In a busy multichannel environment, brands are fighting to gain the attention of consumers. The always-on consumer no longer follows a linear path to purchase, moving from device to device and from channel to channel, across digital and brick-and-mortar outlets. This means the customer journey doesn’t begin at the point they reach Selfridges for example – a popular department store in the UK – or arrive on a website; instead they often unconsciously interact with a brand on a long and winding path and start this interaction much earlier than marketers are used to.
Their behaviour is eroding the traditional marketing funnel; now marketers must think of the consumer’s relationship with a brand as a dynamic and fragmented path to purchase.
For marketers this means we need to engage with consumers across a multitude channels in ways that are convenient and natural to the consumer. This includes offering online incentives that accompany an in-store purchase, or allowing in-store consumers to browse an online catalogue to encourage them to discover and purchase more products. It means having a conversation with consumers on social media, creating interesting video formats and geo-location targeting. It means understanding that the internet has opened up the department store experience, across channels.
The department store was a revolutionary step in shopping. Instead of visiting five shops, it allowed consumers to buy pretty much everything they were looking for in one place. It fast became an experience and a destination. Shopping became enjoyable for the consumer, and profitable for the seller.
Walk into any department store today and you’re likely to have stepped into a world that has been intensely thought through from the direction you’re going to walk in, to where products are placed, to even the lighting, colours and smells.
Those of us working in digital may be surprised to learn that department stores perform A/B testing. The placement of goods, the distance signage is from the entrance, the layout of floors, is all measured. Savvy retailers know that getting their in-store layout right drives measurable lift in response rate, time in store, purchase, average order value and loyalty.
You may ask ‘how is this like marketing?’ The online shopping and media experience is more like Selfridges or Macy’s than the media world of traditional print, TV and radio. Brand touch-points and conversion points are compressed. It’s more like walking through a store 24 hours a day, than passively watching television or reading a paper on the Tube. We’re now always browsing in some advertiser’s store wherever we are and whatever we are doing.
And it’s not just the shopping experience that is similar. Fast feedback of measurement – the measurability of the consumer journey, affinities, loyalty and propensity to convert is closer to Selfridges than the way in which traditional media buying metrics are collected. A salesperson who suggests a tie to go with your new suit is like a personalised ad generated in real-time.
Whilst the ‘Selfridges effect’ applies directly to the retail sector, it can also manifest itself for other verticals. In Automotive, Financial Services and Travel, where there may be a long consideration cycle, there are numerous opportunities to talk to consumers as they research their purchase. By leveraging 1st-party data, marketers can continue to have a relevant dialogue with consumers post-purchase. Even in Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), which has been slower to adapt to online advertising, opportunities exist. These include the chance to develop co-op marketing, provide localised offers and adapt the creative and message to individual consumers.
So why aren’t we all taking up these opportunities?
The problem is that we are constrained by the old mentality of employing disparate systems and shouting at consumers. It’s like entering a department store in a throng of people and having the doorman shout at you with a loudspeaker that the handbags are on sale, despite half the people being men.
When consumers become users who are always ‘on’, you need a marketing operating system. Media and data execution need to be unified across channels and this can only be done with intelligent technology. Furthermore, the masses of data and insights created by all this activity make it impossible to manage scale by traditional means.
This is where ad technology features centrally – hand in hand with this scale of opportunity and the fragmentation that scale represents.
By leveraging brand marketing opportunities programmatically, marketers can drive measurable results and deliver improved ROI beyond the funnel. Automating the test and learn phase means creative can be tested and targeted to the right demographic. Using a platform that offers full transparency and control of targeting, segmentation, and testing, marketers can feel secure that this new way of managing their campaigns is improving ROI.
We know it’s working. Global online ad revenue in 2014 is forecast to reach $130 billion dollars, $130 million of which is via programmatic channels.
The multichannel environment offers, in a way that has never before been possible, a synergy between online and offline interactions so that brands can deliver a truly seamless experience regardless of channel, device, or environment. Just like Selfridges.
Learn more about MediaMath Retail here.
