Marketing to Gods: Paradoxes for Making a Next-Level Move — Part 3

Introduction

The paradox of connected consumers’ god-like power and human vulnerability presents challenging conundrums and powerful opportunities for brands. By coming to understand the paradoxes that characterize connected consumers, brands can overcome these challenges and seize the opportunity to make a next-level move toward an optimized and differentiated brand experience.       

Though this 5-part series briefly covers only select highlights of the research study that first identified the paradoxes, the full report can be downloaded at zenmedia.com. For an introduction to the concept of the connected consumer as well as a treatment of the first and second paradox, please see Part 1 and 2 of this series.

Paradox 3: Connected Consumers are digitally native, yet highly hands-on

Even as many connected consumers are digitally native and becoming ever more technologically savvy, they are also driving a resurgence of offline retail. Though they are the most tech-centric consumers that have ever existed, connected consumers are paradoxically pursuing hands-on experience prior to purchasing.   

Integrating digital space with a physical place

In an attempt to close yet another gap in their purchase journey, connected consumers are highly invested in the integration of digital space with a physical place. The participants in our study took full advantage of their digital connectivity even when collecting “field data” in traditional retail stores, relying on their smartphones to locate product specs, reviews, and other information that was not otherwise readily available. While in a retail store, a salesperson was not typically consulted except as a last resort when our participants had exhausted their digital resources or grown frustrated with the limits of this approach.

Visiting a physical store proved to be but one leg of our connected consumers’ purchase journey. Rather than a retail store being their final destination, they often returned home to further investigate the in-person “intel” they had gathered. One of our participants shared with us how he had traveled to Lowe’s and Home Depot in search of a new lawnmower. Though in the end, he purchased a mower from Lowe’s, he made his purchase online, explaining, “I bought online so I could use my coupons, and picked my mower up in the store the same day.”

Hacking the gap: Online, meet offline

What we learned

Connected consumers increasingly seek out a full product picture as afforded only through a combination of digital research and hands-on experience. Many of our participants were compellingly drawn to physical stores by value-added benefits like membership programs, price-matching, on-site repairs, as well as by the obvious opportunity to see and handle products in person.

The takeaway for brands

Step up your game with the seamless integration of brick-and-data retail. Like Target, close the gap between digital connectivity and physical interaction by deploying chat-based tools and voice-enabled LoT applications that shoppers can access with their smartphones. Like innovative undergarment startup, ThirdLove, make try-before-you-buy a standard option to offer the pre-purchase, hands-on experience connected consumers can’t get from digital alone. Shift from a traditional sales-oriented model to the service-based model that connected consumers increasingly expect and demand as a condition of their loyalty and advocacy.

In conclusion

Tech-savvy connected consumers at the crossroads of e-commerce are not ready to write off brick-and-mortar retail. In fact, they intuitively attempt to pick up where digital leaves off by augmenting their online research with in-person experience. Brands can no longer get by with a state-of-the-art online presence and a solid social media strategy. Instead, the next-level move for many brands means seizing the opportunity to reinvent retail as a brick-and-data of hub of integrated hospitality.  

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Shama Hyder is CEO of Zen Media, a leading marketing and new media consultancy, a best-selling author, and an internationally renowned keynote speaker.

As seen previously on Forbes.