For groceries, the shift towards online shopping, is both a curse and a blessing. The former because of obvious reasons, but the latter is because of the opportunity it now gives to the most innovative companies to restructure their order. The in- store experience will now need to be made more attractive to help stymie the flow towards a purely online mode. The grocery business has always been a tough one, with thin margins, perishable products’ handling, different temperature requirements and the high fixed costs. The competition has now increased, with discounters making a major dent. A range of technologies are being used to improve the customer experience and the digital marketing. The likes of Amazon Go for example are making use of robots. Putting tenants in stores is one of the ways of reducing overhead costs. The value needs to be unlocked by retailers from products across the portfolio. The UK and France will be two countries that will main their leadership positions when it comes to innovation in the retail business.

Source:https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/the-future-of-grocery-in-store-and-online

Uploaded Date:31st December 2018

While creating videos for LinkedIn, a senior professional learnt several branding lessons, beginning with the advice to develop one aspect at a time. Another is that critics must not be shunned, but instead embraced. A community of followers needs to be curated so that one gains digital marketing traction. To hone such a community, relationships will also matter, so they need to be leveraged carefully. Whatever happens, one must always remain authentic and never pretend to be someone or something else. One must not be a stickler for perfection. Rather some form of imperfection is desirable as that will appear authentic. There must be no let go of consistency or discipline though. All the pursuits must be handled with a certain sense of passion. The entire marketing campaign needs to be geared up towards the right target demographic already identified. Its not always easy to work with brands. But whatever the efforts put in, finally it pays its worth. One need not always accept every business proposition. One has to learn how to say now, and often.

Source:https://www.forbes.com/sites/goldiechan/2018/12/27/500_daily_videos/#228a519e3096

Uploaded Date:31st December 2018

Personalization is already a massive demand in the present era, but is expected to be even more crucial for IoT (Internet- of- Things) Digital Marketing. This is because, the same is already driving personalized experiences. At the same time, marketers must not be overtly trigger- happy, and must know the fine thread between being invasive and relevant. Personalized brand messages must instead resonate to better people’s lives. IoT content marketing will also help stem the flow of blanket advertisements. Business intelligence provided by ZDNet has confirmed that there are already more connected devices on earth than there are people, with the number expected to cross twenty- billion by 2020. Such personalized experiences must be done in complete transparency and the consent of the customer base. This IoT can also facilitate dialogue across the purchase journey.

Source:https://www.skyword.com/contentstandard/creativity/getting-personalization-right-in-the-age-of-iot-digital-marketing/

Uploaded Date:29 December 2018

The next phase of digital marketing will involve the concept of identity data. While Google became the leading player in search and Facebook tapped the special graph to become a platform of massive influence, the future leaders will be those that master identity data. Due to the massive data warehousing that Facebook and Google have already done, they are bound to have the initial advantage. Efforts are on to democratize the identity graph. The entire web marketing process is becoming extremely personalized. This is ideal for a customer base, used to the likes of Netflix and Spotify for their personal needs.

Source:https://www.chiefmarketer.com/identity-data-and-the-next-phase-of-digital-marketing/

Uploaded Date:29 December 2018

Among all industries that have faced some sort of disruption, few have had it worse than organized retail. 125- year old once- giant Sears has filed for bankruptcy. Several stores of other top players such as Kohl’s, J.C. Penney, Macy’s, Barnes & Noble, Kmart and Toys R Us keep shutting down on regular basis. Even those, somewhat stemming this tide are the ones that are playing on competitive pricing, such as- Marshalls or T.J. Maxx. This has also led to a decline in fortunes for the large consumer brands that sold majority of their products from such stores. Proctor & Gamble is one such prominent sufferer, with several of its brands such as Tide, Pampers and Gillette facing a downturn in sales. Business intelligence provided by Consultancy Catalina has also affirmed that 90% of the top 100 brands had all lost market share. A lot of this can be attributed to the rise in online shopping. For retailers, digital marketing is now a highly attractive proposition, as evidenced by Harry’s huge Instagram following. It also gives them massive reach as opposed to the retail store which can only reach out to its particular neighbourhood. In order to remain relevant, the traditional giants’ scale must be combined with the fleet- footedness of the new comers. A perfect example of this may be cited on how Xiaomi incubated about 55 startups.

Source:https://hbr.org/2018/12/what-big-consumer-brands-can-do-to-compete-in-a-digital-economy

Uploaded Date:29 December 2018

A few trends have been identified which will be hot in 2019 for the field of digital marketing. The first of them will be the deployment in greater numbers of snack ads. While video has been ruling the roost for a while now over written content, it has also been realized that excess of video is also affecting the already low spans of attention, and the related purchase interest. These snack ads as the name suggests, are those filling enough to garner attention, but not too long to defer the main course. Another trend will be the rise of video searches, which experts say could take up about a third of total search quantum this year. Another will be the use of Augmented Reality (AR) as IKEA is already doing, plus also some Virtual Reality (VR). The concept of micro- moments will also see a rise in importance. On average, users these days are spending about two to three hours per day on their mobile phones. During this period, they are also absorbing enormous amounts of content. Brands will have to position themselves in a way during this journey to pose relevance to the user. The convincing will have to be done in a mere few seconds’ window.

Source:https://www.josic.com/4-digital-marketing-trends-we-will-see-in-2019/

Uploaded Date:03 December 2018

A study was conducted recently by Facebook to understand the key friction points in the online purchase process. This was done in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group, which is a leading management consulting firm. Customers nowadays pay a lot of focus on the ease of transacting. Shockingly, the report compiled by BCG showed that there was an overall loss of US$ 325 billion in the APAC region alone due to friction in the buying process. There ware awareness and information gaps in the process, plus the requirement towards tech optimization. Most of these gaps exist at the discovery phase alone. Facebook has thus published a new report titled Zero Friction Solutions pointing out the solutions to the above mentioned problems.

Source:https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-releases-new-report-on-customer-friction-points-and-how-to-resolv/542733/

Uploaded Date:27 November 2018