Marketing: How to get through the line and line of the longitudinal line

Marketers ' efforts and achievements in recent years to lure consumers from physical stores to online consumer groups are obvious. Retail trade has greatly reduced the intermediate links, the cost of decline, significantly improve the convenience, and so on, all make more and more consumers love online shopping.

However, the real need to get through the line and offline marketing of the main line, light is one-way "to the line pull" is not enough, "push down the line" is equally important. At present, the European and American markets have a large number of retail marketers in this respect show the sophistication of the operation.

For example, on the website of Gap and Banana Republic of clothing brands, consumers have the opportunity to book certain sizes and colors, and then they are encouraged to try them at the nearest store before deciding whether to buy them. This is a variant of the "online book-store pickup" model that is already popular in the United States--as the New York Times reported, in the summer of 2012 alone, more than 50% of the goods on the Wal-Mart site were taken from physical stores rather than by courier. Obviously, relative to the "to shop" (process simple, the goal is clear, the potential consumption impulse is rare to be stimulated), "to shop fitting" (stay longer, the consumption mentality and the impulse is also different from take the goods when) more likely to stimulate more immediate consumption behavior.

Coincidentally, the target site in its 2013 Amoi launched the "Cartwheel (Shopping Wheel)" series included a large number of special hot products, 80 percent of CD products, 75 percent of women's handbags, as well as a variety of snack foods, The only additional provision for consumer demand is that the discounts earned on online subscriptions must come to the store for consumption.

In fact, as early as the last Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays in the consumption season, target from similar to the line and the line through the consumer behavior of the promotional methods to taste the sweetness. At that time, customers in the target online to buy high-end gifts and toys, not only enjoy (the United States) free of charge, but also can use the smartphone scan of the toy goods on the QR code, and then to the physical store to enjoy the discount, and get free door-to-door value-added services.

Why do businesses have to spare no effort to "push the customer down the line"? Retail analysts generally believe that the relative "abandonment of the shopping cart" phenomenon in the online purchase process of the (greater) probability, real-store consumers rarely pick up goods to the end of the shopping cart and then leave the payment--a scenario that will put consumers under a lot of psychological pressure; The hands-on experience stimulated the consumer to press the purchase button more quickly than the online shopper.

And get through the line and line of the longitudinal line, it is not just meant for the consumer group. In terms of technology, the "online application of marketing tools to offline" is also remarkable. For example, a technology company called placed, headquartered in Seattle, is fame by the innovative application of network marketing analytics to the offline world.

In particular, the company's placed Insights software service has made traditional technology software, which tracks traffic in many physical retail outlets, "overnight obsolete". Traditional software--no matter how complex--is essentially "counting heads", (a) statistical analysis of the passenger flow through the camera equipment, plus the demographic characteristics (e.g., consumption habits, age, income, etc.) obtained from third party data providers (in a broader geographical context) So as to provide consumer insight information for retail operators.

and placed insights is completely revolutionary, it is to obtain data directly from the consumer itself--each smartphone user who downloads its app "chooses" to join under placed's analytical microscope, giving placed a chance to track who they are, When they arrived at the store, how long they stayed, even before they went into the store, and what they did after they left the store ... And so on first hand data; In addition, the Placed insights contains 13 billion horizontal/longitudinal geographical points, and the data analysis provided can thus focus on a square foot geographical range, which is more accurate and targeted than the traditional third-party data that Placed brings to the consumer analytics data of the store. At present, placed by more and more chain restaurants, bookstores, department stores and advertising agencies, such as the pursuit of user groups.

Technically, Placed insights is a large data aggregation of global positioning systems, Wi-Fi networks, cellular triangles, accelerometers and gyroscopes, which refines the demographic and behavioral directional data of the consumer population. Just as the Nielsen Company and the big companies such as ComScore provide a toolkit for line marketers to bring online marketers a precision marketing analysis tool that is comparable to online tools.

At present, more than 70,000 app download users have opted to join the placed Insights database, which includes small prizes or micro donations for charities, and promises that app users will be protected from directed advertising, and that all data will be applied to marketing analysis in an integrated manner.

In fact, as long as the operation is proper, consumers will not reject their own data and marketers share, such as electronic receipts such a new trend. Now, in some of the largest chain stores in the United States, the cashier asks the customer for the checkout: "Would you like us to give you a paper receipt or send an electronic receipt to your mailbox?" ”

Why not? As a customer, there will always be a return or other reasons to contact the merchant, if receive electronic receipts, all the relevant information is left in the mailbox, greatly reducing the loss of receipts caused by a series of trouble, but also environmentally friendly and convenient, many customers readily accepted.

On the other hand, stores don't have to go through repeated questioning to get a client's email address, which helps to achieve smarter, more convenient physical transactions before the era of "everyone uses smartphones as an electronic wallet." Most importantly, the offline consumer behavior – the tool of electronic receipts – becomes more likely to be traceable, analytical, and large data-like online consumption.

This is not to get through the online and offline marketing longitudinal line? "This article is written by China International Contract writer, published in" IT manager World "June 20, 2013; Han Jiaxuan contributed to this article.