Retail Marketing Strategy – Sophistication in Tough Times

It’s official! The Retail Sector in the UK is being hit hard during the current recession. You can walk down any High St in any town or city and you’ll be presented with a common site…empty shops being forced to close down due to lack of sales. In fact, it is becoming so bad that schemes are being thought up to make use of these empty shop fronts to help remove the eyesores; things such as supporting local artists and displaying their work is one such commendable example.

However, smarter retailers have acted well in advance of being forced to close. Innovative and creative thinking from the strategists in the boardroom has seen the latest marketing approach hit the streets. The approach comes on two levels, both aimed at creating awareness and generating interest…i.e. get people in to the shops!

If you’re expecting to hear about a well researched and thought through integrated marketing approach; which takes advantage of the social web and the engagement potential this offers…then think again. This is so simple and much more subtle, you’ve most probably been exposed to it already without even realising it. It really is that clever. The two approaches, previously mentioned, are balloons and people dressed up in costumes! Absolute genius!

Next time you are in town, take a look and we guarantee you’ll spot them. Credit must be given to everyone from the think tanks at the most senior level all the way down to the employees in the store. The investment required for all these balloons and costume design must be significant; plus the fact they then have to be shipped out to every store, inflated, worn and put on show. A massive effort from everyone involved. Nice work! Who’d have thought in the days where a brand can so easily interact with the consumer in their own home, could something like balloons and costumes be so effective. A spokesperson for SCS, PC World and Carpet Right were unavailable for comment…because we didn’t ask them.

Unpredictable Consumer Behaviour

Subconscious Marketing (courtesy of Times Online)

A really interesting article about Martin Lindstrom’s research and conclusions. Different technology has been used (MRI as opposed to EEG) but it would appear the conclusions are very similar. In fact, he says that not even the consumer knows how they are going to act until they actually do so. Apparently this is all covered in his book “Buyology” which I currently wish to purchase…but will I change my mind?

95% of your decision making is subconscious!

I heard somewhere that psychologists estimate 95% of our decision making or more accurately our behaviour is carried out subconsciously. Flip that on its head and it means we only act consciously for 5% of the time. That is pretty scary stuff and from a marketing perspective probably means many marketing activities, especially those resulting from traditional market research, focus groups, surveys could be set for failure. 

An example of this would be the launch of a new website or online marketing campaign. Many brands, prior to going live, will test the effectiveness of their web marketing by involving people who represent their target audience, asking them for conscious feedback on what they like and don’t like. On the surface this seems very logical and should minimise the risk of the campaign or website failing. However, such testing and because it is all carried out at the conscious level, could mean the results and conclusions may not be as accurate as originally thought. There is in fact an argument to say that such testing could increase the risk of failure and lessen the return from any investment. Dominant parties involved with the testing could steer certain conclusions, and the tester (who after all will also be a human being) could also place a bias in certain areas based upon their own interpretation.

So if 95% (which is a big number) of behaviour is subconscious, how can brands test and create effective campaigns and online content that subconsciously appeals? There is a way. People’s subconscious can be measured accurately and the testing can provide extremely valuable results. However, such testing can’t explain why certain elements may be preferred over others, and the reality is…these reasons aren’t important.

My Choice of Shoes

Example – when you’re out shopping for a pair of shoes can you explain why you preferred the ones you bought over and above the many other pairs you looked at? I would suspect you genuinely can’t. You may consciously put it down to colour, style, designer brand, price, association or something else, but ultimately you bought them because you “liked” them and a whole host of things at the subconscious level were working to make you part with your money.

So Electroencephalography, or EEG is worth looking at. Organisations can utilise this technology and backed by a tried and tested methodology and extremely complicated algorithms it is possible to test how individuals react and behave to certain stimuli. This includes every sense and can therefore be used to measure the effectiveness of any brand or marketing approach, whether it is online, in store, on the phone or wherever. It can also be used to correlate the various brand touch points to provide an overall brand engagement score. Imagine how powerful that could be to benchmark the major brands in each market sector?

Granted…it’s a bit of a leap of faith to scrap the surveys, the usability testing, focus groups etc.  But why invest time and money on scoring 5%, when you can invest similar amounts to achieve 95%?

Trust Dynamics of the Web

Let’s assume you were on the Tube and became involved in a conversation with someone. Granted that such occurrences are rare, especially amongst commuters, however, for the purpose of this topic you have began a dialogue with a complete stranger. Would you trust any of the advice given to you during that conversation? Enough to go and book a holiday or buy a piece of technology? It Seems ridiculous doesn’t it. My initial instinct is “no way” but actually the reality is we do…or at least consider the options.

Transfer this conversation to an online forum, and now let’s assume you’re not even involved but just eavesdropping. In fact, you now have the ability to listen in on thousands of virtual conversations all of which can appear in the natural search rankings based around the search terms you enter. If you’re looking to buy something or make some form of online commitment you are much more likely to make a decision based upon the content and sentiment included within these conversations from unknown sources, as opposed to the brands who provide the product or service.

The web has evolved to truly provide power in numbers and the Wisdom of Crowds is something brands and experts can’t ignore. In fact, major organisations should be looking at how to enhance the relationships with their existing customers and do their utmost to create as many advocates as possible. For me this is the most sensible strategy, and most probably offers the highest potential return compared to any other form of marketing. That’s of course if the advocate is genuine… and not an impersonator. Even though there is legislation to try and prevent this, how can it be policed?

The Genius of Apple

Have you upgraded to the latest iTunes yet? If not, then I’d certainly recommend it. They have added “Genius”, which allows you to pick a single song and iTunes then builds a 25 song playlist around it selecting tracks from the other music in your library. (I’m still trying to fathom out the algorithm they have created to achieve this.) 

An example: I selected “Peacock Suit” by Paul Weller and in seconds I have a playlist including tracks from The Small Faces, The Kinks, Blur, The Jam, Graham Coxon and even The Smiths. I have quite an eclectic collection and so far the Genius application has worked really well; it’s taken the hassle out of manually creating a playlist and has suited my mood at the time.

Of course, there is another reason for this, and when you’re online the Genius application taps into the iTunes store and makes some recommendations for tracks you don’t currently have in your library. And yes, I felt the need to purchase some of these recommendations. Apple wins; the artist wins and I do as well.

For me, Genius is a well thought through recommendations engine (I’d say more sophisticated than the Amazon one as it’s much more personal), creating awareness within their customer base for new tracks; and creating advocates as well… which I guess I must be as I’ve now blogged about it. I wonder what businesses could learn from this approach if they applied some of the same thinking to their own customer base?

I’m now going to select “Surfacing” by Slipknot and see what pops up!!

I am Orange

SMEG – Brand Image before Product Quality?

I recently bought a 50’s style Smeg Fridge. Why? I needed a fridge…and I wanted something which looks good. It now has pride of place in the kitchen and… it does look good.

I then went through the process of transferring the contents from the old fridge to the new one, which was fairly simple….and then came the fridge magnets and all the scruffy notes and photos that accompanies them. I have to say I’m not a big fan of them as they can become untidy, get in the way of door opening and always end up on the floor. So how impressed was I when I found out their magnetism would not work on the new Smeg fridge!

This must have been a conscious decision by Smeg, and one which is completely in tune with the primary reason people buy that style of fridge…it’s more about aesthetics than functionality. No fridge magnets keeps the Brand image intact; a nice shiny Smeg fridge advertising itself in my kitchen and many other kitchens across the globe. 

However, functionality requires a re-think. It’s cooling cycle isn’t great and it drips a lot inside, but that is a different story.