Optism™

Note: Optism is republishing our five most popular blog posts of last year, this was number #4  for 2012 and was originally published on April 27, 2012.

Social Media’s influence across the ecommerce landscape has been profound. With so many choices and conflicting information about which products to choose, consumers are increasingly relying on their social networks both off-line and online to query their community about the right product and service choices. I’ve done it myself and asked my Facebook crew for recommendations on which gaming system to get for my kids. Why did I do it? Because it’s real-time feedback and it makes my life easier. In addition to listening, consumers are also broadcasting their recommended products out to their community. No matter whether they are listening or broadcasting, consumers have become more sophisticated and more careful about their shopping choices — using all available options.

Mobile has accelerated this trend by allowing retailers and other companies to easily reward this word-of-mouth behavior with non-currency rewards. One of the experts on this new trend is Liz Crawford who was recently interviewed by Mike Lewis of Business2Community in an article entitled, The Shopper Economy: 5 Questions with Liz Crawford. Crawford identifies a new dynamic where a shopper can actually earn value in exchange for one of four behaviors: paying attention (e.g. watching a video), participating (e.g. demoing a product), advocating (e.g. writing a review on Yelp), or committing (e.g. participating in brand-sponsored charity event). The rewards can be loyalty points, free mobile minutes, discounts, social recognition or free products like a phone.

Crawford says, “I thought it was fascinating that digital technology, especially mobile technology, was enabling new kinds of transactions between buyers and sellers.  In addition to shoppers purchasing brands, brands were purchasing shopper behavior. I believe this is a relatively new phenomenon.”

Crawford has a new book, The Shopper Economy: The New Way to Achieve Marketplace Success by Turning Behavior into Currency. In the book, Crawford provides detailed examples of Brands, like American Express, that understand consumers are evaluating many products. They know that if they can incentify people towards evaluating their products, they will have a better chance of selling it. Some of the companies helping brands provide behavioral currency include Foursquare, shopkick, SCVNGR and Checkpoint. shopkick gives you kickbucks just for entering the store without buying anything and then you can redeem these kickbucks for gifts like iTunes gift cards, movie tickets, store gift cards and even make donations to charities.

This is a fast-moving trend that will only grow as consumers increase their use of mobile. Crawford says, “Shoppers will become increasingly sophisticated in understanding the worth of their labor.  This means that they will evaluate transactions with brands and retailers with a sharper eye to their own advantage.” Marketers pay special attention to Crawford’s words as the consumer is smarter and has more power than ever before. On the opposite side of the equation, it makes you wonder if people will behave a certain way in order to get rewards thus creating artificial brand advocates.

What do you think about rewarding shopping behaviors? Is it something that you will do or have done? Let us know by leaving a comment or participating in our Facebook Poll. If you could earn something in exchange for sharing your shopping behaviors such as “paying attention” or “promoting” a brand’s product/service, which option would you be most likely to choose?

In July, Oracle published a 40-page industry scorecard, answering the question, “When it comes to better data management, how are industries doing?”

Answer: Worse than bad.

Big Data is exploding, no surprise there. And businesses are not prepared to manage the data deluge in a way that is costing them real revenues.

For retailers, failure to properly process their customers’ data means that their already slim margins are even smaller. According to survey results, retailers estimate they are losing big bucks – to the tune of 10% of annual revenues – because they can’t leverage the information they collect across channels. The Oracle study found that only 17% of retailers rated themselves as having a 360-degree insight into their customers through data gathered across multiple channels.

Is this problem? We say it’s an opportunity. The Oracle report found that there is a silver lining within all the data to help retailers do a 180 degree turn to process the data and act on those insights.

Mobile.

How can mobile help? Here are 3 key areas which mobile can help retailers.

Mobility Element: For retailers, giving their sales teams access to mobile is key: 40% percent of retailers in the Oracle study said that providing store associates with mobile access to customer, product, inventory and other information is critical to combat “showrooming”. Mobile allows retailers to provide customized information to their customers using micro-location (in-aisle) technology. Mobile when combined with other CRM information (both offline and online) can provide the entire organization with a real-time, consistent and complete view of the customer.

Permission Element: A 360-degree solution is part technology and part human. You can have the greatest CRM system in the world and tie a mobile solution into it, but if you are missing the human element – it’s not going to work. We call this Thinking Human – which means asking the consumer what he wants and then actually listening and responding to the stated needs.

Engagement Element: For consumers, the ability to opt-in and share information with retailers allows them to share the products they like. Retailers can then target relevant offers to consumers. This concept was summed up very well over at the Mobile Demystified Blog in post entitled “How Mobile Solves The Retail Marketing Data Challenge.” Retailers, according to the author Kane, need to “look not for mobile marketing solutions, but mobile personalized engagement solutions.” A great example of personalized engagement is how Starbucks is using permission and mobile to connect all of its marketing channels.

Recently, I experienced two examples of how retailers were not using my data correctly.

1. I purchased a chair from JCPenney for my daughter’s bedroom and received a thank you email– with a $10 coupon. Cool. But the next email I received (and the several hundred I’ve received since then) told me all the things on sale in the store and online. Guess what? I’m not interested in the plethora of stuff they offered, from shoes to jewelry and baby gear. But I did recently buy bedding for my daughter at the store. Wouldn’t it be so cool if they referred to THAT and maybe even offered me new accessories that might go with the chair and bedding (throws, pillows, curtains)?
2. Earlier this month, I got email from my favorite restaurant wishing me “Happy Birthday”. Too bad my birthday is in August.

The Oracle study lays out the reasons why businesses and retailers should focus on using mobile to deliver “engaging and rewarding experiences to consumers”. All the elements are there for retailers to deliver a 360 degree experience; technology, mobile, permission and creativity. Retailers just need to get educated on the possibilities and really want to provide added value to their customers.

August is a good time to reflect so we thought it would be a good time to look back at all the mobile content we have created here on the Optism Blog.

 Mobile Marketing

Tap In to the Power of Digital Moms

Trust: A Competitive Advantage for Companies

Let’s Keep Mobile Marketing Simple, To Make It Big (!)

What’s hot in mobile marketing today? Read the IJMM to find out!

What Marketers Need To Know About Mobile Apps

Insightful Book Reveals How To Work, Create & Sell With Digital Natives

 

Mobile Payments and Mobile Wallets

LevelUp Upends the Mobile Payments Paradigm

Why Mobile Carriers Will (Not) Partner with Google Wallet

What Will Be the Compelling Reason That People Start Using Mobile Payments?

How Come Everyone Is Asking the Wrong Questions About Mobile Wallets?

 

Mobile Commerce and Mobile Shopping

Key Findings from the JWT 2011 Mobile Holiday Shopping Experience

Mobile Enabling Rewards for Consumer Behavior

There Is No Such Thing As Mobile Or Electronic Commerce Anymore

The future is bright for mobile commerce as Optism marks its second anniversary

 

Permission Marketing

Starbucks is the Grande Caffe Mocha of Permission Marketing

Mobile Marketers Should Not Violate Privacy, Location and Permission

Giving Up Privacy for Convenience

Optism Blog Series: A Book Review of Seth Godin’s Permission Marketing PDF

Thinking Human: Six Steps for Building a Successful Opt-In Mobile Marketing Strategy

20 Months of Permission Marketing Blog Posts

 

Mobile Events

Optism Wrap-Up of the Mobile Marketing Association Forum in New York

Optism Goes to the MMA Forum in NYC

MMA Forum Singapore Recap: The Shift from “Why Mobile to How Mobile?”

Carnival of the Mobilists #268

MMA Forum Singapore – Looking towards a smarter tomorrow

Marketing, Commerce, Wallet and Broadband – the Perfect Storm at Mobile World Congress

Optism Goes to Mobile World Congress

Enjoy.