The readings this week detailed how much information advertisers and corporations an gather from smart phones and internet usage, and how brands can interact on so many more levels with consumers. This is very interesting, as someone who works in a CPG company, I see opportunity to better meet consumer needs. I know there will always be competing interests between privacy and tracking, however the shotgun advertising approach on TV and Radio today is seen as boring and not useful. This is because the offers are not tailored specifically to our needs.
As an example, I have noticed that when I look at a table on Overstock.com, and I spend a good amount of time on the website visiting the table three or more times, when I move on to Google or People, the table follows me. Then, when the table is on sale, I see the item pop up on Overstock advertising on other sites I am visiting. Special sale? Let me go back and buy that table.
In CPG, I definitely see how tapping into this trove of data can improve ROI and increase conversion. The key is knowing the customers' interests, gauging their mindset, and finding the right channel to reach them. In the article "The Worlds Most Valuable Brands, Who's Most Engaged?", Starbuck's best practices include understanding how each channel provides a different dimension of engagement. Starbucks wants to reach out to consumers as they are within a certain radius of a Starbucks store, not while they are many blocks away and not interested in coffee. Any marketing or awareness dollars spent on the wrong consumer or the right consumer at the wrong time are a waste of money and effort. Finding the right person for your brand, at the right time is key to conversion and driving purchases.
The timing is right for CPG companies to stand up and take notice. Most CPG companies today have low-involvement levels on the Web, and have presences in very limited channels. This current situation is dangerous because many people believe that by 2020, the mobile device will become the internet device of the future. Smart Phone adoption will be well over 60%, and this means the advertisers that are engaged and have tapped into this information will be lightyears ahead of other companies.
My recommendation to CPG companies would be to jump in now, start engaging with consumers on a number of fronts and channels, find your niche target market, and collect the data to understand this market better than ever before. This is connecting and marketing in the Web 2.0 world.
Very impressive post! Your CPG background provides an informed perspective and your commentary is rich with insights--spot on! One thing that I find puzzling (and you allude to it in your post for the week): why is there what seems to be widespread resistance to behavioral tracking based on privacy? And, why don't more of us accept the trade-off you refer to between privacy and relevant marketing information? Are we overly suspicious? Or is there less value than I realize in exposure to relevant, meaningful information? Or, have we as marketers done a poor job in presenting the benefits? I believe the last hypothesis is most likely to be the case. It presents another challenge we face as we go forward.
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