YES – But 2009 is no time for complacency
By Steve Davis, President International of GSI Commerce.
Perhaps one of the reasons for deceleration in the growth for online sales is the fact UK retailers are simply not using some of the tactics, unique to the online market place, that their American cousins have so successfully implemented.
The fact that online-only retailers, such as Play.com, are recording successes over the Christmas period, while excellent news for them, is actually indicative of the wider failure of the established high street retailers online. It’s 2009 and, unbelievably, some major brand retailers such as Primark and H&M have not even developed a transactional web presence. Crucially, however, these retailers don’t realise that not only are they losing revenue from potential online transactions but that they are seriously inhibiting their high street sales.
Put simply, the areas that are lacking in the UK can be grouped into three broad areas:
Genuine multichannel
The same old sound bite but still it’s not happening. For years, UK retailers have been waxing lyrical on the merits of genuine integration but, beyond the marketing puff, very few are actually doing it. How many UK retailers can you think of that have integrated to the extent that they can offer buy online, pick-up in-store? This capability actually gives high-street retailers the opportunity to best their online-only competitors and yet we’re still not seeing it.
Rather than waiting three days for delivery, this gives the customer the opportunity to walk to the high street and pick it up on the same day. If the product’s not available in a local store at the time of transaction, there should be the option to ship it to the store within a few days.This capability gives high-street retailers the opportunity to best their online-only competitors. Picture the scenario, if you’re desperate to buy a last minute gift and if you had the option to walk down the road and collect your pre-paid DVD at an HMV store, you’re surely more likely to do that than waiting three days for Play.com to deliver.
The on/offline relationship
Most UK retailers seem to be of the view that it’s perfectly acceptable to not place their entire product range online. It’s not. GSI research shows that between 25-60% of high-street sales are researched online before store purchase. If you have no site, you provide consumers with no means of researching your products and are missing out a major driver of high-street sales. An online store should not be a retailer’s biggest store first and marketing platform second – it is the biggest marketing vehicle that a retailer has. Where else can brands engage with millions of customers in a 10-15 minute dialogue every day?
In the same way that UK retailers will have to learn to use their high street assets to charge their online growth, they need to recognise that the reverse is also true.
Technology investment
Not really a tactic as much as a reality. In spite of everything the technology landscape continues and will continue to get more sophisticated. To stay ahead of their competitors retailers are forced ensure that their ecommerce technology is current – not necessarily an easy task in the current climate but the alternative of losing market share is hardly preferable. To weather the economic storm, UK retailers are going to have to find the means of minimising or eliminating the risk that attached to these essential investments.
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Showing posts with label integrated marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label integrated marketing. Show all posts
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Mixed media case study.
McDonald's: Dark marketing
By Adam Droitman, Director of Strategy, Crayon
A demonic force has entered the world of marketing. This underhanded, nefarious force is known as dark marketing, and it is threatening to take down the entire marketing industry as we know it!
Okay, maybe none of that is true -- but the phenomenon, dubbed dark marketing, has been getting some attention lately. Wired defines dark marketing as, "Discreetly sponsored online and real-world entertainment intended to reach hipster audiences that would ordinarily shun corporate shilling." Wired then references an incredibly creative initiative developed by AKQA for McDonald's called The Lost Ring.
The Lost Ring was an alternate reality game (ARG) that aimed to engage consumers who tend to be hard to reach through traditional means. This transmedia expose had gamers and bloggers (as well as a variety of consumers who live on the fringes of pop culture) seeking clues in order to unlock a mystery of epic proportions. It would take too long to review all the finer points of this initiative in this article (you can watch and read more about it on the site), as this multifaceted game blurred the lines between the real world and the digital world, weaving in and out of various types of media.
It is safe to say the game was effective, as consumers across the world were deeply engaged in The Lost Ring for nearly six months. From a marketing perspective, one of the most interesting elements of this initiative was the fact that The Lost Ring's creator, McDonald's, was barely present. McDonald's took a back seat and let the participants of the game tell the story. I don't have concrete evidence that McDonalds yielded a positive ROI from The Lost Ring; however, there are a number of factors that make this initiative appear to have been a success:
Extensive press
Read more!
A demonic force has entered the world of marketing. This underhanded, nefarious force is known as dark marketing, and it is threatening to take down the entire marketing industry as we know it!
Okay, maybe none of that is true -- but the phenomenon, dubbed dark marketing, has been getting some attention lately. Wired defines dark marketing as, "Discreetly sponsored online and real-world entertainment intended to reach hipster audiences that would ordinarily shun corporate shilling." Wired then references an incredibly creative initiative developed by AKQA for McDonald's called The Lost Ring.
The Lost Ring was an alternate reality game (ARG) that aimed to engage consumers who tend to be hard to reach through traditional means. This transmedia expose had gamers and bloggers (as well as a variety of consumers who live on the fringes of pop culture) seeking clues in order to unlock a mystery of epic proportions. It would take too long to review all the finer points of this initiative in this article (you can watch and read more about it on the site), as this multifaceted game blurred the lines between the real world and the digital world, weaving in and out of various types of media.
It is safe to say the game was effective, as consumers across the world were deeply engaged in The Lost Ring for nearly six months. From a marketing perspective, one of the most interesting elements of this initiative was the fact that The Lost Ring's creator, McDonald's, was barely present. McDonald's took a back seat and let the participants of the game tell the story. I don't have concrete evidence that McDonalds yielded a positive ROI from The Lost Ring; however, there are a number of factors that make this initiative appear to have been a success:
Extensive press
- Brandweek, The New York Times and many others sang the praises of this initiative.
- Consumer-created wiki
- Extensive Twitter conversations
- Consumer-created forums
- More than 2,000 photos tagged "lostring" and "thelostring" in Flickr
- Hundreds of clips on YouTube (both professional and user created)
These are just a few examples of the buzz The Lost Ring created, and it is hard to talk about this campaign without referencing McDonald's involvement. McDonald's created an experience for consumers that could only have left them with a feeling of gratitude toward the brand.
Thanks to iMedia for providing this article.
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