By Tunde Cockshott, Creative Consultant at Amaze
Few brands have the luxury of selling their products through their own retail network, instead most have to sell themselves at the final point of purchase (POP).
Research shows that sixty five percent of European adults research a considered purchase online. However, as a recent GFK study showed, even in the age of the Internet, 70 percent of purchase decisions are still made at POP. Only 30 percent of cases do customers buy the brand that they initially set out to.
The advertising efforts put into persuading the consumer of a product’s merit often creates demand for that product category, rather than a particular product. Unless you are an iconic brand like Apple, prospective consumers are easily swayed.
Price is important. Many consumers are swayed by special offers so the strength of a brand is an important factor in determining whether or not consumers actually follow through on their intentions to buy a particular product. Increasingly however, price is winning with over half of European consumers agreeing price is more important than brand when making a purchase decision.
Even in the age of empowered consumers, the effect of being confronted by a wall of similar products and price promotions can sway the most researched buyer. The control of the brand’s message and its impact on the purchase decision is almost erased from the in-store experience.
The rise of connected shopping
Increased mobile connectivity is changing the way people shop. Consumers can use mobile apps to scan barcodes and recognise product images, allowing them to compare prices, access reviews and share their prospective purchases with their social graph.
But these apps are shopping apps, designed to help the consumer to make the best purchase, rather than to aid the manufacturer to make a sale. While apps and simple Google searches may provide the shopper with the product’s support material, this is a much more complex interaction compared to the simplicity of most price comparison apps.
If brands are to compete, products need digital support untainted by third party influence and pulling on brand reinforcements when needed. The product has to become its own digital ambassador. Advanced systems that provide this form of support, such as Microsoft Surface applications and MIT’s Desk Lamp give us a glimpse of potential future solutions. However, these are costly, rely on dedicated hardware to provide augmented information, and retailers can easily filter the content.
One route is dedicated apps delivered by the brand, but this implies that the consumer already has an affinity to that brand and is not only willing to buy or spend the time downloading a bespoke app for a single purchase, but that they remember to use it. With apps such as Amazon’s on the market, it is unlikely that any branded app can compete on these terms.
Making your products speak for themselves
Products should be using Quick Response (QR) codes to provide links to dedicated content. The popularity of the smart phone is making the use of QR codes a viable proposition, and by using any one of the many reader apps available, consumers can access branded product information easily. Brands are still seen as a trusted source of information but not of unbiased recommendations, so if the link acts as a guided tour of the product, or a virtual shop assistant, it can be presented as a helpful aid rather than a pure sales pitch.
As we move forward, other ways of delivering products as digital ambassadors will develop. The integration of Near Field Communication (NFC) capabilities into mobile phones is viewed primarily as a way of achieving the digital wallet concept, where payments are made by passing your phone near a reader. However, NFC also has the potential to allow phones to read information by simply being in the close proximity of a NFC tag.
Augmented reality seems to promise a richer, immersive in-store experience. However, current marker and non-marker systems tend to be closed, with bespoke content requiring specific reader apps. At some stage a standard format for marker-less image augmented reality readers may appear, and when it does, brands could use this to deliver information to support the sale of a product.
If brands cannot make direct contact with consumers, a second line of action is to ensure that online retailers are provided with content that meets the needs of traditional PC and tablet users, as well as mobile small screen users. Simply providing the same experience on different devices is not sufficient. The content and type of information should meet the needs of the user, taking into account the time and the location. The mobile, in-store consumer needs access to information that aids, clarifies and nudges towards the correct purchase decision, far from the same level of depth needed by the desk-bound researcher.
The days of the dumb naked product cannot continue. Companies must reinforce brand and product defenses against consumers being swayed and call in the digital cavalry.
