Everyone, including Retailers, wants to find a way to use social media to "connect" with their consumer. Of course this is a euphemism for finding a way to sell them more stuff. There is, however, something wrong with that. Social media is not about "selling". It really is about connecting. And Retail brands truly do have legitimacy in connecting to consumers. Amongst others, letting consumers know what's new, what's different, what's unique.....and doing it an a way that's relevant to the consumer....that's a legitimate use of social media. And, if done properly, will help consumers make better shopping decisions.
A December 2009 survey by MarketingSherpa shows that in a virtual tie, "Learn about new products/services/features" was just as important as "Learn about specials, sales, etc". Yet a quick spot check of retail brand sites on social networking portals reveals a lot of the "specials and sales" stuff and not so much on the "new" front.
One critical area for opportunity is on Facebook. Facebook is now the number two video streamer in the world, behind only YouTube. What better way is there to communicate about what's new than via video? Yet it's not done. Why? Because retailers do not yet grasp that video programming is as relevant and important a part of the Shopping 2.0 paradigm as direct mail and newspaper inserts have been to Shopping 1.0. Ironically, the same MarketingSherpa survey shows that "Entertainment - funny or insightful" is the next most relevant reason to follow a brand.
What an amazingly powerful tool it would be to create a message delivery that combined "learn about what's new" with "entertainment - funny or insightful". To do this, retail brands need to look beyond their core competency and seek those who are creating businesses to meet this specific need. Such as Future Merchants, which with it's Solutions™ programming, has created a video programming model that accomplishes the objective of "learn" and "entertain" AND through the RetailTV® platform, has a technology which makes it possible to distribute these brand messages throughout the social media landscape WHILE making them immediately shoppable. Imagine that!
Friday, January 22, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
eTail West - A Must See Show
Retailers, both pure play and multi-channel, may wish to make the trip out to Palm Desert in February to attend eTail West. The agenda promises a series of presentations and discussions on topics all of us are interested in. In addition, with over 80 exhibitors, it's an opportunity to see what the newest technologies and services are. Look, the truth is the brick and mortar sales are flat, and online sales are generally the only bright spot. If that's true for you, then don't you need to stay on top of what may be out there to help you continue to grow? And if it's not true for you (and you know if your online comps are down), then don't you need to find out what's available to change that?Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Using the retail ecommerce site as a marketing distribution platform
With millions of unique visitors, opting in to the experience, and actively engaged in a search of some kind.....doesn't it make sense for retail marketers to view their ecommerce site as a marketing platform? Not just a place to transact business online with consumers. A channel or platform for the distribution of marketing communications to consumers. And if that makes sense, what type of marketing communication should this platform distribute? Will it be as simple as repurposing content created for television or print? Or is there a unique type of retail-centric marketing media singularly designed and optimized for the ecommerce site?
Before these questions can be addressed, the initial objective is to alter the view within retail organizations as to value of their ecommerce sites. Yes, selling merchandise online is a vital and appropriate focus, particularly when brick & mortar growth is so hard to come by and online growth still seems achievable. And with that fact in mind, it's even harder to expect retailers to shift their perceptions about the value of the website to communicate with brick and mortar shoppers.
But stop and think for a moment. Despite all the gains in ecommerce traction, visit rate and conversion, for most sites, over 90% of all visitors leave without completing a transaction. Certainly much of this has to do with the nature of a shopping behavior cycle (from awareness through to purchase) requiring multiple exposures and current comparison shopping trends. However, retailer's own data indicates that well over half of their online visitors shop their stores. So if a given retailer has 10 million monthly uniques, and 50% of those shop their stores, that's a chance to influence 5 million monthly unique PERFECTLY TARGETED consumers.
Moving to the point of this post. Let's assume,for the moment, that using the ecommerce website as a uniquely powerful distribution platform has been adopted by the retailer's marketing braintrust. The next question is what type of content is appropriate for that platform? Because content MUST be produced specific to a platform. No one thinks that the audio track for a television commercial works as a radio spot. No one thinks that the text of a radio spot works as catalog copy. In fact, each traditional form of consumer communication is understood to require it's own unique approach to content. The same is absolutely true of content distributed through the ecommerce site. And not just "content distributed over the internet". That's a generalized as "all print copy is the same". It's not. The ecommerce site requires a very unique, very specialized approach to content development.
Future Merchants has a powerful point of view on this....please see the white paper at http://futuremerchants.com/news/White%20Paper_ETAIL_FINAL.pdf
Before these questions can be addressed, the initial objective is to alter the view within retail organizations as to value of their ecommerce sites. Yes, selling merchandise online is a vital and appropriate focus, particularly when brick & mortar growth is so hard to come by and online growth still seems achievable. And with that fact in mind, it's even harder to expect retailers to shift their perceptions about the value of the website to communicate with brick and mortar shoppers.
But stop and think for a moment. Despite all the gains in ecommerce traction, visit rate and conversion, for most sites, over 90% of all visitors leave without completing a transaction. Certainly much of this has to do with the nature of a shopping behavior cycle (from awareness through to purchase) requiring multiple exposures and current comparison shopping trends. However, retailer's own data indicates that well over half of their online visitors shop their stores. So if a given retailer has 10 million monthly uniques, and 50% of those shop their stores, that's a chance to influence 5 million monthly unique PERFECTLY TARGETED consumers.
Moving to the point of this post. Let's assume,for the moment, that using the ecommerce website as a uniquely powerful distribution platform has been adopted by the retailer's marketing braintrust. The next question is what type of content is appropriate for that platform? Because content MUST be produced specific to a platform. No one thinks that the audio track for a television commercial works as a radio spot. No one thinks that the text of a radio spot works as catalog copy. In fact, each traditional form of consumer communication is understood to require it's own unique approach to content. The same is absolutely true of content distributed through the ecommerce site. And not just "content distributed over the internet". That's a generalized as "all print copy is the same". It's not. The ecommerce site requires a very unique, very specialized approach to content development.
Future Merchants has a powerful point of view on this....please see the white paper at http://futuremerchants.com/news/White%20Paper_ETAIL_FINAL.pdf
Friday, January 15, 2010
The Retail Website as a Marketing Platform
Attention Retail Chief Marketing Officers: your single most effective marketing platform may not be TV, newsprint, radio or the Internet in general. It may be your website. The logic is simple. Virtually any visitor to your site is there by intention....interacting with your brand by choice. While this is true of anyone reading a direct mail piece or a newspaper insert, the effort required to actually be there is much greater for your website....and so is the corresponding consumer involvement. A bigger difference exists. When visiting your site, the consumer is engaged in the shopping process. We're not precisely sure where on the continuum between "interest" and "intent to buy" any one consumer is upon arrival, just that they are actively in some stage of that journey. The same is NOT true of the direct mail or newspaper insert, where the activity is "getting the mail". NOT shopping. Distinct advantage to the website as a marketing platform.
The website employs technology which enables you to deliver a multi-media message and experience. Again, this is true of television. The website has several advantages over television. First, the television audience you may be reaching is NOT composed of opt-in consumers perfectly targeted. There are a lot of useless eyeballs being paid for. Second, the activity the consumer is engaged in has nothing to do with shopping....it's being entertained. Third, the delivery of your message is actively avoided and resented by a majority of the viewers. Last, the willingness to interact with your message is limited to 15 - 30 seconds. Contrast these factors with your website. The consumer is perfectly targeted, having chosen your brand to engage with. The audience is not only "opt-in", it's activated. The messages begin delivered by your website are not resented, they are desired, and in fact, your inability to deliver guidance is a common resentment! Last, consumer viewing habits on the Web allow for message delivery in excess of THREE MINUTES.
Huge differences and advantages. Oh....there's one more.....you don't have to pay for the right to market to these consumers.....you already did that at some point in the past. So....the website AS A MARKETING PLATFORM is more powerful, better targeted, more flexible, and the audience is relatively free. Wow.
The website employs technology which enables you to deliver a multi-media message and experience. Again, this is true of television. The website has several advantages over television. First, the television audience you may be reaching is NOT composed of opt-in consumers perfectly targeted. There are a lot of useless eyeballs being paid for. Second, the activity the consumer is engaged in has nothing to do with shopping....it's being entertained. Third, the delivery of your message is actively avoided and resented by a majority of the viewers. Last, the willingness to interact with your message is limited to 15 - 30 seconds. Contrast these factors with your website. The consumer is perfectly targeted, having chosen your brand to engage with. The audience is not only "opt-in", it's activated. The messages begin delivered by your website are not resented, they are desired, and in fact, your inability to deliver guidance is a common resentment! Last, consumer viewing habits on the Web allow for message delivery in excess of THREE MINUTES.
Huge differences and advantages. Oh....there's one more.....you don't have to pay for the right to market to these consumers.....you already did that at some point in the past. So....the website AS A MARKETING PLATFORM is more powerful, better targeted, more flexible, and the audience is relatively free. Wow.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Video Programming Delivers Results for Retailers
Read an excellent summary of the conversion impact that video product demos have on sales for ecommerce. The stats show a low of 30% and a high of 100% increases in conversion rates. Still, these are solely for online volume, and only for product demo videos.
Product demo videos, we believe, should be viewed as a fundamental conversion aid, applied to as many items as possible in the online catalog. However, they are NOT a innovation in product or retail marketing. Instead, product demo videos are simply the next step in rich media imagery, and a necessary response to the evolution of technology and consumer expectations. Our belief is that video product "beauty shots" will just be a normal part of doing business.
However....using video ONLY to show product demo videos is like using a sophisticated laser to cut an finger nail. It uses only one tenth of the power of the medium, and vastly under-delivers against even existing models! Video is a multi-sensory delivery mechanism with an enormous advantage over any other method: it can be used to tell a story to a relatively passive audience. Text can tell stories....but the consumer has to work to find out what the story is about. And Text can't tell stories with the richness of video....at least without 300 pages!
What does this have to do with retail? Communicating that YOUR assortment meets the consumers needs is telling a story! If product demos are simply animated still photos, they don't tell stories. Where's the emotional connection? Where's the call to action? Where is the fundamental principle of marketing communication?
Product demo videos, we believe, should be viewed as a fundamental conversion aid, applied to as many items as possible in the online catalog. However, they are NOT a innovation in product or retail marketing. Instead, product demo videos are simply the next step in rich media imagery, and a necessary response to the evolution of technology and consumer expectations. Our belief is that video product "beauty shots" will just be a normal part of doing business.
However....using video ONLY to show product demo videos is like using a sophisticated laser to cut an finger nail. It uses only one tenth of the power of the medium, and vastly under-delivers against even existing models! Video is a multi-sensory delivery mechanism with an enormous advantage over any other method: it can be used to tell a story to a relatively passive audience. Text can tell stories....but the consumer has to work to find out what the story is about. And Text can't tell stories with the richness of video....at least without 300 pages!
What does this have to do with retail? Communicating that YOUR assortment meets the consumers needs is telling a story! If product demos are simply animated still photos, they don't tell stories. Where's the emotional connection? Where's the call to action? Where is the fundamental principle of marketing communication?
Monday, January 11, 2010
A retail-centric development model enabling powerful video programming content for multichannel retailers
In a survey of ecommerce use of video completed by Future Merchants, Inc., a key finding was the distinction between video programming and video technology. Clearly reflecting the issues of ownership, budget, and existing content availability, most survey respondents discussed “video” in terms of video technology. This is similar to discussing Sunday circular inserts in terms of printing technology, or newspaper distribution methods.
A video programming paradigm begins with the need to understand the nature of programming. Programming is a complex process of creating content designed to achieve specific objectives; one requiring that a wide array of variables be considered and aligned in support of those objectives.
Web 2.0 technology and the advent of inexpensive production methods and techniques are bringing the cost of high quality video programming down by significant amounts. Commercial quality programming, of 3 minutes or more in length, can be created and delivered for well below the six-digit budgets of the not-so-distant past. However, commercial quality retail-centric programming content development falls outside the critical skill domains most retailers have in-house.
Retail-centric programming will not be successful by trying to push specific products. Instead, recapturing the original basis for retail brand equity (trust), retail-centric programming requires a focus on the consumer. People buy products based on needs. Future Merchants has developed a unique process that systematically mines activity in Social Networks and the Blogosphere to identify common challenges associated with large groups of consumers. These challenges are then translated into programming topics consumers are verifiably interested in and require empowerment around.
The programming must encompass a complete solution to that consumer need, delivering both the information about how to resolve the need as well as specifically what to buy. The Solutions™ service created by Future Merchants leverages this insight to create content uniquely designed to sell merchandise. Now, more than ever, it is imperative that retail brands reestablish equity with the consumer based on demonstrable benefits……providing product solutions which make life easier.
Recent research shows that consumers are far more likely to trust programming featuring more than one product and brand than those featuring a single brand/product. Inherently, a single brand or product video is experienced as a form of advertising. As importantly to the retailer, the benefit of featuring multiple products or brands is that the emotional connection which is created reinforces the overall retail brand, not a specific supplier’s.
Comparatively, retail-centric programming, such as Solutions™, is to current ecommerce website hosted marketing what limited sku-count glossy seasonal direct mail catalogs were to newspaper inserts. The real change is created by developing programs that connect with common consumer needs; an emotional connection that not only drives sales for the products integrated into the programming, and also significantly enhances the retail brand connection.
A video programming paradigm begins with the need to understand the nature of programming. Programming is a complex process of creating content designed to achieve specific objectives; one requiring that a wide array of variables be considered and aligned in support of those objectives.
Web 2.0 technology and the advent of inexpensive production methods and techniques are bringing the cost of high quality video programming down by significant amounts. Commercial quality programming, of 3 minutes or more in length, can be created and delivered for well below the six-digit budgets of the not-so-distant past. However, commercial quality retail-centric programming content development falls outside the critical skill domains most retailers have in-house.
Retail-centric programming will not be successful by trying to push specific products. Instead, recapturing the original basis for retail brand equity (trust), retail-centric programming requires a focus on the consumer. People buy products based on needs. Future Merchants has developed a unique process that systematically mines activity in Social Networks and the Blogosphere to identify common challenges associated with large groups of consumers. These challenges are then translated into programming topics consumers are verifiably interested in and require empowerment around.
The programming must encompass a complete solution to that consumer need, delivering both the information about how to resolve the need as well as specifically what to buy. The Solutions™ service created by Future Merchants leverages this insight to create content uniquely designed to sell merchandise. Now, more than ever, it is imperative that retail brands reestablish equity with the consumer based on demonstrable benefits……providing product solutions which make life easier.
Recent research shows that consumers are far more likely to trust programming featuring more than one product and brand than those featuring a single brand/product. Inherently, a single brand or product video is experienced as a form of advertising. As importantly to the retailer, the benefit of featuring multiple products or brands is that the emotional connection which is created reinforces the overall retail brand, not a specific supplier’s.
Comparatively, retail-centric programming, such as Solutions™, is to current ecommerce website hosted marketing what limited sku-count glossy seasonal direct mail catalogs were to newspaper inserts. The real change is created by developing programs that connect with common consumer needs; an emotional connection that not only drives sales for the products integrated into the programming, and also significantly enhances the retail brand connection.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Marketing NOT Selling
The world has shifted in the past several years, and if the old saying that there's a silver lining to every cloud has merit, then there are benefits to the retail community of this recession. One of them, I believe, is a reawakening of the need to "market" to consumers, not to "sell". What's the distinction?
"Selling" is a product focused approach to moving merchandise into the hands of consumers. Period. Without respect to actual needs, value, or usability. The intent and objective is simply to sell merchandise. Hard to fault that simple premise, as selling stuff is what retailers do. Or do they?
"Marketing" is a consumer focused approach to meeting the needs of shoppers through the benefits delivered by specific products. Is this semantics or is it a critical distinction? My company believes strongly that "marketing" is the real mission of retailers, not "selling", and that understanding the needs of consumers and then managing the assortment to meet those needs is Job One. Many merchants understand this both intellectually and instinctually. The problem is that the benefits of the products are not being "marketed" so that the consumer can identify with the needs they solve.
Online offers the greatest opportunity to actually market in the entire retail sphere. In store will always be limited by very short attention spans, destination shopping behavior, and a limited physical space for presentation, display and marketing. In store marketing is a challenge. It always will be. Online, however, has different characteristics which make it ideal for a more involved marketing strategy.
The industry might be well served to look at every available method for using the ecommerce site as a "marketing" platform first and foremost, and as a selling channel second. If the marketing is successful, the selling will follow! And if that effort is to be successful, an examination of the methods and tactics that will drive success is worth the time and effort.
"Selling" is a product focused approach to moving merchandise into the hands of consumers. Period. Without respect to actual needs, value, or usability. The intent and objective is simply to sell merchandise. Hard to fault that simple premise, as selling stuff is what retailers do. Or do they?
"Marketing" is a consumer focused approach to meeting the needs of shoppers through the benefits delivered by specific products. Is this semantics or is it a critical distinction? My company believes strongly that "marketing" is the real mission of retailers, not "selling", and that understanding the needs of consumers and then managing the assortment to meet those needs is Job One. Many merchants understand this both intellectually and instinctually. The problem is that the benefits of the products are not being "marketed" so that the consumer can identify with the needs they solve.
Online offers the greatest opportunity to actually market in the entire retail sphere. In store will always be limited by very short attention spans, destination shopping behavior, and a limited physical space for presentation, display and marketing. In store marketing is a challenge. It always will be. Online, however, has different characteristics which make it ideal for a more involved marketing strategy.
The industry might be well served to look at every available method for using the ecommerce site as a "marketing" platform first and foremost, and as a selling channel second. If the marketing is successful, the selling will follow! And if that effort is to be successful, an examination of the methods and tactics that will drive success is worth the time and effort.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Retail industry dynamics have produced an almost unprecedented level of inconsistency in the use, type, and accessibility of video on ecommerce sites. Apparently, the normal market forces of trial and error have not helped to guide an emerging consensus. Something is missing, and perhaps the answers lie in how “video” is perceived by the retail industry, and where within each organization the decision making concerning video seems to lie.
In the course of their survey, Future Merchants spoke directly with most of the Top 100 ecommerce retailers about the adoption and use of video. Without exception, those enquiries were routed to executives within the ecommerce organization. From that point onward, ownership of the topic of “video” began to vary significantly.
The results show that multi-channel retail organizations have difficulty identifying where the ownership of “video” should lie, with the exception of clearly believing it is an “ecommerce” issue. This fact provides extraordinary insight into the resources, types of content and tactics taken in implementing video. Tellingly, the cost-benefit calculation becomes limited to measurable impact on ecommerce volume, which represents a very small fraction of the total volume for almost all multi-channel retailers. This means that any expense, of any kind, will be analyzed solely on the lift generated in online volume. Ecommerce organizations are not typically evaluated or rewarded on the basis of in-store impact. Correspondingly, allocation of resources of all kinds will go to those initiatives that drive online volume first and foremost, despite conversion rates online in the single digits, and a growing awareness of the degree to which brick & mortar shoppers are exposed to and influenced by the website.
Second, there does not appear to be a department, organization or individual within these companies responsible for the creation of the video content. Lack of ownership within the ecommerce organization immediately begins to define how, where and to what extent the medium will be utilized. Most of the job titles found in the Future Merchants survey were either User Experience in nature, or ECom Technical. Even when a Marketing title was found, that individual operated within the constraints of ecommerce marketing, where Job 1 (and Job 2, 3, 4 and 100!) is the efficient use of limited marketing dollars to drive site traffic. So without dedicated internal organizational ownership, where is this video content going to come from?
This is an extraordinarily important point. Without direct ownership of content development, there is no budget established to fund the effort of creating content. The results are seen in the lack of sustainability alluded to earlier. When video programming is found on multi-channel sites, it is, with few exceptions, either repurposed content developed through corporate marketing (such as television commercials) to run on an entirely different platform (TV) or it is the result of one-off corporate marketing expenditures supporting specific events (exclusive brand launches, seasonal microsites, social media marketing, etc)….where the internal ROI has been measured by the impact on all channel volume! And moreover, the nature of where that programming comes from tends to mitigate toward branding connections, not toward driving sales behind specific products.
More insight into the issues and answers to retail websites and video programming will be delivered at the upcoming eTail West convention. Don Delzell, Managing Director of Future Merchants will be a Panelist on the Day Two Session: Driving Returns from Online Video With An Understanding of the Nuts and Bolts Behind Execution. Don will be offering a unique perspective on the issues behind the current industry experience with video.
Future Merchants has created RetailTV®, a revolutionary innovation combining over 50 years experience in retail merchandising, the art and science of master storytelling, and best in class technology to bring retail clients a powerful new method for driving cross-channel volume for key items.
Combining Solutions™ programming with the RetailTV® platform enables retailers to easily integrate powerful video storytelling anywhere on their website, while creating an interactive and seamlessly shoppable experience for their customers, driving sales on featured items across all channels.
The Future Merchants mission is to provide multi-channel retailers an affordable, high impact alternative to the declining effectiveness of traditional key item marketing techniques; an alternative that simultaneously engages the consumer, enhances the brand, and drives volume.
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