A recent article in The New York Times talked about how Amazon has become ‘the Shelf Space’ for consumers. So much so that if a particular manufacturer’s product is not present on the e-commerce site, it is largely invisible to the customers. This radical departure in shopping behaviour is reflective of how social media and the internet are shaping marketing strategies across brands.
Luring buyers
Increasingly, more than three or four social media platforms are used by companies to attract customers. This is referred to as integrated marketing communications and, earlier, the pertinent question used to be: ‘How do I allocate money across various media?’ That answer can now be found in deciphering a customer’s ‘purchase decision journey’.
But what is this? Consumers typically go through a series of steps before finalising on which brand to buy. This is referred to as the ‘purchase decision journey’, and marketers would do well to map this for individual categories and products, as it will dictate which medium is suitable for what task.
The steps are — planning to buy, evaluating alternatives, decision to buy, forming a relationship with the brand, and, finally, becoming an advocate for the brand.
Plan to buy
This is the first information-seeking step, and brands will profit more at this stage if they use search engine optimisation (SEO) to their advantage. It is essential to list your products on such portals as Amazon to ensure that they are visible to consumers. And to make that happen, you need to take the same path the customers do.
Evaluating alternatives
The second step is that of evaluating alternatives. This is where product reviews and feedback come in. Given that opinions are formed rapidly on social media, companies should have a proactive blog or a reviewer team that manages these. Top reviewers of e-commerce websites need to be made aware of the products and maybe even given a free sample, so they can review them.
Companies need to understand competitors’ offerings well if they’re to give customers a compelling reason to buy their own product.
Buying
This is where transaction ease, price and after-sales service come in. How can social media help here? For starters, the company’s website need to be easily navigable and the products need to be prominently displayed along with an online purchase option. At this stage, it must be ensured that stocks of the product are available
The payment gateways should facilitate most common banks’ net-banking, and credit/debit cards. After-sales service in terms of warranty or guarantees need to be clearly built into the product sale process.
It is also at this stage that a buyer needs emotional gratification for purchasing the brand. This is where media such as YouTube advertising comes in. According to a survey in the US, advertising on such media results in a better return on investment for any campaign, because it is more targeted and the consumers watching the videos are more involved, unlike television viewers, who view advertisements as more of an interruption.
Relationship building
The fourth stage of relationship building has been made easy by the internet. Again, responding to real-time feedback, addressing consumer complaints instantly, and changing the style of communication if one is not working, all these help build stronger relationships. Personalisation will only make customers feel that much more special.
Brand advocates
If the first steps are done well among a set of consumers, the last one — making customers brand advocates — will follow automatically. Word-of-mouth or viral marketing is the most powerful conversion tool. Social media, through its transparency, makes this more convenient.
Increasingly, therefore, marketers are allocating funds based on how many customers are to be addressed across each stage of the purchase decision, instead of how much is spent across various steps of product marketing.