experience matters

Cindy Nelson | Critical Mass Executive

Last Thursday I attended the WWD Forum on Mastering Mobile Marketing, part three of WWD’s series on digital media http://www.wwd.com/wwd-summits/wwd-series-on-digital-media-2443804/. Over the course of the day, I listened to marketers from across the retail sector share how mobile fits into their marketing strategies, and how they’re integrating mobile into their overall marketing mix. The key takeaways for me were: 1) Mobile is truly changing the way that brands interact with consumers, and this change is largely being driven from the bottom up (consumers are challenging brands to evolve, not the other way around), and 2) The success of any mobile brand initiative can often be boiled down to a single, simple (yet all too frequently overlooked) principle: “know thy customer”.

Consumers are challenging brands to evolve

Consumers are using their phone as a device to gain confirmation from peers prior to purchase. I recently learned that today’s “second opinion” involves taking pictures in the dressing room, sending the photos to a friend, and if the response from that “trusted personal stylist” is positive, then (and only then) the credit card comes out. Smart brands are recognizing this trend towards buddy-shopping and co-browsing, and building parts of the shopping experience (both in-store, and online) around this new set of digitally-enabled social behaviors; they’re using their mobile initiatives to connect prospects and customers with their brands and with each other. But are they doing enough?

Ever heard of GotryIton.com? http://www.gotryiton.com/ An Accelerator Finalist at this year’s SXSW, Gotryiton is an online community that allows users to upload digital photos of themselves wearing outfits they’re thinking about buying. So the next time you buy an expensive pair of jeans, you have someone to blame!

Panelists agreed that as consumer needs evolve, so too must brand experiences. This is especially true of mobile. And especially now.  At Critical Mass, we’ve become adept at recognizing the types of bottom-up changes that force evolution, and turning observations into insights that lead to extraordinary work for our clients.

Know thy customer

Deep knowledge of the customer was a consistent theme throughout the day. These marketers understand their customers! They understand the purchase process their customer segments go through and they’re using this knowledge to find unique opportunities for engagement. They’re monitoring usage of their mobile sites to understand changing behaviors. They’re building apps and developing content, and watching where and when the content is consumed.

We all know that the iPhone is gaining share of the smart phone market and there are now over 85,000 iPhone apps in the App Store. Some marketers are optimizing strictly for the iPhone platform.  Brian Dean from Brooks Brothers, however, knows that his customers carry blackberries into the store. He is coming up with ways to use it to connect his in-store representatives to customers.

Sabine Feldmann from Teen Vogue knows that Millennials sleep with their phones. (Well, I suspect it isn’t just 14 – 29 year olds. Come on. Admit it. I know you do too.) She recognizes the importance of the device and how it fits into the lives of her readers.

By understanding the utility value the device has for your audience, you stand a better chance of becoming an important part of that value exchange.

These are just a few examples of the great content at the ongoing WWD digital media series. Marketing – at its core is really all about making connections with your customers. And more and more, mobile will be the place where these connections are established, maintained, and grown. For me, this week’s session reaffirmed my belief that Mobile isn’t replacing online. But it is changing how we think of the Web. Mobile is changing the dynamic between channels, and smart marketers are starting to realize that their channels are converging. For brands wishing to capitalize on new channel opportunities it will mean

1) Being uncomfortable in some cases, and being okay with that.

2) Having your ear to the ground every single day.

Building an app or a mobile site might seem like the easy part, but, understanding your customer’s changing behavior and the interaction they have with their mobile device, and THEN building the right app and developing the right content is the hard part. It takes insights about channel usage and channel preference. You need to look at the entire customer journey and see where the mobile influence is happening.

That’s all for now. All this talk about shopping makes me want to do some damage.

Cindy is an SVP, Group Director working out of the Critical Mass New York office.