Digital really is exciting. It is! Its potential is enormous. Digital has the power to achieve things that in the past marketers could only dream of. Reach, connect, and really engage in a meaningful way with your target market? Check! The ability to really measure the impact of marketing efforts, to be able to track a consumer or a shopper as they dance from platform to platform to see whether one piece of activity finally concludes in a sale? Check!
But the real power of digital lies in the fact that it creates an enormous power to target. Whether marketing to consumers or shoppers, a refined target lies at the heart of all quality marketing.
Targeting means being selective. Relationships are about connection. Special relationships by definition have to be exclusive to some degree, not “for everyone” or at least the need to give that impression.
Today I read this article. The headline reads “In-store signage fails to encourage email, SMS engagement.” Nice headline (well, it made me click through!). But the statement it makes is not quite true. The article itself doesn’t talk much about engagement. It’s main point is that only 18% of in-store signage has a web call-to-action and “just eight percent (of cases) use…(in-store signage)… to promote email or test message engagement” .
It wasn’t just the fact that the headline was a little misleading that caused me to write this post. What really got me was the implication that these numbers were somehow bad, and through the use of the word “just”, that the numbers should be much bigger.
Is eight percent good or bad? The article seems to suggest that all in-store signage should have a digital call to action.
Why?
Surely at the heart of good marketing is effective targeting – so why would that be different for shopper marketing? In-store media are merely “channels”- different media to deliver different messages to different people. Suggesting that the same message should be blanketed across every in-store media is akin to suggesting that any brand message should be plastered indiscriminately across every media channel. Or that every brand should use every channel. If a brand manager suggested that they should spread their communication message across every possible media and channel I’d hope that their tenure in the role would be cut short.
I’m not saying 8% is ok – at the same time I’m not saying it’s not. Likewise I’m not ducking the point that there may be great inconsistencies here in the way that the communication is being managed. But the idea that every piece of communication should have every single social media possibility flagged on it is plain stupid, and bad marketing.
Marketers should treat in-store communication as they would any other communication. Shopper marketers (with the emphasis on the second word) should focus on these key questions:
- Who is the target shopper?
- What do I want them to do?
- What is the message that is most likely to encourage that behavior?
- Where can I most effectively communicate with them?
- What is the most effective media to achieve that change in behavior, with that group of shoppers, at that place and time?
Shopper marketing is marketing to shoppers. Let’s not leave our marketing skills at the door to the store.
Digital is marketing, not wallpaper. If it is applied with precision, where relevant, it can work wonders. But if it is slapped on everything it will become like wallpaper or elevator music, and nobody will notice it.
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