Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is an excerpt of an article from the Joel Rubinson on Marketing Research blog.
What might advertising look like by 2020? In a nutshell, marketing will transform from being a battle for the mind to becoming a battle for behaviors.
In traditional marketing, we ran mass advertising, targeted based on demos (product demonstrations to consumers) that was intended to change people's attitudes about a brand. We measured effectiveness via survey techniques, like copy testing and brand trackers with attribute ratings. We hoped affecting the mind would result in increased sales behavior, but it often had little direct connection.
In digital, social and mobile, people can do things with media — sharing links, liking or following a brand, commenting in Twitter or in a forum, taking a picture in Pinterest, searching to find out more and visiting brand.com websites. Add to the list downloading branded apps, Shazaming a TV commercial, scanning a QR code and who knows what else a few months from now?
And media targeting is increasingly based on behaviors. Search is obviously behavior-based, but so is paid advertising in Facebook based on people's liking and friending behaviors.
Behavioral marketing can also build brand audiences. A brand like Starbucks, with nearly 35 million Facebook fans, can generate 100 million earned impressions or more each and every month — all with no additional media cost.
However, perhaps the biggest sea change in behavior marketing has yet to occur — the rise of mobile marketing that brings digital marketing right to the point of purchase. It is the convergence of advertising and shopper path to purchase where a marketer will be able to deliver the right message, at exactly the right time and place, to shoppers who that brand has a relationship with but who split their purchases among other brands as well.
To equip your organization for behavior marketing, here are five cornerstones:
Build interactivity into your brand communications creative. TV advertising should encourage digital and second screen behaviors. Facebook stories should encourage return to the fan page, etc.
- Build brand audiences so you have an annuity from your marketing investments. Encourage people to like and follow your brand, sign up for e-mails, and to download branded apps.
- Create media targeting strategies that are based on behavior first and only use demos as a last resort for more scale.
- Master mobile. Mobile is likely to account for 10-20 percent of your total ad spend by 2020.
- Build an insights and brand-tracking strategy that converts digital and social behaviors into brand KPI metrics.
Paid advertising will change in fundamental ways in our digital, social, and mobile future. And the way we researchers measure advertising effectiveness and brand progress must also change, becoming more native to our digital lives.