The Future of Retail: Embracing mobile and online marketing
By Lana F. Flowers
Here are the scenarios: Mom is at the grocery store, and texts SCOPE to a special number to receive an instant coupon for $2 off.
A college student is buying a team T-shirt at Wal-Mart. He texts GO HOGS to Nike and receives an offer for a free Razorbacks mobile phone wallpaper.
The message is clear: Consumers are engaged with mobile and social media. Businesses must engage consumers on that level or be left back in the dark ages of black-and-white TV.
Valassis is one of the nation’s leading media and marketing services companies. Their RedPlum print coupon inserts in Sunday newspapers reach consumers near more than 1,800 Wal-Mart stores each week. They also use online coupons and digital marketing.
More than 72 percent of adults look for coupons online, says Clay R. Hall, Valassis’ strategic sales executive. He was in town recently to for a Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce WalStreet supplier lunch event.
“Consumers have become dependent on online sources and websites to help them make their decisions,” Hall says.
Consumers printed coupons with a total redemption value of $6.2 million in May alone, says Scott Robertson, Valassis’ digital sales specialist. More than 40 million online coupons were printed last year, he says.
Companies now channel about $11 billion annually to digital marketing.
“Those are not incremental dollars,” Hall says. “They are being pulled from other forms of media,” such as print, radio and television.
Getting the right balance is important. Clifford Przybyl, vice president of business development and consumer insights for StartSampling.com, warns that companies must not depend too much on mobile media and leave older consumers, or those without computers and smartphones, behind.
“Be careful of who you placate and who you alienate,” Przybyl says. “We must have redundancies for the time being because you cannot cut out the people who still do want to clip a paper coupon.”
According to The Nielsen Co., 23 percent of all mobile phone customers have a smartphone. By 2015, Nielsen predicts smartphones will be the preferred tool consumers use on their shopping trips.
“Retailers are already using smartphones as a replacement for frequent-shopper cards, sending store coupons and deals directly to a shopper’s phone,” notes Todd Hale, Nielsen’s senior vice president of consumer and shopper insights.
That information, like a text message or phone number, helps track where the consumer is, which in turn allows marketers to research demographic information for use with future products and campaigns.
Brian Cornell, president and chief executive officer of Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart’s warehouse membership division, spoke at The Nielsen Co.’s Consumer 360 conference in mid-June. Cornell says a big part of the consumer’s recreation involves a smartphone or a computer keyboard.
Sam’s Club focuses on talking directly to the warehouse club member, delivering a targeted, individualized message based on insights gathered through data, he says.
Valassis has a database of more than 130 million names nationwide and hopes to target mobile phone customers, who can receive coupons on their phones and then scan them at checkout. But not all point-of-sale systems can read mobile phone information yet, and retailers may be reluctant to spend money to upgrade their equipment.
However, Valassis is looking to the future.
“We’re ready for it.” Robertson says.
Lana F. Flowers has more than 20 years of daily journalism experience, and has lived in the area since 1991. E-mail Lana at fashionablewords@yahoo.com or follow her on Twitter: RogersLana.
Sidebar:
Want to integrate your online media with print? Here are five steps for campaign success.
1. Acknowledge their smarts. Know that your consumers are savvy and use online search engines, social media and other sources to research offers, prices and products before making purchasing decisions.
2. Share the message. Run print and electronic campaigns simultaneously to avoid alienating any age or segment of your consumer market. Consider newspaper inserts on Sundays, online advertisements and coupon distribution, and direct-to- smartphone offers.
3. Track details. Use your online campaigns to track and prove the effectiveness of promotion and sales.
4. Gather details. Use information, like a bar code, on print coupons to track ZIP codes of redemption. Online offers can gather more information, such as e-mail addresses or cell phone numbers, so you can target specific offers in the future.
5. Budget and build. Transfer some of your print advertising budget to start or maintain a social media or digital marketing campaign. Build on small success and learn from the experience.
