Subliminal Moment of Truth – Redefining engagement with captive minds through Mobile technology

An Empty mind is marketer’s paradise, is so true, ultimately every modern marketing strategy today while being written is on the shifts seen in consumer behavior cycle starting from  impulses through desire to demand, and what is phenomenal, is that, such basis have always brought in solutions which become the part of a business paradigm. Let’s see, how some of them have revolutionized marketing strategies; Moment of Truths by P&G, which talked on showcasing the product (first moment of truth) went on the bring in the visual merchandising & packaging as one of the prime component of retail strategy; followed by experiences on consumption (Second Moment of Truth) to become feedback for product improvement & innovation, testimonials for the artifacts to encourage prospects in the process of being lead. Then came the era of searches, as the searches started growing in prominence, the resonance was reflected  in Google’s Zero Moment of Truth, theory on searches, solutions are quite evident in terms of presence in terms websites, audio-visual aids on various platforms, ad words, usage of keywords with what the prospects search, to reflect in the top search ranking.

In all the paradigm mentioned above, we see reflection of the buying behavior, what comes more appealing is that engaging customer at the right time, right place & with right messaging, no doubt the phrase of ‘rights’ looks so simple but it isn’t. We have been seeing through the Great social Media revolution, which is now been used by every business to engage their prospects, but it’s still not clear on time & place. The right time, in many cases are engaging an empty mind or idle mind of an individual, and direct them to what you want. As a marketing professional, when we question on our efforts being enough on engaging our prospects, down some where answer is,’ no’.

Thanks, to the all-round development in technology in past 5 years, what is seen, the opportunity in engaging people are growing through the horizon. Smarter, lighter & customer centric application have enabled the growth in dependence on personal devices, to an extent that today you have avenues to reach your prospect, through them. You just need to be smarter and have customer centric attitude in you.

Empty mind or in other words captive minds are huge potential today, if I would have to talk on the same couple of years back, people would have stared at my thoughts, but today, it isn’t the scenario. Have you actually seen how an ideal individual spends his day, lets look at the balanced media diet, courtesy Steven Leckart in Wired Magazine issue 17.08  shows an illustration of time spent by individual on various sources of entertainment like starting from Television, social media, micro blogging, gaming and so on.

What comes across is that, smart devices are becoming more and more prominence in an individual’s life and in some cases they accompany the individual with the source of entertainment, the relation of smart devices with sources of entertainment is of symbiotic nature. Hence, it is very important for any brand today to be present to capitalize on the empty mind or idle mind, and have mobility options in their strategy. The challenge here is if you could engage that state of mind creating an impact on the subconscious mind, you have An Empty mind, which is marketer’s paradise.

With this, I am tabling across, today, a paradigm of engaging, captive minds or idle minds or an empty mind, which is the Subliminal moment of truth, in other words, it is engagement of that state of mind, where an individual has nothing scheduled and looking for sources, any activity involved in engaging that state would result in greater engagement with the brand, leading to other Moment of truth mention above. Subliminal Moment of Truth, brings in relevance of integrated messaging through various modes & Mobility Components (Smart Devices), in some form or other in terms of applications, mobile advertisements, campaigns which goes in your marketing strategy to engage prospects. Hence, it is very important for any brand, to have their mobile strategy in place, to engage such idle minds. To give you an example, Click on the link An Empty Mind is Marketer’s Paradise – Leveraging Airports To Enhance the Customer Base, is an perspective to engage people using an interactive mobile app, which would lead to Moment of Truth, and more over creates a deeper impression in the mind, which goes to become talked topic. Check the video which stress on the growing dependence on mobile devices.

Thanks to company like Google, Apple, Samsung, Microsoft who have been continuously innovating and emerging thought leaders in the mobility, their every release sets a new paradigm for marketers to engage with their prospects. Subliminal Moment of truth, gains more momentum when you check the statistics of the usage of mobile in one of interesting info-graphics shared by Sarah Kessler in an article in Mashable.com on Mobile Marketing,  indicates the internet usage on mobile would overtake desktop by 2014, Mobile tags provide more product information like comparison shopping offers than traditional barcodes, 86% of mobile internet users are using their devices which watching TV (Opportunity for marketers to engage), 29% of mobile users are open to scanning a mobile tag (interesting applications could increase brand engagement), 91% of mobile internet access to socialize (integrated approach with digital media could have a far reaching effects). Interestingly to note  how people use their mobile phones; 61% for gaming, 55% for weather, 50% for maps/ search, 49% for social networking, 42% for music, 36% for news, 33% for entertainment, 25% for dining and 21% for videos. Aren’t these statistic enough to show how the paradigm of Subliminal Moment of Truth i.e engaging empty or idle mind through mobile application is possible. In fact, if you don’t have the mobile strategy for your product you have missed on something.

You Could reach me on adarsh.pete@gmail.com or connect with me on  linkedin

6 Point Strategy To Pin Your Customer To Your eCommerce Model In Emerging Economies

ECommerce, as such, is not a new concept, but it is considered as a new model when it enters the emerging economies, where infrastructure and technology is trying to keep pace with the people’s perception. Moreover, they would have seen the organized retail flaring new heights, people adapting to new culture, where they are exposed to brands on shelves, feeling it, investigating it & top it, freedom of choice. Given the behavioral adaptions & the technology advances, eCommerce is seeing a new wave with Social Media & mobile technology vis-à-vis web 1.0.

Not biased on the brand though, but it’s amazing to see flipkart’s approach to the dig in the 10,000 cr market segment in the book industry, commanding  to sell a book every minute and gaining the foothold in eCommerce industry. The founder, while being interviewed in Young Turks, based his entry strategy to gain the consumer confidence, as books don’t cost much (helping the shopper to gain confidence) and secondly books don’t break or get damaged while in transit. Interesting to note here is, in spite of them being start-up couple of years back, they have gained a commendable market share and huge traction even in their newly introduces categories of with respect to white & brown goods. Yet another point to note is that they have good volumes churning from tier 2 cities and more so their advertising campaign have been very appealing as they are more on to the typical pain area, with respect to  why people hesitate to opt for eCommerce.

Wooing shoppers is the toughest task with any player today in the internet space, Thanks to the digital advancements in terms of technology, operating systems, mobile technology & enterprise applications, eCommerce has seen a sea change. Players like DataLink , who are the prominent players in the space, help budding & existing eCommerce Companies, in developing, supporting, maintaining flawless architecture which are constantly been innovated & updated with the  new ways like the social & mobile commerce which could help your platform to be on top of the mind of the shoppers. Such agencies play a crucial role in bridging the gap & help focusing the player on to the business.

As the social wave & mobile technology (in terms of smart devices) picks up heat and the numbers trending towards eCommerce being a prime channel strategy for any brands to reach their consumers.  6 point strategy to pin your customer to eCommerce model would be an approach towards finding ways & means to attract & have them with your model.

1. Play on Perception – Flipkart is a good example which has played a pioneering role in addressing and educating people, around their value proposition. The ad campaigns which were more on towards replacement guarantee, EMI options, pay on delivery and so on, caught bang on with Shoppers. The beauty of the entire campaign was, no where they touched on type of deals & offers. Such a thought process always creates the right kind of buzz and sets a platform in the emerging economies, which has a large addressable and consumption base.

2. Partner Brands as a channel in their sales Strategy – This point strategy builds the notional value among the user, when the consumer finds their choice of product tagged to the platform, it plays the much required promotions. A real life example, I was checking for the Samsung Tab in their website and curiously went on to see the online retailer in India, was Flipkart. This example is again not to talk on the Flipkart, but to articulate the value of being one of the prime channels in the sales strategy. Please note such a presence not only builds the loyalty but also helps to extend the brand loyalty of the product to the platform. In case of India, where eCommerce is seeing huge traction, such a move plays a lot on notional values.

3. Explore Mobile Apps for mobile devices – Mobile devices are proving to be one of the most intrinsic part of the consumer life, impacting their behavior, lifestyle and even more the decision-making process is not the same any more. We have already seen in one of the theories of Google and one of my previous blog on Zero Moment Of Truth . With the advent to tablets, every company is mooted towards developing applications which are lighter, quicker and smarter; it would be a big crime in this smart world, if the applications are not optimized to the mobile devices. Application plays a huge role in engagement too and also building the brand presence, and more so, smarter application reinstate the brand  prominence in the mind of the prospects in influencing the decision-making, through various engagements. An example to mobile app, evaluating  products, brand tracking through feeds and so on.

4. Adopt Social Commerce – Adopting social commerce principles could help the platform to boast their footfalls, also create the experience closer to reality and in the company friends, developing reviews, sharing, asking friends for recommendation and the list goes on. If not the social commerce platform at least the features, this ads to the engagement which is the core to pin your prospects. As in the case of the retail format, every outlet tries to engage his or her own customer to increase the footfall and enhance their shopping experience. Digital media could boast with the type of technology coming in, for example the augmented reality app connected to the social media can play wonders in promotion.

   Courtesy Rackspace, building43

5. Building a community of Happy Faces “The Brand Face”  & program around –  It is very important today that eCommerce needs to create a connect with its customer, and what better way it could be having your happy customer on to your ‘Wall of Fame’. The time has come now to build a community around the happy faces, not to have the freebies, but to facilitate value ads to its frequent & loyal customers to its credit. This point strategy purely works on the consumer buying behavior and their spending pattern on the social media circle, for example in the case of category dealing with books, how fascinating it would be for a customer to have a personally autographed books or meet his favorite authors or thinking a loud a chat or live video from the author in form of streams.

6. Practice Zero Moment of Truth – When we look at the buying behavior of a shopper after having a desire to buy a product, he has different ways today to gather more information, either he gets on to his mobile device like Laptop, iPad, smart phone or get on to stand alone PC, hit the search button, the best in today’s world what people say is ‘Google’. Your favorite search engine is able to throw loads of information from the product details, availability, location, feedback to reviews; they are so intrinsic that no brand can actually neglect any of these details, if they want to win their shoppers’ heart. So in the case e-commerce, not only the site would have to be optimized to the search engine but it would have to be calibrated for various devices from the smart phones to other smart devices, making it friendly for the shopper to view the information. The last thing you would want is the opportunity loss for unfriendliness in viewing the product.

More or less, when you evaluate the different players, these point strategies are prevalent, what is missing today is being customer centric and building engagement around them. It is not hard to have a sale today, but what would make a difference is building a community around the happy customer & tools to engage, it is just not enough to have a fan page to communicate people on the deal, but what would work is allowing the brand to speak, listen & engage with their customer.

You could reach me on adarsh.pete@gmail.com or connect me LinkedIn

Decoding Google’s Zero Moment Of Truth (ZMOT) to eCommerce Sustainability & Continuous Engagement

Let’s slice E-commerce, an online store or retail which enables shoppers to be where they are and by using the power spell WWW.ABCD.COM , they could have products and services of their choice underneath their eyeballs, ready for the consumption, although not immediate but gradual.  On the flip side, the biggest challenge which e-commerce faces today is the perception, in terms of acceptance on feeling the product to virtually seeing and ordering.

Though, the internet penetration have been fairly a primary deterrent for the success of e-commerce across the geographies where they have not gained prominence, but with advent of 3G services, e-commerce is slowly seeing it’s acceptance, but where it still sees it’s roadblock is on the perceptions. Perception is all in the minds, generally through one’s experience or word of mouth. These are those strong impulses, which could drive a shopper for immediate consumption which is a gradual one or not. To top it, shoppers love to feel the product, look at it, have a face to converse & bargain and shoulder on in case of bad experience or clarification. Last but not the least to pick freshest one in the rack, which in case of e-commerce is just the virtual and the thought keeps lingering, ‘hope I have got the freshest piece’.  Perception generally relies on the positioning strategy or the business model of the e-commerce led marketer.

What goes beyond perception is sustainability, how to have the shoppers think about us in their buying decision process is a challenge and being where consumers are interacting & engaged is innovativeness. Usually, when marketers are working on these thoughts, the first approach is to be in there on the informative sites, social media, branded merchandise and prime sponsorships to grab as many eyeball as possible, as the low hanging fruits in their checklist, this gives them the much-needed spikes but could this be sustained for a long run in front of the giants, who have been in the industry for ages & have built-in fats which could sustain by shedding in terms of big bang activity. The answer would be “no”.

The answer lies in theory of Moment of Truths, what once Proctor & Gamble defined First Moment of truth, as one of the science of shopping, which concentrated on the display of products in the store, then came Second Moment of Truth which was on the consumption of the product. These two truths are more or less very well followed by the marketers across the brands in positioning and displaying. What is now coming in might with the adaptation of new mobile devices, which are changing the consumer line of thought, buying behavior and a trend which is far emerging in terms of product knowledge among the shopper even before he decides on the products.

The shoppers today are far well versed with knowledge on what they want to buy, where they want to buy, what is the best deal available while they are in the process of buying a product. Google defines this as Zero Moment of Truth, ZMOT. In the words of Jim Lecinski, Managing director, U.S. Sales & Service,  Google, It’s a new decision-making moment that takes place a hundred million times a day on mobile phones, laptops and wired devices of all kinds. It’s a moment where marketing happens, where information happens, and where consumers make choices that affect the success and failure of nearly every brand in the world. At Google, we call this the Zero Moment Of Truth, or simply ZMOT

The Zero Moment Of Truth, is a paradigm which focuses on the buying decision process, this is when shopper is deciding on the product, in parallel, checking where & how to buy (which is what format to go with), and if you are not here you have lost an opportunity. Lets’ try to dig into the science and understand what ZMOT has in store while buying decision process is happening, both online and offline, for e-commerce, which could work towards getting shoppers.

When we look at the buying behavior of a shopper after having a desire to buy a product, he has different ways today to gather more information, either he gets on to his mobile device like Laptop, iPad, smart phone or get on to stand alone PC, hit the search button, the best in today’s world what people say is ‘Google’. Your favorite search engine is able to throw loads of information from the product details, availability, location, feedback to reviews; they are so intrinsic that no brand can actually neglect any of these details, if they want to win their shoppers’ heart. So in the case e-commerce, not only the site would have to be optimized to the search engine but it would have to be calibrated for various devices from the smart phones to other smart devices, making it friendly for the shopper to view the information. The last thing you would want is the opportunity loss for unfriendliness in viewing the product.

Being in the minds of the shoppers, would mean 6^th sense of your product prospect, what I mean is understanding the key word definition used or related phrase from the ad copy to the attributes of the product, being reflected in your site so as to bring you there when the prospect, enters queries in your ‘Google’ world. There are shoppers who would have the desire to buy, but wouldn’t be remembering the product, they would either vaguely remember the attributes or message from ads and would have entered the query, if you would have reflected in top 5, that is an opportunity win.

ZMOT for e-commerce, just doesn’t mean the ad words, it could also mean understanding your footprint’s queries either in terms of review, feedbacks, comparison, product details, Q&A, ratings & so on, which could act as a differentiation and comes out while the query have been run on Google, by the prospects. What you have done using ZMOT analysis is you have not only made your e-commerce site more shopper friendly but also search engine too, apart from the SEO tools.

The other way to look at ZMOT strategy, is to understand the Socio-economic environment of the products you are selling, to capitalize on queries regarding the event which wouldn’t have been related directly to your product on the site, but subtly conveys the message what you are trying to sell. Let me give you an example, the people leaving in India are seeing a big movement on Jan Lokpal Bill, an anti corruption movement, by the Social Activist Anna Hazare, during the movement there were lot of silent protest which were happening with people printing posters, messages on T-shirts & caps and so on, if any agency wanted to capitalize on them, they could have had customized the offerings as per the movement to be in the search results which would have had the query on the movement.

 Zero Moment Of Truth is just not online, this principle could be used on Offline too, and being where your shoppers are is the secret for sustainability of unique & continuous engagement with your users. Using the online strength, an e-commerce Marketer could either device a mobile application on any of the widely used platform, enabling the smart device user to evaluate his product of the choice through it.  The other way of being in smarter devices would be through the service provider; this would enhance the opportunity prospects for the marketer. These work as a double-edged sword, on one hand the application icon sits on to the shoppers smart device home page, increasing your chances for continuous engagement, as he could evaluate deals, which could look lucrative for him while he is on the store or on information gathering phase and on other hand the recall is made significantly.

This application need not be just restricted to mobile devices but could be made an add-on to the social networking platforms, enabling the users to view their queries, share, engage with their network and compare brands, making it even more lucrative. The application strategy would be incomplete, without social networking, looking at the prominence which it has in our daily lives; these systems would also encourage fans on their pages. These moves help to play on perception and move the users slowly to the e-commerce platform and increase confidence on it

To Know more on Zero Moment Of Truth, click http://www.zeromomentoftruth.com/

You could reach me on adarsh.pete@gmail.com or connect me on Linkedin