Advertising in Real Time

Consider the dollars spent on traditional media by the country's major retailers, and then compare those figures to the ad dollars spent by independents and small chains — the discrepancy is staggering. In a single hour, major retailers spend more on television, newspaper, catalog, and email marketing than the average independent's annual marketing budget.

Additionally, alternative techniques such as "push marketing" send a constant stream of messages into consumers' homes and an increasing infiltration of the brand in places such as the local school or sports arena. The cost of this "above the line" marketing is out of reach, financially and organizationally, for the independent retailer. Where does this leave the independent? And what are the alternatives when ingenuity, not dollars, is a more available currency?

Retail Forward, a national consulting group focusing on trend analysis, recently put together a series of predictions of what retail will be like in the year 2010. Interestingly, it shows increasing consolidation among the mighty. It also indicates opportunities for retailers who understand their home markets and see their customers as individuals, providing an appealing alternative to the national chains. Their predictions address the challenges and the need to "re-concept" rather than just remodel.

That means not merely replacing worn out plant components such as floors, walls, ceilings, and lighting, but also the tired components of your marketing strategy, in order to reinvent your retail concept. This includes reshaping your marketing methods to introduce a series of virtual grand openings instead of an annualized calendar of stale thinking and old events from years gone by.

In this era of mega-branding, Retail Forward contends that brand sharing — bringing together your brand with one of your main vendors or a local institutional brand — is more powerful than surrendering to the vendor brand or going it alone. Ideas such as store-in-store, themed, or branded concept shops, or partnerships with community institutions, can extend brands into areas where the operator's expertise creates new opportunities for well-known but under-leveraged potential partners.

Forming the balance between content (your product), context (your environment), and experience (your business) is more important than ever before. But it's the experience that can become your ultimate marketing strategy. Focus on the "how" (experience) versus the "what" (product) in a store to define what differentiates, attracts, and creates a value-added atmosphere. Your voice adds value to the product.

Our suggestions are not about speedy, low-cost replenishment, but rather about "solutions." These solutions address a gift need — remembering a holiday, adding imagination to a consumer's life, or lifting her spirits through a self-gift purchase. The majority of new opportunities in retailing are centered on self-expression and a sense of discovery, addressing wants instead of needs.

Self-expression is a key part of the consumer's sense process of decorating her home or accessorizing her wardrobe — in a sense creating her own version of an experience. That's why voice, nuance, and a sense of experience have to be developed in your retail environment, bringing place-based marketing into play. When self-expression and experience come together, a powerful retail dynamic is created.

In the choice between "above the line" and "below the line" marketing, experiential marketing is clearly "below the line." The brick-and-mortar component of your business is merely a backdrop for visual merchandising, environment, events schedule, and integration of sensory enhancing components, which are your most effective marketing tools. When it's particularly effective the result is "stickiness," a phenomenon that encourages the consumer to stay longer and immerse herself in your store.

Other types of marketing are helpful for bringing customers in, but an integrated retail experience will bring them back — and next time with their friends. In addition to conventional marketing and experience, other tactics known as "guerrilla marketing" come to bear. Constantly enriched and tended consumer contact through email, mail, or telephone is a low cost way to create an incentive or a reminder — such as recognition of a birthday or the arrival of a favorite vendor — prompting customers to visit.

As noted, co-branding is not done only with product itself; it can also be effectively created with community groups. So an invitation to your store may be more enticing through the coordination with a local charity, educational program, or special appearance such as an artist signing. Each of these opportunities creates necessary "marketing buzz" that will move the consumer to action.

So, give yourself the experience quiz: Are you taking advantage of "below the line" marketing strategies?

Follow these Five Ways to Create Experiential Marketing, and you may soon realize that the billboard that you pay rent on each month — the one full of merchandise and a cash register — may be the most unexploited asset you have.

1. Give your store a grand opening sparkle every day.
2. Use brand sharing to create a distinctive edge.
3. Create a magical mix of place, product, and personality that adds up to a memorable store experience.
4. Create stickiness through multi-sensory experience and product fusion.
5. Be a guerrilla marketer.