Shopper Culture

SMS? QR Code? App? Mobile Site? What Do I Do?

As marketers see the proliferation of mobile behaviors and devices, the natural reponse seemingly is to start integrating mobile into everything possible. Every campaign, promotion, tool, etc. Unfortunately, everyone isn't always asking the questions... "Is mobile right for this?" or "What mobile tools are right for my audience?"  or "How am I going to know if mobile is successful if I don't know what to expect?" As a part of our on-going shopper study, The Checkout, we have asked about mobile marketing interaction and found some interesting differences that clearly illustrate the need to dig into mobile behaviors specific to our audiences, because like the rest of marketing, there is no mobile silver bullet. 

For example, even looking at surface level data like respondent age yields some drastic differences in prefered mobile engagement. 

Added Value for Catalog Shoppers

One of my favorite stress relievers is thumbing through catalogs. It doesn’t matter what kind, J.Jill, Pottery Barn, Athleta, William Sonoma, or Crate and Barrel. This past Sunday, while indulging in some stress relief on my couch, I noticed something in Crate and Barrel’s latest catalog, “January Inspiration 2013,” that caused me to sit up and take notice. Peppered throughout the pages were little tidbits of complimentary info that Crate and Barrel offered its readers for free. It was a brilliant added value that I have yet to encounter in another catalog. On a cozy living room design page was this suggested Scrabble app.

Buy Fast or Die Tryin'

In the wake of Puma’s successful “fastest purchase” campaign, which enabled shoppers to get higher discounts if they bought sneakers quickly, and Nike Mexico offering runners the opportunity to redeem their kilometers into currency to buy new shoes, Guatemalan shoe retailer Meat Pack just launched a funny, cutting-edge discount initiative. The amount of the promotion directly depended on shoppers’ ability to physically surpass themselves. The faster they ran, the cheaper it got.

To increase loyalty and drive sales, Meat Pack came up with a brilliant, irreverent promotional campaign addressing its core audience: hardcore sneaker fans, also known as sneakerheads. To promote the new discount, they created Hijack, an enhancement to the official Meat Pack app already used by customers.

Hyperpersonalization

RED BAR: TRACKING THE TRENDS

This is an exciting time for brands, retailers and shoppers. As our technological devices become smarter, so has our ability to better understand them and offer shoppers what they truly want to buy, not just what we want to sell. Consumption is no longer curated solely by arbiters of style, but also by our own previous purchase information. Here are some examples of hyperpersonalization in action:

Click here to read more examples of hyperpersonalization including "Hyperpersonal Hidden Messages", a mobile app from Kraft Foods' Lacta brand:

Lacta Mobile App - English from LactaFilms on Vimeo.

Click here to read past issues of The Integer Pulse. 

Shoppers Respond to QR Codes that Deliver Value

The first time I saw a QR code was on the corner of a Lion King poster in a New York City subway. Though I had no clue what it was, my friend eagerly whipped out her BlackBerry, ready to give her recently downloaded QR code reader a test drive.

QR Codes (short for Quick Response Codes) like the one I saw on the subway popped up everywhere in 2011, from subways to product packaging, magazines to department stores, and even on cookies. It was so popular that it seemed like brands slapped codes on everything without thinking about how it would be used and its value to the shopper. 

For example, Austin-based restaurant Juan in a Million sports a QR code on their dine-in menu. When scanned, the code takes you to a Google map of the restaurant’s location. How does this bring value to the customer if they’re already there? As awareness of QR Codes grew, I felt as though many brands were misusing them. I saw a QR code on a highway billboard once. How am I supposed to scan that at 65 mph? The many QR code failures frustrated me. However, one year later, I think that some brands are finally getting it right.