The Strategy of Brand Engagement
Industry Insight: Transactional Brand Moments
Transactional brand
moments™
Insights for actively engaging consumers in
the digital ecosystem.
Brands either facilitate the points of consumer engagement that we at SMITH define as
Transactional Brand Moments or they thwart them. And thwarting Transactional Brand
Moments is an expensive mistake.
What are Transactional Brand Moments?
Right this way, please…
©2014 SMITH
The Strategy of Brand Engagement
INTRODUCTION
Constant transaction is the new normal
Today’s consumers are digitized, mobilized, and hyper-connected. From shopping to gaming to
business and personal interactions, everyone is trying to maximize the value of every fleeting
moment, using digital devices to engage, interact, and transact in real time. Because of this,
consumers aren’t interested in passively absorbing brand messaging; they demand immediate,
useful brand engagements that enable their impulses to find, buy, share, comment, and more.
Increasingly, consumers interact with brands online, in motion, and in real-time; a rapidly
growing number of those interactions are driven by omnichannel, context-aware experiences.
Whether a brand interaction is compelling or disappointing, the experience says more about the
brand in real terms than anything the brand says about itself in its marketing communications.
Today, a brand experience either provides utility at the right place and time or risks being
irrelevant. Consumers are living in an omnichannel world, moving seamlessly between
desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and, now, wearables. Brands that don’t offer
omnichannel engagement miss opportunities to engage mobile device wielding consumers—an
ever-increasing demographic. Worse, they risk losing market share because they leave the
door open for competitors to create those experiences and take their customers.
©2014 SMITH
2
The Strategy of Brand Engagement
Introduction
Talk is cheap. Engagement is invaluable
Transactional Brand Moments are actionable points of engagement that deliver high value to
both the customer and the brand. A Transactional Brand Moment isn’t a passive brand
experience, like noticing a print ad or billboard; it’s an active engagement with a brand
(browsing, purchasing, sharing, etc.) that’s enabled by a digital experience and which creates a
data trail.
Brands can say whatever they want to about themselves. But it’s what they actually do or don’t
do when people engage with them that defines them in the eyes of most consumers.
The monologue marketing paradigm (i.e., the brand talks, the consumer listens) is over.
Modern device-empowered, socially networked consumers interact with brands on their own
terms. Today, brand engagement is a dialogue, not a monologue; and when you factor in social
networks, it’s actually a polylogue. This complex reality creates challenges for brands, but also
tremendous opportunities.
©2014 SMITH
3
The Strategy of Brand Engagement
Insights
Today’s consumers have more options for tuning
brands in or out
More than ever, brand engagement is about choice—the consumer’s choice. Branded content
now gets searched, downloaded, purchased, rated, socialized, liked, friended, dissed, and
shared across any number of devices and platforms.
Today’s consumers can tune brands in or out and filter bits and pieces of brands as they
choose. For every play button there’s a well-used mute button. For every online ad placement
there’s a Skip this ad button. And a delete for every download. In short, consumers create their
own strategies for incorporating technology into their lives and using it to filter brand messaging
and content to their own advantage and according to their own preferences.
A few examples to illustrate the point:
Find
Follow
Filter/Curate
User filters:
©2014 SMITH
■■
Save vs. delete
■■
Watch vs. skip
■■
Like vs. dislike
■■
Volume up vs. mute
■■
Friend vs. unfriend
4
The Strategy of Brand Engagement
Insights
Facilitating serendipity
Wikipedia defines serendipity as a “fortuitous happenstance or a pleasant surprise.” Serendipity
is often thought of as a chance phenomenon, but it doesn’t have to be. Creating omnichannel
experiences that facilitate Transactional Brand Moments is about creating pleasant surprises for
consumers that lead to fortuitous outcomes for brands; it’s about goosing serendipity along to
create transactional opportunities.
Brand engagement is more voluntary than ever for consumers. To thrive in this multi-device,
multiple choice, omnichannel universe—and to combat consumer indifference and overload—
brands must attract consumers by creating useful, meaningful experiences that compel
engagement and facilitate Transactional Brand Moments by offering the consumer something
they value (information, a promotional offer, an entertaining experience, etc.). Transactional
Brand Moments are driven by relevant user experiences and consumers’ willingness to engage
with them. As every brand and marketer knows, that willingness is not a given; it has to be
nurtured. Luck has nothing to do with it—unless you make your own.
Creating transactional brand moments
There’s no one recipe for creating experiences that facilitate Transactional Brand Moments, but
there are key ingredients common to all of them, ingredients which:
©2014 SMITH
■■
Provide utility to the consumer.
■■
Amplify the brand.
■■
Favorably shift perceptions of the brand.
■■
Reflect an understanding of the user/customer.
■■
Enable a value exchange between the brand and the consumer.
■■
Are data-driven.
5
The Strategy of Brand Engagement
Insights
Transactional brand moments fuse content,
connections, and commerce
Transactional Brand Moments integrate content, commerce, and connectivity. The diversity of
components within each of these categories means that there are limitless ways to combine
them into highly effective Transactional Brand Moments that create opportunities for brands and
consumers to connect.
©2014 SMITH
Content
Connections
Commerce
■■
■■
Social
■■
Web/mobile shopping
■■
Mobile
■■
Social commerce
■■
SEO/SEM
■■
Digital kiosks
■■
Direct email marketing
■■
Retail/point of sale
■■
Loyalty programs
User generated
content
■■
Catalog
■■
Videos
■■
Games
■■
Branding
■■
SEO/SEM
6
The Strategy of Brand Engagement
Insights
Data drives transactional brand moments
Data is the lifeblood of Transactional Brand Moments: we use consumer data to inform the
design of Transactional Brand Moments; in turn, these experiences enable us to capture more
consumer data that can then be used to further refine the experience and make it even more
compelling, effective, and responsive. In this context, responsive design means more than
just rendering device-appropriate experiences across desktop, laptop, tablet, and smartphone
interfaces; it also means experiences that respond to the consumer’s context by serving up
relevant content, offers, and information based on the consumer’s location, known preferences,
and so on.
So, while data is the lifeblood of Transactional Brand Moments, it still requires powerful
technology platforms to bring a fully responsive user experience to life.
sensor and
input data
owned
platform /
media data
“partner”
platform /
media data
©2014 SMITH
7
The Strategy of Brand Engagement
Insights
For example, let’s say A Starbucks customer
drives into an unfamiliar town…
Here’s a hypothetical scenario detailing a Transactional Brand Moment; or, to be more
accurate, an experience that facilitates a number of possible Transactional Brand Moments.
Each scenario in the experience has a corresponding technological enabler (detailed in the
right column). The scenario begins when a Starbucks customer drives into a new town.
User scenario
Transactional Brand Moment enabler
A Starbucks app sends an alert when the customer GPS data; geo-fencing.
is near a store and provides directions to the
address.
The app lets alerted customer order drink en route. Customer preferences/favorites.
Barista greets customer by name upon arrival at
Starbucks.
Wi-Fi MAC address is linked to
customer.
After drink purchase via the app’s e-wallet feature,
customer is offered loyalty points in exchange for
rating the experience.
E-wallet; loyalty program tie-in.
Loyalty awards accrue to the level where customer Loyalty program payoff; social graph
can gift a free coffee to a friend on a social
connection.
network.
Customer’s friend receives loyalty points as an
incentive to join the loyalty program and download
the Starbucks app.
©2014 SMITH
8
Loyalty program; social recruitment.
The Strategy of Brand Engagement
Insights
capturing consumers’ attention, motivating
participation
However compellingly well-crafted a Transactional Brand Moment may be, consumer
engagement is ultimately voluntary. In any successful transaction each party has something the
other wants and each party comes away with something they wanted.
Consumers want:
Brands want:
■■
Goods
■■
Revenue
■■
Utility
■■
Customer intelligence data
■■
Influence
■■
■■
Status
Prominence/influence across
consumers’ social networks
Unsurprisingly, the key to motivating consumer participation in a Transactional Brand Moment is
to make sure that the incentives are sufficiently compelling (i.e., to get something of value, you
must offer something of value).
©2014 SMITH
9
The Strategy of Brand Engagement
Insights
User data can be leveraged by a wide range of
brand-owned platforms
Customer data can now be captured by a growing number of brand-owned platforms. Every
customer touch-point provides a piece of the big picture. Of course, the difference between
customer information and customer intelligence is the difference between raw data and real
context; it’s the difference between guesswork and the kind of informed action needed to create
effective Transactional Brand Moments. The virtuous circle of well-crafted Transactional Brand
Moments is that they capture data that can then be analyzed and applied to making them even
more effective; this, in turn, helps build customer loyalty and advocacy.
Some examples of brand-owned platforms that capture consumer data:
©2014 SMITH
■■
Website/mobile web
■■
CRM program
■■
Mobile app
■■
E-wallet
■■
Game platforms
10
■■
earables (e.g., Disney’s MyMagic+
W
MagicBands)
■■
Physical store, kiosk, and/or venue
■■
Membership program/loyalty
The Strategy of Brand Engagement
Insights
Brand platforms can be influenced or
disintermediated by Partner platforms
For every data-capturing platform within a brand’s control, there are any number disintermediating
platforms on which a brand may have limited or no control over how it is talked about or how its
assets/messaging are disseminated (some examples below). On the flip side, in most cases,
these platforms also offer brands the opportunity to represent themselves and leverage the
power of the platform and its network to influence opinion and behavior. So, brands may not be
able to control the whole message, but they can certainly have a voice.
Here are a number of the many possible examples:
©2014 SMITH
■■
Facebook
■■
Game platforms
■■
Google
■■
Cars (media and mode)
■■
Apple
■■
Travel/transit
■■
Twitter
■■
Mass media
■■
Pinterest
■■
Smart TV
■■
Credit card companies
■■
Wearables
■■
Mall/shopping center
■■
■■
Costco, Nordstrom, etc.
echnology near-future zeitgeist
T
(rumored products, features, services,
and collective attitudes).
■■
Amazon (and merchant marketplaces)
11
The Strategy of Brand Engagement
Insights
Today’s consumers generate and curate enormous
amounts of data.
When measured by the ability to capture and use data, the pre-digital world was an age of
relative consumer anonymity. Nothing that preceded the Internet can compare to the myriad
data-capturing possibilities that now exist for brands or, conversely, the degree to which
consumers are able and willing to create their own data and distribute branded content across
various digital channels and social networks.
As touched on above, this reality creates both opportunities and challenges for brands (and
consumers, too, as we’ll discuss in moment): If digitally savvy consumers like a brand, they can
provide extraordinary amounts of marketing and useful data to that brand at little to no cost. If
they dislike a brand ... well, word gets around a lot faster than it used to. Either way, the brand
can’t necessarily control the message.
Regardless of individual consumer’s preferences and opinions, there are any number of ways
in which consumers now generate data (some intentional, some unintentional) and/or curate
their data flow by adjusting various digital apertures.
For example:
■■
Profiles
■■
Social graph (trust network)
■■
Media creation/galleries (photos, content, etc.)
■■
Location-aware devices/technology
■■
Context
■■
Preferences selected
■■
Privacy/anonymity threshold
Big picture, there is a tradeoff going on between brands and consumers in which both parties
gain something that they want but also lose a certain amount of control in the process.
©2014 SMITH
12
The Strategy of Brand Engagement
Insights
Data is created using active and passive device
inputs and sensors
So, consumers are more empowered than ever to create and distribute their own data. But, just
as brands sometimes have limited control over how their assets and messaging are captured,
discussed, and disseminated by consumers, consumers are only partially in control of how their
data is captured and used, depending on the circumstances and the technology involved.
Consider the wide array of data-capturing devices and technology, some of which require the
consumer’s active participation…
■■
Keyboards
■■
Touchpads
■■
Kiosks
Some of which leverage the consumer’s passive participation…
■■
GPS/location
■■
Camera
■■
Near Field Communication (NFC)
■■
Wi-Fi/Media Access Control (MAC) address
Some of which blur the line between active and passive consumer
participation…
■■
Motion-detection
Wearables
Device accelerometers
Kinect
And all of which can be pressed into the service of facilitating Transactional Brand Moments.
©2014 SMITH
13
The Strategy of Brand Engagement
Insights
Capturing and using data at every stage of the
customer journey
The point is, there are many types of data-capturing tactics and technologies that can be used
to create Transactional Brand Moment opportunities at any stage of the customer journey/
engagement cycle (more on the customer journey/engagement cycle in just a moment).
However, data capture in and of itself does not automatically equate to a Transactional Brand
Moment, for two reasons:
1.
ctual participation in a Transactional Brand Moment requires intentional engagement
A
on the part of the consumer.
2.
y definition, a Transactional Brand Moment is a value exchange between the brand
B
and the consumer (i.e., something for something, as opposed to just a data-grab on the
part of the brand).
Customer engagement can be measured in multiple ways—and the implications about what the
data means and how it can be used are different at every point of engagement. There are key
stages of interaction along a customer journey or engagement cycle, any one of which can start
the cycle: discoverability, desire, decision, and advocacy.
©2014 SMITH
14
The Strategy of Brand Engagement
Insights
Transactional Brand Moments drive positive
momentum and growth
In the digital realm, advocacy is central to how people relate to brands, create word of mouth
(WOM), and generate sentiments amplified by social media networks. Brand advocacy
drives brand discoverability, with personal relevance and credibility conferred by trusted
relationships. If the brand narrative and the social/peer/personal relevance are present, desire
can take hold and trigger a key transactional decision (e.g., purchase). For some products or
brands, this process may take place in a matter of minutes. For other, more complex product/
brand engagement and purchase decisions, it may take weeks, even months (think: buying a
song vs. buying a car).
Modern brand engagement is a web of interconnected actions and reactions that, ideally,
perpetuate deeper, more valuable engagement and transactions
©2014 SMITH
15
The Strategy of Brand Engagement
Insights
Guiding principles behind successful
transactional brand moments
Given the added complexities of an omnichannel playing field and a multifaceted, often nonlinear customer engagement cycle, how can brands uncover opportunities to create effective
Transactional Brand Moments for their current and prospective customers? While there is no
easy answer or silver-bullet template for Transactional Brand Moments there are some key
principles every brand can apply to their efforts. To synopsize,
Transactional Brand Moments:
©2014 SMITH
■■
Enable a value exchange between brand and consumer.
■■
Provide real brand utility to the consumer.
■■
Are driven by the intentional participation of the consumer.
■■
Are omnichannel.
■■
Are data-driven.
■■
Drive customers toward higher-value transactions.
■■
Must be supported modern technology platforms.
16
The Strategy of Brand Engagement
Insights
In addition to these principles, a key piece of advice for any brand that wants to create successful Transactional Brand Moments is know thyself. Meaning, a brand has to understand what
they possess (or what they enable) that is most valuable and useful to consumers and offer up
at least a piece of that value and utility in exchange for a piece of the consumer’s time, data,
social network, loyalty, and/or money. Value exchange is essential success.
Brands also have to know when and where to best place Transactional Brand Moment drivers
in order to maximize customer engagement. Just like real estate, the three most important
factors for the strategic placement of Transactional Brand Moment triggers are location,
location, location.
Earlier we considered the customer journey/engagement cycle from a customer-centric
perspective (i.e., the discoverability, desire, decision, and advocacy phases). From a more
purchase- and brand-centric perspective, we can also consider Transactional Brand Moment
opportunities throughout the engagement cycle as falling into three major categories:
©2014 SMITH
1.
re-purchase interceptors and influencers: Transactional Brand Moments that
P
intercept and influence customers before a purchase decision has been made or
acted on.
2.
In-purchase modifiers and magnifiers: Transactional Brand Moments that modify or
augment existing purchase intent or action in progress.
3.
Post-purchase follow-ons: Transactional Brand Moments that capitalize on a
preceding engagement to create future engagement.
17
The Strategy of Brand Engagement
Insights
An example of guiding principles applied:
amazon.com
The methods for turning Transactional Brand Moment principles into effective Transactional
Brand Moments are as individual as any given brand. However, nothing serves to illustrate a
principle like a real-life example, especially one that practically everyone knows: that monument
to brand utility, Amazon.com. Amazon.com puts Transactional Brand Moment principles into
highly effective practice at every stage of customer engagement:
Pre-purchase interceptors and influencers
As anyone with an Amazon account knows, the Amazon.com landing page is
personalized according to the user’s known preferences and previous purchases.
Whether you intend to buy or not when you visit the site, Amazon.com stands ready to
intercept and influence your next purchase from the moment you arrive:
Offer: “Try Amazon Prime Today and Get Unlimited FREE Two-Day Shipping”
Useful information: “Recommendations for you…”
Upsell: “More Items to Consider”
©2014 SMITH
18
The Strategy of Brand Engagement
Insights
In-purchase modifiers and magnifiers
Once you’ve selected an item to purchase on Amazon.com and hit the Buy button,
Amazon shows you what you’ve added to your cart but also attempts to modify and
magnify your purchase just prior to checkout:
Offer: “Get the Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card and Get $50 off instantly”
Upsell: “Frequently Bought With [item selected]”
Useful information: “Customers Also Bought these Highly Rated Items”
Post-purchase follow-ons
Amazon uses purchase data to learn more about its customers and configure its postpurchase follow-on efforts to be ever-more personalized and relevant, from increasingly
fine-tuned home page recommendations to ever-more-targeted direct email offers.
At every stage of customer engagement, Amazon offers Transactional Brand Moment triggers/
opportunities. The value exchange is clear: discounts, free shipping, and useful information are
offered up in return for customer data, time spent on the site, and, of course, money. Every
stage of engagement is also designed to drive higher value Transactional Brand Moments. And
that process can begin almost anywhere on the site.
For an additional example, see the Appendix of this document.
©2014 SMITH
19
The Strategy of Brand Engagement
Insights
Traffic rotary in, sales funnel out
All Transactional Brand Moments have value, but not equal value. Earned media transactions
are particularly valuable and cost-effective. And, with few exceptions, purchase is the most
desired Transactional Brand Moment.
Today, sales cycles are often greatly accelerated by the speed at which consumers can act
on their desires, with the device-enabled ability to go from inspiration to purchase anywhere,
anytime in matter of seconds (e.g., “I want that song!” > iTunes > Purchase = elapsed time,
60 seconds).
Given this accelerated pace and the number of ways consumers can now make a purchase,
what was once commonly called the sales funnel is now less like a linear, gravitational
progression through a funnel and more like a digital traffic rotary: consumers approach and
depart a brand hub from any number of directions and have numerous engagement options,
transactional opportunities, and content pathways to choose from—any of which can potentially
lead to the other.
Transactional Brand Moments are enabled by a nexus of content, connections, and commerce
—and, also, interrelated actions and reactions that, optimally, perpetuate deeper engagement
and motivate high-value transactions. Often, there is no single point of entry or departure for
this process. An experience can begin, end, or resume almost anywhere at any time. And every
transaction point is an opportunity to collect data about consumer behavior, capture a piece of
the big picture, and optimize the customer experience (and revenue potential) in response to
knowledge gained.
©2014 SMITH
20
The Strategy of Brand Engagement
Conclusion
Consumer data, the balance of power, and the
rewards of engagement
Today, consumers and brands have more power than ever. Data is the source of that power.
Consumers have unprecedented options to provide, create, and disseminate data when, where,
and how they please. And they have powerful tools for tuning brands in and out at will. As a
result, they wield more influence over brands and the wider public opinion of brands than ever
before. However, consumers’ power is hardly absolute, because they’re only partially in control
(or even aware) of when, where, and how their data is captured and used. Conversely, brands
have unprecedented ways and means to capture and use consumer data. But their ability to
control how consumers capture, disseminate, and discuss brand content and information is
limited at best, and often beyond a brand’s control.
In short, the world of omnichannel-driven commerce has an interesting and complicated balance
of power on its hands, and data is the fulcrum. Transactional Brand Moments capitalize on this
balance of power between brands and consumers by providing benefits to both. Transactional
Brand Moments can occur in any number of ways and circumstances, but they are
fundamentally a value exchange between the consumer and the brand.
An effective Transactional Brand Moment promotes meritocracy and mutual benefit. Meaning,
if a brand creates a useful, engaging experience that doesn’t just make a brand promise but
actually manifests that promise by providing something of value and utility, consumers are
more likely to reciprocate by participating in the experience, providing personal data, making
a purchase, and, ideally, rewarding the brand with their loyalty and willingness to favorably
socialize it.
Strike that transactional balance and everybody wins.
©2014 SMITH
21
The Strategy of Brand Engagement
Appendix
Another example of guiding principles applied:
Disney goes wearable
From smart watches to Google Glass to a wide assortment of activity tracker wristbands,
wearables are the new wave of ever-more-personal personal technology. Consumers are on it.
Retailers are right behind them. And the door to a whole new dimension of Transactional Brand
Moment opportunities is opening. Just ask Mickey Mouse.
The Disney Company recently invested one billion dollars in its MyMagic+ program/experiment,
the centerpiece of which is the MagicBand, an RFID-enabled bracelet that tracks guest
movements and captures purchase and location data. The PIN-protected, sensor-tapping
MagicBand can be used as an electronic room key at Disney resort accommodations; as a
payment method for food, beverage, and merchandise purchased at Disney resorts (when
linked to the wearer’s credit card); and as a park and ride admission pass.
Pre-purchase interceptor/influencer
Whether online or at the park entrance, consumers intending to buy a regular park pass
may be intercepted by MyMagic+ program messaging encouraging them to sign try the new
MagicBands, and they may influenced to do so by the conveniences, discounts, and special
access enabled by MagicBands (and the associated MyMagic+ website and smartphone app).
In-purchase modifiers and magnifiers
Most visitors to Disney theme parks intend to ride specific rides and make certain in-park
purchases (food, beverages, merchandise, etc.) during their visit. MagicBands help Disney
push out context-aware, time-constrained offers (via MyMagic+ app notifications to a
MagicBand wearer’s smartphone) that can modify or augment a visitor’s activity or purchase
intent. MagicBands enable Disney to not only track an individual visitor’s location and activities
but also get a read on crowd trends so that they can push out notifications about ride wait
times, deals at specific restaurants, etc. MagicBands help Disney capture all sorts of useful
data; they are also a traffic-control system.
©2014 SMITH
22
The Strategy of Brand Engagement
Appendix
Post-purchase follow-ons
From Disney’s perspective, MagicBands are, of course, all about capturing consumer data at
the most granular level and leveraging that data to be ever-more effective in their marketing
efforts—not only in the moment and on the spot, but, also, after visitors return home. As
part of Disney’s larger MyMagic+ program, the MagicBands tie into an assortment of online
trip-planning and reservation services available to consumers who have created a My Disney
Experience account. Thus, a visitor who might have initially purchased a MagicBand spontaneously at the resort is incentivized to plan future visits through the MyMagic+ program website
where they can sign up and log in to reserve accommodations, park passes, attractions,
seating for fireworks, and even personalized Disney character greetings months in advance.
They are further incentivized to use MagicBands to access everything they’ve reserved. The
circle is complete. (And here the line between post-purchase follow-on and pre-purchase
interceptor/influencer begins to blur, as Disney undoubtedly intends.)
Thus, the Walt Disney Company, that masterful creator of highly controlled, self-contained retail
environments, is attempting to create an omnichannel world of Transactional Brand Moments
at every stage of customer engagement—from moments that can be anticipated and set up
months in advance (reservations) to moments that can be created in the moment as a response
to crowd trends in the park.
Caveat emptor, caveat venditor
There is a cautionary footnote to this particular example. As of this writing, the MagicBand/
Magic+ program experiment is still new and there’s a great deal of speculation in the press
and among technophiles as to whether Disney customers will gladly adopt MagicBands as a
convenient and useful wearable or perceive them as a creepy monitoring system and reject
them. The former scenario seems more likely, given that Walt Disney resorts are already highly
monitored, closed environments where people don’t have high expectations for personal privacy,
and this certainly hasn’t hampered the success of Disney resorts. Even so, it’s not always easy
to predict whether a technical innovation will be a runaway success or the next big flop. Stay
tuned. It’s going to be an interesting ride.
©2014 SMITH
23
about smith
SMITH is one of North America’s leading digital experience agencies. Creators of
Transactional Brand Moments™ for humans living in an all-channel world, SMITH is
proud to serve some of the world’s most highly recognized brands, including Microsoft,
AT&T, Cisco, Motorola, Amtrak, Nestle, Sam’s Club, Xerox, and MasterCard. The
company is headquartered in Seattle and has offices in Portland, Spokane, and
Ottawa.
Learn more at www.smith.co
©2014 SMITH