Everyone wants to have meaning and purpose in their lives -- why shouldn't your marketing efforts? A new year presents the perfect opportunity to evaluate your brand's marketing campaigns to ensure they contain both meaning and purpose. Doing so will build and help maintain good brand health and meaningful relationships with consumers and shoppers.
First, let's identify the key stakeholders in creating a good marketing campaign. Regardless of product or service, there are three critical identities to address: the brand, the shopper and the retailer.
1. The brand needs to offer rational benefits and spark an emotional trigger in the shopper (think heart and soul). For example, Google's cloud service doesn't focus all of its communications to shoppers about its servers. They talk about securely saving your memories, knowing this can be the real motivation behind a shopper's behavior.
2. The shopper is looking for something that will bring betterment to their lives or their family's lives. For example, Clorox appeals to the solution-oriented shopper by focusing on keeping germs away to help your family live a healthier life, not by communicating details on what ingredients they use.
3. The retailer is looking to offer more to its customers than just a commodity. They are looking for loyalty steeped in emotional trust. For example, Toys "R" Us turned its traditional marketing approach upside down this past holiday season with their Snow Spectacular event in Times Square, focusing on an immersive play experience to create special moments for their visitors, not by showcasing the hot toys.
Your campaign needs to find the balance between emotive and rational benefits throughout the shopping journey.
Today's landscape of consuming media and buying products on-the-go has created a real need for campaigns to reach consumers and shoppers at the precise moment a target is looking at the shelf (even if it's a virtual shelf). This change has caused a catalyst for marketing dollars to shift from traditional advertising into other marketing efforts such as retailer, shopper and consumer marketing. In these cases, your marketing campaign must attract and engage to make the buy happen again and again.
Attract
This is the "promise" portion of a target's journey that needs to pull on emotional triggers. Think about the meaningful benefits your product or service can offer. Will it help with things like keeping a user's family healthier? Will it let them retire earlier or just make them feel better about themselves?
A relevant promise of a better life for their family or themselves should attract them enough to learn more and engage with the brand. Media plays an important role here. It's crucial that brands have the right media strategy and plan to engage people in their daily flow of life. For instance, Clorox promises a healthier life by keeping things clean. This message is represented in mobile ads, banner ads, store circulars and social posts.
Engage
Once we catch a person's attention, it's time to engage. In this phase, brands have the opportunity to let their target shopper know how they intend to deliver something that can better their life in some way. This is where marketing efforts need to be purposeful. Education to communicate product benefits and messaging to highlight differentiation are key methods for delivering on the brand promise and making the brand stand out. Brands must communicate why and how their brand can deliver on the promise. This can happen online, via mobile devices or in-store.
Using the Clorox example again, once shoppers see the benefit of a healthier life in a mobile ad, banner ad, store circular or social post, they are directed to a more in-depth and rational "why" — Clorox brands can keep them healthier by removing germs or bacteria from commonly used surfaces.
Making The Buy Happen Again And Again
It's decision time — that moment of truth when a shopper decides what to add to their virtual or physical cart. Whether it's online or in-store, the merchandising of a brand can make or lose a sale. The term "frictionless shopping" is not just a buzz phrase; it's an imperative approach in today's dynamic world of commerce.
Retailers and brands should work together to make shopping and buying simple. Make it easy for shoppers to find what they're looking for, which could result in saving them enough time for incremental shopping. Additionally, retailers that understand the brand's meaning and purpose have a better chance of success. Cross-merchandising complimentary items at the shelf or on the brand page reduces friction in a shopper's buying flow. When retailers provide shoppers with full solutions, it can let them know you are thinking of them in a meaningful way and gives purpose to the offer.
Brands must consider all aspects of messaging and create cohesive brand experiences across all touchpoints and channels. Is the imagery meaningful? Does the copy inspire or inform? Are they seeing the message in a meaningful or purposeful way? All of these things determine whether or not your campaign to make the buy happen will be successful.
The symbiotic relationship between brand, shopper and retailer is only healthy with balanced amounts of meaning and purpose throughout the buying journey. Everyone needs meaning and purpose in their lives, including brands, shoppers and retailers.
