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Retailers Use Attribution Modeling to Measure the Touchpoints Driving Sales

Modeling helps assign value to touchpoints

Today’s digital consumer is exposed to a huge number of marketing messages via display ads, search, email, mobile, social media and other sources along the path to purchase. But until recently, many retailers mainly paid attention only to customers’ “last click”—an approach that ignores all other marketing touchpoints that lead to a transaction, according to a new eMarketer report, “Multichannel Attribution: What Retailers Need to Know.”

Now, however, some retailers are deploying complex multichannel attribution solutions, with Big Data power, to measure the performance of their marketing efforts. But the numbers are still small. According to an October 2012 survey conducted by Econsultancy and Adobe, only 26% of companies worldwide used advanced forms of marketing attribution—ones that go beyond simple last-click analysis.

However, retailers are under extreme pressure to better understand which marketing tactics are driving sales, so it is not surprising that more companies consider attribution modeling to be a priority.

A January 2013 survey by MarketingSherpa found that some 28% of marketers worldwide indicated that measuring attribution across channels is an important analytic objective in 2013.
Modeling helps assign value to touchpoints

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Consumer Behavior: Prices in Red Affect Men but Not Women

Men who saw red discount prices for toasters and microwaves agreed more strongly that they’d save “a lot of money” than men who saw black prices (4.26 versus 2.56 on a seven-point scale), says a team led by Nancy M. Puccinelli of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. But this didn’t happen when the research subjects were induced to think carefully about the prices, suggesting that red’s happiness-inducing effect sways men’s perception of discounts only when they’re not paying close attention. Women were unaffected by the prices’ color, perhaps because they were already paying closer attention than the men to the discounts, the researchers say.

Consumer Behavior

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Millennial Women “Love to Shop”

Millennial (18-35) women are 52% more likely than their male counterparts to agree that they “love to shop” (44% vs. 29%), per results [pdf] from an Urban Land Institute (ULI) survey conducted with Lachman Associates. While young men are more likely than young women to say that shopping is a necessary chore that they can deal with (15% vs. 9%), they’re also more likely to say they shop when it’s necessary, and enjoy it when they do (51% vs. 45%). Overall, the study indicates that America’s youth enjoy shopping on the whole, which might explain why they’re more likely than other generations to identify as “spenders” rather than “savers.”
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According to the ULI survey, both Hispanics (44%) and Blacks (55%) are more likely than the average Millennial (37%) to say that they “love to shop.”
Millennial Women “Love to Shop”
“Shopping centers can rest easy,” conclude the researchers, noting that that 64% of respondents go to enclosed malls at least once a month. Asked their 3 favorite aspects of their most-visited enclosed malls, Millennials pointed to the range of options for finding things they want or need (53%), the opportunity to get out provided by a mall (42%), and stores offering styles they like (37%).

Overall, Millennials, like the average American, enjoy shopping in-store. Aside from malls, most visit discount department stores (91%), neighborhood and community shopping centers (74%), full-line department stores (64%), big-box power centers (63%) and chain apparel stores (58%) on at least a monthly basis.

About the Data: In January 2013, ULI and Lachman Associates conducted a nationally representative online survey of 1,251 Gen-Yers to gauge their retail, dining, and entertainment preferences.

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Social Followers of Local Media Exhibit Different Patterns of Engagement

What kind of social behaviors do local media fans exhibit on Facebook and Twitter? It depends on the medium, says TVB [pdf] in a study conducted in conjunction with Colligent, that combines Nielsen Media Research and Kantar Media data with social media behaviors. The “Cultural Currency” study analyzes the social media behaviors of 167 million Facebook and Twitter users across a range of legacy media, finding that overall, local broadcast TV viewers tend to be most heavily engaged socially with their stations. For advertisers, understanding how social behaviors vary among fans of various local media is an important consideration when crafting social calls to action to accompany their local media buys.
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The study identifies 9 types of social media behaviors on Facebook and Twitter.

In each case, “fans” refers to Facebook fans of the local media outlet (such as a local radio channel), and “brand” refers to that same outlet. (The 4 media types available in local markets tracked in the study are: local TV; local newspapers; local radio; and cable TV. The study also notes that “due to various sources of programming on local TV stations, local TV is a combination of scores from fans of TV stations, fans of broadcast networks, and fans of broadcast programming.”)

Local media
Overall, local TV was above-average in social behaviors in each of the 9 categories save for 1 (retweeting). While radio listeners exhibited strong tendencies to perform a range of Facebook behaviors, listeners were less likely than average to engage in each of the activities on Twitter. Conversely, while local newspaper garnered above-average Twitter talk and retweets, they fell below-average in Facebook behaviors.
Other Findings:

Social media behaviors also differed greatly across primetime content genres. For example, viewers of mainstream genres, such as reality competition, comedy, and dramas, were more active on Twitter than on Facebook. By contrast, viewers of game shows, travel shows, and action suspense shows were more engaged on Facebook.
Defining “Cultural Currency” as “having achieved both broad audiences and having effected significant social media behaviors,” the study demonstrates that traditional hits (such as specials and primetime dramas) also had the highest levels of Cultural Currency. Advertisers spending almost exclusively on the top quadrant of “Cultural Currency” programs saw 15 times more new brand fans than those advertising in the lowest quadrant over the measured period.

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Moms with smartphones: Clothing and beauty were top mobile shopping categories

There is no question that mobile is becoming an essential shopping tool for many US moms. According to a March 2013 survey from retail solutions company Alliance Data, more than half of surveyed mom internet users reported using their smartphone or tablet at least weekly for some aspect of shopping, whether it be research or buying. And 35% of respondents said they used their device daily for shopping purposes.

Mobile’s usefulness for shopping is easy to see. Convenience and a better ability to price compare were the top reasons moms’ reported using their device as they moved through the purchase funnel.

Moms with smartphones

Clothing and beauty ranked as the top product categories for which moms shopped on their smartphones and tablets, at 56% and 47%, respectively. Households products ranked third, researched by 42% of respondents, a significant figure for CPG brands, which have already moved quickly into the mobile advertising space.
Showrooming—the practice of going into stores to compare products and prices, often using mobile to shop around—is common among moms, as well. At both electronics and big-box retailers, half of mom mobile shoppers surveyed said they used their smartphone or tablet to look up product and price info. This was slightly less common at clothing, grocery and shoe stores, but more than one-third of respondents still had shopped at each of these locations using mobile devices.

However, mobile is not the primary method US moms prefer for shopping. Only 11% of respondents said this was the shopping method they would choose, if given only one option. And according to December 2012 research from parenting app company Alt12, about two-thirds of moms said they did less than half of their shopping on mobile.

But as mobile browsing becomes more common, and retailers improve their multichannel efforts, there is no question that more moms will favor smartphones and tablets for their shopping and buying.

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New Issue of Engage Marketing Magazine

Here is a gift for you:

The newest issue of our Engage Magazine. This magazine is in printed format but here is the digital format for you.

Engage Magazine covers the latest in NeuroMarketing and NeuroMagnetism, Small business marketing and online marketing.
Click below to read.

 

Engage Marketing Magazine

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Consumer behavior: You Experience a Silent Rage After Exerting Self-Control

Consumer behavior: rage

People who chose an apple over chocolate before selecting a movie were 16% more likely to prefer an anger-themed film, such as Anger Management or Hamlet, than people who selected a movie without having made such a food choice, say David Gal of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School and Wendy Liu of UC San Diego. This and other experiments suggest that the denial of immediate gratification may give rise to a silent rage: Exerting self-control can also intensify people’s irritation toward controlling messages.
Source: Grapes of Wrath: The Angry Effects of Self-Control

 

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Sometimes Entrepreneurs Are So Stupid

I usually wash my car once or twice a week. I go to one of those express wash that is close to my home. I’ve been going there for at least 4 years, every week at least once. Price is fair, it is close and I never had an issue. Until the last two washes. Last week I noticed that the back of my car was still a little dirty after the wash and when I went to vacuum the car, the vacuum was very weak. I was in a hurry so I just left.

Today we wash the car and the same thing happened. Back more than a little dirty and the vacuum not working. All the other vacuums were taken so I got stuck with that bad one.

We finished cleaning the car and on our way out stopped to speak to the owner to let him know there was something wrong with his equipment. Why did I do that?

He started going on and on about the amount of chemicals he uses and how I was probably off road and the kind of clay from that dirty road is the type that doesn’t come off etc. We said that last week the same thing had happened and we had been in town the whole time.

There he goes again with the same story. We leave the car, showed him that the front of the car was fine, the problem was just in the back and we could take that off by just passing our fingers, so it was not stuck in the car. He said that is why he provides towels and Windex for clients.

Of course, I pay to have the car washed and then I spend my time cleaning the mess that the machine left.

He never once considered that the brush could have an issue, the pressure of water and chemicals, the pressure of the brush. No, it was the dirt from places I’ve been.

With the vacuum the same thing: He takes care of the equipment, he doesn’t know what is going on, now he is going to pay attention to the vacuum.

Then he makes a face and says “If you really want, I can have you go through the wash again”.

If I really want? I don’t want and I don’t need to. There is a really cool car wash that just opened a few blocks away with vacuums that look very modern, same price, new employees with smiles on their face because they got a new job and I can take my loyal business there. The only thing that will change is that I’ll drive two more blocks.

During four years I happily gave him my money, never, ever complained about anything. Washed, vacuum and left. Every week some times several times a week. During a period of time I was even on a monthly program. I’m a dream customer.

Now, let’s think, because unlike him, you can do that very easily: If something is not working well in your business, take accountability, don’t try to blame the customer. Yes, there are people that are a nightmare and try to take advantage of you. Not the case here. I’m a loyal customer that never complained about anything there. Take that in consideration before blaming the kind of dirt I ride on.

Then redo whatever you offer. Don’t tell me that if I really want you can make an exception. Do it.

You cannot afford to lose customers to competition because of stupid things. And learn, for goodness sake, to take feedback. I stopped my day to go tell him there is something wrong with the equipment. Go and check and shut up.

How many other customers didn’t like the result and left never to come back without saying a word?

Don’t be stupid, don’t act like this entrepreneur. Take feedback and take accountability. Sometimes Entrepreneurs Are So Stupid