The power of the status quo is debilitating and to not exploit the enabling capability of digital branding and merchandising is to die while asleep. Brands that have long used digital media have lived with a level of acceptable ignorance in the knowledge that it works, despite significant ROI analysis. This lack of impact assessment is really too bad because it can provide little basis for optimizing the use of the tools and for validation of larger investment. The great inflection point toward success is in the realization that things may have to be done differently. Enabling technologies provoke this awareness.

Retailers seem to have been hesitant to shift ad spend to more personalized and relevant channels like loyalty and promotions around coupons, which have consistently shown to be more valuable to both retailers and consumers. This is cultural and not based on analytic data. Retailers MUST begin shifting some of their ad spend in areas that do not perform in order to remain “sticky” with their shoppers. It’s time to start being realistic and honest about traditional ad performance. Listen to your customers!

Digital marketing does not necessarily mean online. TV is digital, for example. That said, I think the biggest issue I see is a lack of strategy. Most advertising from brands is a hodgepodge of tactics, not a defined strategy. The CEO says, “we need to do online” and someone jumps and starts running display ads with a coupon.

Social media is totally misunderstood. I see brands and retailers pushing deals and specials constantly and failing at it. Social media is SOCIAL. It is an opportunity to engage with your consumers. It is a soft sell.

Online marketing is a totally different approach and most brands and retailers don’t understand it. They are so entrenched in the circular and discount mode that they do not understand how to properly use online strategies like native ads and content marketing to engage with their consumers.

It is not the marketing channel that is flawed. It is the tactic.

The “shotgun” approach of throwing money at all types of digital and hoping you’ll see some ROI is futile. Digital has some great leverage potential, however you need to determine the bang for the buck just like traditional methods of marketing. The trouble is, most marketers still struggle to show real ROI even with traditional methods. So digital tends to cloud the effectiveness of overall marketing efforts if it is not productively managed. Digital marketing tactics like real-time personalization, for instance, are driving huge results for retailers as we speak. The innovators are using ROI models that capture the relevant data to paint a next best action nurture stream campaign to make digital stronger the more data it collects over time. That’s machine learning. Cognitive. It’s working. And it’s truly the future.

Digital is like every other media — it works when tightly targeted and seldom pays back in the typical “spray and pray” approach. Digital is definitely the “shiny new object” — but a little bit of that is nomenclature (sort of like the way in-store demos have become “experiential marketing”) — digital can either be direct mail on a different device or it can be broadcast advertising. It’s all about using the right approach for the right purpose. And yes, John Wanamaker, half of our advertising dollars are still wasted — and we still don’t know which half.

Clearly “share of mind” of consumers and shoppers is higher in mobile and online media than in traditional media, and the gap grows with each new consumer generation. However, “share of spending” is still proportionally skewed towards traditional media. This is because of inertia, lack of ROI analysis and other “political” factors. When retailers and brands invest in digital channels, the effect of being “blinded by the light” is indeed noticeable. Many of these investments are hype-based without a real strategy behind them, based on choosing the easier/faster way which is not necessarily the effective one. Social media campaigns have their place within the marketing mix, but social media shouldn’t be the prime channel. Personalized coupons, customer-centric campaigns, relevant content through multiple channels, user-friendly UI on mobile apps, digital merchandising and many other digital-related channels must be considered and analyzed.

Retailers should be using data analytics to inform their digital marketing strategies. With the insights gained from deep analysis of their shopper data, retailers can better understand their target shoppers and develop digital marketing programs with positive ROI.

It’s a fact of retail that online channels are gaining in strength while brick-and-mortar faces major challenges, and retailers must recognize this trend and put meaningful marketing dollars into supporting those online channels rather than seeing online as secondary. As such, retailers do need to be more aggressive with digital marketing, and they must take full advantage of all it has to offer. This includes the ability to gather useful metrics on what motivates customers to buy, what their emotional connections may be to your brand and how those customers are most likely to act in the future. In addition to taking full advantage of digital data, retailers must recognize that one of the biggest emotional motivators, especially among Millennial shoppers, is the desire to see their retailers as real people. That means using social media outlets as more than just a trumpet for broadcasting sales — social media is most effective when it is used as a listening post, to hear what customers are saying about you, and as a telephone, to hold meaningful,… Read more »

Food retailers just need to keep up the pulse on digital. Why? Generation X, Generation Z and Boomers all grew up using one method of food shopping. They were young once and they have yet to sort out the grocery cart, mom/dad memories and food shopping. Digital change is happening fast but more in the new areas or areas that people hated to shop with their parents when growing up. Do not go too fast on digital in food and keep it simple.

There is something missing from the discussion and that is industry-standard audience measurement, which digital media does not provide. Even vaunted P&G is considering to back off digital media until it gets third-party audience measurement accredited by the Media Rating Council. It’s hard enough for a retail CMO to drive traffic, but to prove the ROI on digital media to the C-suite is even more difficult. All agree the path to purchase has changed. Digital media, from desktop to mobile and display to social, is a major factor in the shift. The issue is not whether to invest in digital media, but how much risk is one willing to take on? Plus there are tech issues: tracking cookies slow down site load times which sites do not want. “Performance degradation” it’s called. For big box stores, media budget is typically larger than CAPEX. A media director often manages a larger budget than the treasurer. And in a tumultuously consolidating industry with a constant call to do more with less, every red cent needs proof before… Read more »

The rise of m-commerce has led to major shifts in the e-commerce world. Online retailers are already redesigning their sites to better serve the increasing number of shoppers who are visiting online stores and making purchases from their mobile devices. Checkout pages are becoming more streamlined, navigation systems are being tailored to mobile screens, and product pages are being revamped. Similar to how the rise of m-commerce is transforming the design of online stores, it is also leading to significant shifts in marketing tactics. Digital marketing provides an opportunity for retailers to better connect with their customers from any device, anywhere. However, failing to carefully tailor marketing strategies to the individual shopper can significantly impact ROI–any effective digital marketing strategy must be targeted and personalized. Leveraging quality data is an important component in ensuring this personalization, as it perfects customer loyalty through tactics such as rewards programs, promotions based on past purchases, and product recommendations. Although digital marketing is becoming increasingly important, as it offers a clear path to mobile shoppers, it is just one… Read more »

Most consumers and a large percentage of retailers don’t understand what digital marketing is. Asking someone to judge effectiveness who has little understanding is pointless. Digital marketing starts with a website. In addition to web design/development, there are four distinct types of digital marketing. SEO, SEM, Email and Social.

For the most part, retail is slow to adapt; whether it’s IoT, marketing made to deliver value on mobile channels or understanding the impact of digital savvy consumers. I heard talks at NRF that related the paradigm of “digital natives” as something new, but consumers have been mobile natives for 5-10 years.

Coupons and QR code offer have to be mobile-friendly and digital, and that’s exactly what we are seeing in grocery and fast-food industry segments. Retailer’s don’t effectively harness video content, corporate social responsibility or leverage data very well. Most still do multi-channel instead of integrated omnichannel.

Mobile first strategies that leverage artificial intelligence and move retailers into the age of IoT would go further than legacy advertising and digital marketing that’s pay to play and has less ROI.