The Official blog of Dark Matter, Inc.

Concept Overview:
In general, marketers are continually add more touchpoints to the shopper journey making it more difficult for shoppers to make decisions.  Not only is this inefficient and expensive, but also overwhelms shoppers with a surplus of data and content to sift through in order to make an informed decision. We think that modern marketers will adapt a “decision simplicity” approach whereby they establish both trust and value for the brand using fewer touchpoints. Great article in HBR that dives into this topic.

Our two cents:
Decision Simplicity is defined as customers who follow through on a purchase, buy the product again and then recommend that product. And the best way to create stickiness for customers is focus on decision simplicity. This can be executed in multiple ways, e.g., personalization, context, rewards, etc.

Read full article on HBR about what customers really want.

Our two cents:
When a company sees declining revenue for six straight months, they’ve got to swing for the fences. In the case of Sears, this means betting big on creating a customer loyalty program with mobile devices and customer info at the center of it all. Whether it be store associates armed with tablets or customers using check in apps on their smartphones, Sears is betting that a technology focus is the thing that will turn the company around. Quite frankly, we are skeptical. Firstly, customer loyalty programs are nothing new, nor are they unique. Secondly,  they take time to build, even with a large installed base. This is time that Sears doesn’t have. Lastly, Sears customers are not exactly on the cutting edge of technology. We looked at 2011 Forrester Technographic data to get an idea of just how tech savvy Sears customer were and found that only 37% own smartphones. That means that roughly 2 out of every 3 lack the technological means of a richer shopper experience.

Something to think about Sears. Read related article on WSJ

Source: eMarketer, Feb 21, 2012

Marketers fail to deliver real-time customer-targeted brand experiences

Increased consumer demand for more personalized and relevant brand experiences has made customer segmentation and targeting an imperative for companies.

According to a November 2011 survey from Acxiom andDIGIDAY, though the majority of US advertisers and agencies were able to identify and segment their customer base, few were capable of doing so in a way that delivers a personalized experience in real time and across multiple channels.

More than half (58%) of advertisers and 39% of agencies said they were able to track and segment their best customers. However, agencies were more than twice as likely (12%) to be able to incorporate both online and offline data into the segmentation process, compared to just 5% of advertisers capable of this more advanced approach.

By segmenting customers, brands can create the more personalized, relevant experience that consumers now demand—especially from retailers. April 2011 data from the e-tailing group and MyBuys showed 50% of US cross-channel shoppers expect to be offered promotions or merchandise that reflect their past online shopping behavior and purchases. More importantly, 46% of shoppers reportedly would buy more from retailers that personalized the shopping experience across channels.

To accomplish the goal of delivering a truly personalized experience in real time, brands must be able to track activity throughout the customer lifecycle and act on this data immediately across channels. But Acxiom and DIGIDAY found advertisers and agencies have yet to make this work—though many are well on their way.

Less than a third of agencies and 37% of advertisers said they had neither the capability to deliver real-time, personalized customer experiences nor to do so across channels, though nearly half of advertisers and 28% of agencies had the ability to at least perform one of these two tasks.

In December 2011, the Winterberry Group and Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) found many marketers hoped to do better in the coming year. Most marketers worldwide planned to focus more closely on customer behavior analysis, and offer optimization and cross-channel touchpoint optimization—tactics required to meet the goal delivering real-time experiences to customers across channels.

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Check out today’s other articles, “Super Bowl Viewers Had Smartphones Firmly in Hand” and “Social Network Users in Brazil, China More Likely to Engage with Brands Online .”

Our two cents:
It’s important that people understand the four ways to monetize apps:

1. Paid downloads
   Set a fixed price for your app, customers purchase it, and the transaction usually ends there
2. Exclusive sponsorships
   May establish yourself enough to make your next app a success, but not always economically feasible
3. In-app purchases
   Customers may not pay anything at the beginning (”freemium”), but will have the opportunity to make purchases within the app to enhance the experience
4. Advertising
   Provided you have a good match between app and advertiser and an installed base large enough to support the volume of impressions needed for profit

By Ed Burnette | January 16, 2012, 7:51pm PST, ZD Net

Summary: You too can be a success at building and selling mobile apps. Read Gregory Kennedy’s advice on how to develop a successful app and turn that success into a career.