. People read text ads more than graphic ads.

12. Multimedia works better than text for unfamiliar or conceptual information.

Read the full report here.

New approach allows advertisers to map and assign value to various touch points, gaining a more complete picture of a campaign.

Microsoft engagement mapping is similar to the "last mile touch point mapping" which is being undertaken by my agency for the last 6 months or so. http://www.pulsesuite.com/ The difference being that while the MS's Engagement Mapping is a new approach to managing and measuring the effectiveness of online campaigns - our approach has been to map the touch points at the last mile which impact the actual path to purchase. Read more about Microsoft's Engagement Mapping here.

This type of engagement mapping tool will become really powerful when it can measure not only ad views that lead to a purchase, but also any other type of online or social interaction. This is probably the end game that Facebook is aiming at with Beacon. Imagine the value advertisers could derive from a tool that looks at how your online activity leads up to a purchase. I.e., did you see a friend talk about the product on a Facebook wall post? Did you read a blogged review? Did you see the product talked about in a YouTube video? Did you look at any ads when all that was happening?

Our approach on our last mile tools has been similar where-in we and understand reasons why a shopper changes his brand in the last mile - which are the touch - points that help in the brand choice. This information is a must have when planning a last mile / retail engagement. Know more about these last mile tools at www.pulsesuite.com

How Digital Marketing Can Help Reinvent Direct Marketing - From Adage

Found this to be really relevant and hence requesting all to read thru. "traditional direct is stuck in the limits of a one-to-one model created and perfected for a previous age" - how true!! Read the article here.