The Hub: A New Media Model

Our challenge as marketers has always been to develop communications that reach our target audiences with sufficient frequency to stick our messages in their heads. Unfortunately, gone are the days when we had three networks that could reach 97 percent of the population. If we used the three networks (reach) to run 12 commercials (frequency) we were all set.Today, the complexity of achieving that goal is significantly more difficult. With few exceptions -- like American Idol and the Super Bowl -- it's just no longer possible to use mass media to reach consumers the way we used to. In addition, because most consumers are scattered across so many media channels, we can't expect to hit them with the kind of frequency that's needed to communicate with them effectively, either.So, the traditional media model based merely on reach and frequency is not as relevant as it was in the past. Granted, reach still matters because ultimately we need our messages to hit home with as many consumers as possible. But it's a significantly different challenge to generate reach -- not through a handful of mass media but through literally hundreds of media alternatives.Frequency, meanwhile, has been replaced by the one-two punch of recency and relevancy. Effective communications is no longer a simple matter of repetition but rather a more sophisticated approach that's designed to ensure that your message reaches consumers when and where it is most helpful to them, with a message that is relevant to their decision-making process in a specific shopping venue.In today's hypercompetitive environment, that means providing the most relevant message when and where the consumer is ready to buy.The same principle applies whether the consumer is shopping for a highly considered product like a plasmascreen television or a lower-consideration product like a bottle of detergent. In both cases, you've got to understand your targets and what kind of messaging about your brand is most relevant at the closest point to their purchasing decisions.The point, under these circumstances, is that media effectiveness is no longer about "consumer reach" away from the point of decision. It is success with shoppers that will make-or-break your brands. If getting a measurable return on marketing investments is truly as important as we say it is, it's only logical that we bring more marketing horsepower to bear where decisions and transactions happen. For marketing communication planning today and in the future, both a new approach and evaluative criteria are needed.The marketing community certainly understands how important it is to maximize effectiveness at retail. They had better, because for most brands and categories today, more than 60 percent of marketing budgets are spent against making something happen in the store.However, most in-store activities have been focused on promotional -- or price -- programming. That may solve the reach and recency challenge, but if your goal is to build equity for your brand, what does that price message really accomplish? It largely undercuts the value (relevancy) proposition you are trying to communicate with the other 40 percent of your budget.That's why more and more marketers are trying to understand how to close the loop in-store, to translate the brand relevancy message they are communicating with traditional media to the place where most brand decisions are made. The good news is, you can still achieve reach at retail. While only a segment of the population watches any given television program, everybody goes to the store.The even better news is that technology is helping marketers make the most of those shopping trips, with new and increasingly compelling communication innovations being delivered in stores. In particular, RFID technology is being applied to deliver a brand message at the exact right time and place to engage the shopper with your message.Merely re-purposing out-of-store media is not the answer. The new in-store media instead provides an opportunity to communicate relevancy as never before. In-store television is striving to deliver relevant content. Interactive shopping carts are being developed so that the shopper can now download shopping lists, and scan and bag right at the cart and avoid long checkout lines.The goal is to provide a new medium that provides a true value-add to the shopping experience, and tools that help engage the shopper. Once engaged, messaging relevance is a side benefit. The key is to take the time to understand which messages drive the greatest results, and where.For example, is it more relevant to deliver a soft drink message in the CSD aisle, or in the salty snack aisle? Nabisco tell us they are stymied by cookie "aisle avoidance." Well, why not deliver the message for Oreos, "Milk's Favorite Cookie," in the dairy department in front of the milk?It's standard operating procedure to introduce new products with in-store and out-of-store price promotions. If the new product has a legitimate reason for being, why not kill the price offer, and instead deliver a relevant message in store right at the shelf? Why not remind them of why they need to buy, make them aware of interesting new items and make special offers? Let's do it at the exact right location that drives the greatest return-on-investment.The opportunities at retail also promise to finally put retailers and manufacturers on the same page as never before. Just as manufacturers care about connecting with their consumers, retailers care about connecting with their shoppers. As the population ages, for example, people are more concerned about healthier products. Or, they've got disease states -- like diabetes -- where shoppers need information to make smarter purchasing decisions.The bottom line is the retail environment, which is closest to the purchase decision, is critical to brand success today. That's true no matter what your brand is. In-store has become a dynamic medium that enables marketers to deliver against the new evaluative criteria of delivering reach, recency and relevancy.Both brand marketers and retailers need to evaluate their marketing communications plans very differently than in the past. We hear about integration, about multiple touch-points and we hear about "one voice." Everybody's talking about that. But that's basically missing the point because that conversation is really only about reach.To be successful, both need to think in terms of a new evaluative criteria -- the "three Rs" of reach, recency and relevancy.Jon Kramer is chief marketing officer of MediaCart Holdings, a retail-marketing media company. Previously, Jon was president of integrated marketing services for EMAK Worldwide and ceo of J. Brown Agency.

The Hub: A New Media Model

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