What can we learn from the electronics category?

Trend Observation:  I live in Minneapolis, the home-base to retail giants like Target and Best Buy.  So I take no pleasure in sharing a story from today’s New York Times about the shake-up in the retail category of electronics, which focuses particularly on Best Buy.  Click here to see it.

Marketing Implications:  In part, Best Buy’s success was in using their massive size to create a price advantage; their sheer scale and buying power let them out-price competitors (remember Circuit City, or other smaller retailers who are long gone?).  In a way, Amazon and Walmart are doing some of the same things.  Amazon skips the expense of a physical store and staff by selling online, and can thus sell cheaper.  And while Walmart might offer a more limited variety of electronics, it can sell those products cheaper, again, due to scale.  It might seem that a couple of big competitors are doing unto Best Buy what Best Buy did unto others only a few years ago.

While they don’t disclose revenue in the story, Best Buy competitor Abt Electronics is attracting customers with experiences.  Target is also less enchanted with the price strategy, opting to begin carrying more Apple products. 

What is your competitive advantage?  Could it be used against you, in months or years from now?  Is your competitive advantage as relevant as it once was, or should you be considering new approaches?  All of these are questions, of course, that are best answered by involving your best customers and target consumers.  After all… they’re the ones who will decide whether or not someone is “best.”

Mike Anderson, for the Elm Street Economics consumer trends blog. A service of The Center for Sales Strategy, Inc.

Is your marketing upwardly mobile?

Observation:   Over the past few days, there has been a flurry of writing about marketing in the mobile space (yes, even more than usual for this popular topic).  For example, today’s Research Brief cites MAG research that up to fifty percent of car buyers will use their smartphone in the research or shopping process (click to link).

In the supermarket category, today’s Facts, Figures and the Future newsletter from Phil Lempert sources NPD Research in saying that 25 million Americans have downloaded some form of coupon-providing apps to their mobile device (click to link).

Implications:  Okay, it’s easy to get excited, but hold on just a minute here.  Before you rush out to spend big money on an “app” for your company, product or service, remember what happened with social media.  Everyone said, “You’ve gotta be on Facebook or you’ll miss the boat.”  So lots of companies created a FB page for no apparent reason, and started inviting their “fans” to “like” them.

Why should I?

As you read both of these two stories (which I selected quite at random), note that the mobile device tactic is designed to satisfy a consumer need… and move the relationship further up the ladder toward a sale or continued loyalty.  Like any other advertising or marketing endeavor, your mobile tactics should support your overall marketing strategy.  So…

In what ways might you enhance your relationship with consumers, as you transcend face-to-face, and move into the mobile space?

Mike Anderson, for the Elm Street Economics consumer trends blog. A service of The Center for Sales Strategy, Inc.

Consumer experiences on the web are improving

Observation:  Consumers are having more favorable experiences when shopping on the web, according to this story from today’s Marketing Daily.  Click here to see it.

Implications:   What this means, of course, is that your company’s website is never finished.  About the time you think it is, other companies have raised the bar with regard to the services, shopping and experiences consumers should expect when they go online.

The best way to decide what features to offer on your website?  Talk with your consumer, and understand them better than any of your competitors.  Know what they hope to accomplish when they go online… and deliver on those needs better.

You’ll never know everything there is to know about digital marketing (and when you think you do, it’s changing under your feet).  But by focusing on your customers, your digital strategy can deliver what matters most… to your customers, and thus, to your company.

Mike Anderson, for the Elm Street Economics consumer trends blog. A service of The Center for Sales Strategy, Inc.

Abandoning the in-store shopping cart: Smartphones intercepting retail purchases

Observation:  Fifty-three percent of mobile commerce users say they have halted an in-store purchase because of an offer or information they found online, while in the store.  That’s according to research from the Internet Advertising Bureau as published today at MobileCommerceDaily.com.   Among mobile device owners, 73% have used their smartphone in-store.  Click here to see the full story.

Implications:   We’ve written about “Showrooming” in this space before (see the series by clicking here), but it seems new data is constantly arriving to illustrate just how pervasive the practice might be.

If you have a physical location—and I’ve suggested this before—wouldn’t it be smart to have a strategy where small business-card-sized brochures could be placed near the price on each shelf, containing the URL to your store’s website (and perhaps an offer that would incentivize the use of your site)?  If consumers are going to take the shopping experience online, at least they stand a better chance of continuing to do that shopping with you.  

[Note:  Thanks to friend and colleague Matt Sunshine for passing along the MobileCommerceDaily.com story along!]

Mike Anderson, for the Elm Street Economics consumer trends blog. A service of The Center for Sales Strategy, Inc.

Searching for simplicity: Consumers want technology to make life easier

Observation:  Citing a study by Ketchum, a story in today’s Marketing Daily suggests that consumers want technology make their lives easier.  Click here to see the story.

Implications:   It might sound like this report is stating the obvious, but the fact of the matter is many companies have completely overlooked this one simple request of the consumer.  We tend to think of innovation as adding another feature, or more bells and whistles… when the reality is that the best innovation can occur when we take something away.  Think iPod (reducing the many buttons and controls of previous music players to a single button and a dial).  Think Jiffy Lube (reducing the previously complex process of taking your car in for service to a ten-minute, oil-change-only experience).

Is your website filled with bells and whistles?  Or does it simplify the relationship between you and your consumer?  How about the in-store experience?  Would the best innovations mean adding some elements, or taking some away?

Mike Anderson, for the Elm Street Economics consumer trends blog. A service of The Center for Sales Strategy, Inc.

Moms using smartphones on the go. (Literally.)

Observation:  Research from Meredith’s Parents Network indicates that one in five moms consume media while in the bathroom.  The study was cited in a story by Online Media Daily, and you can click here to see the full story.

Implications:   If you still don’t believe we live in a multi-tasking world after reading the OMD story, I don’t know what to say.

Mike Anderson, for the Elm Street Economics consumer trends blog. A service of The Center for Sales Strategy, Inc.

Showrooming strikes again. But this time, Target strikes back.

Observation:  Target has decided to stop selling Kindle e-readers, according to a story from USA Today.  The article suggests that part of the reason might be what is called showrooming; when people take a hands-on look at a product in store, but then go online (either at home or from their phone) to buy the item at a cheaper price from an Internet vendor.  The story indicates that another motive might be the Apple mini-stores that are scheduled for launch in a number of Target locations (Apple’s iPad would be considered a direct competitor to Amazon’s Kindle).   Click here to see the story.

Implications:   One way to beat “showrooming” is to offer a product enhancement, service, or sales experience that online vendors can’t deliver.  It seems to me that Target has decided to do just that… but just not with Kindles.

[To see our prior stories on Showrooming, click here.]

Mike Anderson, for the Elm Street Economics consumer trends blog. A service of The Center for Sales Strategy, Inc.

The trend of “Power to the People” continues

Observation:  One mega-trend we’ve been talking about for years is something we refer to as “Consumer Control.”  Essentially, it is the acceptance that consumers dictate the terms of the relationship, whether you work in products, services, retail or wholesale.  Pervasive Technology has empowered the consumer to make decisions that they once left to a vendor or service provider.  This, combined with increased competition in the wake of the Great Recession, has contributed to a power shift, in which the consumer wields tremendous control.

This trend was reinforced by an article in this week’s Iconoculture newsletter.  Click here to see it. 

Implications:   Do you serve customers?  Or collaborate with them?  Do your customers want to be call the shots, or do they hope to receive full service... or both?

[Note: For more stories about Consumer Control dating back to April 2008, click here.  For stories from the Elm Street Economics consumer trends blog that are related to Pervasive Technology, a contributor to the trend of Consumer Control, click here.]

Mike Anderson, for the Elm Street Economics consumer trends blog. A service of The Center for Sales Strategy, Inc.

Insights into the (r)etail (r)evolution

Observation:  The May newsletter from Trendwatcher.com focuses on how the consumer is finding value in their online (and often mobile) shopping and spending.  The series is broken into four distinct segments (click on any of them to see the corresponding material):  E is for everywhere,  (M)Etail, E(asy) Commerce, and Oh What a Wonderful Web.

Implications:   There is no shortage of innovation on the web, and it sometimes seems we’re drowning in new digital tools and ways we could be using the web and mobile devices to reach and serve consumers.  Trendwatcher.com is a great source for ideas like these… but it can start to feel overwhelming.

My advice is to keep it simple.  It would be virtually impossible to know everything there is to know about all of your digital options.  So focus, instead, on your customers, and how they’re using their online and mobile devices.  Don’t aspire to serve technology.  Let technology serve you and your most important customers and prospects.

Mike Anderson, for the Elm Street Economics consumer trends blog. A service of The Center for Sales Strategy, Inc.

Speaking of catering to the un-banked: Walmart.com has found a way to accept cash for online purchases

Observation:  As a follow-up to our story about banking earlier today (see immediately below), we were intrigued by this nugget from TechCrunch.  It explains that customers can “buy” items online at Walmart’s website, but then pay for that cart full of goods in-person at a Walmart store.  Click here to see the story.

Implications:   The TechCrunch story indicates that only around 15% of transactions in a Walmart store are paid for with a credit card.  If such a significant majority of purchases are paid with cash, it makes all the sense in the world to accept cash in the online channel of that store, too. 

Undoubtedly, there are folks reading this who are thinking, “This is nuts!  They’re forcing the consumer to physically visit a store to complete their online purchase!”  But undoubtedly, there are folks at Walmart who would answer, “That’s right.  And the problem is…?”

[Note:  Thanks to friend and colleague Matt Sunshine for tipping me off to the TechCrunch story.]

Mike Anderson, for the Elm Street Economics consumer trends blog. A service of The Center for Sales Strategy, Inc.

Study compares generational differences in online behaviors

Observation:  Time, Inc. has released a report about how digital natives (people who’ve never known a world without the web) and digital immigrants (those of us who grew up without but have adopted online technology) differ in their approach to web and device usage.  Click here to see the full release.

Implications:  Not all computer, smartphone, or web users are created equally.  It’s important to grasp how your customers (and those consumers you aspire to serve) are embracing the technology that surrounds them.

Mike Anderson, for the Elm Street Economics consumer trends blog. A service of The Center for Sales Strategy, Inc.

Is “Like” a measure of engagement?

Observation:  Today’s Research Brief inspires us to ask a worthwhile question.  Just because you have lots of “Likes,” is your Facebook page successful?  Click here to see the story.

Implications:   I don’t know about you, but I’ve looked over the shoulder at several folks surfing Facebook and I’ve asked the same question.  And I confess to some of the behaviors myself.  Maybe someone sees a page because on of their friends has liked it, so they land on the page, are amused for a moment, and then click “Like” on the way out.  Was the campaign that elicited this response viral?  Absolutely.  But so is a quickly passing cold sore.  That doesn’t mean it will have a long-term effect on the user’s life, nor on the company involved.

It’s just as important with social and other forms of digital that you measure the right things.  Are you customers truly engaged?  How do you know? Are sales (or other desired responses) increasing in response to your messaging effort?  How do you know?  Where have you placed the thermostat?  You can get “re-pins” on Pinterest or “likes” on Facebook simply by sharing a picture of a horse with a hoof coming out of its head that you created with Photoshop.  That doesn’t make it effective social marketing.

Mike Anderson, for the Elm Street Economics consumer trends blog. A service of The Center for Sales Strategy, Inc.

Using digital to offer the right thing at the right time

Observation:  The Springwise.com newsletter is frequently a source of consumer-focused innovation, and this week’s issue did not disappoint.  It featured a story about one bookseller in Spain, who is offering a free sample—the first chapter of a book—via a QR code on in-train advertising.  Click here to see the story.

Implications:   Effective marketing focuses on a consumer with the motive, the means and the opportunity to commit a purchase.  In this case, the motive might be boredom during a train ride, and because most folks on a train are commuting we can assume they have the means (money) to spend on a book.  And opportunity is facilitated by the use of QR codes, which most smart phones are capable of reading with the download of a simple app. 

Think about your product or service.  What would be the best possible timing for you to deliver your message or invitation to a consumer?  Are you doing it?

Mike Anderson, for the Elm Street Economics consumer trends blog. A service of The Center for Sales Strategy, Inc.

A primer on harnessing social media

Observation:  Today’s McKinsey newsletter focuses on social media and marketing, and specifically, taking the mystery out of the medium.  It is a long but worthwhile read, and you can click here to get started.

Implications:   The most important aspect of this article is offered early... That social media might still seem ambiguous to many company owners or CEOs, but it has become too big to ignore.  (As the newsletter puts it, if the population of Facebook were a country unto itself, it would be the third largest country on the planet behind China and India.)

Just as important, McKinsey is working to link the consumer’s behaviors and buying process to illustrate which touch-points might be influenced by social media.

Mike Anderson, for the Elm Street Economics consumer trends blog. A service of The Center for Sales Strategy, Inc.

Talking less but communicating more: How are your consumers using their smartphones?

Observation:  An interview with Ewan Duncan from McKinsey appeared in yesterday’s Marketing Daily, exploring the distinct ways that younger consumers are using their smartphone devices.  Duncan refers to the devices as “digital Swiss Army Knives,” and reminds us that talking on the phone is just a small part of the tool’s value.  Click here to see the story.

Implications:   Duncan’s remarks remind us that digital marketing is not a one-size-fits-all-demographics proposition.  The digital divide is alive and well, not just among those consumers who have or do not have access to computers, iPads or smartphones, but also in the way that different cohorts might use those devices.

Considering the way your most important customers (or prospects) are using their digital devices, is your web presence optimized to fit their technological comfort level?

Mike Anderson, for the Elm Street Economics consumer trends blog. A service of The Center for Sales Strategy, Inc.

Cutting the cord… at the legislative level

Observation:  More and more consumers are living in a wireless-only household, with no land-line phone coming into the home.  According to a story in yesterday’s USA Today, many states have passed or are considering bills that relieve phone companies of the requirement to offer land-line service in all residential areas.  Click here to see the story.

Implications:   If not immediately, it looks as if—eventually—the home phone line will join the ranks of the payphone as historical artifacts.  Phone numbers have evolved from residential to personal items.  And why not?  I can do lots of things from my smartphone, including check sports score, do my banking, see if my couch sold on Craig’s List… and even ask my voice-controlled assistant to find a nearby restaurant for me. 

In comparison, my home phone is stupid.  And fired. 

Mike Anderson, for the Elm Street Economics consumer trends blog. A service of The Center for Sales Strategy, Inc.

Lots of folks skipping lunch (or bringing it in a bag)

Observation:   Yesterday, I wrote a story about the idea that some consumers are starting to indulge again; now, I’m sharing an article suggesting that fewer people are going out to lunch.  It appeared recently in USA Today (click to link).

Implications:   The USA Today story isn’t just about people who are cutting back, financially, on their lunch expenditures (although that is one reason that some folks are lunching less).  The stronger focus of the story is that people are feeling time-stressed, and don’t always want to take the time required to sit-down for a decent lunch meal.

I find that ironic in a world where we can get phone calls, emails and documents delivered almost anytime, anywhere.  This issue graphically illustrates just how busy we think we have become.

Whether you’re a restaurant, or any other product or service category, are you doing anything that helps consumers save time?  Do you deliver?  Can I order online?  Using my smartphone?  Lots of people will decide on lots of purchases in the coming year… with the hope that, really, they are buying time.

Mike Anderson, for the Elm Street Economics consumer trends blog. A service of The Center for Sales Strategy, Inc.

How mobile phone owners are using their device in the shopping process

Observation:   Today’s IAB newsletter linked to a worthwhile e-Marketer story about the ways consumers are using their mobile devices, ranging from pre-shopping research to surfing for more information while in-store… ranging from additional product information to competitive pricing.  The article is based on information from Leo Shapiro and Associates, and you can click here to see the full story.

Implications:   This story is strong because it doesn’t just tell us what people are doing (using their mobile device as they shop), it sheds some light on how they are doing it.  That’s important, because I doubt mobile devices will be leaving the shopper’s toolbox anytime soon.

Mike Anderson, for the Elm Street Economics consumer trends blog. A service of The Center for Sales Strategy, Inc.

UPDATE: Do consumers prefer online or in-store?

Observation:  A Research Brief story this morning asserts that consumers prefer online over in-store shopping.  Click here to see it.

Implications:   I fear that the data cited in the RB story does not go far enough; or perhaps it gives a right answer to the wrong question.  As I’ve been discussing in recent posts, the consumer does not necessarily want to choose between online or in-store.  They want multiple channels available to them, and they want to use the channel that suits them best at any given moment.  If the purchase is a no-brainer, they want to get it done fast.  If the item is one of complexity, they want to hold the product in their hand, and perhaps talk to someone knowledgeable about that product.

Blanket statements can get you into trouble.  Consumers purchase preference are likely to depend on the personality of the buyer, the personality of the product, and the circumstances which bring the two together.

[For more on this matter, see “Target:  Showrooming” from 4/5/12, or “Showrooming” from 3/2/12.]

Mike Anderson, for the Elm Street Economics consumer trends blog. A service of The Center for Sales Strategy, Inc.

For web consumers, velocity is critical

Observation:   A story from today’s Marketing Daily illustrates just how important speed can be in the mobile or traditional web experience.  Click here to see the story.

Implications:   The temptation for many traditional marketers is to drone on and on about the color, texture, service, selection, horsepower, history… all of which can be nice, but which are often lost on a consumer that is long gone to a faster site.

How quickly can your company communicate value?  How effective are you at focusing precisely on the benefits that a consumer wants to gain? 

Mike Anderson, for the Elm Street Economics consumer trends blog. A service of The Center for Sales Strategy, Inc.