the hub magazine

I’m taking my family on a two-week-long trip to Italy this summer, and since it’ll be one of those once-in-a-lifetime vacations, I’m hoping to capture as many of the experiences as possible in photographs. That means I’m in the market for a new digital camera.

Like all technologies, digital cameras are subject to Moore’s Law, which posits that advancements in technology double approximately every two years. In the digital age, however, that window of time has quickly been reduced to something like 18 days instead of 18 months. The exponential speed at which things change and improve can turn the process of finding and buying a product like the right vacation-ready camera into a frustrating pursuit.

Thankfully, shoppers — especially those like me who are looking to purchase a potentially pricey item like a digital camera — are increasingly empowered to find the perfect product through just a few clicks of a mouse or taps on a mobile smartphone.

Today — thanks to a plethora of online and mobile-enabled resources — digitally empowered, on-demand consumers want what we want, when we want it, and often at the price we want to pay and through the channel we want to shop. We filter through online peer reviews, backed by expert opinions, and we’re armed with a wealth of information and data before we even step into a retail outlet (that is, if we choose to shop at a bricks-and-mortar establishment at all).

Much has changed in the five years or so since Procter & Gamble coined the term “First Moment of Truth.” (There’s Moore’s Law in action once again.) For many consumers these days, our “first moment” neither occurs exclusively at the retail shelf display nor is it even captured as a single moment in time. Within a relatively short period, consumers have transformed from passive recipients of marketing messages and information into active, in-control seekers of our own moments of truth.

Adding to the empowerment that digital technologies have provided to consumers is a looming economic uncertainty that drives more thoughtful purchase decisions. More than ever, consumers are actively participating in and calling the shots on what, where, when and how we make purchases — pulling the trigger only when we are fully satisfied with a product or service’s value proposition.

But the evolution of the highly informed, in-control and engaged consumer isn’t simply limited to shoppers of expensive goods like tech gadgets or cars. Increasingly, consumers know a whole lot more about even the most basic consumer packaged goods, and we are exerting our new-found power by making educated decisions that precede any visits to a store.

To wit: Until recently, the conventional wisdom was that 70 percent of brand purchase decisions were made in the store. Some research has indicated that nowadays as much as 76 percent of purchase decisions are made in the home (or on the road or wherever web-connected consumers have access to information, which today is practically anywhere and everywhere).

What does this all mean for retailers and packaged-goods companies? In a recent survey conducted by comScore, 59 percent of consumers said gathering information online is important in helping to make purchase decisions. And yet there is a seeming disconnect between how consumers are shopping for packaged-goods products (as well as researching them online and offline) and how retailers — especially local retailers — are presenting (or not presenting) packaged-goods information on their websites.

Meanwhile, so-called big-box retailers like Target and Walmart seem to be doing a more effective job at representing their in-store, packaged-goods items on their comparably more robust websites. Clearly, there is a tremendous opportunity for retailers and packaged-goods companies alike to better leverage and bridge what’s happening in the digital space and what’s happening at retail.

Multiple Moments of Truth

With the rise of the digitally empowered shopper, the notion of a single and uniform “first moment of truth” has changed — if it hasn’t already been completely upended. Rather than a singular first moment that occurs at retail (or at reflection when the product is used), consumers today can experience multiple moments throughout their journey. Some of these moments are small, while others are big, but in total, these points of influence culminate not only in a consumer’s decision to purchase, but also to repurchase, and ultimately to become loyal to a brand over time.

So, while the at-retail first moments have given way to what Google has coined as the “zero moments of truth” that happen online or during search, I propose that we’re living in a time of multiple moments of truth, which can be online or offline. Because these moments can (and do) happen anywhere for consumers — at their computer screens, on the street, on their mobile devices and yes, even at the store — creating tight offline and online connections has become critical for retailers and marketers.

Today, the effective shopper-marketing toolkit requires that special attention be paid to digitally enabled communications disciplines. This isn’t simply a matter of shoehorning a digital solution into a client problem just for the sake of being digital. Building a Facebook page for a packaged-goods product in order to check it off a chief marketing officer’s list isn’t always the right decision. In fact, a solution we think is right today will quickly be replaced by a new, different solution tomorrow.

Still, a triumvirate of forces has forever altered the retail landscape: online search, social media, and 24/7 portable connectivity. Although there likely will be additional or different forces in the future that will shape and reshape the retail experience, it’s useful to consider these factors for now — at least until Moore’s Law kicks in once again.

The Google Mindset

What’s the first task that most consumers undertake when they’re shopping? If they are like 93 percent of all shoppers today, they begin with product research online. Some consumers start their research on search engines, while others start with friends and expert opinions to narrow their choices, and then they go online. Invariably, however, search has become a powerful, indispensable tool for consumers, effectively shifting control from marketers to consumers.

Consumers aren’t just going to retailer websites for information, either. Google has reported a 288 percent increase in coupon searches over the past two years. Meanwhile, comScore found in a 2010 study that 40 million users visited coupon sites (including retailer online circulars), while retailer websites attracted only 1.5 million visitors in the same period.

Additionally, Google’s recent push to expand its local online advertising services, coupled with its investments in geographic and location-based services, as well as the rapid adoption of Google’s Android operating system for mobile devices, may place this 800-pound gorilla of search even more firmly in the hands of on-the-go consumers.

Moreover, empowered search isn’t limited to search engines or time spent on a computer screen. A growing crop of mobile apps has allowed consumers to gain access to, and control of, a wide range of information and data that was previously unheard of. Apps like RedLaser allow consumers to scan product barcodes to check on availability — and importantly — pricing at competing retail outlets.

For retailers and marketers, the implications of search extend far beyond computer screens. Indeed, search today means more than a high ranking within search results. Couponing, price and inventory comparison capabilities and mobile-enabled websites are just the tip of what is certain to be massive growth in the so-called “informational retailing” sector of search.

Social Shopping Spree

Regardless of which social platforms consumers participate in — whether it’s Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, Gowalla or others — consumers’ desire for discounts, offers and information are fairly consistent. According to a 2011 survey from Advertising Age and Ipsos Observer, 65 percent of respondents want coupons from marketers, while 42 percent are seeking improved customer service via social media platforms. Little wonder, then, that a socially enabled initiative like Best Buy’s Twelpforce has garnered the kind of praise that it has.

And while Facebook remains a dominant platform for many consumers, what’s the value of a Facebook “Like?” It’s fair to say there’s some fuzzy math around this. In fact, it’s worthwhile for marketers to look beyond Facebook as the end-all-be-all. A tremendous number of social networks have smaller populations, and yet offer the power of more engaged, more influential participants in a given category. Simply put: Thinking social media (often) means thinking beyond Facebook.

More important than platform is the ability to glean data from consumers’ social profiles. With the rise (and continuing rise) of social couponing sites such as Groupon and LivingSocial, consumers’ ability to collectively influence shopping behavior should give retailers and marketers special pause to rethink and reconsider the power of the (shopping) masses.

Mobile is the Connective Tissue

Location-based services have transformed the web from a solitary experience to a ubiquitous connector in the real world. Check-in apps like Foursquare and Gowalla have captured users’ interest by bridging mobile online experiences with the real world, providing special offers, badges and social status through the act of checking in. Other apps, like StickyBits and SCVNGR take things one step further by integrating offline products and mobile into a shopping-as-gaming experience.

Cyriac Roeding, co-founder and CEO of shopkick, a new mobile app that bridges the physical retail and interactive worlds, recently said, “The future of online is offline,” and “mobile is the key to cross-channel integration at retail.” Provocative words, but as the adoption of mobile platforms continues at an exponential pace, it’s becoming increasingly true.

Shopkick turns the notion of shopper rewards on its ear by rewarding consumers (with special offers and currency called “kickbucks”) via their mobile phones once they enter a store. So, instead of receiving coupons after purchase, consumers are incentivized to purchase just for showing up, effectively addressing the problem of getting consumers through the “final three feet” of the storefront. Smart stuff.

Geo-fencing, contextual and textual ads served via mobile, and increasingly the “game-ification” of the shopping experience will only build as shoppers marry their mobile smartphones with their at-retail lives.

So, as I embarked on my search for the perfect travel camera, I took some of my own advice. As expected, my search started with, well, search, which yielded way too many choices. I narrowed my search by reading the reviews of trusted influencers and relying on the opinions of friends and family. I took my search to the social sphere, and read Tweets and posts by others looking for similar products.

I ended up at my local Best Buy, where the shopkick app alerted me to a special deal on a digital camera that fit what I was looking for. Throughout my journey, there were numerous “moments of truth” for me, as I discovered what I needed, what I wanted, and what I could live without. Digital technologies helped to shape my ultimate purchase, a Panasonic GF2, which balanced portability, price and quality. I’ll share photos from our trip to the Amalfi Coast with friends and family on my Flickr site, natch.



	MAY / JUNE 2011 \| PDF \| Subscribe \| Home


	Pictures of Truth

	*Capturing consumers while shopping is a moving experience.*

	I’m taking my family on a two-week-long trip to Italy this summer, and since it’ll be one of those once-in-a-lifetime vacations, I’m hoping to capture as many of the experiences as possible in photographs. That means I’m in the market for a new digital camera. Like all technologies, digital cameras are subject to Moore’s Law, which posits that advancements in technology double approximately every two years. In the digital age, however, that window of time has quickly been reduced to something like 18 days instead of 18 months. The exponential speed at which things change and improve can turn the process of finding and buying a product like the right vacation-ready camera into a frustrating pursuit. Thankfully, shoppers — especially those like me who are looking to purchase a potentially pricey item like a digital camera — are increasingly empowered to find the perfect product through just a few clicks of a mouse or taps on a mobile smartphone. Today — thanks to a plethora of online and mobile-enabled resources — digitally empowered, on-demand consumers want what we want, when we want it, and often at the price we want to pay and through the channel we want to shop. We filter through online peer reviews, backed by expert opinions, and we’re armed with a wealth of information and data before we even step into a retail outlet (that is, if we choose to shop at a bricks-and-mortar establishment at all). Much has changed in the five years or so since Procter & Gamble coined the term “First Moment of Truth.” (There’s Moore’s Law in action once again.) For many consumers these days, our “first moment” neither occurs exclusively at the retail shelf display nor is it even captured as a single moment in time. Within a relatively short period, consumers have transformed from passive recipients of marketing messages and information into active, in-control seekers of our own moments of truth. Adding to the empowerment that digital technologies have provided to consumers is a looming economic uncertainty that drives more thoughtful purchase decisions. More than ever, consumers are actively participating in and calling the shots on what, where, when and how we make purchases — pulling the trigger only when we are fully satisfied with a product or service’s value proposition. But the evolution of the highly informed, in-control and engaged consumer isn’t simply limited to shoppers of expensive goods like tech gadgets or cars. Increasingly, consumers know a whole lot more about even the most basic consumer packaged goods, and we are exerting our new-found power by making educated decisions that precede any visits to a store. To wit: Until recently, the conventional wisdom was that 70 percent of brand purchase decisions were made in the store. Some research has indicated that nowadays as much as 76 percent of purchase decisions are made in the home (or on the road or wherever web-connected consumers have access to information, which today is practically anywhere and everywhere). What does this all mean for retailers and packaged-goods companies? In a recent survey conducted by comScore, 59 percent of consumers said gathering information online is important in helping to make purchase decisions. And yet there is a seeming disconnect between how consumers are shopping for packaged-goods products (as well as researching them online and offline) and how retailers — especially local retailers — are presenting (or not presenting) packaged-goods information on their websites. Meanwhile, so-called big-box retailers like Target and Walmart seem to be doing a more effective job at representing their in-store, packaged-goods items on their comparably more robust websites. Clearly, there is a tremendous opportunity for retailers and packaged-goods companies alike to better leverage and bridge what’s happening in the digital space and what’s happening at retail. Multiple Moments of Truth With the rise of the digitally empowered shopper, the notion of a single and uniform “first moment of truth” has changed — if it hasn’t already been completely upended. Rather than a singular first moment that occurs at retail (or at reflection when the product is used), consumers today can experience multiple moments throughout their journey. Some of these moments are small, while others are big, but in total, these points of influence culminate not only in a consumer’s decision to purchase, but also to repurchase, and ultimately to become loyal to a brand over time. So, while the at-retail first moments have given way to what Google has coined as the “zero moments of truth” that happen online or during search, I propose that we’re living in a time of multiple moments of truth, which can be online or offline. Because these moments can (and do) happen anywhere for consumers — at their computer screens, on the street, on their mobile devices and yes, even at the store — creating tight offline and online connections has become critical for retailers and marketers. Today, the effective shopper-marketing toolkit requires that special attention be paid to digitally enabled communications disciplines. This isn’t simply a matter of shoehorning a digital solution into a client problem just for the sake of being digital. Building a Facebook page for a packaged-goods product in order to check it off a chief marketing officer’s list isn’t always the right decision. In fact, a solution we think is right today will quickly be replaced by a new, different solution tomorrow. Still, a triumvirate of forces has forever altered the retail landscape: online search, social media, and 24/7 portable connectivity. Although there likely will be additional or different forces in the future that will shape and reshape the retail experience, it’s useful to consider these factors for now — at least until Moore’s Law kicks in once again. The Google Mindset What’s the first task that most consumers undertake when they’re shopping? If they are like 93 percent of all shoppers today, they begin with product research online. Some consumers start their research on search engines, while others start with friends and expert opinions to narrow their choices, and then they go online. Invariably, however, search has become a powerful, indispensable tool for consumers, effectively shifting control from marketers to consumers. Consumers aren’t just going to retailer websites for information, either. Google has reported a 288 percent increase in coupon searches over the past two years. Meanwhile, comScore found in a 2010 study that 40 million users visited coupon sites (including retailer online circulars), while retailer websites attracted only 1.5 million visitors in the same period. Additionally, Google’s recent push to expand its local online advertising services, coupled with its investments in geographic and location-based services, as well as the rapid adoption of Google’s Android operating system for mobile devices, may place this 800-pound gorilla of search even more firmly in the hands of on-the-go consumers. Moreover, empowered search isn’t limited to search engines or time spent on a computer screen. A growing crop of mobile apps has allowed consumers to gain access to, and control of, a wide range of information and data that was previously unheard of. Apps like RedLaser allow consumers to scan product barcodes to check on availability — and importantly — pricing at competing retail outlets. For retailers and marketers, the implications of search extend far beyond computer screens. Indeed, search today means more than a high ranking within search results. Couponing, price and inventory comparison capabilities and mobile-enabled websites are just the tip of what is certain to be massive growth in the so-called “informational retailing” sector of search. Social Shopping Spree Regardless of which social platforms consumers participate in — whether it’s Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, Gowalla or others — consumers’ desire for discounts, offers and information are fairly consistent. According to a 2011 survey from Advertising Age and Ipsos Observer, 65 percent of respondents want coupons from marketers, while 42 percent are seeking improved customer service via social media platforms. Little wonder, then, that a socially enabled initiative like Best Buy’s Twelpforce has garnered the kind of praise that it has. And while Facebook remains a dominant platform for many consumers, what’s the value of a Facebook “Like?” It’s fair to say there’s some fuzzy math around this. In fact, it’s worthwhile for marketers to look beyond Facebook as the end-all-be-all. A tremendous number of social networks have smaller populations, and yet offer the power of more engaged, more influential participants in a given category. Simply put: Thinking social media (often) means thinking beyond Facebook. More important than platform is the ability to glean data from consumers’ social profiles. With the rise (and continuing rise) of social couponing sites such as Groupon and LivingSocial, consumers’ ability to collectively influence shopping behavior should give retailers and marketers special pause to rethink and reconsider the power of the (shopping) masses. Mobile is the Connective Tissue Location-based services have transformed the web from a solitary experience to a ubiquitous connector in the real world. Check-in apps like Foursquare and Gowalla have captured users’ interest by bridging mobile online experiences with the real world, providing special offers, badges and social status through the act of checking in. Other apps, like StickyBits and SCVNGR take things one step further by integrating offline products and mobile into a shopping-as-gaming experience. Cyriac Roeding, co-founder and CEO of shopkick, a new mobile app that bridges the physical retail and interactive worlds, recently said, “The future of online is offline,” and “mobile is the key to cross-channel integration at retail.” Provocative words, but as the adoption of mobile platforms continues at an exponential pace, it’s becoming increasingly true. Shopkick turns the notion of shopper rewards on its ear by rewarding consumers (with special offers and currency called “kickbucks”) via their mobile phones once they enter a store. So, instead of receiving coupons after purchase, consumers are incentivized to purchase just for showing up, effectively addressing the problem of getting consumers through the “final three feet” of the storefront. Smart stuff. Geo-fencing, contextual and textual ads served via mobile, and increasingly the “game-ification” of the shopping experience will only build as shoppers marry their mobile smartphones with their at-retail lives. So, as I embarked on my search for the perfect travel camera, I took some of my own advice. As expected, my search started with, well, search, which yielded way too many choices. I narrowed my search by reading the reviews of trusted influencers and relying on the opinions of friends and family. I took my search to the social sphere, and read Tweets and posts by others looking for similar products. I ended up at my local Best Buy, where the shopkick app alerted me to a special deal on a digital camera that fit what I was looking for. Throughout my journey, there were numerous “moments of truth” for me, as I discovered what I needed, what I wanted, and what I could live without. Digital technologies helped to shape my ultimate purchase, a Panasonic GF2, which balanced portability, price and quality. I’ll share photos from our trip to the Amalfi Coast with friends and family on my Flickr site, natch.


	TOM CONTI is president of G2 USA, overseeing the agency’s interactive and relationship marketing practices. Tom has more than 25 years of experience across a range of marketing services disciplines.

	MAY / JUNE 2011 \| PDF \| Subscribe \| Home