Some people live in the physical world and pop once in a while to the digital one. At the same time, there are those who live in the digital world and occasionally pop over to the physical one. The digital world has not destroyed the experiential – physical / offline world, yet the diverse digital platforms have significantly impacted our lives and consumption habits.
Some categories and brands can live solely in the digital world – the content world, media, gaming, shopping, dating, consulting, etc. However, for some brands / categories the right thing to do is to implement an integrated correlative strategy – which takes into account the continuous and natural offline-online movement of consumers.
A study of the purchasing habits of the millennium women generation indicates that a feed strategy could help brands improve their reach, preference, and persuasion performance.
The study, which focused on the shopping habits of these women, shows that nearly 20% shop online without ever going in any high-street store, more than 40% begin their shopping online and make their final purchase in the store, while about 20% begin and end their shopping offline.
The correct approach to reach that target audience is to integrate coherent activity across all platforms: site, social network, mobile and offline store.
Note – every marketing activity in the digital age should address all four types of conversions:
Conversion A
Conversion A prompts people to visit our site or digital property. A combination of digital and physical activity can certainly improve performance at this stage.
Conversion B
is where we try to convert visitors to users, friends or followers. This phase is done primarily on social networks or on the brand’s digital assets.
Conversion C
At this stage we try to convert friends / followers / users to customers. In other words, make them spend money with us. This phase could be improved with assimilation of a Physical strategy.
Conversion D
Conversion D addresses the brands’ attempts to convince customers or users to become brand promoters by sharing, distributing, and influencing their digital environment.
Amazon, bought Hall Foods, an organic product chain, for $13.7 billion. Prior to that, the company launched offline bookstores in the US. Its goal was brand presence, an integrated approach to the maximum number of consumers and an increase in their supply of goods and products to them.
In our times where consumers skip from one platform to another, with multiple alternatives available in almost every category, a cross-platform brand presence is essential. The trend, in which prominent online players will also sidetrack out to offline activity, makes sense. This is especially true for networks and brands that are born offline and must be professionally transformed into a digital format, in all the locations where the consumers happen to be.