Alberta Business Marketing

Empowering consumers to relate to a brand in their own personal way is the new horizon of innovation. Creating imaginative product ideas that allow consumers to explore, create and share is a new extension of real time co-creation. Brands can learn from these new co-creations and deploy new vectors of growth, based on new product ideas. The opportunities are endless.

Coca-Cola tested its Freestyle vending machines in 2009 and is rolling out the machines in the US this year. The machines offer consumers a touch-screen with an incredible 100+ different beverage choices ranging from Diet Cherry Coke to Dasani waters. Customers can even create their own combinations of flavours. Already, Coke lists a portfolio of more than 3,500 beverages, from diet and regular sparkling beverages to still beverages on its website.

In today’s mature markets, a popular strategy has been to take mass customization to the next level, to create highly personalized brand experiences for existing products. Coke has launched apps for social networks that allow consumers to create and name their own drinks. In the future, it may be possible for an app to create a bar code for a customized flavour that a vending machine can create.

Customization is driving collaborative consumption

The buzz word for C2C (Consumer to Consumer) commerce is 'collaborative consumption'. An example is Airbnb. Less than four years old since launch, the website provides accommodations in nearly 11,000 cities in 180 countries. According to Inc Magazine, Airbnb’s popularity has exploded recently, growing more than 800% last year. Airbnb reports it has booked 1.6 million night stays in other people’s homes to date. Airbnb allows its members to customize their vacaction accomodations based on a number of variables.

Five steps to deploy collaborative consumption

1. Explore surprising vectors of innovation of your products.
2. Define the relevance of these vectors. Which ones delight customers?
3. Create an experiential component to the brand. How will customers create unique experiences for themselves?
4. Create communication channels to allow customers to share ideas and innovations.
5. Stay true to the brand position. Look for innovations that reinforce the brand idea.

What other examples of mass customization are working for brands?

Tags: Branding, Customer Experience, Mobile
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Many critics have been raving about the rapid adoption rate of Google's new SM platform Google+ . If you're to just look at the raw data, their quickly growing user base is certainly impressive. After all, it only took 10 days for Google to amass a staggering 10 million users - a milestone that took years for Facebook and Twitter to reach.

With such a massive flood of new participants, it would seem that, surely, Google+ is the next big thing. Right? Unfortunately, I think we've neglected one key variable when making this comparison: ease of adoption. Like hundreds of millions of other people, I use Google's webmail service Gmail. That means I have a Google account that allows for customized searching, mapping, panda video watching, et. al. The list goes on and on, each hook connected to the last. Much of what I do online is connected back to them. So, when Google+ was launched, they had an easy opportunity to reach me. I signed into my email one day and Google+ was right there in front of me. The sign-up process was lightning fast and easy. Which makes sense, considering they already had a swarm of info about me in their database.

My point is this: when it came time for Google to recruit new users, they had a vast pool of extremely warm leads to draw from. Now, let's compare this experience to, say, Facebook. I had never heard of Facebook when it came out. I received emails from friends inviting me to join, but I was skeptical because these things don't always catch. Then there was the privacy issue. It was weird to give some (at the time) unknown entity a bunch of info bits about where I went to school and what personal info I wanted to share with "friends". I had to visit a new website - nay - an entirely new form of the Internet, and say "yeah, I'll give these guys a chance to impress me".. Google+ grew fast because the high-level trust with the brand was already there. Facebook and Twitter had to overcome a lot more barriers to win us over. And in my opinion, it's far more impressive - and perhaps a better indicator of future success - to win people over based on the offering itself vs. the brand behind the offer.

Perhaps Google+ is destined to become the next big thing. All the face-value indications are pointing in that direction. But I'm going to sit on it before predicting mammoth success. Because it's one thing to sign up - but it's another to keep signing in.

Brook Johnston

Tags: Customer Experience, social media, technology
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Not to keep banging on about my trip to Italy but the food (and wine) was amazing. Wood-oven thin crust pizza with tomato sauce so fresh and flavourful topped with large leaves of basil and creamy buffalo mozzarella. Not to mention pairing it with a fine Chianti; who knew house wines could be so good! And the gelato – the limone and pistachio (that’s pronounced – pist – ack – eo). All of this while sitting in a cafe watching the Italians go by. Let’s face it, they know how to dress and ooze style. Women in stilettos driving on scooters, men wearing scarves stylishly knotted at the neck. What an experience!

Ahh back to reality... (and now that summer is here not too harsh of a reality). Yesterday I was at the Royal Botanical Garden -a beautiful venue - where I was practising what I preach; networking after a networking workshop I did for the Burlington Chamber. While sipping on wine we got to talking about wineries. Living a half hour drive from Niagara wine country we lamented how good the wine tastes when you are at a winery and the winemaker is passionately telling you about the grapes he selected, why he selected them and his entire process from vine to bottle. Top that off with tasting tips on how to best enjoy it in the glass (letting it breath, swirling before smelling and tasting – you get the idea). One of my fellow networkers Rick lamented “and then you buy three cases but it just doesn’t taste the same at home”.

We are sensory beings ruled by emotion vs. logic (although we like to think the contrary). We respond to stories, are stimulated by sight and sound. It’s how we’re wired or hard wired according to Evolutionary Psychology which tells us our brains haven’t changed all that much since we roamed the Savannah. It is indeed the emotion we feel from experiences that shape our lives.

As a business we have an opportunity to create a mediocre or spectacular experience. So what kind of an experience are you giving your customers? Is it happen-stance or have you carefully crafted it to meet their needs. Is it consistent and memorable or easily forgettable? Back in my advertising days, one of my key messages to clients was “I can get them in the door, what are you going to do keep them”. Before you discard the concept, thinking your business is different, you don’t sell wine or food, think again – a transformational experience is possible in any business, it simply needs to be gift wrapped uniquely for your customer. And the bonus – companies that provide exceptional experiences are rewarded with loyal customers that happily pay a premium. Perhaps it’s time for your company to move into brand prominence.

Shelley McQuade

Tags: Branding, Customer Experience, This and That
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Many media agencies in Canada are struggling with the increased asks of their clients to plan media around the “path to purchase,” rather than through established consumption habits.

AC Nielsen has published some very intriguing data on how mining the differences between the generation gaps can provide specific insight that can be applied to everything from ad planning to promotional assortment: This could be the next generation (no pun intended) of shopper marketing.

How a 60 year old and a 20 year old prepare for -and execute- their retail shopping trip is quite different, however they still may buy the exact same soda, soup, and sandwich bread once they get to the store. Their interactions with the brands to get there may be different, but the end goal of the individual marketing activity remains the same: to help people make better purchase decisions along the way.

The brands that people love, the shoppers that buy them, and the retailers that provide the environment (either physical or virtual) to sell them are all beginning to embrace the opportunities that generational analytics can provide.

Brands
With the growing focus many brands have on activating the path to purchase, there has been an enormous amount of consideration put on the common traits shared by their target shoppers. We are seeing a tremendous amount of innovation in things like packaging in this respect. Some products targeting the 55+ set are changing theirs to specifically address vision impairment, so their products show up more easily on shelf. Other products are putting QR codes or augmented reality markers on their products in order to allow a completely different level of interaction and engagement with the brand at retail. Some brand media plans are being reconstructed to better align with shopping habits, with focus moving from TV to retailer web, from outdoor to on-shelf communication, going where the generational target can have their purchase consideration most affected.

Shoppers
The faster marketers can adapt to the shopping habits of their targets, the better they will be able to optimize the messaging that will generate awareness and purchase intent. It is curious to note that even though shoppers of the “greatest generation” are the ones who most rate shopping as a ‘chore’, they are also the most likely to spend time walking the entire store – leaving them open to incremental signage and opportunities for impulse purchase. On the flip side, Millennials – who shop the least of any segment- actually love shopping, but research first so as not to spend as much time on the actual store floor. They key with them is pre-shop activities via SEO, social, WOM, and electronic couponing. The fundamental truth to engaging shoppers is the understanding that the act of shopping is not just a behavior, but also a generational mindset.

Retailers
You can read articles over and over regarding the impending arrival of US mega retailer Target and what they will do to the general merchandise landscape in Canada. The Nielsen article rightfully describes how Target has created a niche by catering to the Gen X and Millennial segments through trippy advertising, with fully designed shopper marketing executions and promotion of “now” celeb tie-ins like Todd Oldham and Giada De Laurentiis. Those of you who have made the trip past our southern border to pay them a visit may find the advertising and shopper executions around Loblaws new Everyday Essentials lineup rings a little familiar. Loblaw however, has done some fantastic work merging their segmentation research and shopper marketing executions on the grocery side, parlaying it into four massively supported Insiders Report executions around their core generational constituencies (Back to School, Summer BBQ, Holiday Entertaining, and Health and Wellness). Both the retailer and manufacturer communities are taking notice. It’s also notable that retailers like Shoppers Drug Mart are adopting a generational shopper approach for their promotional planning, where diverse tactics like social media, solution-set orientation, loyalty programming, and seniors days are being employed (and integrated) to cater to the interests of their shopper continuum from 18-68 years and beyond.

The Nielson article reference is for US data… Feel free to share any great examples of generational marketing delivering innovative shopper experiences in Canada!

Jason Dubroy

Tags: Customer Experience, Integration, Research, Strategy
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Ground Reality

• South Asian and Chinese Canadians (SACHIN) markets are the fastest growing segments. South Asian Canadian market grew by 37% and Chinese-Canadian by 18% during the last reported census period, compared to 5.4% total population growth during the same period.
• Many businesses are reaching out and selling to SACHIN markets. Few are doing a decent job, majority are testing the waters or executing “also-ran” campaigns.
• Despite fast growing, SACHIN is a niche market. Businesses allocate a small marketing budget that fall short in developing, integrating and implementing strategic marketing campaigns.
• Market research costs are high and do not justify it in many cases. Thus Shotgun-marketing initiatives are launched with minimal research and pre & post campaign surveys.

Challenges

• Smaller ad spend do not provide for hiring / retaining best marketing and strategic minds. Most multicultural ad & media agencies are either creative houses that can also do media placements or vice versa and lack strategy to drive creative and media.
• Marketers tend to work with one agency for ease of operations, either Chinese or South Asian, catering for both the markets. This results in sub-par performance in one of the markets and wasted ad spend.
• Agencies present channel-heavy tactical campaigns to maximize revenues from smaller ad spend. These campaigns are not most innovative and cost-effective options.
• Market research and ad monitoring often get short-changed resulting in less than optimum market understanding and learning, which are so vital for operational efficiencies in nascent markets.

Solution

• Multicultural markets give a carte blanche to marketers to build brands and grow. Approach these markets with a long-term strategic outlook and a two-year plan in place to grow their market share from x to y.
• Though many consider multicultural marketing budgets inadequate, I recommend better targeting and improved accountability to stretch marketing dollars. Media inflation will come later.
• Instead of engaging one creative or media agency for both the SACHIN market segments, work with a dedicated agency for each segment to leverage segment expertise. Moreover, I recommend working with marketing agencies or consultants who can lead with great strategy that drives creative and media. Marketing consultants or agencies bring more to the table in the shape of integrated services, that is, market research, strategy, creative development, media buying and branded content.
• Use cost-effective online surveys that can help all stakeholders (marketers, media and ad agencies) circumvent costly market research, get useful insights and justify investments in it.
• We hear a clarion call for channel-neutral ad campaigns that engage customers beyond traditional media. Channel-neutral campaigns are not focused on media only and may engage customers with outstanding message, direct marketing, social media, experiential marketing and branded content. It may get less touch points but is high on engagement. I recommend approaching marketing objectives with a channel-neutral mindset and then opt for a high touch-point and/or high-engagement execution to achieve your objectives.

Fazal Siddiqi
(Full Disclosure: the writer works as a multicultural marketing consultant)

Tags: Customer Experience, Strategy
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