A study by PwC found that 73 percent of consumers prioritize their experience above all other factors when choosing where to buy. In today's dynamic marketplace, how consumers shop has undergone significant changes. With the rise of online shopping, many retailers have established online presences and offer services such as buy online, and in-store pick up. These changes have necessitated a reorganization within consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands, especially in terms of funding marketing efforts.
In a recent webinar, Sasha Reyes-Guerra from MikMak was joined by Bazaarvoice’s Adam Russack and Diageo’s Allison Webb to discuss how to navigate these changes and leverage consumer-driven commerce to drive growth for CPG brands. The webinar explores the intricacies of modern consumer journeys and the role of first-party data, consumer insights, and user-generated content (UGC) in producing impactful outcomes. Let’s dive deeper into the world of consumer-centric commerce and discover how it can propel growth for your business.
The consumer journey is nonlinear
Today’s shoppers interact with multiple touchpoints before purchasing, creating challenges for brands and marketers trying to maintain consistent coverage across all potential channels. Rather than investing in expensive media mix modeling projects, brands should leverage their existing resources, such as first-party data and consumer communities, that generate authentic content. By understanding where and how consumers shop, brands can craft compelling content that resonates with audiences, strengthens relationships, and boosts success in leading products from inception to category leadership.
“Once you have your marketing activations live, in order to really understand that omnichannel consumer journey and how people are shopping for your products, no matter what touchpoint you reach them at, it's so important to have real-time signals and measurement in place to get insights about where your shoppers are within the ecosystem.” - Sasha Reyes-Guerra, MikMak
Adapting to the omnichannel era requires evolving and enhancing marketing efforts
In today's digital landscape, understanding the omnichannel consumer journey is critical for brands aiming to connect with their audience across multiple touchpoints. Data from the 2023 MikMak Shopping Index, reveals ways brands can optimize their marketing strategies:
- Focus on a strong social media presence to capture the majority of traffic
- Keep an eye on emerging platforms like TikTok for growing influence on consumer behavior
- Use regional data to target campaigns and allocate resources effectively
- Track real-time signals and measure performance for marketing optimization
- Segment audiences by behavior and preferences for personalized experiences
Tailor your content strategy to suit each platform and channel you use
In the webinar, Sasha shared some ways of being really intentional about designing the consumer journey:
- Focus on creating a seamless and engaging journey for your consumers across various touchpoints.
- Video ads perform exceptionally well on platforms with feeds, as they capture users' attention while they are scrolling.
- Utilize images that highlight your product prominently in-feed ads for maximum impact.
- Combine both image and video ads in your feed-based strategies to create a varied and engaging experience for consumers.
- When designing marketing campaigns, account for each touchpoint to ensure cohesive and targeted messaging.
Shopping anywhere requires shoppable content to be everywhere
Brands are investing heavily in Meta channels like Facebook and Instagram, while TikTok has quickly emerged as the third most popular platform. Staying current with these trends and strategically allocating media spend can increase conversions. Additionally, understanding your audience, using first-party data, and analyzing consumer shopping preferences are essential for boosting conversion rates. Tools like MikMak provide targeted audience insights, enabling brands to tailor marketing campaigns with geographic, demographic, and audience-specific data. This strategy helps brands connect with their ideal consumers and increase sales.
“When you're showing a MikMak commerce experience and giving users the option to prefer where they want to shop, you're able to gain insight about where these consumers are ultimately converting.” - Sasha Reyes-Guerra, MikMak
Data is not only vital to convert global consumers; it is necessary
Consumer behavior has evolved significantly, with online shopping becoming increasingly prevalent. As a result, brands must adapt their marketing efforts, acknowledging the importance of addressing diverse consumer touchpoints throughout the entire consumer journey.
“MikMak provides us with purchase intent by brand, by retailer, and by market, and most times, this is the closest we could get to closed-loop sales attribution for our campaign. Since we can't get actual conversions at a lot of retailers due to walled gardens and legal limitations. When it comes to sales lift and incrementality, that allows us to understand the impact the media had in driving omnichannel sales at retailer outlets, and for that, we tend to measure through third-party measurement partners.” - Allison Webb, Diageo
Watch the full webinar here for more insights on adopting a holistic approach to consumer-centric commerce.
