The opportunity for us as marketers is with the efficiency of the shopper
I had the privilege of speaking at the Australian Marketing Institute conference in Brisbane earlier in the month. I have recorded a version of the presentation for everyone’s benefit.
The presentation builds on the theme that I recently blogged about: how does this make our customers’ lives easier?
The world has changed, from a digital perspective, it’s not slowing down, it’s accelerating. If I could pinch a quote from William Gibson that sums up all the disruptive technology, it is that “The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed.”
Customers are using a combination of online and offline to make decisions, so we have to make it easy for them. The underlying primary point of this presentation is that we need to help buyers buy. The opportunity for us as marketers is with the efficiency of the shopper. The efficiency, with which shoppers spend, is the same as the efficiency with which the store sells. Help a shopper buy and both parties benefit from the exchange.
Focus on efficiency, with things like navigation, being suggestive – online and offline, focus on driving the top selling products and services because they are the ones that people want to buy, so help the shopper buy them. Look at ways to speed up the sales process; you have to do this by focusing on the customer and making their life easier.
I heard Carol Kane speak a fortnight ago; she’s a fashion designer and the CEO of Boohoo.com. She said something that really resonated with me, and that was; “I didn’t understand anything about marketing but I did know the customer.” So here we have a CEO of one of UK’s top five retail pure-play companies, something they achieved in just a few years, and she admits knowing nothing about marketing. But, she did know the customer.
Carol Kane had no idea she would take her design skills into the eCommerce world and own it. She talked about fast fashion, which was her focus. The conclusion of her presentation was inspiration for mine.
Her advice; Understand the market, understand competition, understand where you have an advantage, get help when needed, never make assumptions, tailor messages, travel to your markets, listen and learn something new, use the correct language, understand what your customers are looking for, find gaps, communicate with your team, be consistent with messages and always remember your customer, stay close to your customers and always communicate with them.
Focus on the efficiency of the shopper and help your shoppers buy; you can only do this by becoming a listening brand.
