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Pre-tail seems to be one of the new buzzwords thrown around the CPG category. But what does it really mean, and should we be taking it seriously? Pre-tail refers to the entire journey of the shopper before they reach the point of purchase. Product research, browsing social channels, building shopping lists, and organizing coupons and rewards all fall into the pre-tail category. Various often-quoted studies by Point-of-Purchase Advertising International and The Marketing Science Institute have said that between 60 and 70% of purchase decisions are made at retail. Regardless of the exact number, that means at least 30 to 40% of consumers have made their decisions before they ever walk into a store, which is hardly insignificant. ...
The holiday season is once again upon us and this year marketers have an unprecedented opportunity to blow their sales out of the water. For the first time in history, consumers over 50 make up the majority — 51 percent — of all of consumer spending according to just-released data from the U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey.
While marketers are preoccupied with Millennials — who became the biggest adult age demo this year — consumers over 50 control 70 percent of our country’s wealth, making them a significantly greater holiday sales opportunity than their kids.
One might expect that 50+ would account for the majority of health (63%) and insurance (68%) expenditures. However, when it comes to buying for everyone on their holiday lists, consider that people 50+ are now responsible for 51 percent of all entertainment spending as well as 57 percent of big ticket items such as new cars and trucks....
The tech world is abuzz with interesting possibilities for the Internet of Things (IoT) lately, but regular folks haven’t caught up yet. Why the enthusiasm gap? That’s the question that Affinnova, a Nielsen company, set out to answer in a recent study of nearly 4,000 consumers.
First, it’s worth noting that while people have great faith in technology to come, even early adopters have trouble articulating what they would want from smart products. While 57 percent of all consumers who responded to this study strongly agree that the IoT will be “just as revolutionary as the smartphone” for our culture, they can’t explain how or why. Furthermore, 92 percent say that it’s very difficult to pinpoint what they’d want from smart objects, but they’ll know it when they see it.
Given this blind spot, the study presented nearly 4,000 consumers with different “smart” product concepts, giving them the opportunity to choose which actual features and items they might be interested in.
We worked with Shelly Banjo from the Wall Street Journal on a piece about how retailers should use discounts. The Wall Street Journal added a piece of consumer research to accompany the article that was very interesting.
They asked what email headline would get consumers to open an email from a retailer.
Consumers agreed that they are most likely to respond to an email that is advertising a specific (read: relevant) item on sale, not to generic discounts....
Welcome to the share economy, also known as collaborative consumption and peer-to-peer rental arrangements, where people around the world leverage unused capacity of things they already own or services they can provide by leveraging them for a profit. A down economy, coupled with the ease-of-use and reliability of the Internet, has given rise to a network of part-time entrepreneurs turning personal assets into income....
Effective content has never been more important for successful brand marketing. The proliferation of social media channels and mobile technology, coupled with the hyperconnected-consumer’s demand for instant, personal, and relevant content, have changed the way marketers engage with consumers.
While a handful of brands have cracked the code and consistently deliver high-performing content, a majority of brands still fall short on their content efforts, failing to meet consumer expectations and business objectives. The difference between those brands that succeed and those that fall short is their content model. Successful brands implement an insights-driven, consumer-centric approach, allowing them to think and act more like a publisher and less like a traditional advertiser....
Mobile apps are expected to drive holiday sales as increasing numbers of shoppers expect to make purchases on a mobile app.
In fact, 54 percent of app users plan to do at least half of their holiday shopping on a mobile app, via smartphone or tablet, according to new data from Artisan Research.
In a survey of 500 consumers, 94 percent of respondents strongly agreed or agreed that they are purchasing and browsing products on apps more than ever before, and 91 percent intend to buy items from a mobile device this holiday season....
Americans are in love with their tablets: 91% of people who own a tablet say they take their device to bed with them, and 15% say they would give up their car in order to keep their tablet, according to survey from Yahoo and Ipsos MediaCT.
Moreover, 25% of female tablet owners say they'd happily give up sex to keep their devices. And what do men have to say about that? One-third of them are in the bathroom—with their tablets, sending email (50%) and instant messages to friends (25%)....
The Internet of Things will account for 9 billion devices by 2018 (Business Insider), mobile will account for 21% of all online purchases by 2015 (Google), and social network users will surpass 2 billion by 2016 (eMarketer). Ironically, despite the explosion of technology, channels and devices, today’s continuously connected consumers are harder to reach than ever before.!
This infographic breaks down the anatomy of the connected consumer to help your brand more effectively reach, engage and convert customers across today’s mobile and socially connected landscape....
A three-year study from Scratch, an in-house unit of Viacom, found that a third of millennials believed they won't need a bank in the future. These millennials, defined as those between ages 18 to 33, also ranked the top four banks in the "ten least loved brands" and would rather go to the dentist than to their bank.Is this surprising?
This segment of the population has grown up in an era that saw trust in banking erode due to the financial crisis and a near stagnant economy. This is also a period when new technology has enabled firms like Simple, Moven, Square and PayPal to be more relevant with a generation that would rather handle finances on their phone than in a branch.
Here are some of the findings from the Millennial Disruption Index:
If there were 10 Commandments for marketing, #1 would be: Know thy customer. While it’s one of the most fundamental principles in business, companies are still having trouble adhering to it.
72% of companies believe their budget for customer insights is too low, according to a recent survey of almost 700 senior executives we completed. Even more disturbing, only 6% of companies surveyed understand customer needs extremely well while 45% of companies admit they have limited to no understanding on how their customers interact with them digitally....
At EyeQuant, we do a lot of eye-tracking as part of our mission to teach computers to see the web like humans do. The main purpose of our studies is to find the statistical patterns that power our attention models (which you can use to instantly test your websites!)
Today, we’re sharing 3 of the most surprising insights we found. A lot of you have asked us about general rules of thumb around what drives (and doesn’t drive) attention – in this post you’ll learn why rules of thumb are difficult to establish and how a lot of the common ideas we have about human attention are more complicated than they seem. In fact, what you’re about to read is going to be rather surprising and we’re hoping to dispel some common myths about attention and web design with data. :)...
The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) recently set out to learn what trends, if any, most define Canadian shoppers now. The result is a research report called Mapping Your Future Growth: Five Game-Changing Consumer Trends, which maps out the main forces driving buying behaviour, based on a survey of 1,023 Canadians in August of this year.
The report reveals a consumer base that is complex, highly educated and at times contradictory in its demands. “Consumers are different now,” Pierre Cléroux, BDC’s chief economist, tells PROFIT. “They attach value to different things.”Keen to know what, exactly, those values are? Read on....
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The buyer’s journey is an important framework for marketing strategy — but what does it look like? How are buyers getting from step one (“Do I have a need?”) to a justified decision? How can marketers harness this knowledge to create campaigns centered around the customer lifecycle?
We’ve all heard this popularly-quoted statistic: that 70% of the buyer’s journey is complete before a buyer even reaches out to sales (SiriusDecisions). Marketers and sales reps alike are having to adjust their strategies to cope with these changing consumer practices. But what can they do about the 70% of the buyer’s journey that they’re missing out on? What are buyers doing during this time? And how can a tool like marketing automation help marketers keep pace with their buyers?...
Generation Z represents the first generation of the 21st century, and is comprised of America’s youth–those aged 2 to 19. This diverse group is already making an impact with marketers, especially the sweet spot of tweens and teens aged 11-16.Here are three facts you need to know about Generation Z...
Last year, I wrote that the future of branding is human–and it still is, but in 2015 that 'human' attribute will become a part of every aspect of the brand
.In other words, we'll expect the same authenticity, transparency, acceptance and eye-to-eye understanding we get from person-to-person contact from the brands we choose. In a world of choice, today's consumers, especially the growing millennial and upcoming 'Z Generation' (born late 1990s-mid 2000s), are choosing the brands that best align with who they are, what they believe, and match their expectations. It isn't just about disruption anymore, it's about real-time relevance....
Advanced analysis of social media traffic can provide insights into these and many other consumer trends because it measures not only how many people are mentioning a given topic but also how they feel about it. We call that consumer sentiment, and it is a powerful tool for understanding the full story.
For example, SAP analyzed more than 28 million social media posts during this holiday season, which revealed that while consumers mentioned electronics twice as often as the next highest category, they had mixed reviews – sentiment was only 60%. Perhaps poor reviews, sold-out models, and missed deals disappointed shoppers this year....
The power of blogs in influencing consumer purchase decisions is stronger than you might realize. According to data from a research study conducted by Research Now, nearly nine in 10 consumers (84%) make purchases after reading about a product or service on a blog. Among consumers between the ages of 18-34, blogs ranked as the most important source of information to make buying decisions. Among consumers between the ages of 35-54, blogs ranked as the second most important source behind friends, family, and colleagues. Even older consumers (55 and older) value blogs when making purchase decisions ranking them third in terms of importance behind friends, family, and colleagues and editorial articles.
For brands, this data is critical. The research found that blogs influence household purchase decisions for 54% of the survey respondents, gifts that consumers are buying for themselves (45%), and gifts they’re buying for other people (30%). In fact, 25% of respondents indicated that they buy something each month based on blog content!
Consumers are turning to blogs for specific reasons as they travel through the path to making a purchase. Nearly one in two (46%) use blogs for initial product investigation, and 43% use blogs for inspiration. One in three consumers (33%) use blogs to narrow down their purchase options while 30% use blogs to confirm their purchase choices. In other words, blogs play a role at every stop along the marketing and sales funnel....
The holidays are almost upon us, and recent surveys confirm what many business owners have suspected: social commerce, and the use of mobile channels, is increasing and will have a huge impact on 2014 holiday shopping behaviors. The shift toward social shopping highlights trends that impact both business-to-consumer and business-to-business (B2B) purchasing.
As reported by MarketingLand, mobile and social channels will play a significant role in holiday shopping this year. In an online survey of 1,000 smartphone owners, sponsored by MarketLive.com, one in three shoppers stated they plan to make more than 50 percent of purchases via mobile devices. Thirty percent of respondents reported having made a purchase as a direct result of “engagement with a social networking site” within the past year. This is up from 18 percent the previous year.
And, as consumers become increasingly web and mobile-savvy, and vocal in their online reviews of their likes and dislikes, we will begin to see what some are describing as the “consumerization” of business-to-business purchasing behavior. So, while not all consumer shopping activities translate to the B2B purchasing model, many do....
Generation Z makes up the largest percentage (25.9%) of the US population. They aren't even 21 years old yet, but already they are beginning to exhibit influence, consumption, and spending power.So, what do marketers need to know about Generation Z?"
Generation Z is mature, self-directed, and resourceful," according to the following infographic by Marketo. They know how to self-educate and find information, and 52% use YouTube or social media for typical research assignments....
A central problem for marketers is how to convince consumers of their products’ value. How long will customers listen to all the benefits of starting their day with Cheerios before they dismiss everything as manipulative bunk?
According to the 2 professors, Suzanne Shu of UCLA and Kurt Carlson of Georgetown, the answer is the rule of 3: Making up to 3 claims about a product’s value is effective advertising -- any more than that, and people’s cynical defenses kick in....
In his new book The New Rules of Customer Engagement, 6 Trends Reinventing The Way We Sell, Daniel Newman drives home not just the trends, but what they mean for business and those responsible for driving revenue and creating satisfied customers, i.e. those in the marketing space....
Experian Marketing Services released its 2014 Digital Marketer Report, with the theme of “becoming a cross-channel marketing mastermind.” The report, available for download here, is an extensive analysis of the landscape as it currently sits for digital marketers in 2014.
This is the sixth iteration of the report, which runs over 100 pages and is chock-full of digital imperatives. For travel brand marketers working towards planning their next fiscal year budgets in the coming months, this report also reveals some key areas of shifting focus. Here are some of the benchmarks and trends being tracked in the report – this is only a taste, as the report is truly extensive in benchmarking scope....
First off, what is it?... Datasets are multiplying as we measure lots more than we used to. This means our thinking has to broaden – no longer is ‘what can we do with our database of email addresses?’ the question, rather ‘what data can we look at to give us the best idea possible of a customer’s stage in the buying cycle and what they’ll be receptive to next?’The definition of big data isn’t really important and one can get hung up on it. Much better to look at ‘new’ uses of data.So, here’s some examples of new and possibly ‘big’ data use both online and off....
A study of the free shopping apps in the Android Play store shows that the most popular apps fall into the broad categories that one would reasonably expect without pushing the limits of imagination: pure play e-commerce, brick-and-mortar retailer apps, coupons & deals, utilities (shopping lists, product scans, loyalty storage) and rewards for shopping behavior [see list at bottom of post]. In general, the most popular shopping apps are not revolutionary in terms of offering consumers a compelling shopping experience that they can’t find elsewhere.
As a result, fewer than 50% of consumers who download the most popular mobile shopping apps are developing regular usage habits. A recent NPD study showing that within 3 months of downloading a retailer’s app, 75% of consumers stop using the app even once a month. The same study shows that more consumers use retailer web sites than apps (71% of consumers vs 57%), perhaps indicating they prefer accessing a retailer’s website on an irregular basis than going through the trouble of downloading a mobile app.
One of the reasons for the lack of regular usage of top mobile shopping apps may be that the majority take a conventional shopping task focused view of a person’s motivations & intentions for using a mobile app, eg. “the user wants to purchase something specific/find coupons/compare products”. Very few take a time-based view of a person’s motivations & intentions for using a mobile app, eg. “the user has many small moments of downtime in the day that they’d like to fill with an engaging app experience”....
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MediaPost explores the importance of "pre-tail" in the shopping journey including research online, social channels, lists, coupons and rewards. What a complex web consumers weave.