Relevance – The Missing Ingredient in Digital

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A quick Google search of the words “relevance” and “marketing” turned up very few useful or informative hits. I found this surprising. Too much digital communication (email, banner ads, YouTube teasers, etc) fails to connect to the consumer in a meaningful, relevant way, which I classify as:

  • Emphasis on noise over meaningful communication (“spray and pray”)
  • Failure to truly understand the decision maker’s pain points
  • Absence of clear product differentiation in communication
  • No linkage between pain points and solutions offered by the marketer
  • Missing emotional connection with the decision maker

Relevance can be a squishy term because what may be relevant to the marketer is not necessarily relevant to the consumer. Too much digital content is devoid of the connection between the product (or service) and real customer needs. Advertising language is often lifted from the marketer’s vocabulary and not from the customer. That’s because no one has bothered to speak to the customer to hear what is relevant. The approach is “Here are the facts – the consumer will obviously get it!”

In digital, we hear about “performance marketing” and “brand marketing”, and these are certainly useful constructs in the business of optimizing digital spending, but more fundamentally we are missing major opportunities to demonstrate our role as “market makers” between customers and sellers. Marketers assume that all features or characteristics are relevant, when in reality too many are not.

Many advertisements on YouTube, for example, don’t connect because the narrator or situation fails to describe the product or link to an end-benefit (even after our attention exceeds the first 5-10 seconds). The same is true for linear or embedded ads on TV or radio. The branding is often held back until the very end. At that point, the advertising has either served to confuse the viewer or waste their time by failing to connect any relevant branding with the story that that was told in the previous 25 seconds. In many cases the storytelling or virtue signaling is more prominent than the brand itself. The consumer must process images, messages, and a story line into something personally relevant that then, in turn, must somehow be linked to a brand benefit. Automobiles, pharmaceuticals, and health care advertising frequently wander into these dead ends. This approach is a complete waste of ad dollars.

Conversely, some features are immediately relevant because they connect to obvious end-benefits. Amazon’s One-Click checkout feature or FreshDirect’s automatic re-ordering are great examples. They mimic the in-store checkout experience: I hand my credit card to the register clerk and don’t have to think again. Amazon and FreshDirect don’t have to talk about it: One-Click has multiple end-benefits: I don’t have to fumble for a credit card, enter a delivery address, and my window is already known. In short, I don’t have to think at all – and can get back to the more important work I was doing before I placed my order. Amazon and FreshDirect become directly relevant because they save me time – something of great value to us all.

Industry experts, the Advertising Research Foundation, and others all generally agree that content and creative account for as much as 70% of the impact of advertising. Too many of us are focused on the shiny object of ROI and targeting, when in reality what consumers want is something that is relevant and meaningful and that makes their lives better.

Don’t forget this fundamental tenant of advertising: do your research, uncover unmet needs, and make it relevant!

Curation: The Next Wave of Marketing

Choice Overload vs. Curation 

Whenever we go to Amazon, or Netflix, or any other site, we are immediately presented with dozens, if not hundreds, of choices. Many of these choices are randomly selected by the retailer based on past purchase behavior across the buyer’s digital mesh. Across multiple devices, the company knows our age, sex, and geographical location, and perhaps can algorithmically make some deterministic assumptions about what we like or don’t like.

But that has yet to translate into something that is presented to the customer as a reasonable choice set. It is no wonder that consumers feel bombarded by choice. They are simply overwhelmed.

We are presented, every day, in multiple contexts, with too many choices. We are presented with too many choices when we read digital publications. We are presented with too many choices when we look at the social media feeds of LinkedIn or Facebook. We are presented with too many choices when looking for a TV show or a movie. Humans are simply not capable of synthesizing hundreds, if not thousands, of choice alternatives when they are presented as a mass (mess?) of individual decisions. Our cognitive capability collapses under the weight of all of the choice decisions that must be made when presented with too much choice.

Companies generally, and advertisers and media assets in particular, have failed to make the leap from choice to curation. This is a huge opportunity for marketers in simplifying the marketing message, making the overall customer experience that much less burdensome and taxing, and draws the consumer closer to the value proposition that attracted the consumer in the first place.

As a general rule, consumers do not like other people making decisions for them. A good case in point is grocery shopping. Yet, in urban environments, direct delivery makes much more sense due to the many obstacles for grocery shopping in congested cities. A grocery shopper doesn’t have to fight city traffic, load up a car, drive to and from their apartment, or leave and subsequently enter parking garages to get the week’s groceries. One of my former clients, FreshDirect, learned early on that their business model wasn’t solely built around the ability to deliver high-quality produce at reasonable prices. The secret ingredient were their drivers. The drivers knew their customers at a personal level, and were able to create a curated experience by making sure that certain things were done to the customer’s exact specifications.

Why is curation so hard? E-commerce has not figured this out at all. Not long ago I ordered tires for my road bike from Amazon. On a subsequent login, Amazon suggested other road bike tires I might be interested in — for a product category purchased annually (at best). The lack of synchronization between recommendations, purchase frequency, and my likely need was stunningly dumb. Yes, Amazon is enormous, yes they make lots of money, but they still have not moved the needle on the concept of curation in any meaningful sense. What if Amazon had a viable competitor that really understood curation?

On the flipside, one of my favorite examples of curation is Spotify. Once again, one would think that Apple (iTunes) would have figured this out long ago, but Spotify is a wonder. If I want music for concentration, there is a curated playlist. If I want calming classical in the background, there is a curated playlist. Do they get it right all the time? No, but they are pretty close most of the time.  And I don’t mind if they miss. AN 80% hit rate is pretty good to me. At least there are humans involved in the decision-making process. OK, yes, perhaps also an algorithm, but at least it is a collaborative effort.

Marketers would be well advised to start thinking about how to anticipate the kinds of products and services that customers will be looking for in a world where choice is overly abundant. Curation is one of the ways that marketers can demonstrate that they are tuned in to what customers are seeking, rather than blindly and programmatically jamming messages at them without any thought to the choice overload that they create. Does the marketer want to convey something meaningful, or add more noise? So far it has been the latter.

I hope that more marketing and advertising initiatives will consider the notion that humans are very, very good at intuiting what other humans might like or enjoy. The concept of curation can form a  much-needed bridge between the antiseptic world of algorithmic decision-making and true human connection.

S&F Conducts Study on 2020 Design Trends for 1stdibs

S&F Conducts Study on 2020 Design Trends for 1stdibs

1stdibs, the leading global marketplace for vintage, antique and contemporary design, has posted the results of its annual Interior Designer Trends Survey, completed by hundreds of interior designers around the world. The data reflect the tastes of design experts, informing the industry and consumers of the interior trends we will see in 2020. The findings indicate a focus on creating one-of-a-kind spaces through the use of unique, antique or customized products; a growing preference for sourcing items from local artisans and makers; green as the most on-trend color of the year; nature motifs; and an increase in the use of digital platforms for furniture purchases.

“Our partnership with 50,000 of the world’s top interior designers allows us to share the noteworthy trends anticipated for the coming year,” said Sarah Liebel, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Trade at 1stdibs. Survey responses indicate that clients want spaces that showcase unique designs. A majority of designers (55%) expect to source more artisanal and one-of-a-kind pieces in 2020, up from 49% the previous year.

Designers are increasingly using digital tools to discover pieces for their clients, and more than half (56%) say that their purchases were made online last year, compared versus 44% in stores or galleries. In addition, approximately half (49%) of designers say they shop/scan for items on Instagram.

 

Since 2017 Surveys & Forecasts, LLC has conducted this ground-breaking trends report for 1stdibs. S&F is full-service strategic research consultancy based in Norwalk, CT, and for this research conducted 700+ online interviews in Q4’19 with interior designers who are part of the 1stdibs Trade Program.
 
For more info on the findings, read the full press release here, or visit 1stdibs.
 
And let’s set up a time to discuss your research issue – click below!
You Can’t Manage What You Can’t See

You Can’t Manage What You Can’t See

I always tell my children that life is not linear. Neither is business. Things rarely go in a straight line, and companies can never sustain super-normal growth in either sales or stock price. Yet we were somehow surprised this week that Apple reported significant declines in iPhone sales. But should we have been that shocked? Apple has been making superficial changes to the iPhone now for several years. Didn’t Apple urge us to “think different”? Had they done any research to anticipate this obvious shift in consumer preference?

 

I continue to be amazed at the perceptual blinders that companies, or financial analysts, wear. The pattern is very familiar: management ignores any initial signs of trouble, they reassure themselves (and consumers, employees, and financial analysts) that all is well. In Apple’s case, they try to deflect by saying “look over here” (for example, by refusing to release unit sales). Denial and the refusal to believe the facts are powerful forces of inertia in every organization. Denial is a basic human instinct.

 

It is also the innovator’s dilemma (see Clayton Christensen): entrenched interests force managers to set aside obvious facts in favor of perpetuating the status quo. History is replete with examples. Hewlett-Packard never wanted to introduce ink-jet printers (the margins were too low). CVS, not doctors, conceptualized Minute Clinic (primary care that was “good enough”). Intel is overshooting processor power even though most consumers will never need it (although AI may change this dynamic). Chevy recently dropped the Volt, an electric car for which there was minimal underlying consumer demand. And why didn’t Sears become Amazon?

 

Apple is a great company and they will probably recover. A reset was needed eventually. But it raises the larger question of why companies stubbornly ignore facts about their customers, markets, and competitors? Why do managers assume that they already know everything that could potentially affect their business?

 

Great research is needed now more than ever.

 

I believe that it comes down to one basic factor: fear. But what does that really mean? Fear of having to think outside of normal patterns… a fear of disruption, which may force people to behave differently, which can be uncomfortable… a fear of having to adapt to a new way of working… a fear of a job change, or even worse – a job loss.

 

But you can’t anticipate or plan for what you can’t see. Don’t assume that you know everything that might affect your business. If you are in a position to recommend marketing or customer research, advocate strongly for it. Your company’s survival depends on seeing what is happening out in the real world!

 

I suggest a few simple rules for paying attention to what is going on in the world:

 

  • Actively listen! Talk to as many of your customers as you can, qualitatively or quantitatively.
  • Construct honest and non-biased questions to uncover real understanding, and identify the real dynamics in your market.
  • Validate your findings with enough respondents to give you the confidence you’ll need to make the hard decisions. Individual or small group feedback is a great start, but always verify, verify, verify.
  • When doing external (non-customer) research, work with reputable sample providers who have the expertise to manage consumer or business panels. To use a gardening analogy, the sample is the soil. If the sample is wrong, everything else is compromised.
  • Have an opinion about what your research results mean and implications for the business. Get out in front of the story; add value. If you abdicate your role, others will write the story for you – and then wonder why you’re there.
  • Let management question the results – but also make sure that they accept the findings. Management buy-in is essential.

Management philosopher Peter Drucker preached that all organizations have two functions: innovation and marketing. Marketing research is at the heart of both. Never stop asking questions, and do so with the frequency required for your industry.

 

Follow these simple guidelines and you will have an insightful, productive, and happy new year!

 

Let’s continue the discussion.
Surveys & Forecasts, LLC