AUTHOR: Marshall Akita
Despite what you might have heard, the omnishopper is not an entirely new phenomenon. She is not some mysterious Generation-Y computer genius that can simultaneously process thousands of reviews on Amazon while, at the same time, skipping over every digital advertisement that she comes across. The omnishopper is, in fact, you. Don’t believe me? Think about your buying behavior today. If you make a large purchase, you probably spend some time considering your alternatives. You’ll look on company websites and read reviews online. Then you’ll go to the store, ask a sales rep about the product, and finalize your decision. During the course of your search, you will have consumed marketing messages from at least a dozen sources before finally settling in on you choice.
If that sounds like a far cry from the nightmare scenario of omnishoppers ‘winning’ some sort of battle against marketers, you would be correct. In fact, people have been consuming marketing information from as many sources as possible for millennia—there are advertisements scratched into the walls of Pompeii—but with each additional medium, marketers have had to learn to adapt. With the advent of the newspaper, advertisers had to learn how to give their messages truly mass appeal; with radio, marketers had to figure out how to make their products sound good; with television, the trick was to get the product to look good. Each new era built off of the successes of the past to create increasingly effective messages. What then, is the trick to reaching today’s digital omnishopper?
Where digital media can help the modern marketer is in making the product feel good. The trick here is to use what has already worked, incorporating the advantages that digital media offers. Don’t just give the consumer features; give them a rich experience that begins with your marketing by:
Reaching them when and where it matters:
Digital gives you unparalleled access to your customers at the time and place in which they make decisions related to your product. Nowhere is this more true than digital out of home, which can allow you to reach your clients in the hospital, at the store, or anywhere else that both you and they do business. By engaging the customer while they are in the right frame of mind, your company can ensure the best results from it marketing budget. A recent Neilson study showed that four out of five companies saw up to 33% sales increase from digital out of home strategies.
Staying adaptable and responding to what matters to your customers:
The pace of marketing is increasing, so it pays to be adaptable. Conventional marketing strategies take a long time to prepare and to change if necessary. Digital, on the other hand, can be altered almost immediately to better suit the needs of your business. Whether you are running promotions, testing different variations of a message, or simply trying to keep your marketing campaign fresh and novel, nothing moves at the speed of digital, making it the ideal platform for staying directly responsive to your customers.
Presenting a diversified media campaign:
Traditional media is not going to go away, but it is also not as relevant as it once was. This has always been the case with the introduction of new media forms—radio threatened print and television threatened both—and that can be both a cause for excitement and concern. It pays to be ahead of the curve, and there is no better time than the present to begin. Digital media, especially digital out of home (see my previous post on the Dos and Don’ts of Digital Marketing), allows your company many more opportunities to reach your customers and to actively engage them. Pairing this with a mobile, web, or retail strategy can help to move customers down the sales funnel, keeping them engaged and interested the entire time.
The omnishopper isn’t a new person, simply the same people that you already know with access to new tools. These new tools necessitate a softer approach to marketing, but not an inherently different one. Change where you interact with your customers, not how, and ensure that you are keeping them engaged while you do. Marketing hasn’t changed, simply where you can market. The balance doesn’t have to be swinging in favor of the consumer, but could just as easily favor the smart marketer who knows her customers and who can engage them when and where they make their purchasing decisions.
About Pet Cause Media
Pet Cause Media is the national leader in veterinary pre-education and digital out of home marketing in veterinary offices. We work closely with our veterinary and sponsor partners to ensure full compatibility and maximum results. Visit our website (petcausemedia.com) or contact Marshall Akita (marshall@petcausemedia.com) for more details.
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