Destin Florida Fishing Charters

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PROBLEM TO SOLVE
Henkel’s ‘all blue brand laundry detergent was losing its identity with shoppers and retailers alike. A brand once known as a leading “stainlifter” had lost some of its “reason for being” as cleaning power became table stakes within the detergent category, leading to a year-over-year sales decline. As the category grew through the innovation of more powerful formulas, formats and fresh scents, the ‘all blue brand’s shoppers slowly began switching, trading nostalgia for newer innovation and deep discounts.

BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
The mission was to restore retailer and shopper confidence in the brand, secure its existing shelf placement and increase quality merchandising by attracting lapsed users and regaining their loyalty. Specifically, our objectives were to:

1. Increase overall sales and velocity of liquid and unit dose SKUs.

2. Grow the brand’s share at key retailers to secure ongoing shelf space.

TARGET AUDIENCE
● Demographic: The primary target was moms 25-44 years old with kids (toddlers to teens) and an average household income of $67,000.

● Psychographic: They’re stressed by too little time and money. They don’t think about the laundry process or follow specific steps. (“It’s just a chore to complete.”)

● Geographic: While this was a national campaign, we activated in 47 high Brand Development Index/Category Development Index markets that covered our top accounts: Walmart, Kroger, Target and Albertsons.

CORE INSIGHT
Marketing in the laundry category tends to cater to consumers looking for the most powerful clean, appealing to their desire for a high-performing regimen. But that approach misses the 55% of moms who consider laundry a chore and just want to get the job done with as little fuss as possible.

For those moms, ‘all still had an opportunity to be their brand due to its trusted heritage as the stainlifter, a straightforward detergent designed to easily remove common kid stains like grass, mud and chocolate — the messy stains that go hand in hand with an active home. Our insight spoke directly to this mindset: “Happiness is measured in moments, not loads.”

CORE IDEA
With a strategy centered on, “Let’s put life before laundry,” the creative team was able to celebrate the messy fun of being a mom and what matters to her most, her kids.

ACTIVATION
At a time when consumers were facing some serious issues due to the pandemic, we focused on the simple joys of creating messes with the family. We leaned into this idea through custom influencer content on how to get messy coupled with fun, inviting imagery. We delivered this new brand message through a comprehensive omnichannel plan designed to drive brand awareness and growth.

We focused on two outreach strategies that would engage these moms throughout their purchase journey. The first was national activation in high BDI/CDI markets, and the second was retailer-specific engagements at our top accounts: Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons and Target.

The engagement plans for both strategies concentrated on three pillars of tactics and messaging: awareness that celebrated the mess making, conversion that reinforced the brand’s RTBs (reasons to believe), and loyalty validating the target’s own process as “’all good.”

Nationally, the plan focused on branded content on Pinterest and paid media that inspired moms to create messes and have fun. At a time when these moms were seeking fresh ideas more than ever, Pinterest’s visual discovery platform was the perfect venue to share the “‘all good” message with the target audience. We also layered content through Ibotta to deliver purchase incentives, and used Basketful to provide seamless purchase integration.

For the retailer-specific engagement, we identified high BDI/CDI markets, overlaid retailer geographic data, and allocated dollars where they’d have the greatest impact. At Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons and Target, we leaned into tactics that inspired shoppers and also were important to that retailer’s buyers. Vendor and influencer selection was tailored to each account, ensuring retailer acceptance and shopper connectivity.

We engaged shoppers at the most influential touch points along their journey through social influencer outreach, digital and mobile media both on and off retailer platforms, branded content on retailer websites, paid search, and in-store signage. We leveraged shopper data to find lapsed and high-potential new users, converting them from shopper to buyer with “add to list” and “buy now” integrations.

RESULTS

During the campaign, dollar sales increased 15% overall vs. the prior period, but rose 21% and 49% at key accounts Kroger and Walmart, respectively. Meanwhile, Target experienced its biggest impact in online sales in the period, posting 201% growth vs. the prior year.

In addition to sales growth, the campaign delivered +40% dollars per total distribution points on our core items vs. the prior year, contributing to our goal of driving shelf space in key accounts. This growth changed the conversation with buyers from item decline to item

support.

We also achieved our quality merchandising (QM) and velocity goals with a +25% QM at Albertsons (to reach an 82% rate) and +17% unit movement at Kroger vs. the year-ago period.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/595373834?h=f6ba41fa05&

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PROBLEM TO SOLVE
The Sam’s Club team at then-Nestle Waters (now BlueTriton Brands) came to the agency in May 2020 with a request to help launch its “big bet,” Sanpellegrino Mixers. The team was able to sell in the mixers to the 250 Sam’s Club stores that had liquor stores but needed a strong idea that would create in-club disruption to drive sales and gain full distribution for this new item.

With all the uncertainty surrounding the Holiday 2020 season given the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the team had legitimate concerns about hitting the forecasted sales goals and gaining full distribution given the following key barriers:

• A significant decline in club foot traffic, which is always critical for driving sales of a new item at Sam’s Club.

•An inability to sample the product in clubs due to the pandemic.

•An inability to use signage or handouts due to the retailer’s clean store policy.

• The item’s bulk size and cash outlay during a recession, which often makes members hesitant to spend money on items that aren’t already on their list.

• An inability to sample through Club Pick-up due to the product’s glass packaging.

BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

1. Drive impactful sales. Activate a program that gets Sam’s Club members aware and excited about the availability of the new mixers to drive substantial sales.

2. Increase product distribution before the launch. Execute an innovative plan that would inspire the Sam’s Club buyer to get behind the launch and provide full distribution across all 600 club stores (up from the existing 250).

3. Drive awareness, consideration, purchase, loyalty and advocacy among all shoppers of the category as well as carbonated soft drinks.

TARGET AUDIENCE
The “CEO Mom,” women seeking solutions that will help them successfully manage their families and their lives.

Behaviorally:
1. Members who are looking for cocktail/mocktail inspiration
2. Current liquor purchasers
3. Lapsed sparkling water/carbonated soft Drink (CSD) purchasers
4. Current sparkling water/CSD purchasers

Geographically: 45% live in the South/24% live in the Midwest
Demographically: 67% Caucasian/19% African American

Psychographically: Faith & family are central to her life. She stays busy juggling her many tasks, which includes a career-orientation for half the target group. She places a high value on her ethnic heritage and is less concerned about the environment.

CORE INSIGHT
The perceived difficulty in launching a new item at Sam’s Club during a pandemic was the key barrier to a successful launch. Overall, foot traffic was down in clubs, so the treasure hunt that members love so much was off the table.

We knew our “CEO Mom” was in a state of COVID message fatigue and yearning for media that did not make her think about the crisis. With that in mind, we needed to break through the COVID noise not just outside club but within stores, delivering an engaging experience that could bring some fun and a bit of normalcy back into her life.

However, positive messaging alone would not be enough. Once in-store, our shopper’s mindset was to get what she needed quickly and then get out. Therefore, we needed to deliver an easy-to-use experience that she could engage with both in the club and also at home.

CORE IDEA
“Cocktail 101” learning is best when it’s a one-on-one experience. But how do you get up close and personal with an expert mixologist when bars are off limits and your social life has been replaced by social distancing? By ordering up some augmented reality, of course.

The solution was a unique augmented reality experience that introduced the product’s benefits as a mixer in an entertaining manner while compensating for the pandemic’s impact: Shoppers who were in the store could scan an on-pack QR code to unlock the experience; those utilizing in-store pickup received a code-carrying handout; online-only shoppers were directed to samsclub.com to meet the Virtual Bartender.

ACTIVATION
With COVID-19 causing a shift in shopping behavior from in-store to e-commerce, the client needed help creating disruption throughout the new shopping funnel to drive sales. With in-club sampling of the product unavailable and Sam’s Club’s stricter clean store policy prohibiting signage, we had to find creative ways to convince members to buy Sanpellegrino Mixers in bulk.

We rallied together to find an innovative way to bring an exciting, engaging experience to members by leveraging the brand’s partnership with Dante NYC, which provided exclusive access to the legendary Manhattan cafe’s drink recipes: an AR-based Virtual Bartender. The concept played well into our insight that the CEO Mom was looking for brands to bring her products that would bring a bit of normalcy back into her life.

This strategic, innovative idea got the Sam’s Club category buyer so excited that Sanpellegrino was not only awarded 3X the number of clubs for distribution but also prime in-store placement and space within the Sam’s Club monthly Instant Savings Book.

Energized by this opportunity, the brand quickly reacted and worked with our team to modify the original content to better reflect the concept and better represent the brand at Sam’s Club. We pulled out all the stops to cast talent that would keep members entertained, and we created a different “vibe” for each cocktail in the variety pack, drawing inspiration from the recipes themselves to determine the wardrobe, the bar set, and even the music for each.

We strived for the experience to be seamless, engaging, and to feel as close to visiting a real bar as possible — something that people were missing in a world of social distancing. We also landed on using the latest and greatest technology to accomplish this: WebAR, or web-based augmented reality.

This technology allowed members to scan an on-pack QR code to engage with the Virtual Bartender experience in about five seconds. The experience was also presented for online shoppers on a dedicated brand page at samsclub.com.

In the experience, Sam’s Club members were invited to make a cocktail for themselves as the Virtual Bartender showed them how. This provided an entertaining way for them to learn about product usage while also getting entertainment tips for the holiday season.

On the video shoot, we captured content that could be used not only for the best-in-class AR experience but also for multiple other tactics including in-club-TV advertising, digital banners and rich media.

Ultimately, the experience was disruptive and engaging enough to convince Sam’s Club members to buy a new product even though they couldn’t taste it first. Jeff Storey, the Sam’s Club sales lead at the client, stated repeatedly that it was “the best, most strategic and most fast-forward thinking work” that had ever come across his desk.

To address the evolution of order fulfillment methods, the campaign also included a code-carrying handout for shoppers who were picking up their online orders at the store and wouldn’t encounter the packaging.

RESULTS
Purchase: In the first week of full distribution when all shopper tactics were live, the product sold 6,010 units — a 68% increase over the prior week.

Advocacy: Nestle Waters gained full distribution for the item in all 600 Sam’s Club stores. This innovative idea got the buyer so excited that the brand was also given prime placement in-store and space within the Sam’s Club Instant Savings Book.

Awareness, et al: Within the first two weeks, the AR Virtual Bartender experience attracted 2,286 active users, 8.5% of whom returned for another visit. The video completion rate of 68% surpassed benchmarks. The program concluded with 85,804 engagements and an average dwell time of 6 minutes, 50 seconds.

As use of the Virtual Bartender picked up, so did our rich mobile media, which drove 1.5 million engagements in the first week alone and 4.13 million impressions overall. Social influencers also had a big impact, delivering a 46% click-through rate on adding the item to cart on Samsclub.com. Our smart, strategic investments on a small budget paid off.

Additionally, the program helped build relationships with Sam’s Club buyers.

The post Success Stories: Sanpellegrino’s Virtual Bartender appeared first on BizGrow Marketing.

Note: The following analysis was originally presented as a session at the Path to Purchase Institute’s Shopper Insights & Measurement Forum in September 2021.

As curbside pickup and home delivery of grocery purchases have really taken off in the last year and a half, we started thinking about the possible nuances in behavior that relate to this particular part of the shopping journey.

Before the pandemic happened, marketers spent a lot of time talking about the busy family and how we could make things convenient for them. And I can’t think of anything more convenient than ordering your groceries online and having them delivered to your house or picking them up curbside or in-store. So as we continue to come out of this pandemic and life gets busier again, this is a really important space for us to understand as it continues to evolve.

Now even though most grocery shopping is still done in-store, we have seen so much momentum shift over the last year and a half to online. If you’re involved with insights, you know the statistics pretty well by this point, the statistics that showed all the growth that we saw in e-commerce within just a few months:

Knowing all that, we started to think about online shopping, which actually means a little bit more than just online activity. It’s about curbside pickup, buy online and pick up in-store, having the order delivered to your house — all the platforms that are evolving today to develop ways for shoppers to get their items more easily and in a much faster period of time — whether that’s an hour or a half an hour. And we’ve seen data where shoppers say, “I’m getting used to this. I kind of like it. I think I’m going to keep doing it once the pandemic is over.

That begs the question: How is this changing shopping behavior? These trips are very different than the traditional in-store trip. So what does that mean for the path to purchase? For a long time, when we looked at the path to purchase, our nomenclature was:

Aware – Shop – Buy – Use

Yours might have been Pre-shop – Shop – Post-shop, but the idea is the same. And we’ve talked for a long time now about the path to purchase no longer being linear, there are on-ramps and off-ramps and critical moments along the way. A lot of different points and a lot of different intricacies in the journey.

But this is a moment in particular where we really need to rethink how all of this relates to these new, different types of trips because in these trips, shoppers don’t actually go pick their own items. They don’t ever walk into the store.

That makes this an inflection point in the journey that isn’t like anything we’ve seen in a really long time, and that makes it really interesting and really exciting at the same time. That makes this an inflection point in the journey that isn’t like anything we’ve seen in a really long time.

In these trips, shoppers doesn’t actually go pick their own items. They don’t ever walk into the store. That makes this an inflection point in the journey that isn’t like anything we’ve seen in a really long time.

When this trip starts, it doesn’t look incredibly different. People still have to plan their trip, which retailer they’re going to and what items they’re going to get. They still have to do the actual shopping, so that that part of the trip looks pretty much the same as elsewhere.

It’s the minute they hit that “Submit” button where things really start to look a lot different. Now you’ve got this moment where, as a shopper, I relinquish selecting my own items. There’s a proxy that takes over. It might be a store employee or an online platform shopper, but somebody else is now picking my items for me.

And it’s interesting to think about that, because if that person is really great at what they’re doing, that could be a great experience — but if they’re not then it could be a little bit of a clunky experience. Either way, that person is now your eyes in the store, communicating with you about what the options are if something you want is out of stock.

And the question here is, do these people represent the next evolution of influencers? Here’s an example from my own experience: I bought my groceries online and them delivered to my house for a year before the pandemic hit. And 90% of the time, the same shopper would fulfill my order. So we would chit-chat a little bit when she was dropping off my groceries, and we got to know each other a little bit. One day, early in the pandemic made a comment like, “I wonder when we’re going to see disinfecting wipes on the shelf again. Weeks later, as she was getting my groceries, she texted me and said, “The store has disinfecting wipes on the shelf today, would you like some?”

So she just influenced an impulse purchase from me. I just made a comment to her, but because she was an excellent shopper, she listened and remembered what I might want and got an impulse purchase out of me. So this could be something we need to think about for the future.

Do in-store pickers represent the next evolution of influencers? This could be something we need to think about for the future.

And the other thing about at this stage is packaging. In-store fulfillment doesn’t just involve walking down the aisles and picking items from the shelf. Some of it is happening in a backroom or a warehouse. Retailers are building micro-fulfillment centers. This is a moment where you might need to think about your packaging: is it simple to be picked? When ecommerce first emerged, we had to rethink packaging in terms of optimal shipping to the home. This now could be another point for us to consider.

What else is different? There’s the transitioning time. These shoppers are either going to the store to get their groceries or somebody is coming to their house with them. If it’s curbside pickup, they get there and notify the store that they’re in the parking lot. They’re waiting for somebody to bring out the groceries.

They’re in the parking lot. They’re waiting for somebody to bring out the groceries. This is a captive moment.

Photo courtesy Path to Purchase Institute

Here at The Mars Agency, we use our Marilyn technology platform to help inform all our understanding about the path to purchase and we’ve just completed a proprietary annual study that fuels our technology now. This year, we knew it was really important to include online grocery such as Instacart, Peapod and Shipt, and also on-demand services like Gopuff, Drizly and DoorDash.

The data is hot off the presses, and we’ll be using it to help us better understand how shoppers are now behaving along the path to purchase, and in particular how that behavior might different across retail channels and even across specific retailers.

In-Store vs. Online Behavior

So the first thing we looked at was, of course, the behavior of in-store shoppers versus online shoppers, and then among that second group comparing behavior between the ones who were going to pick it up at the store or have it delivered. How did those shopping trips look different?

The first thing a shopper has to do is decide where to shop. And for a long time, when we’ve asked shoppers how they choose the retailer, “They’re close to my house” has been one of the factors at the top of the list.

But we found here that proximity fell a little bit farther down the list. And that makes sense if your groceries are going to be delivered because you wouldn’t care how far away the retailer is. But when you think about the people picking up at the store, they now might be more willing to go another five or six minutes down the road to try a different retailer because, at the end of the day, they’re still saving a lot of time on the overall shopping experience. It’s still not taking as long as a trip to the store.

Another reason for retailer selection we’ve heard a lot over the years has been, “Well, that’s the place I always go.” The choice comes out a habit because that’s their store, that’s their retailer. But in this instance, that also fell farther down the list. These are habits that are still forming, so they’re not completely solidified just yet. But what that tells us is, there’s still an opportunity to win these trips, an opportunity to connect with these shoppers.

So then, why are people choosing these retailers? The experience matters more than anything right now. And specifically, the online interface is important to them, and also what other people are saying about the experience in the form of ratings and reviews.

They’ve got to be able to get onto your interface easily and find what they want easily and complete the order without any hassles. And they’re looking at what other shoppers are saying because they want to know: Were they able to get a delivery or a pickup time that was convenient? Did it arrive on time? Was the bread smushed at the bottom of the package? All of those are important for the experience, which is really the most critical thing right now. So we really need to make sure that we’re delivering on these.

Now, once they’ve chosen the store it’s time to plan the trip. And what was different here compared with in-store trips? Shoppers were more likely to compare prices between brands, although they were actually less likely to use coupons. That could be a sign that they haven’t quite figured out yet how to use digital coupons and get them applied to their cards, so maybe it’s just easier for them to compare prices.

And that suggests another opportunity for brands. They are distributing digital coupons, but this might tell us there’s an opportunity to do a better job teaching shoppers how to find them and apply them when planning trips.

They also said they were more likely to look for meal and snack solutions, and were more likely to check for recipes and ingredients for upcoming meals. That might be telling us that, since they’re saving time by not walking through the store, they might be willing to transfer some of that time to this part of the shopping journey. So there’s an opportunity for us to impact them during this period, when they’re thinking about the meals, or the snacks, they’re going to have for the family this week.

On the other hand, we did find that these shoppers were less likely to check the cupboards or the pantry, and this could just be a matter of them realizing they were taking the last jar out and immediately adding it to the cart or putting it on the list. And they were less likely to ask family members if they needed anything. I honestly don’t have a good hypothesis for this, but it’s an interesting to change in behavior to consider.

Behavior at Online Grocery Retailers

We also looked to see if shopping behavior was any different at those pure online retailers, the Instacarts and Peapods of the world, and it really wasn’t. Most behaviors were fairly consistent with what we saw at other retailers. This tells us that the online grocery shopping journey is the online grocery shopping journey, it’s pretty consistent regardless of where they’re shopping.

Now, the shopper is done with the planning and it’s time to start shopping, time to start picking the items to put into their cart. And in this stage, it really becomes all about the navigation.

This makes total sense when you’re going into a physical store, where you use cues all along the way, whether it’s something that you see on the shelf, the displays or the endcaps, there are things that you’re using.

But when you go online to buy your groceries, you have to go in and find those products to get them into your cart. Here, shoppers said they were primarily using the search bar to look for products, using the menus, searching the retailer’s website. And remember this is why they pick a retailer — because of the experience. So this part has to be smooth and it’s got to work for them, because this is the primary way that they’re getting items in the cart.

And the other thing they said that’s really interesting is that they like to get a little inspiration at this point. You know the retailers do a great job of putting different bundled offers out there, and remember shoppers said they’ll spend a little bit more time looking for a meal inspiration. So this is a great place to influence them as they’re shopping online since we’ve lost the ability to drive impulse from displays in the store. This could be the online equivalent. We can create recipes and make them shoppable so it’s easy to add the ingredients to the cart.

But, once you inspire them and get the items into the cart, you’ve got to make sure they feel really good about their decision, because one of the other things they do is delete items from their cart. At the end of your trip, it’s a lot easier to delete an item from your online cart than it is to bring it back to the shelf in-store. It’s also very easy to see ahead of time what your cart totals, which makes it easier for shoppers to decide that they didn’t mean to spend so much and start to second guess some of thir purchases. So here’s a point in the journey where, although you don’t want to pester them, maybe you can offer a suggestion or an alternative to the items they are deleting — like, “Remember that was going to be part of the meal” — or do something to keep from losing that purchase once you’ve worked so hard to get it into the basket.

So now they’ve selected all of the items they want, and this gets us to that interesting part where the shopper relinquishes control to the person who’s doing the picking. And at this stage, shoppers said they want to get what they ordered. That doesn’t seem like a lot to ask, but remember we’ve been dealing with out of stocks for a long time now. So behaviors here really focused on the substitutions.

They want to get really good substitutions that don’t cost them more. And they want to be able to have a dialogue with the picker to hear about out of stocks and get some options about what might be available. In some platforms, that does happen, but in other platforms it doesn’t. If it can, that’s a really important point for shoppers. This is their eyes, the person who’s telling them what else they can get.

So it’s really important to make sure that these people are as savvy as they can be, and that they’re able to make those substitutions and help shoppers get what they wanted out of this shopping trip.

Now, finally, they’re going to the store to pick up what they ordered. And with curbside pickup, we find that there’s still an opportunity to influence basket growth even at the end.

We asked these people if they still went into the store when they picked up the order, and although the vast majority said no. And I know we all want to get them into the store to buy more things, but remember they chose this trip because they don’t want to go into the store.

I know we all want to get them into the store to buy more things, but remember they chose this trip because they don’t want to go into the store. But when we’re bringing the order out, can we ask if there is anything else that we can get for them?

But when they did go into the store, a lot of it simply came down to, “I forgot. I realized when I got there that I forgot something.” So if this is the trip they want, how can we help them overcome this issue. When we’re bringing the order out, can we ask if there is anything else that we can get for them that they might have forgotten. Now I know that can become a logistical nightmare, but are there ways we could do that for certain items?

Or again, if you sell an impulse item, I’m sure you’re thinking about this because they’re not standing in that checkout line anymore, flipping through a magazine. Is there an opportunity here to say, “Great, we’ll be out in a minute with your order. Can we get you a bottle of water or some gum?” Can we get them a magazine or a pinecone air freshener or whatever we put in those aisles? They’re captured at that moment, in that space, is there an opportunity at that time to serve up some content and still inspire incremental purchases?

Impulse Buying on Demand

One final thought, which isn’t really specifically part of the path to purchase but I found really interesting as we started digging deep into the on-demand platforms, is that there’s a lot of opportunity for impulse buying.

Because when we looked at on-demand platform purchases, we found a lot of people shopping between 5:00 and 10:00 at night. And they were more likely to ask their family if they needed anything (where remember earlier we saw that most online shoppers were less likely to do that). And people they were more likely to be looking for meal and snack solutions.

So we should think of these as moments in time: It’s the moment I realized I’m out of diapers at seven o’clock at night. It’s the moment my child got sick and I needed some OTC and wasn’t able to go out to get it. It’s the moment my family decided that we were going to do family movie night and we wanted to liven it up with some fun snacks.

How can your brands fit in there? How do they complement the moment? How do you add value in that diaper moment to say, we have some formula or even a package of cookies; at that OTC moment to say, we can add some soup or some tissues; at that family movie night moment to say, can we add a soda or a bottle of wine? It’s really interesting to think about how we can make these experiences even more valuable and more fun for these shoppers by looking at the dynamics of these moments.

We’ve really just begun digging into our study to see how it can complement what we’re thinking about the path to purchase, and we’ll certainly be presenting a lot more thoughts on this in the coming months. In the meantime, here are a few closing thoughts:

Where might your brand make an impact in some of these new moments?

Think about your brands, your objectives, how you measure success. There are new points in this path to purchase that replace old points. What does that mean for you, how can you influence shoppers and is there a way for you to uniquely impact that?

Think about how to test and learn while these trips are in their infancy.
This feels like a really good time to do some test and learns. Think about some of the things we talked about. These are not solidified behaviors, they continue to evolve, people are still thinking about these new options, so now’s the time throw a couple of things against the wall and see what happens based on what’s important to you, what your success looks like and what you’re trying to achieve.

Rethink how traditional tactics, like influencers or sampling, may work in this new environment.
It’s a time to start rethinking how some of these traditional tactics fit into these new paths to purchase, how do we influence people along the way and what adjustments should we make to those tactics. For us at The Mars Agency, this is all really exciting, it’s a lot of fun and we’re going to continue to analyze these trends through our Marilyn technology in order to help drive success for our clients.

About the Author
Theresa Lyons has been with The Mars Agency for 26 years and currently leads a team of 12 diverse strategists who are dedicated to developing a deep understanding of the “why” behind shopper behavior to deliver insights and strategy that build brands. Theresa has helped develop shopper strategy for many of the agency’s new business wins, as well as for some of its key clients including Campbell Soup, Henkel, Conagra Brands, BlueTriton, Bacardi and Mars Wrigley. She also has been a key contributor to the development and deployment of TMA’s breakthrough Marilyn technology. Reach her at lyonst@themarsagency.com.

View the original presentation:

https://vimeo.com/640390350/4a3f7537e1

Courtesy of the Path to Purchase Institute

The post 9 Moments of Influence in the New Shopper Journey appeared first on BizGrow Marketing.

Over the past several years, our industry began using the term “Omnicommerce” to describe what we do. It’s a helpful term, loaded with the notion that people can shop from anywhere and, as a result, all media is becoming shoppable. While the term itself feels like progress, we’ve recently been asking ourselves some critical questions: is our industry actually thinking more broadly — or more omni — about commerce? And, have structures and capabilities kept up with our desire for change?

For too many companies, the answer to those questions is no. That’s because too many companies are applying an old model – one that’s brand-centric, linear and focused on awareness – to a new reality. The right approach demands that we show up in the right place, at the right time, with the right message to drive shoppers toward purchase. And it demands that we change our model to one that is shopper-centric, dynamic and relentlessly focused on conversion.

At The Mars Agency, we’re working with our clients to move beyond Omnicommerce (which, at its worst, is just “showing up everywhere”) and achieve “Connected Commerce” (which, at its best, is true integration and alignment of all the tools of Commerce Marketing). On this journey, we’ve noticed five behaviors that are the hallmarks of companies who are advancing the fastest toward a better model of Commerce Marketing:

1. Connecting Experience Design: The best experience plans convey a cohesive brand message across paid, owned and earned media and address both consumer and shopper insights. They curate and prioritize the right physical and digital experiences for consumers and shoppers. To get there, planning must begin earlier and with as much emphasis on mapping strategies up front as on creating the plans themselves.

2. Prioritizing Scalable Solutions: Winning companies are prioritizing bigger bets that enable end-to-end integration across brands, customers and drive periods. These fully integrated events get the complete power of the Commerce Marketing engine pointed in one direction and deliver stronger results than ad-hoc campaigns.

3. Integrating E-commerce: The first horizon in e-commerce was mastering the brilliant basics (product pages, reviews, etc.). The next horizon is ensuring that e-commerce content is connected to the broader Commerce Marketing shopper experience; that content changes dynamically to match seasonal changes in both brand campaigns and the in-store environment.

4. Measuring with Purpose: The critical first step is aligning KPIs across the entire commerce ecosystem — media to content to search to shopper — to ensure collaboration instead of competition. To unlock even more, companies must build a culture that enables lean principles such as rapid test-and-learn.

5. Hiring Differently: Advanced companies have realized they must attract more connectors and fewer specialists. There will always be specialty expertise required to deliver Commerce Marketing, but a collection of people and agencies whose knowledge runs an inch wide and a mile deep will never be able to deliver integrated solutions. Seek diversity of experience in every new hire and cross-train staff to ensure a breadth of capability throughout the purchase journey.

We’ve been leaning into these strategies at Mars internally and with our clients and we’re already seeing a difference in our ability to deliver integrated solutions that connect the physical to the digital, the message to the medium, and the marketing to the merchandising. With the right talent, the right partners and the right approach, the industry can reap the ultimate benefit of a Connected Commerce approach: better experiences for shoppers that drive more growth for brands and retailers.

Originally published in Path to Purchase IQ

About the Author
Rob Rivenburgh is Global CEO of The Mars Agency, which creates breakthrough connected commerce solutions that influence the shopper journey from prompt, to purchase, and beyond. In addition to his leadership at the agency, over the last two decades Rob has served as a guiding force for the ever-evolving shopper marketing community. Reach him at rivenburghr@themarsagency.com.

The post The Five Secrets for Connecting Commerce appeared first on BizGrow Marketing.

That’s why Walmart Connect has been busy lately finding partners and tools that let it offer advertisers a menu of shoppable media options that can be deployed to send interested consumers right to the shopping cart. Here are a few of the opportunities that the world’s largest retailer (yes, it still is) has rolled out in the last few months.

Social Media Posts

Walmart continues to leverage its own social platforms to capture consumer attention for unique, exclusive products and provide options for shopping immediately within the platform.

That gives brand advertisers additional opportunities to reach shoppers with relevant information about products while they are engaged in social activity. This can be a great cross-promotion opportunity for brands whose category shoppers are open to social engagement.

Livestream

The social activity includes livestream events, like one promoting fall home décor conducted recently in a partnership with popular influencers Bethany and Amanda of the 8-year-old Whoa Wait Walmart? blog. Used to drive seasonal sales, livestreams appeal to the younger Gen Z and Millennial demographics, allowing viewers to add products to a cart without pausing the videos or leaving the media platform. The events give brands a chance to generate awareness and engagement among the attendees who don’t end up clicking through.

Meanwhile, a recent Walmart Live “Happy Hour” featured celebrity chef Rachael Ray touting her eponymous Rachael Ray Nutrish line of pet food, appealing to her large fan base (and animal lovers) by telling stories about her dog over cocktails. As elsewhere, attendees (the target is younger shoppers here, too) can easily add products to a cart without pausing the video or leaving the platform.

Shoppable Recipes

The world’s largest grocer has partnered with leading media company Meredith to bring together the best of first-party data for a robust e-commerce experience delivered via shoppable digital advertising. The partnership’s enhanced technologies will allow busy families to find and prep their meals faster with help from AI-powered planning tools, shoppable recipes, visual searches and chatbot assistance.

While planning the meals, consumers can add the necessary recipe ingredients directly to their Walmart.com grocery cart and order for pickup or delivery. Available activations include videos on TikTok, a Walmart-exclusive “bookazine” of recipes, and a voice-activated experience for Google Assistant.

Meredith boasts that its multi-platform media portfolio — which includes Allrecipes, Better Homes & Gardens, Parents, EatingWell and Real Simple — reaches 95% of women in the U.S. Most of us already know that Walmart has 150 million weekly shoppers.

On-Site Shopping Assistance

Speaking of partnerships, award-winning fashion designer Brandon Maxwell joined with Walmart to bring to life an interactive styling app on Walmart.com showcasing apparel from two retailer-exclusive brands, Free Assembly and Scoop. Using a four-step quiz, Maxwell creates a unique style for each participant, who can then “Shop the Look” that is presented. The effort is bringing New York-style high fashion to communities across the U.S. — at an everyday low price, of course.

At The Mars Agency, we are committed to being leaders in innovation. To help our clients stay ahead of the competition in a fast-paced and constantly evolving marketplace, we closely monitor any and all news across the Walmart ecosystem so clients stay “in-the-know” about this key customer. Kandi Arrington, SVP-Customer Development, heads up our Walmart team in Bentonville. Reach her at arringtonk@themaragency.com.

The post Retail Watch: Shoppable Media at Walmart appeared first on BizGrow Marketing.

On Wednesday afternoon, Snap Inc., or “Snapchat,” as the kids call it, announced quarterly earnings. Already richly valued, the stock got absolutely hammered after hours, falling as much as 30%. And while investors ran to the door, it wasn’t so much the numbers announced as it was the commentary outlining the “why?”

This article isn’t about stock prices or company valuations, though. It’s about the potential implications for digital advertising and, frankly, the future of the internet.

Snap’s miss centered on two things. The first was Apple’s change to its privacy policy and specifically its Advertising Identifier (IDFA). Since this was announced in late April, this is the first real evidence that, despite work arounds, these changes make advertising less effective on IOS devices!

This is the first real evidence that, despite work arounds, these changes make advertising less effective on IOS devices!

The second was Snap’s commentary on global supply chain disruptions. Put simply, brands don’t have products to advertise, which naturally leads to a cut back in ad dollars. Snap is already competing on the fringe for ad dollars, so it makes sense that brands would cut there before Google or Facebook. We’ve written before about the massive supply chain issues, but this was supposed to affect brands in Q4, not in Q3.

Apple has long argued that it’s the white knight in this whole equation and user privacy is its North Star. However, in the past six months, its Search Ads business has more than tripled in market share, according to the ,Financial Times.

Meanwhile, fellow Silicon Valley darling Google owns 92.47% of the search engine market, according to Statista’s June research. Google’s rumored spat with Roku was once considered good ol’ negotiation. Now that details are airing publicly, it’s becoming clear that Google is flexing its muscles and not giving an inch when it comes to revenue share for YouTube properties on Roku devices. In addition, the recent attorney general’s lawsuit against Google was unsealed and the following excerpt caught my eye:

That’s 75% folks!

So, what does this all mean in the grand scheme of things? Here are my predictions:

1. Apple and Google have had enough with upstarts (and Facebook) carving out meaningful share in the ad market. However, Apple’s April move and Google’s recent push are sounding a lot like my favorite board game, which starts with “Mo” and ends with “oly.” It’s an elegant dance that has always attracted government scrutiny.
2. Connected TV is the future of the internet. Roku’s upcoming earnings announcement on November 3rd will either confirm or deny that ad dollars aren’t being reduced. Rather, they are moving to streaming TV. We’ll get strong confirmation even before that, as Facebook reports after the market close on October 25th.
3. Apple and Google will continue to push hard into connected TV. A “television” as we know it could look completely different in the next 18 months. Apple transformed the desktop, the phone, and how we listen to music. I see this as a great fight for who will own that final screen in every household. Again, this has nothing to do with the TV device itself, but rather the role it plays to own streaming tv ad dollars. That starts with search, and Google’s dominance everywhere else creates an “all hands on deck” scenario for this final screen.

Apple and Google didn’t get to $2.5 and $1.8 trillion dollar valuations by settling for second place. Upcoming earnings announcements may be the most scrutinized of all time, as we’re in the middle of disruptive change; we just don’t know it yet.

About the Author

John Willkom is the Head of Ecommerce at The Mars Agency, where he helps brands win in the ever-changing world of connected commerce. John has a passion for brand building and discovering “what’s next,” is an avid sports fan, and accomplished author, having penned the Amazon best-selling book, Walk-On Warrior, in 2018. John and his wife, Allison, have two daughters and call Minneapolis home. Reach him at willkomj@themarsagency.com.

The post The Future of the Internet, As Seen on Snapchat appeared first on BizGrow Marketing.

Subject matter experts from Mars Wrigley, Mars Petcare, Henkel and The Mars Agency recently came together in a special webinar to outline three recent programs conducted at Walmart and Target in which they successfully worked through legacy obstacles to develop effective, multi-touch connected commerce solutions that influenced shoppers across all relevant stages of their purchase journeys.

Speakers:

Kandi Arrington, SVP, Customer Development, The Mars Agency

Raquel Crocker, Director of Sales, Beauty – Target, Henkel

Meghan Heltne, VP, Customer Development, The Mars Agency
Taylor Lewis, Director, Customer Development, The Mars Agency

Olivia Till, Shopper Marketing Manager, Mars Wrigley

Alicia Wieburg, Senior Omni Marketing Manager, Mars Petcare

Introduction

Kandi Arrington sets the stage by outlining the changes to both shopper and retailer expectations that now require brand organizations to take a “one team, one plan” connected commerce approach to retail marketing activation.

https://vimeo.com/641955775/515451409e

Henkel Beauty & Target

Raquel Crocker and Meghan Heltne describe how Henkel Beauty used a connected commerce approach to effectively launch a Color Boost innovation at Target.

https://vimeo.com/641955640/19729e0869

Skittles Gummies Launch at Walmart

Olivia Till and Taylor Lewis outline how an omnichannel mindset ensured a seamless shopper experience for the exclusive launch of new Skittles Gummies at Walmart.

https://vimeo.com/641955878/4686f64906

Mars Petcare’s ‘Extend a Paw’ at Walmart

Alicia Wieburg explains how engaging the retail partner early in the planning process created a snowball effect that inspired cross-functional support and omnichannel excellence for the purpose-driven Extend a Paw campaign at Walmart.

https://vimeo.com/641956053/db26174a32

For the full session, watch the video below.

https://vimeo.com/641955081/377fdba71d

Courtesy Path to Purchase Institute

The post Connected Commerce in Action appeared first on BizGrow Marketing.

Currently operating a 24-hour service in roughly 600 U.S. cities, Gopuff’s mission is to be “the go-to solution for immediate, everyday needs” across a variety of CPG categories including household cleaners, food and snacks, OTC medicine and alcohol that consumers can obtain “from one place, delivered to your doorstep, within minutes,” explained Harp.

Gopuff’s mission is to be “the go-to solution for immediate, everyday needs” across a variety of CPG categories

The company’s “secret sauce” is its control of “every step in the last-mile delivery process” thanks to proprietary technology, an in-house product inventory, a network of 400 micro-fulfillment centers and stores (the latter through the late 2020 acquisition of the BevMo chain), and a fleet of delivery drivers.

Based on recent changes in consumer behavior the company has witnessed, Gopuff has identified four “big bets” that are driving its strategy:

1. “Relentlessly” improving the customer experience. While average delivery time is about 28 minutes now, 10 minutes is possible in some markets, Harp said.

2. Expanding category capabilities to cover all “instant needs moments, whatever they may be.” This is especially important as Gopuff’s users expand from the company’s original Gen Z base to encompass “multi-tasking parents” and other cohorts across different demographics.

3. Expanding the operational footprint, which will double in 2021 to include the New York City area and California, as well as to “dramatically” build out existing delivery zones.

4. Launching a retail media network, to offer a “predictable and repeatable ROI engine” that can connect brand experiences with immediate product delivery.

Overall, 36% of Gopuff’s orders are placed between 8 p.m. and midnight, with 9-10 p.m. being the busiest window, said Harp, in noting that the company is “seeing a lot of behavior that is incremental to other shopping trips.”

Courtesy of Path to Purchase IQ.

Watch the full discussion (30 minutes) below:

https://vimeo.com/640390350/4a3f7537e1

Kat Ussery is Director of Emerging Channels at The Mars Agency, where she stays on top of the latest trends to identify the best use cases for meeting unique brand needs. Though her experience at Nielsen working directly with Walmart marketers to her previous agency work with CPG brands, she brings an expertise in bridging traditional retail with cutting-edge ecommerce. Reach her at usseryk@themarsagency.com.

The post Emerging Channels: Winning with Gopuff Shoppers appeared first on BizGrow Marketing.

Much has been made about the logistics crisis that is currently gripping the global economy: backlogs at major shipping ports; a lack of port workers, truck drivers, and rail workers; a shortage of shipping containers; and a scarcity of the chassis used to transport containers once they are unloaded.

The impact has been massive: The amount of time it takes to get a package from Asia to the U.S. has increased by 43% since last year. At one point in September, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach had as many as 73 cargo ships at anchor estimated to hold roughly 500,000 containers worth of goods — almost twice as much as the same time in August. And those two ports account for 40% of all containers entering the country. At the Port of Los Angeles alone, the amount of cargo handled is up 30% year-to-date compared with all of 2020, resulting in ships waiting an average of 8.5 days to unload in September vs. 6.2 days in August.

Consumers are already seeing the effect of this logjam. There are empty shelves in stores. National chains are imposing limits on the amount of goods that can be purchased. Manufacturers and retailers are warning of looming price increases. Nike has cut its sales forecast due to their supply chain woes. Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Dollar Tree and Costco have all taken to chartering their own container ships. Coca-Cola has elected to transport ingredients on cargo ships primarily intended to move coal and grains, and Ikea has even taken to buying its own containers. Industry insiders are telling us to start our holiday shopping yesterday, and supply chain experts are signaling that the crisis could stretch into the summer of 2022, if not 2023.

One retailer with a lot to lose is Amazon. Already dealing with warehouse capacity issues driven by the consumer shift to online shopping due to the pandemic, Amazon is facing another potential headache from what’s been called “Containergeddon”: the impact on its 3rd party sellers. There already are reports of nervous sellers fearing that their products will not be offloaded and warehoused in time for Black Friday/Cyber Monday — shopping holidays that continue to grow in popularity each year. To make matters worse, shipping costs (although currently declining) at one point rose to as high as $17,500 from roughly $1,500 in the pre-pandemic era. For many sellers, such a massive increase may prove prohibitive and hinder them from being able to compete — if not prevent them from participating in the marketplace entirely.

The pains of 3rd party sellers have the potential to impact Amazon’s fourth quarter results. What often gets lost in the hype of Amazon’s business metrics is just how important the 3rd Party Marketplace is to the retailer’s financial results. In Q2 of 2021, third-party sellers accounted for 56% of the units sold on Amazon, growing 38% year-over-year and accounting for $25 billion. In comparison, 1st party sales delivered $53 billion and increased 16% during the same period; and for as much attention as AWS and Subscription services get, these revenue streams combined accounted for $22 billion.

With 3rd party sellers representing 22% of Amazon’s revenue stream, “Containergeddon” has the potential to disrupt a key business for the U.S.’s #1 online retailer in Q4 and into 2022.

About the Author
A 19-year omnichannel/ecommerce veteran in the CPG industry, Jay Nikolich is the Director of Amazon at The Mars Agency, a leading shopper marketing agency that creates connected commerce solutions by balancing the smartest humanity with the latest technology. Reach him at nikolichj@themarsagency.com.

The post You’ve Gotta Be Shipping Me: Amazon and the Supply Chain Crisis appeared first on BizGrow Marketing.