Opinion

A Consideration of Charm

Depot Eatery by Al Brown - Auckland, New Zealand

Today I was reading an essay in the February edition of Monocle magazine on charm and it got me thinking about that elusive quality, that is so hard to quantify, yet can make all the difference to someones opinion of a place or service. As they pointed out, you will never hear someone say “I was I were less charming”. It’s a quality that can’t be easily replicated (bad news for competitors) and I believe really helps to give your business a special place in peoples minds. Take Depot Eatery pictured above, as soon as you arrive you feel the place has a character which is replicated in the unpretentious yet delicious food.

How can we as advertisers help to create content and instore experiences that help to cultivate this elusive trait? I believe it has to start at the ground level instore, where the customer is interacting with your business and you really have the opportunity to control a branded experience. Create a service experience that is friendly and warm, where the customer feels a personal touch. In a larger retail advertising sense this comes down to utilising CRM and Instore channels. Using CRM databases to customise content delivered to customers, you could send out personalised mailers to letterboxes, exclusive deals to mobile phones or deliver on screen prompts to sales staff of the customers favourite products when the customer is at the point of sale. Also consider the design space and fit out of the store carefully. No longer is it simply enough to erect some shelving and place products on it, expecting them to sell. When instore, this is a retail or service businesses big opporunity to sell the brand in an age when people roundly ignore a large portion of the advertising messages out there. Think on brand, engaging and personal, of course all the while remembering we are in the business of selling!

In terms of bringing the message above the line, as a brand you must be true and honest. This is nothing new in terms of branding strategy but I think now more then ever it is important for your busiess to have a clear value proposition. Be proud of the qualities of your business that can’t be faked or replicated. Are your products wholly sourced from quality producers or do you have the widest curated range of fashion available for convenient purchase? It is no longer simply enough to just decide what your product or service is about through mass market channels, people see through this. Brands must now constantly live their values, throughout all touch points with the consumer to truely deliver a memorable experience.

So next time when someone wanders in with a Powerpoint describing in detail the customer journey, take a minute to think about at what point you will be charming the pants off them!

Alex

Newspapers – Product & Positioning

I was recently reading an article in Monocle magazine about a newspaper in Norway, Dagens Naringsliv, http://www.dn.no/ which targets the premium end of the news market with their printed editions with thorough, quality, investigative journalism whilst utilising their website & tablet editions for breaking and up to the minute news & comment. Could this be the future for newspapers? Will printed paper stand for quality like it once did when the internet and digital devices are ubiquitous? In my opinion we are seeing this trend to an extent with magazines already.

It’s no new concept however that in advertising and media we need to look beyond just the product itself as a basis for our strategy. In our over saturated & communicated market, this is no longer enough. Even if we have the best product we now need to look at how the product is positioned in the minds of the receivers/consumers to really find our space in the market. Technology and the internet are forcing newspapers into a transition phase where their old model of being a printed advertising delivery system where journalism takes a back seat is rapidly becoming obsolete. Readership is dropping as people turn to the internet for their daily news rather than the traditional printed edition.

Could a new product & positioning strategy perhaps help to both revive the printed edtions and innovate the business model into the future? With some clever positioning and quality content this could be the case. I’m sure there will always be people willing to pay for quality journalism on a tangible medium such as paper, especially if we can make people feel more sophisticated for doing so. Let’s face it, we by nature are tactile creatures and there is something about the feeling of a good quality paper stock in your hands that no amount of digital technology can replicate.

So how could a newspaper go about doing this? For a starters it would most likely take a refresh of brand design and some self promotion.

For the printed editions the below points could be considered:

• Improve the quality of the content (look at longer form journalism, perhaps investigative content & content with strong editorial influence)
• Improve the quality of the paper stock
• Consider the distribution quantity (perhaps reducing the printed circulation and targeting specific geographic regions to control costs)
• Consider the distribution channels (could the channels be more carefully considered to portray a premium image?)
• Increase the price to reflect a premium pricing strategy

Then, back it up with an “always on” site which can be viewed across multiple devices from laptops to tablets or mobile. Content here could be up to the minute, with far less editorial control & could cover a wider variety of stories & commentary. As you compete on a global scale online, keeping content curated to the region your printed in would most likely serve best against competition from strong international news powerhouses. Paywalls should most likely become the norm for certain content here also.

All this aside, the biggest challenge facing the industry is that with the web it is impossible to monetise to the same extent as print since the advertising space isn’t as valuable. Unfortunately for them, I doubt this hurdle will ever be able to be overcome, they may simply never be as profitable as they once were and the focus must go back to quality content. As it should be.

Alex

Colmar Brunton & Millward Brown’s Digital Predictions For 2012

As we rapidly speed towards the end of the year and scurry to get the last bits of creative out the door before we head off on our Christmas breaks, I took some time today to consider the year ahead after reading Colmar Brunton & Millward Brown’s digital predictions for 2012. Whilst it’s impossible to be truly accurate with these predictions, it’s exciting to think about the trends that will potentially be shaping our projects in the year to come. With technology changing so rapidly, alot can happen in 12 months time! Here’s their list:

#1 Gamification Unlocked: Big Brands become even more playful

This concept has close ties with behavioural economics, applying gaming mechanics to non game situations. The trick is to bake them in and do it in such a way that it doesn’t feel like a game. For example, bonus reward points randomly offered on purchases.

#2 Just Tap It! Wide spread adoption of the mobile wallet

We’ve always got our phones with us, we will start to see its functionality enhanced enabling practicality. It could be used as a payment system, a means of I.D, drivers license or even keys to unlock our car.

#3 Virtual Togetherness: TV & Social Media will fuel an explosion in tools, technologies & platforms for interaction and research

People will be able to engage with shows in new and interesting ways. TV viewing habits are often influenced by our friends so the social graph could be leverage as a program guide. Could have an impact on how we view TV Ratings also.

#4 Online Video: Invades the living room

Google TV & Apple TV have already had a stab at this, but as TVs become internet enabled we will be able to access more and more content from the web with it.

#5 Mobile Marketing: Will become more social & local than ever before

Success in this space will combine relevance, location and timing of the content intertwined with social. Care must be taken about appearing intrusive here as people have very close relationships with their mobile phones and don’t take well to being pushed content they don’t want.

#6 Growth: The only App trend that really matters

Looking beyond Apples app store, we see Android market steadily growing. Apps could be pulled accross multiple devices from mobile to tablet to PC and TVs. In App advertising will grow and morph into richer content and video.

#7 Social CPG e-commerce: Tiptoeing between engagement and marketing leads us back to traditional marketing vehicles

Care must be taken not to turn the social space into just another selling opportunity but it may offer the chance to build awareness, trial, sample and coupon.

#8 The Social Graph will generate meaningful data for brand measurement

The social graph generates an unprecented amount of consumer data that can be used both for consumer insight and a real time barometer of consumer opinion.

#9 Regulators narrow their focus as consumers pay the real price for “free” access

With information sharing essentially being the cost of entry to networks, the financial implications of how information is managed and protected may come in to play.

#10 The arrival of Seamless Sharing

The share button will continue to spread throughout the online space, being able to share a peice of content is just naturally expected. Those who produce the most interesting content will gain the most earned media through this mechanism.

#11 China will see “One Stop Shop” convergence of micro-blogging, social networks & information portals

New forms of micro-blogging which integrate facets of social networks are taking off.

#12 Online Advertising: Real-time decision making takes centre stage

We want data and we want it right away. Successful strategies here will involve being able to adapt efficiently to real time information in combination with insight, analytics and creative execution. As a side note, Google Analytics just launched real time stats for your page.

Colmar Brunton & Millward Brown’s digital predictions for 2012 Report

Here’s to an exciting 2012!

Alex

Considerations of Influence

Lapo Elkann - considered a style icon

I just read a post by Noah Brier in which he quoted the below from the SocialFlow blog regarding how we consider social influence which I thought was quite good and got me thinking about how we measure and define influence.

“As we build out digital social spaces, we must not get derailed by metrics of status affordances that have taken center stage. Just because we have easily accessible data at our fingertips doesn’t mean that we have the capacity to model and place a value tag on human behavior. Followers, friends or likes represent an aspect of our digital status, but are only a partial representation of our general propensity to be influential. Keith Urbahn wasn’t the first to speculate Bin Laden’s death, but he was the one who gained the most trust from the network. And with that, the perfect situation unfolded, where timing, the right social-professional networked audience, along with a critically relevant piece of information led to an explosion of public affirmation of his trustworthiness.”

With all the data that digital media affords, there is a danger that we can get caught up in the numbers, measuring people and their behaviour is never going to be an exact science. Whilst we can take the data available as part of the picture we must remember that there are many external factors that can affect influence. People are complex things and we must be careful to place a numerical figure on behaviour implying causation.

With that in mind, below is a simplified model which can help as a framework along with the data available for examining a situation of influence. It is hard to project forward many of the factors at play but can help along with the data to put together a picture.

Influence:

Any situation of influence involves 2 parties, influencer & target.

1. Influencer’s ability to influence relies on:

Credibility (what they know): The influencer’s expertise or perceived expertise by the target on the subject matter.

Social Capital (who they know): What standing does the influencer have in the community, do they know and associate with people that support the area of influence in consideration.

Bandwidth: The extent of the influencer’s ability to transmit their knowledge through their network of channels.

2. The target’s likelihood to be influenced by a specific influencer:

Relevance (the right information): To what extent do the target’s information needs coincide with the influencer’s expertise and subject matter.

Timing (the right time): The ability of the influencer to deliver the information to the target at the time when the target needed it.

Alignment (the right place): The extent of the channel overlap between the target and the influencer across their networks. If the two parties overlap on many channels, the expectation would be an increased situation of influence.

Confidence (the right person): How much the target trusts the influencer with respect to their information needs. This comes back to the influencers credibility and social capital in the eyes of the target.

Alex

The Future of Books

For a 1 year old, is a magazine simply an iPad that doesn’t work? Are we seeing a new generation for whom printed content is essentially broken? I just recently saw the above video on Youtube and it got me thinking about what the future will be for how we will read and consume content. Like I touched on in my Technology vs Advertising post, what we consider technology is predicated by the age in which we experience it. What is considered technology by us now will just be stuff to children who grow up exposed to it. With the release of the iPad, Apple essentially brought to the mainstream a new way to experience content and we are already seeing a change in behaviour as many newspapers struggle with a downturn in readership as people go online for their content on a daily basis. Also printed content is obviously alot more expensive and time consuming to create and produce so we are seeing not just a change in how we consume content but a change for how the industry creates and distributes it as well.

Tablet devices are already impacting upon how people consume content, with more and more people reading books and getting their information from them. I for one enjoy reading the Financial Times on their web app. Reading books and consuming content in this way opens up new opportunities for how we engage with it. About a year ago now, IDEO put together the below concept video illustrating three different concepts for how technology may change the experience of reading for people.

The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.

Nelson: Contextualizes books within popular opinion and debate to provide reference and easy cross-checking of information

Coupland: Contextualizes books within your professional social network to make it easier to identify what’s worth reading

Alice: Adds a game layer to the experience of reading, in a sort of choose your own adventure meets geo-targeting scernario.

The key technology linking all the concepts together is that through the internet feeding tablets and mobile we are able to be constantly connected wherever we are which enhances how we find and consume content. New layers of utility can be added to the reading experience that couldn’t be before. As tablets become cheaper and a device for the masses, I believe this will be an area of significant growth. I do however feel there will be a place for printed books for a long time to come. I can see them becoming almost a luxury item such as many of the thriving printed magazines are these days. Since it will be alot more expensive to print a book, it will be left in the domain of the quality publications.

On the other side of the coin though there are wider reaching implications for the industry itself of digitalisation. Firstly, if you remove the printed nature of books, the definition of what one is becomes blurred somewhere between a tweet, an article and a 500 page novel. In the digital environment there aren’t the same parameters as there are in the printed world. Not only that but since the cost is lower and the whole process of producing content is faster, it puts pressure on the current distribution model. The traditional delay of up to a year between a books completion and publication was due to the work required to print, distribute and market but also allowed a means of stock control for retailers with the constraints of shelf space in their store. They needed to sell through one lot of books before they could take on more. Now books can be sold and distributed via the internet, it means book stores need to look at their business models and rearrange them.

What does this mean for the future of book stores? Much like I discussed in the Continuous Channel – Future of Retail post, people will always have a reason to go to stores but retailers will need to design them and consider the service offering as a whole with the online one. Not only does the online offering support the stores but allows the long tail of the back catalogue of books that aren’t held instore to be taken advantage of. I think we will end up with a situation where book stores will still have a place, but just a more specialised and service driven one. We are still seeing stores like WH Smith looking to triple their stores in air ports for example, capitalising on the sales of books in the moment when people need them. Whilst they will be supplying their e-book reader Kobo from this location, they will have a selection of paper backs too. They still currently see the e-reader as incremental to their paper back sales, as two thirds of their sales come from children’s books and non-fiction whereas 90% of all downloaded e-books are fiction (WH Smith plans to triple airport stores – FT.com).

Digitalisation of the book industry impacts not only how we as consumers experience the content but how the industry delivers it. Through the internet and new devices we are constantly connected with easy access to books and content, with new layers of utility added to them. For the industry it means a radical change in the distribution models and looking at their service offering, including an online product as part of it. All that said, there is still something about holding a good quality printed product on high quality stock in your hands.

Alex

The Continuous Channel – The New Retail Frontier?

I recently watched a presentation by Steve Nave, former SVP & General Manager of Walmart.com and in it he raised the concept of the continuous channel as a new frontier for retailers. He talked about rather than seeing retail as a multi channel process, we should be taking a step back to look at the entire brand, letting customers shop the way they want to shop and bringing it all together into one continuous channel. Essentially instead of serving customers through individual channels, we serve them at touch points across channels by optimising the organisations processes and technologies. The picture on the left is a trial advertising program by Tesco in South Korea. In a “virtual store” concept, people could shop with their mobile phones whilst waiting for a train directly from an ambient installation set up to look like a store and have their groceries delivered to their home hours later. This is a great example of allowing shoppers to purchase in new ways, on their terms and across channels.

Traditionally there were only three channels which organisations could utilise to actively generate sales, the stores themselves, direct sales (phone/direct marketing) and printed catalogues. These channels essentially each only had a single touch point within them. This has now all changed with the advent of the internet and the establishment of ecommerce as a legitimate channel. The internet differs from the three traditional channels in that it doesn’t simply create one touch point but a vast array of new ones. It feeds emerging technologies as it expands into mobile, tablet, TVs, instore, cars and not to mention social media. The key thing to note here is that when you think about it, none of these new touch points are actually a new channel in themselves, they are all being fed by the existing internet channel. The opportunity here for retailers is that increasingly everything is becoming a touchpoint with which consumers can transact with your organisation. Whilst this may sound similar to the concept of multi-channel retailing, the difference is in the thinking of how the channels and touch points intersect together and how the organization responds to the customer across them to drive sales.

For this to work, information, and data must flow freely between channels on the customer end and within the business units of the organisation, no silos. Customers more and more expect to be able to shop across channels, for example purchasing an item via mobile and collecting it instore. They need to be able to shop when and how they want to, customers shop with your company as a whole, not with an individual channel. With this in mind we can look at new ways to intersect them. I think whilst it may be very hard to truly get to a point where this is fully achieved but it is a good journey to be on and will help drive retailing into the future.

The Walmart example that Steve discussed is a good one to look at in terms of a big retailer testing out initiatives which cross the channel boundaries. Walmart has implemented the below strategies with their ecommerce platform that go some way to letting the customer shop their way and intersects both instore and internet enabled channels:

Site to Store – customers could purchase products online and have them sent to their local store for collection.

Pick Up Today – customers can view a stores stock online, purchase and put it on hold knowing it’s ready for them when they arrive in store to collect it.

Scheduled Delivery From Store – customers can order something online from a store and schedule the delivery for when they want it to arrive at their home.

These strategies are interesting in not only do they cross the typical “channel” boundaries, but really add utility for the customer.

Looking forward, Steve identified the below future milestones he thought to be criticial to driving the continuous channel strategy going for Walmart:

–Social – not just in a setting up a Facebook page way but really looking at what the intersection is between business and social. They started an initiative called “Walmart Labs” to explore new technology around understanding what people are talking about in social media. With that insight, then as brands we can come to people and be relevant to them and the local community TODAY in new ways. For example we could use the information to influence what store staff talk to customers about when they enter the store, the POS instore, or what new initiatives stores can do for people. It’s about more then just sending emails of a relevant sale to people who have indicated they like blenders on Facebook.

-Mobile – This will help drive the continuous channel as a future for ecommerce. Customers are turning to mobile devices more and more for information when they want it quickly. To help keep pace in this area, Walmart are going so far as acquiring tech company start ups to remain agile and take advantage of the latest advances in technology.

-New Store Models – Can ecommerce begin to help influence store layout? Walmart are now siting the online division at the table when discussing how stores are designed to help bring online into the bricks and mortar channel. For example we don’t necessarily need the store floor space to show all products if we can back it up with online channels. For example you could show just 3 digital cameras in each price point, knowing 300 more are online which we can get to store for someone today, or to their home.

Whilst we won’t see the end of bricks and mortar stores, customers will always have something to do instore, (a point I touched on in my post Why Bricks and Mortar Stores Will Always Have a Role to Play) retailers will need to rethink their operational strategy to keep up with how consumers expect to be able to shop, on their terms, across channels.

Alex

How To Make Stuff

Partially to share my thoughts and partially to force myself to organise them, I thought I’d share my take on how to make stuff based on the experiences I’ve had so far in driving digital work.

Now this is not a new concept, but I find the 4 D’s of web design are a great basis for looking at the process involved in any digital based project and can be applied to anything from a website to a mobile app.

Discovery: Requirements & Flat Plan

Collaboration. I find the best first step is to get everyone involved in the project in some way, shape or form into a room with a whiteboard and a marker. Begin by ensuring everyone is on the same page around the core of the idea then start discussing and drawing. Start by wireframing out the core components of the idea with boxes and arrows linking them all together to show the process flow. From my experience just going through the process of doing this will help the idea to become clearer as to how it all fits together. As a thought process, consider, what directs peoples awareness towards the idea, how do they experience it, what do they do to engage with it, how do they share it and what closes the loop and keeps them coming back either to stores or the experience itself.

Design: Wireframes & Design

After the general concept has been discussed and the requirements of the project has been agreed upon, the next step is to work on wireframes and design concepts. Wireframes have evolved over time and are becoming more and more visual, even interactive. There are a number of different pieces of software out there now which help to create and visualize wireframes, making them far quicker and easier to put together. Not only that but they can be done in a number of different ways from prototypes in keynote to grey box layouts. There is a fine line between visual and functional and how functional you need to make them.

Once the wireframes are put together, it’s time to look at the design. I find it best to visually design just the key elements with a few concept options at first to get the direction approved. Once this step is complete, it is then quick to go through and design each element of the approved wireframe with the approved design.

Development: Content, Front & Back End

The first step here is asset collection, it’s crucial for the team developing the product to have all the assets they require as soon as possible to keep the process going. In terms of back end, look to leverage previous projects for functionality to speed up development time and reduce costs.

Coming back to the concept of collaboration again, digital projects really require cross disciplinary teams. I’ve found this to be a real team process and not only just in terms of the digital team with front and back end development. You’ll often need creative direction and content input from across the agency also from, TVP, Photo Studio and Mac Ops. It’s all about finding the most efficient place to put the specific task.

In terms of signing off the development, look towards an iteratitve process. It’s simply not possible to present a first development stage that is perfect, so present a first build, second build, taking feedback and improving as you move towards the deadline.

Delivery: Testing, Launch & Post Launch

Before the project goes live, if the time allows, I definitely recommend user testing. It’s always surprising to see what the users will comment on and how they experience the journey. It can often be vastly different to what you imagine and some of the functionality that may seem logical through development may be shown to not be quite so.

Unlike traditional channels, once a digital project is live, it isn’ t the last you’ll see of it. Often there will be teething issues to resolve and you’ll need to keep an eye on tracking & feedback against KPIs. As a side note, look to bake in tracking and analysis features and consider hosting environment and how best to keep it running fast.

As a thought point to end on, perhaps good enough is actually good enough in the digital world. This process is not an exact science and it takes trial and error to really learn and push the boundaries. Being fast and agile like a tech start up really helps to drive this sort of work and unlike other mediums it really lends itself to being iterative.

Alex

The Value Of Proximity

Technology is allowing people to become more and more connected via social and mobile networks. These connections span from people in their locality right through to people on the other side of the world. This growing number of connections can create alot of noise and we do start to see marginal disutility within the social network as the connections become less valuable to the person. Traditionally, we were only able to foster connections with those in close physical proximity but what role does proximity now play as the world becomes increasingly open.

As a lens of looking at this issue, I came across the principles of Gestalt psychology. This theory is based around the concept that the brain is holistic, parallel, and analogue, with self-organizing tendencies which affect how we perceive things around us. Proximity is one of the grouping principles that this theory is based on and it occurred to me that it may relate to how we subconsciously self-organise our networks. The principle states that, all other things being equal, we perceive stimuli that are close together as part of the same object, and stimuli that are far apart as two separate objects. This simplifies things in our mind and reduces the number of small stimuli we need to process. Whilst this theory does most typcially apply to visual perception, focusing on the idea of our brain having a tendency towards self-organizing, it may not be too much of a stretch to consider physical proximity to be a grouping factor we use in organising networks to reduce noise.

Therefore as a way of coping with the growing amount of connection noise we experience, we may start to see people subconsiously group those people that are in close physical proximity together. They then may devote more attention to this group, allowing them to cope with the excess of less valuable connections within the network. We would of course be more likely to interact with these people on a regular basis and the effect may be exacerbated by the fact that content is becoming more and more tailored to what we are more likely to engage with (take Facebooks top stories timeline for instance). This would mean that proximity plays a role in the value of a connection as the closer you are to the other person, the more likely this connection will be on your radar. I know I spend alot more time interacting with my friends that I see on a regular basis than any others. So what does this mean for the reality of how much more utility we gain as the world becomes more connected, do we get as much value from the long distance connections as we do the local ones?

It’s not a new concept that proximity fosters valuable relationships among people, especially when considered in the work environment. A recent research paper gave some credence to just how much of an impact it can actually have (see reference link below). An analysis of a decade of Harvard biomedical research collaborations, found that the closer the proximity of the offices of key research partners, the more influential their joint papers were likely to be. It mattered whether collaborators were walking down the same corridors through the office, or eating at the same cafes. It seemed to be that the presence of physical collaboration through closer proximity produced better work from the team, despite on the surface being able to communicate just as efficiently over long distance via technology. The continued importance of location may seem unnecessary with the advent of Skype, smart phones, and other technologies that make it effortless and inexpensive to collaborate with people around the world, but location still seems to matter. Being able to communicate across distances means we can do alot of different things more efficiently but face to face contact and proximity is still important as the noise from our connections increase and it simply can’t replace personal interaction.

Whilst technology is allowing us to become more connected and break down geographic barriers, I believe that proximity may still play a role in how we organise our networks (even if only subconsciously) and can be an indicator of the value that a connection provides.

Alex

Reference

Lee K, Brownstein JS, Mills RG, Kohane IS (2010) Does Collocation Inform the Impact of Collaboration? PLoS ONE 5(12): e14279. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0014279

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0014279

Technologies Impact on Creativity

New York by Frank Gehry

The building pictured to the left is a recently opened skyscraper called New York by Frank Gehry. I think it is the perfect real world example of technology meeting creativity, plus I just think it’s beautiful.

I think the definition of what we consider creativity is changing, morphing to include functional aspects. In terms of advertising, how users will interact with a campaign, on which devices, at what time are all just as valid creative aspects as what colour the typeface will be. Many people may see technology as negatively impacting creativity in advertising as the proliferation of people becoming “connected” through PCs, tablets, mobile and social networks drive campaigns that have just as much to do with functionality as they do the big beautiful idea. However, I think it’s actually creating an environment that not only encourages creativity but actually means that it’s more effective.

I believe creative work now more than ever equals effective work. Previously a creative campaign would run it’s course through the paid broadcast media channels and fade away, only leaving word of mouth behind. Now, if people watch something they enjoy on one of their connected devices or with one present, they can then share the experience with their friend network and create discussions around it. Not only that but it lives on as a permanently available record on the internet.

Technology (being connected) & social networks amplify the message of creative campaigns, if people are interested in the content enough to spread it throughout their networks.

Moreover, technology has created an environment which empowers people as content seekers, distributors and creators. We’ll search out and only engage with what we wan’t to, whereas previously we obediantly consumed content that was broadcast to us (because we didn’t have a choice). In this new environment if what we create as advertisors isn’t creative and engaging, more and more we will just get ignored and passed by as people get used to accessing only the content they are after. Television broadcasters are dealing with this issue currently with time shifted viewing, newspapers are being replaced by daily updates on news websites and people are using iPods in the car to listen to music rather than radio. So what do we need to do as advertisors to continue to be relevant to people:

Be Interesting: Lets deliver information and content that is revelant to the person who is experiencing it at the time, whether it’s a price on a product they are seeking out or an amusing video to kill a couple of minutes at the office. Let’s deliver content that is easy and enjoyable to experience for everyone no matter where they want to access it, whether it’s from their mobile, tablet, PC or letterbox.

Do Stuff Rather Than Say Stuff: Look to create things as well as ads. Create utility. Allow people to access the interesting content on their terms.

Experiment: Maybe good enough is good enough. Lets be agile and iterate, operating more like a tech start up than a typical agency. Work together in cross disciplinary teams. Gareth Kay also made the suggestion of putting a percentage of the marketing budget directly towards R&D.

Why can’t the next Facebook/Twitter/Instagram be started within an agency?

Alex

Why Bricks and Mortar Stores Will Always Have a Role to Play

Tom Ford Store

I have recently been reading the excellent book, Why We Buy – The Science of Shopping by Paco Underhill. In it, he raised some points which really highlight to me the fact that bricks and mortar stores will always have a role to play in the retail environment. In my opinion it is unlikely that retail locations will be completely replaced by E-commerce, M-Commerce or F-Commerce, ever. To begin the discussion, lets look at defining shopping in a way that frames it as more than the simple acquisition of goods to fulfil a need.

Shopping: experiencing that portion of the world which is deemed for sale, using our senses of sight, touch, smell, taste or hearing as basis of the decision making process. (Ref. Paco Underhill)

The key message for me here is the neccessary sensory aspect is lacking in online retailing. Clearly you aren’t able to touch, smell or taste products without physically being instore. It is alot harder to truly understand the selling points of a product without being able to experience it fully. Take a look at shoppers as they wander round a store, picking things up, looking them over, taking them out of the pack, exploring and discovering. Further to this point, impulse purchases are often a result of touching and experiencing the product and indentifying the benefits it holds on the spot.

Merchandising can be just as powerful as advertising. For the most part we like to purchase based on trial and touch.

Why do we want to touch and experience things before we buy them? Firstly, for many products the tactile qualities of the product are a key selling point, such as luxury clothing from Tom Ford or manchester and linen. Even if the tactile qualities of the product don’t neccesarily require it be touched, they often still need to be experienced to get a feel for their benefits. Take technology products such as tablets, until you’ve had a go on one, flicking through some photos and articles, you really can’t tell how useful they really are.

So what else do stores offer that online retailing struggles to replicate?

Brand Experience: The instore environment can be tailored to deliver an incredibly strong brand experience, stronger then any press ad, TVC or web page. The store design and fit out, music, staff, location and surrounding stores all add up to deliver a message to people about your company and its values. Are you a high end store with exclusive location, plush interior and knowledgable staff or a discount retailer with a large store, bulk merchandising and convenient car parking? These choices alter how people perceive your company in a big way. Music also sets the tone of the environment, no self respecting teenager would shop in a store playing classical violin concertos.

Discovery: Instore you can create an environment which encourages discovery, exploring the store and experiencing the product. Sure this occurs on the internet naturally but instore it’s a much more experiential journey. Point of Sale which creates clarity of where you are in the store without oversaturating the information helps add to this. It sets the tone of the products around it but leaves the opportunity to explore the actual products in detail. For example using fashion imagery rather than text description of exact products. Sounds and smells can also be controlled, which can lead people through the store. Bakerys in supermarkets fill the store with the aroma of fresh bread, alluring you to discover and purchase the freshly baked bread.

Talking: Stores attract groups of people, if discussion can be fostered, the products begin to start selling themselves. If for example a group of girls are out looking for jeans, they will chat about the products and which looks best on each other, then perhaps running into friends and start getting their opinions also. This conversation my spread to the shoppers around them, bringing them in to the discussion. Sure it may be argued that this can be replicated to an extent online with F-Commerce (social shopping), but I don’t think it’s quite the same as the organic face to face conversation that can occur in a store environment.

Where does this leave online retailing to fit into the picture?

Obviously it will be a requirement for all businesses to offer their products online in some capacity in future if they wish to make the most of their revenue opportunities. I see it working in tandem with their retail locations. Bricks and mortar stores will be about delivering a strong brand experience for those who visit, allowing people to touch and experience the products in a controlled environment. Online retailing will then open a new avenue of sales rather than canabalising stores. Those that aren’t able to reach your physical stores perhaps due to location or lack of time, are able to purchase. It’s also great for making convenient repeat purchases on products you are already familiar with or low involvement purchases such as groceries. The convenience of being able to shop from a laptop, mobile or tablet, 24/7, 7 days a week is something people will come to expect and is an opportunty for retailers especially considering online stores don’t require staffing to be open and don’t have the same cost overheads.

Online retailing also allows retailers to take advantage of The Long Tail, a theory by Chris Anderson that there is actually more money in the “non-hits” rather than the “hits” as there is a substantially larger amount of them. It is too expensive for a bookstore for example to stock on a shelf a 15 year old book on the history of extinct moth species, filling them instead with the latest Harry Potter. However since online it costs nothing to have it available and you may actually sell one or two a year, add all these “non-hit” purchases up and you have a large revenue stream.

Technology is affecting the way retailers are doing business just as it is effecting the way we advertise to people but I don’t think there will ever be a substitute for the good old fashioned retail outlet.

If you’re interested in reading Why We Buy, you can purchase the book here: http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Buy-Science-Shopping/dp/0684849143

Alex