This is a terrific way to get people engaged with a brand. And Kraft and MonsterMedia took the essence of the product – the elbow macaroni – and created a fun and engaging interactive. Very well done.

But here’s the problem. This doesn’t sell Mac and Cheese. That’s the point. Right?

These interactive screens were placed around the country (Chicago, New York, LA) in high traffic areas. And it looks like it got a lot of audience engagement. But did it sell any Mac and Cheese? Here are three reasons why this is a challenge:

Where Can I Buy? One of the most important tenets with digital engagement is the viewer’s ability to act upon what she has just experienced. The takeaway here is not the smile, it’s the brand impression. She needs to move that impression forward on the path to purchase. But if she can’t, the impression is lost as soon as the next bright, shiny object enters her field of view.

There Is No Takeaway. Unlike the Smile Happy Ice Cream campaign that Unilever created, this doesn’t give the viewer any takeaway, like the product, or a coupon, or a QR code for their mobile device to really open the gates of communication. With an immediate return, the customer connects the impression with the result – the product or access to it. This creates an indelible mark on the viewer’s mindset, and provides marketers with real data on the success of the device.

Using a Shotgun When You Need a Sniper Rifle. These were placed in high traffic areas to get viewer engagement, but I’m willing to bet that a large percentage of the people who interacted with it aren’t really Mac and Cheese fans. Sure, you’ll get a massive amount of people who will try it, making the numbers sexy, but if those viewers are not customers of Kraft or Mac and Cheese, it’s an inefficient execution. The value of each impression is much lower because of the high traffic strategy.

In the end, someone has to pay for this (yes, I know it’s the customer, but bear with me). As these devices become more prevalent in our culture, so too will the need to justify the expense on the marketing budget to create and deploy them. This is advertising, and advertising is made to get people to buy. If they don’t buy, these devices are no more than costly wet noodles.

Ba dum dum.

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The more I learn about the retailer and the customer, the better experience I can help create. Perspective is indispensable. When James Bickers asked me to be a part of the Retail Customer Excellence Summit Advisory Board, I didn’t even think about it. Yep. I’m in.

The summit took place last week in Chicago, and was terrific. The collection of attendees and speakers was a solid mix of perspective and best practices. At one table I saw a toy retailer with a eyewear retailer. Another table saw a giant mobile retailer sitting with a day spa owner. The eclectic mix allowed for an intimate exchange of ideas.

So, in customary fashion with other conferences I have attended, here are some of the things I learned.

OMG. Can’t Bleev no stores uzn mob tech 2 ngage custs!
A group of us toured the the Woodfield Mall on Sunday afternoon, one of the largest malls in the country. I know that because a) they told me, and b) I sat down in my hotel room and passed out for an hour from walking the entire mall. Retailers continue to jump on the social media bandwagon, but we discovered very little in practice at the mall. I didn’t peek into every single store, but saw only one that was using Twitter prominently: Metropark. They had their Twitter feed on big 36” widescreen TVs hanging in the store and facing the mall. Very effective. James Bickers noticed that out of over 275 stores, only two (TWO!) were using FourSquare. OMG indeed.

My shoes before the store walk, and three hours later.

The Best Perspective Came From Outside Retail
PGA Player Chip Beck, Consultant Mark Levy, Jim Knight from Hard Rock International, and Ed Rensi, former CEO/President of McDonald’s Corporation, gave easily the most spirited talk of the day with plenty of perspective that can be implemented at retail. Mr. Beck provided some of the best insight, saying that it’s his goal to make the people feel more comfortable when playing with him in pro-am tournaments. When he’s with a group, he makes it a point to walk at least one hole with each participant so that he can get to know them better. From a retail perspective, building relationships with customers creates a better buying environment and experience. He ended by saying that he has built a reputation on the tour as a very approachable player, and it has allowed him to participate in pro-ams a lot. (Translation: Building better relationships with your customers means loyalty and return business.)

Knows more about retail than I do. Can golf WAAAAAY better than I do. Well played, sir.

Awareness Is Not Engagement
Just because people know about you doesn’t mean they’re buying. You have to do more than shout from the rooftops. Every message has to ‘leave them wanting more.’ Mike Wittenstein showed how good first impressions have four phases: Attraction, Engagement, Information, and Persuasion, with the goal to get the customer to the next phase of the buying process. He emphasized this by saying that customers don’t care about what you tell them, they care about what they can tell their friends. Can your impressions do that?

Your Culture Creates The Experience
Bill Cusick led a great panel of retailers to talk about how the brand culture is the driver for a great experience. By personifying the brand (think Apple vs. Mac), your brand can come to life at retail. For example, Kari Blankenship from Cabela’s talked about their brand promise – “To inspire others to participate and be passionate about the outdoors” – as their essence for the in-store experience. No one remembers the purchase transaction, but everyone remembers the experience.

But People Are There To Buy Stuff
Bob Phibbs told us why customers visit a store: To buy stuff. While we all talk about a great experience, the goal should be to sell a product. Bob noted that price doesn’t make a difference, people do, and that presentation is everything, but somewhere in there some people have forgotten that you need to engage the customer to get them to actually buy.

Brands That Exceed Expectations Grow
Walter Kurlin, Business Programs Facilitator from The Disney Institute, stressed how exceeding a customer’s expectation is the goal; those are the memories in the customer’s head.

He explained how little Johnny could have a great experience in an otherwise negative situation. If the Disney ride requires Johnny to be 40 inches but he’s just under that, he would be most unhappy. Disney provides a certificate to Johnny, saying that when he reaches 40 inches, he can come back to the park and will be moved up to the front of the line immediately if he presents the ticket. Johnny goes home and puts that on the refrigerator, and has his mom measure him every day. When he hits 40 inches, everyone knows where Johnny will be. We never forget that Disney is for profit, so they get the return visitors, but Disney created a good memory and a lasting impression.

But What Are Those Expectations?
That’s the billion-dollar question to many. What are the expectations of your brand? What are the expectations of your retail experience? Chip Beck mentioned in his talk how golfers learn to accept their limitations and play within their means. I think that’s great advice because it helps brands understand where to set the bar and hopefully always be able to follow the axiom of “under promise, over deliver.” Always make sure those expectations are authentic and achievable. If you set unrealistic expectations, you’ll suffer.

The Most Valuable Guest
Target’s Chris Borek gave tremendous insight into the multi-channel customer. He explained that the most valuable customer (or as Target call them, “Guest”) is one that engages Target through more than one channel, meaning she does research online, then goes into the store, and may even use her mobile Target app while there. Those customers yield higher revenue than single channel customers. Judging by what I saw, most of Woodfield Mall would have benefitted from Chris’s talk alone.

I Won Sumthin!
There was a contest for retweeting (no…not a drinking game…darn) and I was the top retweeter of the day. My prize was the Stores and Retail Spaces 11 book, chock full of imagery of outstanding retail design. My review:

I like it. A lot. Chocolates, plz.

The 2011 Summit will be held on August 8-9, 2011 in Minneapolis, and should be on your calendar to attend. If you can make it, bring your notebook and your walking shoes. I’m sure a trip to Mall of America will be in order.

Me. 37 seconds after walking the MOA.

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The stuffed animals on top gives it away. Right?

How do I loathe thee? Let me count the ways:

• No signage whatsoever. Is this a kiosk? Is this an employee station? Is this the corner of a bedroom in a Crate and Barrel catalog?
• No screensaver showing even the logo of the store (it’s the Windows 95 Morphing Ball thingy).
• A small LCD display with a keyboard and mouse (both appeared to be from 1995 as well).
• What happens when you activate the computer? You get (wait for it….wait for it….) the website of the company!
• It’s located conveniently right next to the cashier, where the line for people winds when it’s busy, and no where near anything you could buy in the store.

So what’s the lesson here? Electronic connectivity is permeating every type of environment. It doesn’t matter if you’re a big box retailer, a cinema, a library, a museum, a hospital, a gas station, or a toy store (as the one above is); the internet, digital screens, and mobile devices will now and forever play a crucial role in your ability to engage a customer and turn them into a consumer.

While this is at times a nebulous and challenging industry, it’s not rocket science. There are basic merchandising and marketing principles that apply, even for a screen.

If you can’t even try to do this half right, don’t try at all. I’m certain more money was spent on the Manitoba Maple fixture than the computer they pulled out of storage to run this thing.

Dreadful.

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A customer is someone who buys things. A consumer is someone who uses things. Customers become consumers. You can’t be a consumer unless you’re a customer. A customer walks in the door; a consumer walks out.

Glad we got that settled. So now the question is, “How do I turn customers into consumers?” That’s easy: Get them to buy and use your stuff.

Yep, even the buyer will consume something here.

Okay, not so easy. You want them to come back, right? You want them to never go anywhere else for what they need.

Customers are loyal to products. Consumers are loyal to brands.

How can you do that with retail branding? You have to look past the products on the shelf and have customers display irrational loyalty to your brand. I could buy milk at six places between my house and my SuperTarget, three miles away. But I don’t. I buy it at SuperTarget. Why? Because I like to buy it at SuperTarget. Price is not a factor. It costs a little more at the local market, but SuperTarget is farther away, so it’s a wash.

The reason is because I’m consuming the brand, not the product. If we didn’t consume brands, we would all be buying generic stuff.

And after a while. . .it might not matter.

An optimal retail experience has much less to do with what products are on the shelves and more to do with how those products are promoted.

In one post, I talked about a local retailer in which all the TVs in the home theater department were off. This retailer competes with another large retailer less than two miles away that has a home theater department where all the TVs are on. The latter charges more for the same set. Which one would you go to?

The goal of an in-store experience is to turn brand customers into brand consumers. A good brand is like a drug. The more you like it, the more you want it.

I buy my shoes at REI. I could not care less about what shoe I’m buying. I like REI. There’s a Famous Footwear right next to the SuperTarget. I have bought shoes there too. But I like REI. Why? Because I like REI. Their brand experience is outstanding. I have chosen to spend my money where I enjoy spending it, not necessarily what I enjoy spending it on.

You are loyal to product brands, of course. You love Nike. At some point, you’re going to have to decide where you buy your Nike shoes and socks and shirts and sunglasses and cologne. Do you buy them at Macy’s? Dick’s Sporting Goods? Donnie’s House-o-knockoffs? More often than not, you’re going to go to the location that appeals to you the most. There can be various reasons — bigger selection, prices are generally better, etc. — but at some point, you will go there regardless of those factors because that is where you like to go.

So where does digital signage fit into this? Digital signage is an extension of your experience, not just a channel for promotion of a product. The value experiential digital signage has on your brand will always be greater than the amount of money you make selling time on it.

Digital signage brings your brand to life and connects to the customer in ways that no other channel of marketing in the environment can. I never heard a single person walk about of a store and say, “Wow. That’s gorgeous. Very cool.”

But I have heard that about digital signage.

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"Can you tell me if these spats come in a size 14?"

A core factor of the retail customer experience is advertising. But, how we speak to a potential customer versus a point-of-sale customer is not the same.

Sacrifice for the Greater Good
In a consumer’s home, the advertiser competes with everything; there is nothing “endemic” about a TV program, a magazine, or the internet. During a break of a recent sporting event I saw the following ads: Nextel (Wireless), Taco Bell (Food), Zantac (Medicine) Progressive (Insurance), and Ford (Auto). Each advertiser thinks you need their product more than anything else.

Something about the proposition will be sacrificed for the greater good of brand awareness due to factors like broadcast running times and lack of actual products or services. You can only drive a car when you get to the dealership. You can only experience a wireless device by actually using the wireless device. Lifestyle benefits are a core proposition of broadcast advertising; it’s easier to show how your life will be with the product because you can’t actually use the product…yet.

...feel the HVAC racing through your hair...

Terrific creative and understanding the audience and the environment is crucial in winning a viewer’s attention.

But retail is different. Very different.
At retail, the competition narrows down to the category. When Nike competes with Budweiser at home, it’s only a matter of who likes shoes and who likes beer. But when Nike competes with Adidas and Reebok and K Swiss and Puma on a wall of footwear, the category focus by both the customer and the advertiser at the point of sale is paramount. This is where the brand “wins the last 10 feet.”

And, in many cases, you can use the product. You can try on the shoes or the clothes. You can test drive the car, or make a wireless connection.

So why do advertisers and venues accept external advertising for the network in a retail environment? Why do so many brands and manufacturers just re-purpose their 30-second awareness ads to run on the shelf?

The Push (or Pull) for Better Content
The simple answer is insufficient data to support the theory that custom content does any better at selling a product than regular broadcast advertising. Numbers get thrown around all too easily: 70% of shopper decisions are made in-store. Or is that 50%? I recently read that POPAI’s MARI project claims that only “…three percent of in-store marketing communications is currently passed and seen by shoppers…” So that means that 97% is ignored? Or is it missed completely? How does this affect the 50-70% of shoppers who make the purchase decisions? In a 2008 study from IMI Consumer Track, North Americans were asked what influenced them to purchase brands they don’t normally purchase. The respondents said they were influenced by an ad they saw on TV 24% of the time.

If your head hurts right now, you're not alone.

Statistics, always subjective and often misleading, should compel an argument, not decide it. They should not stand in the way of engaging the customer. Instead of believing in one side of the statistic, look at the other side: 50% may be influenced, but 50% are not. 50% is a really, really big number.

Why should retail marketing push brands and advertisers to create custom content?
You have to stand out. The amount of retail environmental stimuli waging a war for the customer’s attention is close to immeasurable.

Re-purposing advertising does two things: It tells the customer what she already knows, and it tells her you don’t have anything to add to your proposition. Result: She deselects you because there are other, newer things to look at.

Talk to the hand.

Decisions. Decisions.
The customer’s mindset is different in the store. Marketers must stop believing that “purchase decisions” and “unplanned decisions” are the same thing. A purchase decision usually starts outside the store.

I need bar of soap.
Where do I get soap?
At the store.
I’m going to the store.
I’m at the store.
I’m here for soap.
There’s the soap.

External advertising starts the path to purchase by compelling the viewer to decide whether or not he needs what you’re selling. In-store advertising must pick up where broadcast left off – at the curbside or front door – and guide the customer along the path, not simply reiterate what he already knows.

Purchase decisions may lead to unplanned decisions. An unplanned decision is based on impulse. Oh…I need shampoo, too. While I’m here… Where the two types of decisions mix is in the shopper’s mindset at the point of sale. Therefore, the approach to the customer should be different.

Advertising is part of the equation, not the solution; it must work in tandem with everything else.

Duh.

The Effort Starts Here
The marketing team must collaborate with merchandising team to create that holistic experience. Merchant teams will negotiate massive deals with brands for product placement with little regard for how the product is actually presented to the customer. A big victory for the brand is a prominent location, but the surrounding presentation materials may not complete the entire experience. Marketing must sit at the table and be a part of the deal so that proper attention can be given to the messaging that accompanies the product.

To this end, the need for extra money to create custom content will diminish. The content and production will be part of the negotiated deal for the product life-cycle in the store. It will not be an afterthought tapping into other budgets. Further, because of its separation from any other kind of advertising, it will give marketers the ability to better measure impact.

While statistics may support some of the arguments, they should never make a case. Knowing that the customers at home and customers at a store are different should warrant the argument for custom creative at the point of sale.

Terrific creative, coupled with understanding the audience, is crucial in winning a viewer’s attention.

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