Mobile and Shopping: Mobilise the Path to Purchase

Mobile and shopping: Mobilise the path to purchase Gareth Ellen with Orit Peleg, Martin Lange and Hugh Boyle Admap December 2011

Title: Mobile and shopping: Mobilise the path to purchase Author(s): Gareth Ellen with Orit Peleg, Martin Lange and Hugh Boyle Source: Admap Issue: December 2011 Mobile and shopping: Mobilise the path to purchase Gareth Ellen with Orit Peleg, Martin Lange and Hugh Boyle OgilvyActionThe ubiquitous mobile phone is revolutionising the way we shop. Brands need to understand and respond to themerging of the consumer and shopper into a ‘Shopsumer’, who researches products and purchases on the hoof.From waking until going to bed, we live these days attached, as if through an umbilical cord, to our mobile phones - connectedat all times to a world far larger than the one our eyes take in. This essential fact is already changing all aspects of our day-to-day existence, and no part of our lives is undergoing a swifter sea change than shopping.This revolution is driven not just by mobile phones but by the smartphone in particular. The numbers are starting to createmass-market effects. Smartphone penetration in the US and China (tier 1 cities) will exceed 50% by 2012. Google announcedthat mobile search traffic doubled in 2010 and has gone up five-fold in the past two years. The explosion of location-basedservices is providing obvious opportunities to shoppers and retailers. Four Square, the leader of that space, announced earlyin 2011 that it had hit six million registered users, who made a grand total of 381 million check-ins, globally, in the previousyear. US-based Borrell Associates expects mobile couponing spending to grow from $90 million in 2009 to $6.5 billion in 2014,with location-based services becoming the energy behind a suite of hyper-local offers and shopper usage. With large-scalemass grocers getting involved, it is easy to see that shopper behaviour supported by mobile will be a mass-market activity verysoon. But this mass-market opportunity cannot be served by old fashioned mass-market techniques. Shoppers have anintimate relationship with their mobile devices. In order to be invited into shoppers’ mobile circle of trust, brands and retailersmust offer significant levels of value, but companies cannot survive in a shopper relationship by offering monetary value alone.Instead, brands and retailers need to provide multiple dimensions of shopper value in concert with emerging mobile shoppingbehaviour to capitalise on mutually beneficial opportunities.THE NEW SHOPPER JOURNEYMobile extends our ability to conduct our lives away from one fixed spot or another, and it is as big a change to our way of lifeas the advent of mass mobility itself was in the 20th century. Before, work and home, and indeed a lifetimes worth of journeys,were joined by an awfully short link. The car and then jet travel scotched all that, and the unimagined consequences reshapedwhole landscapes. New ways of working, eating, shopping and living emerged to create the societies familiar to us today. Ourmobility afforded us variety in the places we visited, and so we developed personas to inhabit each. The worker at work, the Downloaded from warc.com 2

consumer at home, the shopper in the store. It is in talking to those last two that the modern advertising industry made itsbones. Marketing carefully attended to both of those facets, serving up advertising and engagement to the consumer, andshopper marketing to the shopper, as if they were different people entirely, which in a sense they were. The moment ofmobility marked a transition from one persona to another. Once you left one environment to enter another, you had to adoptthe postures and habits appropriate to the new place. No one had the option of blending the two - of acting on a consumerimpulse away from the store, or reverting to consumer behaviour at the point-of-purchase.Digital may have changed many things, but it did not alter the fundamental consumer/ shopper dichotomy, except in theinstance of online commerce. Mobile is different. lt enables us to adopt any persona at any place, at any time. Already, ourwork and social lives have unmoored themselves from fixed locations. We can work, even at the highest levels, fromanywhere, and we stay in touch with our friends online much more so than we ever could in person. As mobile technology hasadvanced, we no longer even need to be at a computer to do what seemed magical only five years ago. Now, the computer inyour pocket, the ‘third screen’, the mobile phone is taking the idea of place and forcing us to re-examine it fundamentally. Weare no longer different beings, with different habits and behaviours, at home, at work, or at the store. Instead, we can be athome, at work, or at the store no matter where we are. Workplaces have begun to adapt to this shift, but we are at the verybeginning of this transition for retail.The implications for brands and retailers are dramatic. Once upon a time, we knew that consumers undertook a journey asthey went from discovering to purchasing a product. Along that journey, people were different things in different places:consumers at home or at work when they were hearing about or exploring a product; and shoppers once they walked throughthe doors of a retailer. No longer does informing or advocating or advising or educating happen in one place, while purchasingor shopping happen in another. Instead, the once linear consumer journey is now an infinite Escher loop: consumers can beshoppers and shoppers can be consumers anywhere and everywhere - all because of the mobile phone. Shoppers andconsumers have now ganged up into ‘Shopsumers’, and if we want our brands and retail environments to remain their trustedpartners, we had best anticipate and then deliver what they want.Marketers need to understand the role of mobile and mobility for shoppers today, and, based on that insight, help our brandsrespond to what shoppers are saying via their behaviour. To achieve that, OgilvyAction and OgilvyOne have conductedoriginal international research, compiled test cases, and undertaken a full analysis of todays mobile Shopsumer to teach ourbrands how to use mobile to activate sales for our brand clients and retail partners. It all comes down to delivering the rightvalue to the Shopsumer at the right time, but thats more complicated than it ever was before. Downloaded from warc.com 3

TRANSLATE MOBILE OPPORTUNITY INTO VALUEAppreciating what the customer values is fundamental, but, frankly, its not that heavy a lift. The real magic comes when we, asmarketers, apply the potential of mobile technology to the creation of these dimensions of value for our customers. The mobileworld has been awash with trial-and-error efforts to leverage our global mobile moment through both m-commerce and mobilecustomer engagement, and while those ad hoc efforts have produced some successes, it is past time for a more systematicapproach. Every effort we made would illuminate just a small slice of the mobile world to come, and based on that, wed drawerroneous conclusions about what values our Shopsumers wanted us to deliver.Rather than continuing on as usual, we decided to begin with data. OgilvyAction and OgilvyOne recently undertook a survey of1,500 shoppers across three regional markets - the US, the UK and Singapore. Our goal was to learn how they used mobile inthe context of their shopping lives. Our preliminary cut of the data was published this past summer in a White Paper entitled‘From Armed to Charmed’. That work centred on realising the basic implications of what the new mobile point-of-sale meant forbrands and retailers. We showed that, even though smartphone penetration is inconsistent around the world, it is growing.However, the mobile world is still very much an early adopter market, even in the most mobile-forward markets, such asSingapore. For example, only 27% of the ‘Early Majority’ in Singapore looked at a product in-store and then ordered it viasmartphone. That number drops to a scant 8% in the US.Even though those numbers are small, we have a clear idea of where things are going. Our research pointed to a cleartransfer of online buying behaviour to mobile platforms. Marketers’ behaviour, we learned, is not reflecting the current reality.Instead, too many of us are running scared, throwing fear-driven and price-centric mobile initiatives at customers. Why?Because we now understand that the shopper is armed with information in a way that was unimaginable just a few years ago.Brands and marketers are reacting with tactical mobile plays, rather than a more deliberate strategic solution. They arefocusing on only one aspect of customer value - monetary value - while the real opportunity is so much broader than that. We Downloaded from warc.com 4

have the time to do this right, and rather than countering shoppers’ knowledge, we have the opportunity to charm them.Shoppers have asked for this. Checking in, sharing personal data, treating shopping as a social experience - all of theseindicate that our customers seek greater engagement from us, that they are looking for a mobile relationship with our brands -more than just a new mobile point-of-sale - and that mobile success will be driven by how well we deliver that value to them. Seven Dimensions of Value In understanding the role mobile will play in our lives, we must begin at the most fundamental level: the basic needs of our subject, the Shopsumer. At heart, we are all looking for value, but as anyone who has ever watched a political contest can attest, value means different things to different people. Rather than just throw our hands up in the air, we elected to codify the different sorts of value that todays shoppers and consumers seek. Delivering value to Shopsumers reinforces their attachment to our brands and ensures that they will continue to participate in the ongoing and never ending customer journey. Everything we do as we take advantage of this mobile moment must deliver value to the Shopsumer, and here are the seven aspects that value can take, as articulated in OgilvyActions Seven Dimensions of Value. 1. Monetary value – price promotion, BOGOF, value-for-money – this is the most familiar dimension of value. When marketers and consumers think about value, this is what pops into their heads first. But just because its familiar doesnt mean it shouldnt be part of the mobile mix. Mobile gives you an opportunity to deliver monetary value in a new way, based on proximity, check-ins, or in-store circumstances. 2. Content value – giving Shopsumers relevant, often exclusive, content is an excellent strategy to inspire or reward purchase. QR or text codes printed on packaging can lead to exclusive, desired content. Alternatively, you can deliver prescriptive content, such as recipe suggestions, based on just-purchased ingredients 3. Access value – Shopsumers value access to places, events, products or features to which others dont have access. These can be either physical (such as preferred tickets to an event) or virtual (as in the case of badges or extra functionality in an app environment). The mobile device is the ultimate access point, enabling Shopsumers to act on impulse whenever the mood strikes – especially if that mood is generated by a brand message. 4. Service value – personal service that makes purchasing easier or more rewarding can attract Shopsumers for the long term. Who wouldnt leap at an app that enables customers to try on clothes without the hassle of going into the changing room – or even the store? And buying furniture is a crap shoot unless you can imagine what it will look like in your home. An app that can do that removes a key barrier to sale. 5. Experience value – brand experiences integrate our lives with the brands we love. These experiences become part of what we come to expect and value from the brand, and they are close in nature to service. But they add a different sort of value. Mobile can add to the experience of the brand or retail environment. For example, Singapores Museum of Culture used augmented reality to bring its exhibits to life. 6. Premium value – stuff, swag, bonuses, premiums, or prizes – no matter what you call it, everyone likes it, as generations of S&H Greenstamps customers proved decades ago. These days, the opportunities for premiums are far more sophisticated and far more enticing than just a bank pen or car dealership paperweight. 7. Societal value – dont underestimate the persuasive power of altruism. We reward those individuals and institutions that share our values, and supporting good causes or acting responsibly can be far more than just the right thing to do. It can be a powerful inducement to new customers and a tug on the loyalty of existing ones. While this may not be Downloaded from warc.com 5

an immediately relevant place for mobile to focus, we have certainly seen the benefits of mobile response, as typified by the Haiti donation campaign.DELIVERING DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS OF MOBILE VALUEWhile ‘From Armed to Charmed’ proved that mobile is a coming revolution in marketing and retailing, we must now assess howbrands and stores can integrate it into their daily practices. We know that shoppers are looking for more and that theirbehaviour is broad, but we need to find the sweet spot where the values shoppers seek and the brands own interestsconverge. Once again, our survey data helps point the way. Mobile has the potential to deliver many - but not all - dimensionsof customer value, or at least not yet. Obviously, mobile excels at providing monetary value, and our survey backs that up.However, we can infer from our data that mobile has a strong hand to play in giving Shopsumers content and service valueand, to a slightly lesser extent, experience and premium value. Despite small exceptions, mobile is not the best driver ofsocietal value or access value.In order to extract deeper lessons from the survey, we aggregated the US, UK, and Singapore respondents into one pool andcompared them against their counterparts in Singapore alone to highlight just how far ahead of the curve that final market is.Our data showed that Singapore has significantly higher smartphone penetration and upwards of twice as many mobileinnovators as the US and the UK. Singapore is, we believe, less of an outlier than a harbinger of emerging behaviour in lessmobilised markets. Looking at the use of various mobile tools in Singapore versus the global aggregate markets can helpmarketers understand what our customers desire.Marketers have devoted much time and effort to driving monetary value through mobile tactics. And while that has had somesuccess, Shopsumers have made it clear that we are not meeting their needs. When asked about their interest in a list ofshopping apps, 50% of our respondents across all three markets chose ‘none of the above’. Our data does not tell us exactlywhy people are so disinterested in what we have offered, but we can infer the true, multifaceted value shoppers desire.Moreover, consumers are probably less trusting of brand and retailer apps than they are of third-party apps populated byfriends whose judgment they respect. Finally, many shoppers are simply unaware of many of the potential options. While theanswer is probably a mixture of all three, that last point raises a crucial issue. Brands need to be aware of the still-limited reachof smartphones and of the readiness of their target market. Many of those who have the technology are not yet ready toengage with the mobile programmes on offer.There are success stories and enough of them to show that solutions delivering shopper value across a number of the SevenDimensions have a chance to achieve widespread adoption. And first among these is search.Of all the behaviours that brands must attend to, none is more important than mobile search. Google reports a doubling inmobile usage in the past year. The search giant also notes that mobile search far outstrips desktop during peak shoppingweekend days, leaving no doubt as to how critical this is for shopper planning. Our survey backs this up: 74% of innovators inthe global aggregate markets used mobile search to find information on a product. Even among the mass market, 27% gavemobile search a try (Figure 1). Thats higher than for any other mobile behaviour we measured. 42% of the mass market (and77% of innovators) in Singapore used mobile search for product information, showing just how big a piece of the mobile pie Downloaded from warc.com 6

this will be.A similarly early part of the mobile landscape - location-based services - is now going through a transition. What began as away to find great deals is now moving toward additional dimensions of value. Our survey showed that when people checkedin, they were more interested in improved service than in deals. Shopsumers want to be engaged by an experience and notjust bombarded by offers. Unfortunately, retailers still chase after deals through their location-based check-in programmes,and that may account for the modest usage of retailer apps. Only 38% of innovators and 7% of the mainstream use retailerapps in the global aggregate. Even the Singaporean numbers are not much better, with 42% of innovators and 13% of themass market taking advantage of retailer apps.We suspect that retailers are not delivering the service value that Shopsumers want through their apps. By and large, they aremissing the market-growing opportunity to integrate mobile into their customer service and messaging programmes. However,retailers such as Best Buy and Simon Malls have learned to integrate attractive customer service into their mobile platforms,and Shopsumers are rewarding them because of it. Best Buy recognised that shoppers often use their store as a showroom toask questions and trial products before going elsewhere or online to purchase. Rather than fight that, Best Buy is offeringimproved service value through QR codes at shelf to help shoppers make informed decisions. Building stronger shopperrelationships makes them more likely to close sales that might otherwise walk out the door.In contrast to most retailers, e-commerce specialists such as eBay, Amazon and PayPal consistently engage Shopsumers bydelivering multiple dimensions of value. Sure, they provide monetary value, but dont underestimate the importance of theservice and content value they deliver seamlessly by facilitating transactions or providing peer and expert reviews. Theytranslated their excellent online offerings into well-thought-out and native mobile extensions of their environment, and Downloaded from warc.com 7

Shopsumers responded. Looking at the global results in aggregate, eBay boasts mobile usage of 44% among innovators and25% in the mass market. 46% of innovators and 36% of mass-market respondents use Amazons mobile service, and PayPalscores similar figures with 50% of innovators and 32% of the mass market availing themselves of the brands offering. Therelatively close gap between innovators and the mass market indicates that these online fixtures have crossed the mobileadoption chasm.Niche shopping services such as Vouchercloud, Coupon Sherpa, and Red Laser have not yet gained significant traction.Fewer than 10% of innovators (and almost no-one from the mass market) report that they use these smaller players. No doubt,there is fragmentation in this level of the market, and a necessary consolidation will take place, boosting usage. The attractivetechnology they offer, though ahead of the curve for now, will enable brands and retailers to avoid starting from scratch whilestill providing the kind of multifaceted value that has propelled the big e-commerce players.Couponing has always been firmly tied to monetary value alone, but it remains an essential part of the marketing mix. Thenatural desire of retailers to move away from paper circulars, plus the flexibility offered by mobile, is soon to set off major massadoption. While rates are low now - 35% of innovators and 7% of the mass market in the global aggregate and similarly lownumbers of 44% for innovators and 11% of the mass market in Singapore - many large retailers are testing platforms forcoupon delivery, and we anticipate that tremendous growth will emerge here.Already, mobile services that combine couponing with additional dimensions of value have started to take hold. The bestknown is Groupon, which is paving the way in both the online and mobile environments. In the US, 33% of innovators and 11%of the mass market take advantage of the services mixture of monetary and access value. A smaller site, Gilt, takes theaddition of experience and access value to an even greater extent, but it has not yet rung any bells on the mobile side. Only13% of innovators and less than 1% of the mass market use Gilt, but we think its incorporation of a gaming’ ethos into deal-hunting is a bellwether for the future.These sites all combine monetary value with content value, but content value alone also proves popular with Shopsumers.YahooAnswers, for example, has attracted 29% of innovators and 8.5% of the mass market, globally, with its peer-to-peerbased approach. In Singapore, the uptake is even higher - 36% of innovators and 19% of the mass market - pointing towardrobust future growth. We are all familiar with the notion of ‘strangers with experience’ playing well with online researchers.Mobile delivers a more acute sense of importance to this content due to the timely nature of relevant and accurate answers orsupport. Brands and retailers can take advantage of this trend, monitoring peer-to-peer content and understanding how it isbeing used in the consumer journey. Seven Key Mobile Shopping Trends 1. Smartphone penetration, though varied across markets, is set to hit critical mass for marketers in the next 12 months. 2. Mobile search grew two-fold in 2010, and Google expects it to outstrip desktop search within five years. 3. Technology innovation is outpacing shopper understanding and usage, but markets with majority smartphone penetration are showing a shift toward more advanced behaviours. 4. Shoppers are demanding more than just deals alone. They are insisting on having deeper value in their mobile relationships, as is made clear by Shopsumers checking in for better service, not just better prices. Downloaded from warc.com 8

5. When shoppers in the mass market use their smartphones, they are sticking, by and large, to what they know from the online world: search, Facebook and the mobile web. 6. Large-scale retailers such as Target and BestBuy are adding mobile to their arsenal and offering a pathway to mass- market adoption. 7. More and more, shoppers are making use of social media while shopping. They are both broadcasting their experiences and reaching out for peer support. Niche shopping services The caution here is perhaps that mobile technology providers are driven by what is possible rather than what is relevant. Of course the market needs explorers and pioneers, yet at the same time, our job for clients must be to assess the needs and value motivations of our Shopsumers and to deliver mobile innovation on that basis.As we contemplate all the technological wonders that mobile can provide through these services, we should not forget thatsometimes the simplest answer is just right. Old-school text remains popular with Shopsumers. Globally, 44% of innovatorsand 11% of the mass market receive daily or weekly brand messages on their phones, while in Singapore, 55% of innovatorsand 27% of the mass market are already open to this channel.And sometimes the complicated and fashionable answer is just wrong. QR codes and photo-based programmes delivercontent value to shoppers seeking additional product information. Only 28% of innovators and 4% of the mass market in ourglobal sample used QR services, which is low, but if Singapore showed a strong uptake, it would be indica-tive of growthpotential. Sadly, thats not the case. Singapore had almost exactly the same numbers: 25% of innovators and 6% of the massmarket. Moreover, a Forrester analyst shared in a recent conversation that 80% of the ten QR programmes they surveyedwere unsuccessful. We suggest continued testing of QR and related services, but this is not the first move any brand orretailer should make in mobile marketing. Shopsumers just dont trust it yet. And those who do perhaps arent getting rewardedwith anything of value. Marketers will have to do better for fear of losing this channel for good.The importance of trust cannot be overstated, and our research shows that the absence of trust is a real barrier to massadoption. Consumers do not yet trust Facebook with their financial data, for example. Moreover, the brands and retailers whorespect the consumers burgeoning knowledge, rather than obfuscating and adopting a defensive posture, will more readilyearn their trust. And part of that process is accepting that many of the information sources consumers trust most arecompletely outside the control of marketing professionals.So who are these trusted sources? Their friends, and it is the intersection of social and mobile that will drive real change inretail environment. Social media has already made a huge impact on shopping engagement. At the most basic, monetary level,Shopsumers look to their friends to help them source deals. Fully 56% of innovators and 16% of mass market respondents inthe global aggregate use mobile social media this way. Once again, Singapore shows the direction the rest of the world will begoing with 60% of innovators and 25% of the mass market looking to their mobile social circle to find bargains.Social can also provide additional dimensions of value. Facebook, unsurprisingly, is the dominant vehicle. A staggering 74% of Downloaded from warc.com 9

innovators and 51% of the mass market, when looking at the global aggregate, use Facebook while shopping. Brands mustlook at their mobile Facebook traffic if they wish to capitalise on these mobility moments because Shopsumers have found away - outside of the brand and retail space - to deliver the socially-driven content, access, and experience value they crave.With social media, we tell people where we are and what we are doing. In return, we seek feedback and information that helpsus with decision-making while shopping, no matter what it is were shopping for. Movies, cars, appliances, ideas on what tocook for dinner- it doesnt matter what were looking for; we ask for our friends’ advice.Globally, 62% of innovators (73% in Singapore) and 33% of the mass market (54% in Singapore) say they stay in touch withtheir friends for support across the shopping occasions listed above. Brands had best pay keen attention to this, since onesuccessful shopping experience is shared with over 130 other people (based on the average number of friends on Facebook).Both brands and retailers must support social sharing and be ready to respond when they slip up and dont deliver the value aShopsumer expects, lest a single negative comment poison the social well. Moreover, they should promote the values theyoffer and the positive experiences their shoppers enjoyed through easily shared shopper communications that are integral totheir mobile shopper programmes.So, what value matters most? Social engagement is the first priority for every mobile marketer, but what is the value that weshould promote above all others? As it stands now, monetary value wears the crown. However, content value is growing inimportance, and our survey data showed us that, as comfort with the mobile channel increases, Shopsumers hunger evermore for content. Brands and retailers would be wise to plan for that need now, using all the mobile techniques available.Content is an awfully big concept, and marketers really need to know exactly what kind of content their target shoppers areafter. To answer that, we turned to our survey panel. As expected, price signals came out on top, followed by shopper reviewsand location assistance. Brand transparency also emerged as an important factor. Shopsumers desire information on healthand nutrition, ingredients and food origins. The growing global focus on sustainability dovetails nicely with that urge andsuggests that mobile marketing devoted to that message may be just the thing to break a tie at the point of sale. Principles of Mobile Shopper Marketing l The basics of shopper marketing and CRM have not changed. If you focus on what you get out of the mobile relationship, you will fail. Skew value and utility to the shopper, and you will succeed. l Never start your brief with: “We need to integrate a QR code.” Making technology decisions first will divert you from a sound strategy. l Think about reach. Know the specifics about your target market in terms of mobile usage and, in particular, smartphone penetration. Do not rely on aggregate data. l Create a balanced approach to your mobile portfolio. Dont just focus on one hot channel such as apps. Instead, pay close attention to search, the mobile web, and the rest of the mobile landscape. l As a brand, you must integrate your J mobile offering with your key retail channels. Giving shoppers choices based on what is relevant to them will help your long-term relationship. Downloaded from warc.com 10

l Keep it simple. Think about co-creating I a relationship with your shoppers. Start small: issue text-based calls to action in your communications, optimise your mSite with shopper needs in mind, gain shoppers’ trust, offer a breadth of value, learn what works and what doesnt, and survey shopper needs. After those basics are done, you can move on to developing more sophisticated offerings. l Mobile is not a vacuum. Connect your mobile programme to existing digital channels, such as CRM and your website. For example, Covergirl allows shoppers to carry a mobile basket on their site, making it easier to shop when in-store. l Take advantage of context - time, location I and intent - to improve shopper servicing. l Think about how mobile can add to the product or brand experience post-purchase, such as with the use of scanning technology for loyalty code entry.MOBILE THROUGHOUT THE SHOPPER JOURNEYAt heart, what this is all about is the point-of-sale. Mobile has inexorably changed the way we get from curiosity about aproduct to that moment of truth. Mobile has rendered what was once a clear, linear path into an infinite loop, where yourcustomer can drop in or drop out of shopping mode at any point. Though our techniques may change, our role as marketerswill not. We still need to take consumers, armed though they may be with vats of information, and charm them into selectingour product. We still need to win at the point-of-sale, wherever that point-of-sale may be.There are a number of key moments along this loop of a shoppers journey when context, time, and space all align to create animmediate need for inquiry or action. Thats when Shopsumers reach for their mobile device. We call these ‘Mobile Moments’,and our task as marketers is to be able to satisfy the shoppers need. Every shoppers journey is unique, but there are somefixed points that appear more often than they do not. Focusing your efforts on these iconic Mobile Moments can pay offhandsomely. l There are occasions - sitting in front of the TV, waiting for a bus, hanging out at the mall - when consumers see a brand message and want to learn more. They may either want to establish the relevance of that brand in their lives or perhaps save some content for later. Either way, the instant gratification provided by mobile can send this consumer on the path to buying your product if you give them the value they seek. l Mobile comes into its own when consumers are out and about in shopping mode. Shoppers are eager to find store locations, get questions answered, or confirm a purchase with friends, and mobile makes all of these actions simple and instantaneous. Dont ignore the final push in-store, when your customer is ready to make their decision. Make sure your brand is well-positioned on the mobile shelf with strong review content. l The post-purchase experience should not be ignored, particularly for service-based offerings, such as banking, car ownership, or travel. Our consumers are seeking experience value, and it is in our interest to help them learn how best to use the product and encourage them to share their experiences. They are going to share anyway, and the more experience and service value we can deliver, the better their comments will be. Mobile can also facilitate loyalty-based mechanics such as product code entry or registration (especially compared with a home computer), lowering the hurdle the customer must clear in order to begin a relationship with us. Downloaded from warc.com 11

Ogilvy & Mather conducted research into the digital behaviour of women. Since the vast majority of shoppers are women, theresulting report, Digital Divas, can help us understand what is driving the mobile revolution in shopping. Is mobile reshapingshopping, or is shopping reshaping mobile?Digital Divas made clear that women (and presumably men as well) were unable to conceive of technological innovations thatcould help their lives. However, when presented with innovations, they were quick to assess, then adopt, the ones theythought most valuable, discarding those that were not worthy. In summary, they knew a good idea when they saw one. Thesame dynamic is true today. Even though shoppers are happy to adopt new useful technology that improves service, they aredoing so as a response to its availability, rather than demanding its creation. Our job as marketers is, to quote WayneGretzky’s father and first coach: “To skate to where the puck’s going, not where it’s been.” Fortunately, shopping itself is stillessentially the same, and understanding where the puck is going is simply an extrapolation of how age-old behaviours willmanifest in a new medium. The mobile behaviours of the mass market – searching, inquiring, asking friends for advice, sharingexperiences, clubbing together for deals – are not new actions; they are mobilisations of existing behaviours. But now, theseneeds can be satisfied in an instant. Instead of Yellow Pages, countless analogue calls to check availability, countless morecalls to friends for advice, pounding the streets looking for the best price or exact fit, we are able to access everything we needfrom where we stand. No wonder people are starting to adopt this technology.So, mobile is reshaping shopping, and shopping is also reshaping mobile. Shopper behaviour may fundamentally be the same,but mobile is creating a new class of bionic shoppers. Better, faster, stronger. These bionic shoppers are the Shopsumers,and they are looking for more than just a deal, important though the deal may be. The demands they place on brands andretailers are influencing how they respond through mobile. Mobile is a great vehicle for marketing communications, but in thenext evolution, it will become part of the product or service model. It will be a determining factor in brand choice – the tie- Downloaded from warc.com 12

breaker at shelf. Those who integrate mobile successfully in service of shopper values will win the day. Like any goodrelationship, the one between brands and Shopsumers must be nurtured through mutual respect and engagement, especiallyconsidering how intimate a channel mobile can be. To that end, we created a set of eight guidelines that mobile marketersshould follow in dealing with the newly empowered mobile Shopsumer. They are, as we have learned, armed with moreinformation and options than ever, but they are also questing after more dimensions of value – dimensions that brands couldn’tdeliver to them before. Now we can, and in so doing, we can integrate ourselves into their lives as trusted partners and notjust preferred suppliers. We can turn these armed consumers into charmed Shopsumers. Steps to Charming the Armed l Shoppers are on a constant journey, and lasting engagement comes only if you deliver for them throughout the journey and within each specific context. l Location, location, location. With mobile, the POS is in the consumers pocket. The customer journey no longer starts somewhere else and then directs consumers to the POS. We have a constant chance to influence preference and trigger purchase at any given moment and location. l From a retailer and marketer perspective, shoppers come armed and dangerous. Well disarm them (figuratively and literally) if we understand and embrace their behaviour rather than fight it. Give them the information and transparency they crave, and you will gain trust in return. l Shoppers want more than deals, and we need to understand that shoppers want value beyond price promotions. l Data delivers context and intent. Follow developments in devices and data, and be ready to reap rewards of enhanced personalisation, while maintaining a healthy respect for your customers privacy. l The in-store front line has not changed, but you must empower your staff to support and augment mobile experiences. l Known platforms dominate usage. Dont chase after the shiny new thing. Stick to the majority of customers for scale and reach. l Earn the intimacy of the device. Become a go-to mobile presence by giving the consumer value and utility. The mobile shopper and his or her needs should always be the first considerationABOUT THE AUTHORGareth Ellen is regional planning director for OgilvyAction, Asia-Pacific, and works across shopper marketing and brandactivation programmes with a focus on helping clients use digital touchpoints to create purchase behaviour.gareth.ellen@ogilvy.com Downloaded from warc.com 13

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Mobile and Shopping: Mobilise the Path to Purchase

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