Wait Marketing: Communicate at the right time in the right place
WHY ADVERTISE WHILE CONSUMERS WAIT?
– Advertising is welcome.
Advertising annoys consumers… except when they’re waiting. A Swiss survey confirms that traditional advertising, expensive and saturated, is rejected by consumers. TV commercials annoy 3 out of 4 consumers. Mailings and Internet advertisements annoy more than half of consumers, the same for radio, although radio broadcasts 2 to 7 times more advertisements than television, for example. Magazine and movie ads bother only 1 in 4 consumers, and newspaper and outdoor ads, which don’t interrupt their activities, annoy 1 in 5 consumers. Whereas advertising while consumers are waiting, such as at post offices, is very well received by 9 out of 10 consumers. In this context, advertising is considered entertainment.
– For greater impact
Studies published by independent advertising organizations, in Europe and the US, confirm that consumers are at least 2 times more receptive while waiting. This is related to the fact that advertising is welcome in that particular context. A television commercial, for example, will be memorized by 17% of consumers if they see it on their television screen at home. The same ad will be remembered by 27% of consumers if they see it while in the doctor’s waiting room.
– For big budget savings
The main benefit of wait marketing is that by targeting consumers in the right place at the right time, companies can easily increase the impact of their message, while drastically reducing their cost per contact and, consequently, their budget.
Wait marketing can maximize communication budget efficiency by turning consumers’ “wait time” into the perfect communication opportunity for brands.
A NEW APPROACH TO ADVERTISING
– Make the most of advertising, promotion and direct marketing
Waiting marketing campaigns can be carried out at points of sale and in places of life. Wherever a consumer is waiting: in stores, in traffic jams or while downloading a file on the Internet.
Wait marketing takes full advantage of advertising, point-of-sale promotion and direct marketing best practices, so that all businesses can implement effective and efficient advertising campaigns.
– A win-win approach
Wait marketing is beneficial for both consumers and businesses, start-ups and international groups.
Small businesses and executive start-ups, who spend their communication budget on sales promotion or direct marketing, can implement affordable advertising solutions. Advertisers, in large companies and agencies, who regularly invest in traditional media, are interested in this innovative and effective mode of communication.
Since ‘wait’ activity is universal, companies and agencies in the US, Japan, Africa and Europe can achieve substantial savings by using this consumer-friendly advertising approach in successful and affordable campaigns, to acquire new customers and establishing customers. loyalty.
HOW TO IMPLEMENT A SUCCESSFUL STANDBY MARKETING CAMPAIGN?
– 6Ms waiting marketing
Businesses and marketing agencies can easily design and implement a successful standby marketing campaign with the 6Ms method, which enriches Kotler’s 5Ms (Mission-Means-Message-Media-Measurement) with the missing M, Right Time:
1. Mission: what is the goal of the campaign?
2. Means: what is the size of the budget?
3. Message: what message is suitable for target consumers?
4. Timing – What is the perfect timing to communicate with target consumers when and where they are waiting?
5. Means: what is the most effective means available while waiting?
6. Measurement: what is the return on investment of the campaign?
6Ms of wait marketing helps companies design a personalized campaign with a clear objective, a well-defined audience and an appropriate message, delivered to the right place at the right time.
– Key success factors
In two years, TomTom has become the leader in GPS navigation in Europe, with a 60% market share, and is already number 2 in the US Alexander Ribbink, TomTom COO and guru of brands, reveals the key success factors of standby marketing campaigns through the example of the launch of the TomTom GO GPS navigation device:
1. Mission: launch the new TomTom GO portable GPS navigator
2. Media: the budget was important but it was adapted to the launch of a product.
3. Message: Because the benefits of the product are obvious, the message is easy to remember.
4. Timing: When drivers wait while they fill up their car at service stations.
5. Media: the message was displayed on information boards. At the same time, other means were also used to increase brand awareness “Multimedia communication is the key success factor in reaching all consumers”, Alexander Ribbink highlights.
6. Measurement: ROI was high because, since GPS navigation penetration was low (at launch), but the need for navigation is fairly universal, all consumers were potentially on target.
TomTom’s gas station campaign is the perfect example of wait-and-see marketing: consumers are all on target (they’re drivers) and receptive to the ad (they’re waiting while they refuel).
HOW TO SELECT THE RIGHT MEDIA?
– Definition of the communication strategy.
The following 4 questions must be answered by companies and agencies before starting a campaign:
Question 1: Extensive or intensive?
The goal of an extensive campaign is to reach as many consumers as possible. The goal of an intensive campaign is to be more remembered by consumers, thanks to repetition.
Question 2: Continuous or single?
A campaign can be ongoing to encourage repurchasing or one-time to support a seasonal product or promotion.
In the case of consumer goods, advertising will be continuous.
Question 3: Multimedia or monomedia?
A campaign can be multimedia to reach all targets or focused on a single medium if the target is a niche (for specialized products, for example).
Question 4: Launch or reinforcement?
Is the goal to make consumers aware of a new product or to remind them of the existence of a product?
Waiting marketing by communicating at the right time in the right place increases consumer retention so companies can focus solely on the number of consumers reached.
– A medium adapted to the context
The 3 main criteria to take into account when selecting a support are:
1. Congruence
The congruence between the medium and the message: the Heineken advertising on a bar table is the perfect example of the maximum coincidence between the medium (bar table) and the message (beer!)
2.Affinity
A good affinity between brand and consumer will enhance the integration of the message
3.Context
The context in which consumers find themselves at the moment of communication is key: being in a good mood or waiting has been shown to be very positive about advertising effectiveness
Jaguar recently provided a perfect example of a tailored advertising campaign, where congruence between media and message can dramatically improve the impact of communication. Thanks to a deep semiotic analysis of the luxury car category that was carried out, Euro RSCG New York noticed that all the players used the same codes and conventions. “When you are such a small player spending much less money than your competitors, a necessary but not sufficient condition for success is to be innovative and dare to break the conventions of the category,” says Francois Grouiller, US strategic planner. USA in business. “And to connect with the high-end target, we needed to be very ambitious and recreate the desire for the brand,” adds Andrew Benett, director of strategy for the New York agency. With that in mind, Fuel approached Jaguar with an innovative new positioning: “New Fashioned Luxury”. Jaguar’s idea is no longer to communicate as an automotive company, but as an exciting modern luxury brand.
EXPECT MARKETING AND RETURN ON INVESTMENT
– Communications: Cost or Investment?
The effectiveness of a campaign can be measured in terms of impact on brand awareness and sales. But due to the lack of suitable measurement tools, companies often consider communications as a cost center. Some tools allow companies to measure the impact of their communication strategy for all communication channels and thus optimize their budget allocation. Communications can then be considered as a real investment.
– Return of advertising
In the same way that companies measure their return on capital, they can measure their return on advertising. The Market ContactAuditTM method, for example, proposed by Marketing & Communications Integration and already adopted by many leading agencies such as Mediaedge: cia, TBWA or Starcom MediaVest Group, considers that each contact has a marginal contribution, which can be positive or negative, in the overall consumer experience with the brand. Companies can compare the return on investment of their communication campaigns with a multi-channel tool, which covers media, promotion, direct marketing and public relations activities and optimize their portfolio of contacts in 2 easy steps:
Step 1: Classification
It consists of classifying contact opportunities based on their contribution to the consumer’s overall brand experience.
Step 2: Focus
The Method invites you to improve your portfolio of contacts compared to that of the competition and focusing on the most effective contacts.
That is exactly what Procter & Gamble in Europe did for one of its beauty and care products by analyzing its communications investments, comparing them to those of the competition and, as a result, focusing the communication budget on the most effective channel: the advertising in doctors’ waiting rooms.
Source: DERVAL Diana, Wait Marketing: Communicate at the Right Moment at the Right Place, DervalResearch, Amsterdam, 2007. Book available on Amazon.com and Chapter 5 for free on the official Wait Marketing website http:// www.wait-marketing.com
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