A recent MediaPost research brief revealed some interesting findings about the potential for in-bar marketing. The Arbitron Bar Media Report claims that younger individuals (age 21-34) who frequent bars tend to belong to a difficult demographic to reach via traditional marketing channels because of their increased use of newer consumer media technologies like TiVo and streaming online content.
Obviously, this demographic is not every company's target customer, but has potential nonetheless. The difficulty many businesses would have with this, technique, however, is tracking campaign performance and the resulting conversions. But, behavioral targeting technology allows for relevant marketing execution and effective measurement.
For companies using this tactic, it would be important to look at the multi-channel metrics for marketing campaigns across different regions where they've implemented this approach via digital signage, experiential marketing, video, etc. A comprehensive marketing database allows marketers to easily create a segment for analysis in terms of sales performance among current customers who fit the target demographic in each region.
With the mass proliferation of cell phone usage and the increasing ubiquity of cell phone cameras, the possibilities for customer acquisition through the leverage of innovative marketing solutions and these mobile technologies are growing.
For example, the realms of design, technology, and Marketing 2.0 overlap with the Semapedia project and more recently p8t.ch. These 2D barcodes can be read by taking a photo with a mobile phone(provided a code reader is installed), automatically launching the phone's web browser to any specified URL. The wearable p8t.ch product connects online social media with mobile technology and real-world interaction - true multi channel marketing!
With the ability for a user to redirect their unique p8t.ch URL as many times as desired, the image has the potential to act much like a standard text shortcode, and web tracking analytics should be able to be applied.
Until phones come readily equipped with the code-reader technology, however, the implementation of this technology is very limited. Even so, its potential is great for on-demand relevant marketing in print, outdoor/experiential events, and tradeshows.
For more information, visit:
P8TCH
Semapedia.org
The best-selling books The Influentials and The Tipping Point have contributed to the development of the "Theory of Influentials" which dictates that there are select individuals that posses certain characteristics, skills, or personalities, making them innovative trendsetters who have tremendous influence over others; Win over the "influentials" and you win over the world. When you read the text, the theory makes sense, and advertisers spend millions of dollars a year trying to reach these highly-connected individuals, but the theory is not without its detractors.
Recent research by both Harris Interactive and network-theory scientist, Duncan Watts, suggest that word-of-mouth marketing and trends don't originate from special individuals. But this could be because the average individual is much more connected than they were even just 5 years ago. With the advent of Web 2.0, and the proliferation of user generated content, practically anyone with a computer can gain expertise in any field and network with like-minded peers.
The case may be that the Theory of Influentials isn't invalid, but that the social dynamics have changed.
The views of Harris Interactive and Watts do share a common thread: the degree to which trends/messages spread is determined more by the circumstances in which they are shared, not by who shares them. Communication has to be shared in an emotionally engaging manner, in the right context, to others who are already primed to be receptive to the message. This means that anyone can function as an "influential" when interacting with their like-minded peers online or elsewhere.
Successful personalized, multi-channel marketing campaigns leverage this concept; personalization contributes to the relevance and personal significance of the communication and the multi-channel elements play off of each other, priming the customer to receive a direct mail piece with an email, or vice versa, for example. The principle also contributes to why social networks are so valuable. People visit particular social networks already in a primed mindset, looking to learn or share information about a particular subject with their peers.
One argument made by Harris interactive is that people aren’t likely to be universal influentials, but that they each have expertise in certain subjects, so that a person's level of influence isn't absolute. Social networks mitigate this variation, however, by creating a forum where the focus generally revolves around a particular topic or theme. With so many data-rich interactions happening online, this is where innovative marketing technology solutions play a major role and will continue to do so in the future.
The future of marketing technology needs to be able to capture and integrate Web 2.0’s wealth of social network data. Watts attests that there aren't particular individuals who function as absolute influentials, but that often trends originate from "accidental influentials" that happen to be at the right place at the right time. Nevertheless, it still makes sense for marketers with access to social networks to take notice of who their most active brand advocates are. Chances are that they have a broader reach so even if they themselves aren’t the catalyst for a particular trend, their message may reach that right person at the right time.
More on this topic later for companies that want to leverage social network theory, but don’t have a social network platform:
- who to target
- why to target these particular individuals
- best and worst industries in which to leverage social network marketing
Almost every multi-channel business has seen a reduction in the number of orders flowing through the call center and, conversely, an increase in the amount coming in via the web. The focus of e-mail campaigns and other Internet marketing is quickly shifting in emphasis towards retention. For many firms, convincing an existing customer to buy again may only require a single e-mail.
But not all customers respond to e-mail campaigns. What should you do with those for whom you do not have an e-mail address?
Try this test: Segment your customers by the existence or non-existence of an active e-mail address, and measure the response differentials.Those who do not provide it are probably not buying from your website – especially since most sites require an e-mail contact address to place an order.
Here are a few major reasons why customers do not provide an e-mail address.
- Some people are not web savvy. While this group of customers is becoming a smaller portion of your housefile, not everyone is computer literate – not yet, anyway. Certain merchandise categories cater to certain demographics. Be aware of your customers and their online comfort level.
- Fear of identity theft. In reality, this can occur anywhere, but many individuals still feel more vulnerable making online purchases.
- Some visitors may be B2B or SOHO shoppers who have never purchased on your site. Many B2B customers place larger orders, purchase orders, or custom orders that cannot operationally be placed online and consequently, require more personal attention.
- Customers opt out of receiving e-mail promotions. It goes without saying–these folks cannot be marketed to online.
Review your house file. Check to see the percentage of records without e-mail addresses. Be sure to include customers who have provided addresses but have opted out of receiving e-mail promotions.
We have run recent tests have found catalog response rates of older non-e-mail customers to be as much as 20% higher than customers with similar RFM attributes who have given you an e-mail address.
Consequently a company, Juice Media is addressing the ever growing demand for these types of integrated multi-channel marketing technology solutions. Part of the JuiceMetrIQs solution is its ability to connect and report across multiple points of sale and access all those records and information from a single application. It's all about having the ability to really know your customers and develop behavior based marketing.
Read the article except below to learn about the motivation behind Petco's big move, what it took to make it, and how they plan to use their new marketing technology for improved customer acquisition and retention.
The following is an excerpt from an the Internet Retailer article, "Do You Know Me?" , by Don Davis.
Data Silos
Many retailers would like to follow Petco’s lead, but find their efforts stymied because customer data is held separately by store, e-commerce and catalog/call center systems. Nonetheless, a growing number of multi-channel retailers are creating cross-channel data repositories, and using them to provide more relevant offers and improved customer service.
Driving these efforts are the growing numbers of multi-channel consumers who want to receive offers that matter to them. 64% of consumers said they went online to do research before making a purchase within the past three months, including 77% of those with incomes of $75,000 or more, according to a study by e-commerce vendor Sterling Commerce.
And the best thing a merchant can do to ensure repeat patronage is “provide special offers based on my prior purchases,” said 59% of respondents last year, in a survey by interactive marketing firm DoubleClick Performics and research and consulting firm The E-Tailing Group.
But technical and internal political issues prevent many retailers from sharing data across channels. While a survey last fall found 75% of retailers collect customer-specific data in stores and 45% online, the most common way that data is stored is separately by channel, an answer given by half of merchants responding, according to Retail Systems Research.
“They’re collecting a tremendous amount of information about customers, but haven’t figured out how to share that across channels yet,” says Brian Kilcourse, managing partner at the research firm.
Why? Lack of both time and senior-level support, suggests a study released in January by the Direct Marketing Association, a trade group. In that survey, the top two challenges to cross-channel integration were “time required to evaluate promising practices” and “difficulty in measuring return on investment,” each chosen by 84% of respondents. Close behind, at 83%, was “organizational culture does not support integration.”
Some have overcome the obstacles, such as Petco, which expected to complete this spring merging store and web data into a single customer data mart. Lazarchic says there are three main tasks: collect the customer data, gather it all in one database and then figure out how to use it.
For many multi-channel retailers, he says, identifying store shoppers is difficult because many transactions are anonymous. Petco has the advantage of a long-standing loyalty program called PALS that has signed up millions of customers with offers of discounts and rewards. When a PALS member makes a purchase, that information goes into the file for that customer.
For Petco, the toughest piece was creating the customer data mart, which took an internal team six months to complete, Lazarchic says. Each customer’s profile will include, besides online and offline transactions, information drawn from analytics provider Coremetrics Inc. about what the customer searched for and viewed at Petco.com. “Before we only knew what you purchased,” Lazarchic says. “With the Coremetrics data we’ll know your interest and intent.”
The customer profile has 150 or more data points. Petco not only tracks what type of pet a customer owns, but whether he buys premium or organic food, and which purchases he makes in store versus online.
It’s all aimed at making offers relevant. “If a customer buys 40-pound bags of dog food in the store because he doesn’t want to pay shipping charges, I want to keep marketing messages for store stuff store-specific,” Lazarchic says. “But if he’s buying three and a half pound bags of cat food online, I’ll send him online cat offers. I want to keep it specific by channel and pet type.”
According to the following article, Petco is planning to take an ambitious step toward personalized behavior based marketing. Petco's Director of e-Commerce has announced that they are going to engage in more comprehensive multi-channel marketing campaigns to improve their customer acquisition and retention rates.
The following is the first of several excerpts from an the Internet Retailer article, "Do You Know Me?", by Don Davis.
--With relevance as the goal, more multi-channel retailers seek a clearer picture of cross-channel customers--
As a shopper at Petco.com clicks on pages showing cat food, the pet supplies retailer can make an educated guess about which cross-sell offers to feature. But there would be less guesswork if Petco knew that the same customer had visited a Petco store in Syracuse, N.Y., last week and purchased a self-cleaning CatGenie Cat Box for $300.
For that customer, an accessory like the CatGenie Washable Granules might be just the thing. And, knowing that the same customer has bought dog food at that Syracuse store for years, the site could also feature the spring closeout offer on fleece dog vests.
That’s the level of personalization Petco Animal Supplies Inc. hopes to offer on its site this year. It’s the product of an initiative that combines in a single customer database not only what a customer has purchased in stores and online, but also information about what products she viewed on the web site and which e-mails she responded to.
Petco already has used the data store to test personalized e-mail campaigns, and the results make the retailer confident that the project will pay off, says John Lazarchic, director of e-commerce. “E-mail campaigns that are personalized have the highest response and conversion rates, with some campaigns up to 100% more effective than generic e-mails,” Lazarchic says. “Even if web site personalization is half as successful, it will be well worth the work and expense.”
