Marketing: Always On

There has been so much buzz lately about new ways to go to market.  How to be the first on the street with the most effective or latest tool such as viral marketing.  What is really happening is a shift from a concentrated effort such as a marketing campaign to a 24/7 approach where you are always speaking or interacting with your customer.  What the new information age with all the tools such as Facebook and Twitter has created is a platform where your customer can access your message or product on their schedule, not yours.  While this has presented some incredible opportunities for marketers as far as ways to get your message out to the target audience, it has also created significant pressure, especially for those brick and mortar operators.  What has happened is a gap between what the marketing message has promised and the actual experience that the customer is having in the store.  While our message on our internet site is blaring exceptional, new and improved, fantastic etc., when the customer enters the store, we have out of stocks, rude service and a less than friendly shopping experience.  All of us have had such shopping experiences and as the old saying goes, if you have a good time you may tell one or two people.  If you have a bad time you will tell fifty people.  Therein lays the issue with major retailers that have failed in the last few years.  My favorite is Circuit City.  I am a minor electronics nut and love to have a few toys every year.  I used to shop Circuit City faithfully.  But then things began to change.  I would go to the store to find my latest toy only to be buried in junk that I was not looking for but the store being out of stock for the item that I needed.  Items of inferior quality were being hyped as a better solution but once they were taken home, the truth was evident and the experience was horrible.  Now let’s try and return that same item.  Five hours later and even more frustrated because I still do not have what I was looking for, I end up looking on line to find what I really wanted.  I did not get the immediate gratification I was looking for but at least I found it and the retailer would usually provide something to offset the lost immediate gratification such as a discount, free shipping or a bundle purchase that provided the value added experience we were looking for as a consumer.  So what does this mean for retail today?  Be prepared for the battle.  As our customers expect more and more value because the message is playing 24/7 and we are conditioning them to that experience, execution at store level, whether electronic or bricks and mortar, is going to be critical.  We will see retailers scale back so that their focus can be on one or two offerings as opposed to being all things to all people.  Retailers will be examining their marketing plans to determine what it is they really are to their market.  What is their key offering?  How can you guarantee that your customer is going to get the experience you desire to insure that your analysis of your marketing efforts is accurate and you are headed in the right direction and not just reaping accidental or spillover benefits?  How are you going to find the right people to execute your vision 100%?  These are the questions facing marketers today along with millions others.  As the speed and number of channels of disseminating your message increases, how are we as retailers going to create the desired experience in our locations?  More to come shortly…