Stop losing valuable consumers! 

Honey Monster Sampling Campaign Advances in technology coupled with tough economic times have changed the way consumers shop, forcing brands to create innovative strategies in both online and retail environments to keep them trading.  

The rapid growth in technology have left the traditional marketing model at best ineffective. Savvy consumers are getting cynical about promotional strategies, leading brands and retailers to find inventive ways to best fit their desires, beliefs and lifestyles. Adapting your strategy to lure and help shoppers to get the most out of their shopping experience is critical if you want to influence decisions and make them choose your brand.

In today’s world, consumers are better equipped to manage their choices, looking for a higher perceived value and greater convenience. They care a lot about customer experience and are increasingly using their smartphones for online support and price comparison. Additionally, word of mouth can travel globally in few minutes, influencing consumers perceptions through trusted and often personal sources.

With Facebook commerce and the latest digital innovations bridging the gap between the online and offline worlds, companies have become increasingly creative in designing user experiences that are interactive, socially integrated, personally tailored, and deeply embedded into our everyday activities. Shopping in the real world has also become an important leisure experience where consumers look for personalised experiences and value brands who treat them as individuals. Therefore, how are you responding to this ever-changing environment and engaging your audience to consider and buy your products?

Winning consumers in-store

According to McKinsey research, up to 40% of shoppers change their minds in-store. Brands not only have to align all the elements of marketing communications, but also generate maximum impact through different touch-points across the consumer decision journey. But how do you make sure you are not wasting your out-of-store marketing activities and losing potential consumers to in-store competitors?

With the current economical downturn, price becomes a major factor to influence purchase decision. Surely today, brands can not rely on simply giving away coupons. A real experience with your brand is a powerful way to draw in new consumers, providing them with the opportunity to try your product, explain your brand benefits and start conversations.

The Apple Retail Store is a great example of the ultimate customer experience. Famously known for its customer-friendly environment, the intensively trained staff can deliver a personal shopping service, demonstrating helpfulness in solving problems. The interactivity with displayed products also creates a unique experience for each individual consumer, which is very influential during the consumer decision journey, leading to immediate purchase or next time purchase consideration.

Experiential activities near or inside the retail environment are becoming catalysts for engaging consumers and influencing buying consideration. This was exemplified by Fairtrade’s ‘All Good Bananas’ campaign in a supermarket in New Zealand. In order to persuade shoppers to purchase their products, the brand enlisted an audio-spotlight device, which could only be heard by one person at a time, making it the perfect tool for communicating their intimate message. When shoppers stepped onto the floor sticker, they could hear a message claiming to be the listener’s inner voice and subtly encouraging them to buy Fairtrade products.

Another great example is Hotcow’s award winning Honey Monster cereal campaign. We created a playful and engaging experience with product sampling in front of supermarkets, giving customers the chance to taste, trial and enjoy the product. We achieved a very high level of brand awareness and product sales increased up to 900% in retail locations, having continued to rise for up to 4 weeks after the activity.

In order to encourage shoppers to go in store and buy your products, a clear understanding of how people act and react to live brand experiences is critical if you want to maximise the ROI achieved from your campaign. What’s more, interactive experiences with fun elements will create a positive engagement with your brand, which  will not only stimulate sales, but lead to a high level of conversion after initial purchase.

Hotcow is a multi-award winning brand engagement agency specialising in experiential marketing. Our mission is simple: to help brands understand the power of “experience-based marketing” and offer expertise in how to develop, plan and execute campaigns in the right way to get the right results.

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