Marketing nirvana
The rules for building true customer relationships have become more subtle and a lot more clever.
This article originally published in Retail Customer Experience magazine, Sep. 2008. Click here to download a free PDF version.
Kelly Hamor is as busy as the next woman when it comes to everyday life.
But when iGoogle offered an opportunity to download top clothing designers' themes to add to the local weather, quotes of the day and top headlines she has customized at its site, Hamor took the time to choose a Diane von Furstenberg theme.
Now when she logs into Google, Hamor is greeted with the designer's newest patterns and how cute they would look in a new dress or blouse. It's a cheery thought for both Hamor and von Furstenberg.
"Top-of-mind" is more than a cliché in retail; achieving it is a daily struggle for store owners. Maintaining customer relationships with a brand goes well beyond excellent in-store service and experiences — retailers want customers also to remember that relationship when they're not trolling the aisles.
Television advertising alone doesn't work to reach out-of-store customers, says Craig Hubbell, executive vice president of media services, sales and marketing for Redmond, Wash.-based PlayNetwork, which provides promotional and branding media for retail. Approximately 20 percent of the U.S. population, for example, skip through broadcast commercials courtesy of technologies such as TiVo.
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No matter how it's done, the secret to marketing nirvana boils down to creating a culture that people want to shout they are associated with. |
> Interactive experiences, such as the Nike Sportband (it captures workout data and allows users to download and manage it with provided software).
> Voluntary opportunities, such as signing up for an e-mail list of special offers or obtaining a credit card for the brand (such as Banana Republic Luxe) that builds an online contact list.
> Participating in enthusiast venues, such as Web forum AudiWorld.
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But no matter how it's done, the secret to marketing nirvana boils down to creating a culture that people want to shout they are associated with, says Michael St. Jacques, chief strategic officer and a founder of St. Jacques Marketing in Morristown, N.J.
Here's a look at some successful strategies that big-league retailers are using to stay top-of-mind with customers, both inside and outside of the store.
Widget of ahhs
Bruce Carlisle may be the chief executive of interactive marketing services agency Digital Axle in San Francisco, but in everyday life, he's just another fan of UPS. It's easy to sing its praises after it gave him a widget, a small Web application that provides a direct link to Carlisle's latest shipping developments on the carrier's Web site.
For $10,000 to $20,000 in start-up costs, every retailer in the country has the potential to enjoy the same fame. Yet thousands will fail despite offering widgets, because the object isn't to have one — it's to offer Ms. Shopper useful, compelling information she can access without a lot of brain sweat.
Mike Wittenstein, who bills himself as chief experience officer of customer experience design consultancy Storyminers.com, chalks up widgets' effectiveness to the fact that traditional marketing whiffs on 90 percent of its attempts. Think of all the television commercials you don't watch, the magazine ads you don't read, the newspapers you don't collect off the porch, the grand openings you don't attend.
"How often do you get something just for you based on what you need at this moment?" Wittenstein asked.
Widgets are the first generation of this on-demand interactivity. Google is hard at work on the second generation, a product it calls a Rich Media Ad (or until recently, a "gadget" ad), and which currently is deep in the pilot stage with household names in the retail world. John McAteer, Google's head of retail, wouldn't name names, but said, down to creating a culture that people want to shout they are associated with.
"We're talking the big spenders who budget $400 to $500 million a year for Sunday circulars."
Google's product looks suspiciously like DoubleClick's Motif (now called Double-Click Rich Media); Google acquired DoubleClick in March 2008. Basically, the product is a display ad that allows for programming, video, tabs, user tracking and statistics, and whatever else advertisers dream up. Retailers can feed creative messages, promotions, coupons and more to these ads. even better, they are contextual — say a consumer is reading an article on CNET about new laptops. Best Buy can push a Rich Media Ad announcing its top notebook computers are on sale starting Monday.
"It's precision with scale and targetability," McAteer said. early results have been good, with significant traffic at local ZIP codes and some Rich Media Ads performing better than the text ads on which Google built its supremacy.
— Craig Hubbell, executive vice president of media services, sales and marketing, PlayNetwork
Take-along tunes
Under Armour, the Baltimore, Md., company that sells its own performance apparel and footwear, knows how to show a shopper a good time. Folks enter its Annapolis flagship store via a tunnel, where the music volume crescendos to simulate the adrenaline and excitement of entering a packed sports stadium. As customers browse, custom music programming continues to set the mood — tunes developed with no dead air between tracks keep their blood pumping with an intense, club DJ vibe.
And thanks to music director PlayNetwork's integrated media savvy, these same shoppers can pop over to under Armour's Web site and relive the musical moments via Web radio. When shoppers leave the site, the beat can continue to accompany them throughout their day. Podcasting lets shoppers push the sound of under Armour to personal mp3 players. "It's a fun way to get people engaged and really reinforce the brand with a lifestyle," said PlayNetwork's Hubbell. Retailers can insert messages into the streaming audio, as well.
Now, we're not talking Kmart Blue Light Special announcements — you don't want the listener to hit the Quit button. Instead, think of a DJ-style personality touting how the song reminds him of the new spring line delivered yesterday. Remember, you're building a relationship.
Percentage of U.S. population who skip through broadcast commercials via technologies such as TiVo.
"We are transcending all media at this point in time," said Hubbell. "We're allowing the consumer to engage the brand-sponsored material wherever and however they want. That six inches between your ears is the most important real estate in the world."
Julie Sturgeon is a freelance writer and regular contributor to Retail Customer Experience magazine.
