Download Branding in the digital age – you`re spending your money in all the

Branding in the digital age – you’re spending your money in all the wrong
places.
Source: David C Edelman McKinsey & Company 2010
The way that consumers engage with brands has changed dramatically over the
past five years, yet most marketers are still relying heavily on traditional media,
and traditional touch points like tv, radio and print.
Consumers still want a clear brand promise and an offer that they value.
However what has changed is when and at what touch points they are most
open to influence, and how companies can best interact with them at these
points.
The old “funnel” metaphor showed consumers starting at the wide end of the
funnel with many brands in mind then narrowing them down to a final choice. The
traditional approach was to use paid-media push marketing (TV, radio etc.) at a
few well defined points along the funnel to build awareness, drive consideration
and ultimately inspire purchase. This metaphor no longer applies and as a result
marketing dollars are being spent in the wrong places, often at the wrong time in
the decision lifecycle…..
In 2009 three McKinsey colleagues developed a new view of the Consumer
Decision Journey based on a study of over 20,000 consumers across 5
industries and 3 continents.
A major insight was that far from narrowing their choices, today’s consumers take
a more iterative and less reductive journey in 4 stages:




Consider
Evaluate
Buy and Enjoy
Advocate and Bond
Top of mind brands from
ads, point of sale, friends
etc.Today, with so many
choices and media
sources, consumers have
already reduced the
number of brands from the
outset….
Today’s consumer may add to his
brand choice and reject some of the
original set as they take on
information from various sources.
Their active search for information
will have more influence than the
push advertising of the brand itself
Consider
Evaluate
The loyalty
loop
Bond
Advocate
Enjoy
Buy
Increasingly consumers put
off the purchase decision
until they are in store and
may be influenced at that
moment. So point of
purchase marketing exploiting placement,
packaging, pricing, sales
interaction becomes an
even more powerful touch
point.
Enjoy, advocate, bond..
After purchase, a deeper connection builds as the consumer
interacts with the product and with new online touch points.
Over 60% of consumers of a facial skin care product
conducted online research AFTER purchase. Happy
consumers advocate by word of mouth and on-line to their
tribes and communities via Facebook etc. Unhappy
consumers use the same channels but with far reaching
negative consequences for the brand owner. With a strong
bond the consumer will enter into the enjoy advocate buy
loop without entering the consider and evaluate stages.
Key considerations for brands
1. instead of focusing on how to allocate spending across media – television,
radio, online etc – brands should target stages in the decision journey.
The research shows that there is a serious mismatch between marketing
allocation and the touch points at which consumers are best influenced. 70% to
90% of marketing spend is going to advertising and retail promotions that reach
consumers at the consider and buy stages.
Yet there is more chance to influence at the evaluate and enjoy-advocate-bond
stages.
In many categories, the single biggest impetus to buy is someone else’s
advocacy.
Yet most marketing focuses on media spend rather than driving advocacy.
2. Marketers must distinguish between owned media (the channels a brand
controls like its website, tv etc.) and earned media (customer created channels
such as communities and brand enthusiasts). A higher proportion of budget
needs to go to support the people and technology required to create and manage
content for a profusion of channels and to monitor or participate in them.
An in depth pilot of this approach by a global consumer electronics group
discovered:
 Off line channels like TV advertising, in store browsing, and direct word of
mouth were only influential during the consider stage.
 At the evaluate stage consumers were very open to influence and went to
Amazon.com and retail product comparison sites, studying consumer and
expert ratings of products. Only 1 in 10 went to the manufacturer’s site
YET MOST COMPANIES ARE PUTTING THE BULK OF THEIR DIGITAL
SPEND HERE.

The research also highlighted the frequency of discussion about their
purchases on social network and review sites online – particularly when
they were stimulated by retailer’s post-purchase e-mails.

About one third of shoppers who had considered a specific brand online
during the evaluation stage walked out of a store during the buy stage
confused and frustrated by the inconsistencies of information between
online and offline sources.

In online discussion groups and forums, there was confusion and
inconsistencies of information due to the technical nature of the prouct and
little was said about the brand itself, reducing the impact of any online
advocacy – a key goal in these channels.
Actions taken by the company:
1. Spending shifted away from paid media
2. Ensured consistency of links and information across all sites where the
product is linked – include clear, jargon free technical data
3. Created content specifically for Amazon which was the key touch point in
the evaluation stage
4. Agressively distributed positive third party reviews online and had its paid
media direct consumers to online environments that included promotions
and community initiatives, contests and email promotions.
Tips



Shift the percentage of marketing spend on owned media to earned
media
Make the customer’s experience coherent
Extend the boundaries of the brand



Conclusion
Look at new roles for marketing to address the change of focus
(content publisher)
Start narrow to understand the impact of the change in approach
before going companywide
Make the consumer’s brand experience central to enterprise
strategy