FieldStar

Apr 6, 2023

April 5, 2023 We X all the ads, we make fun of inauthentic influencers in reviews, we throw away the flyers we receive. Who will understand us in 2023 as true consumers, what we are? Ana Maria Mica, Strategy & Innovation Director at Fieldstar: “Consumer focus has shifted as the Internet has come to help us manage our lives more efficiently. The shock of the pandemic left deep traces, irreversibly altering purchasing behaviors as well. This led to reactive marketing by brands, focused on what seemed to work at the time…and that was it. It was a short-lived approach that has somewhat stabilized at the moment, leaving us with the question, very pertinent indeed – how and where should brand experiences be focused to justify those increasingly strategic decisions important? Inflation is at an increasingly high level, which puts pressure on the available budgets of end customers. The new perspectives of consumption have brought us, therefore, in the situation to ask ourselves new questions, to which we tried to find answers through a study carried out at the end of 2022 together with AHA Moments on a sample of 501 people: Insights Report on Consumer-Brand Activations.” Ana Maria Mica has 8 years of experience in both the creative and strategy areas. Coordinate both the creative pitch area and end-to-end campaigns for Fieldstar clients – ensuring they start from an insight and develop on a strategic route that addresses brand benefits cross the moment of consumption and consumer/shopper needs – but also everything that means strategic initiatives and internal or external research. Offline or online activations, then? What should we bet on in 2023 in terms of brand experiences? “The conclusions of the study Insights Report on Consumer-Brand Activations it shows us something we’ve been counting on for some time: to reach the maximum potential, brands must combine the advantages of the online environment with those found offline. However, going to a deeper level, we find out how and in what way the messages transmitted must reach the public in the right place and at the right time, integrate naturally into the brand’s communication strategy, and choose the least intrusive way for the consumer, which not to put him in a position to have a negative interaction with the brand,” he says Ana Maria Mica. What benefits does each channel bring us? We find a natural alternation between offline and online activations in consumers’ lives, without them making a clear distinction about the contribution of each channel in the purchase decision. The roles of the 2 mediums are complementary and overlap, the online acting perfectly at the informative level, while the offline delivers more engagement in the experimentation & trial phase. What else bothers us consumers. “Irritability affects us consumers in many ways. We’ve looked at the various challenges that can affect the buying experience: from small frustrations that aren’t easy to overcome, to distractions that make them turn their attention in a completely different direction and lose interest in the purchase/trial process . These kinds of distractions can cause constant agitation, an annoyance that takes its toll on their intellectual resources, limiting the mental bandwidth each of us has available to manage our lives and daily tasks. With a customer journey properly, brands can focus on customers’ needs and understand their complete purchase experience, including their thoughts, feelings and actions at each stage of the path-to-purchase. For example, women will be more open and oriented towards seeking promotions/offers (both offline and online) and will have the patience and interest to pay slightly more attention to POSMs (promo, novelty role) over time which men will avoid, but may be more open to take part in interactive experiences and discussions with brand ambassadors. Families with children will be attracted to the islands with creative and interactive activations, whether in retail or outdoor” The big SHIFT. What worked so far may not work as well in the future. “The study shows us something we were aware of, namely that the most desired brand actions are discounts, followed by contests, regardless of whether they are conducted online or offline. However, consumers prefer mechanics where they can have an immediate/instant benefit such as winning a prize on the spot or receiving a sample on the spot. At the same time, in terms of campaigns with high prizes (national in-store campaigns versus online giveaways) consumers say they trust contests held in stores more. We also see from the study results that following a brand’s SoMe channels is how consumers choose to reach a brand. On the other hand, offline, POSMs and sampling actions are the ideal and least intrusive ways that consumers want a brand to reach them. We also observe changes compared to the pandemic period, when the sampling of perishable goods was received with great caution by consumers, compared to today when they react very well to open sampling. Tasting campaigns are another method by which you convince the consumer to leave with the product from the shelf, being perceived as instant win/gratification. Compared to 2018/2019 conversion between approached, tasted and purchased, the numbers are even better, now in early 2023.” Online activations (some examples): Influencer marketing – respondents follow influencers mainly for entertainment, but also to learn or inform themselves, especially about products in categories in which they rate themselves as less knowledgeable. However, followers tend to be cautious about recommending and adopting products. The higher the value of the product or the impact of use, the more cautious the follower will tend to be in actually adopting the recommendations. It will also seek validation of the recommendation with other sources of information to make the selection. From this perspective, it will pay attention to the reviews posted by other users about the recommended products. Give-aways – It actually generates moderate interest. They are proving more attractive to younger audiences, who are more open to interactive experiences. But even for them, certain mechanics sometimes prove a bit too…complicated. One barrier is that it does not lend much credibility to the process overall. Sponsored Ads – Despite Exposure high, their attention is conditioned by several factors (interest in the brand or product, product novelty, product category – higher attention for IT&C and electronics novelties, but lower for food and beverages). The official social media channels of the brands – used as a source of validation of information from other sources or as a primary point for discovering new products (finding out about them, reading about new benefits or features). They have low impact in triggering purchase behavior, due to lower credibility and transparency about the actual performance of the product (consumers do not believe that they get an objective product presentation, with real pros and cons, on official social media channels of brands). Offline activations (some examples): National competition with sampling – National Campaniles still retain their sex appeal, but work best with instant or guaranteed prizes. Sometimes buyers will back off because of the complex mechanics, but also the low chance of success. Islands in malls / experiential activations – very attractive, because usually the experiences offered are unique and interesting (especially for the young target or for families with children). However, the latter complain that it is usually overcrowded and they have to queue to get access to them. On the other hand, the same mechanism triggers a lot of curiosity. Street sampling – The product with which sampling is done will generate more interest than the brand itself. This happens if the consumer is a category user, a product user, or if there is interest in trying a product from that category. Respondents will be more willing to pay attention to another brand message (other than the most frequently used one) and have a higher potential to try especially new products. Focus on how touch-points work TOGETHER. “Brands must focus on optimizing the WHOLE customer journey, because, paradoxically, sometimes individual touch-points can work well, but the overall customer experience be poor. It’s not about the individual touchpoints themselves, but rather the entire journey and how those touchpoints contribute to the overall customer experience. Where do they fragment along the way and where do we end up losing our consumers? In 2022, at Fieldstar we understood even more that a well-constructed strategy is what will make the difference. That’s why finding the ideal channels and variety of ideas is so important to us. Our focus is on optimizing offline practices to deliver all the benefits of an integrated offline-online campaign, pushing the right pedals at the right times. We will continue to experiment with new, much more specific channels, through which we can offer much more focused and relevant content for audiences”, he concludes Ana Maria Mica. Fieldstar is an agency specialized in the design and implementation of offline marketing and sales campaigns. For 20 years, it has creatively supported the interactions between brands and consumers and always promises partners relevant consumer experiences and effectively achieved goals.