Babies go through a ton of products.  If it isn’t newborn diapers with 3D Ultraabsorb technology (actually a product), then you need creams and ointments or bottles and clothes.  However, the way that Woolworths presents and groups its vast array of baby products by product and brand is completely wrong.  I’m all for a product orientated display strategy.  When I bought my MacBook I wanted to see only the MacBooks lined up beside each other, and nothing else.  That way I could compare the memory options, etc versus the costs, and weigh up my need-to-have’s with the  nice-to-have’s.  However, with a child I don’t need to compare the 5 stages of single product for every purchase. My kid is a newborn, so I only need things for newborns. Yet, Woolworths displays its products using product-brand groups; meaning the diapers are all together and broken down by brands, then all the ointments are all together, etc…This means, I have to sort through product after product to find the things that my kid can use and end up missing half of the things I could be impulsively buying.

In my opinion, this is the wrong approach and I bet it means Woolworths misses out on a lot of money over the life of a baby. You see, as a parent I need a customer-centric display strategy based on the stage of my child.  My child is 4 weeks old so I want a clearly labeled ‘newborn’ section that has every item relevant to him and the specific stage he’s in.  That means diapers for newborns, ointments for newborns, clothes, bottles, bottle tops – all for newborns.  Then when he’s a toddler I want to avoid the newborn stuff and be in another section that covers everything my toddler needs.

The benefits are simple:

1) Displaying baby products by need would make Woolworths more money, as shoppers impulsively buy their way through each stage of their child. (As a new father, I can tell you I’d buy anything at this point if I thought it would make him sleep longer through the night.)

2) It would also connect perfectly with Woolworths wider campaign strategy, in that it would build a ‘we get you’ rapport with Australian parents.

3) Finally, as my child starts to move closer to the next ‘stage’ of products, I can side-step over and see all of the things I’ll ‘need’ in the coming months.  Nothing like dangling a carrot in front of my eyes to get me socking away the money to buy it.

 So, if you know someone working in the marketing department at Woolworths,  send them my name and my thoughts – I’d love to spend more money there.

With Flipboard I get served topics and articles based on what they think I’m interested in, Facebook Graph Search will feed me info based on my friends and Google by my G+ and previous searches.  As a result, the articles I’m served are by the same writers, the viewpoints on issues aligned with my predisposed opinions and my favourite restaurants are the same one’s as my friends.

However, at the end of the day all of these logic based algorythms mean we are less likely to be challenged with competing thoughts or view points.  In essence, we lose the chance for serendipity.

Where Good Ideas Come From – Steven Johnson

What’s the value of serendipity? I have to agree with Steven Johnson on this one, his book is titled Where Good Ideas Come From, when he says great ideas are often the result of combining two seemingly disparate ideas.  The moment someone realizes they can combine two things that they hadn’t thought of before requires another moment before it.  One in which the two things are put side by side by chance.  The exact thing that the logic algorithms are now removing.

So, for any start ups out there looking for a product that jumps the development curve perhaps this is it.  How do we get what we expect (which has obvious value) with a dash of the unexpected?  If we don’t figure it out soon I worry that every time I go to eat I won’t be able to get a table because all of my friends will already be there.

To see more of Steven’s theory watch the video below.

It’s been interesting to watch as online businesses have pulled apart and re-organised traditional business models over the past few years.  Even a few brick-and-online businesses have been doing the same, though arguably a harder task.  The power of doing so was brought home in a recent interview in AdAge with Lisa Utzschneider, Global VP Advertising Sales, from Amazon in which she discusses the use of advertising to maintain a lowest price position. I recommend you read the article, however a simplistic overview is this: Amazon is able to charge less for their items because they offset their lower prices with advertising.

As a publically traded company we know that their share holders are going to want the same return on their investment of equal, if not greater, value to any other opportunities out there.  Which is why Amazon’s approach is so intelligent.  Sure, they could just offer lower prices and take the hit on yield, however this is going to reflect in their share price.  Keeping high yields and a lowest cost strategy is difficult without increasing risk loading by purchasing higher quantities of item.

However, Amazon has skillfully used a media strategy to supplement their lower than average yields.  Essentially, every dollar spent on ads allows them to drop a dollar off the price point of an actual item they sell.  This enables them keep a competitive edge and keep them ahead of their competitors.  This isn’t a new model by any means, just take a look at the bottom of the article you’re reading on your favourite news site.  Chances are you’ll see a ‘recommended articles’ panel.  Yep, that’s paid for media most likely brought to you by an very interesting company called Outbrain (highly recommend them by the way). However, it is a change in how you view the people coming to your site from customer to audience (Rethinking Audience vs Customers blog coming soon).

This got me thinking – what other businesses could benefit from a similar strategy? A quick look at Myer and their competitor David Jones shows that there’s immediate opportunities in the fashion industry.  We know that people spend a lot of me-time at these online stores, often without the intention of buying right away.  As large aggregators of viewers in Australia they have an opportunity to utilize this to create competitive advantage. Myer currently provides ‘items you might like’ based on what your looking at.  However, this just drives people back into the stores catalogue.  A more strategic approach would be to partner with a limited amount of brands to offer recommended items that don’t necessarily get sold through the store.  The company could charge both a cost per impression and even push for a percentage of sales. Then flip this revenue into their bottom line and pull their prices down without effecting their yields.

The big lesson here, I believe, is that every business should look into business models outside of their industry.  You just don’t know what you might find.

In this post I would like to put forward a simple strategy for marketers to frame their content.  The end result: a more engaged audience that spends more time getting to know you.

The Three Keys of Content

In my experience branded content works best when it lives in one or a combination of:

1) Utility

2) Storytelling

3) Reward

Utility

Utility is often the simplest of the three on the list to develop.  Utility should benefit your audience, providing them with tools and information that makes their lives better.  This could include how-to-video, apps, white papers or top trends lists.  A couple personal favourites are:

The Tesco app that not only allows you to create your shopping list but also maps the fastest route for shoppers to get through the store.  As an added benefit to the store shoppers move quicker through the high traffic sections and end up using the extra time they feel they have in the high yield, low traffic areas.

Another personal favourite out of the U.S is River Pools and Spas (seriously look these guys up). Facing non-existent sales during the global financial crisis this company repositioned themselves as the experts in fiberglass in-ground swimming pools.  How did they do it?  By answering every single question on the topic on their blog. As a result anyone thinking about buying a pool went to their blog to find out what they needed to know – and of course in doing so ended up buying one from the expert.

Storytelling

When I interviewed Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi in 2009 for my MBA thesis he spoke passionately about the resurgence of the storyteller in advertising. Since then, and in part due to Facebook and Twitter’s new focus on reach and engagement, the role of brand storytellers has grown exponentially.

Probably one of the best-known examples of storytelling content is the Red Bull Stratos project.  Not only was Felix Baumgartner epic fall from space the perfect hero’s journey (for more about this see: http://tinyurl.com/n46sqt), but the storyline was so well crafted that Felix was welcomed back to earth by the very man that held the record before him: Joe Kittinger.

Put simply, content storytelling is the power to create intrigue. When done correctly it allows brands to engage audiences over an extended period of time and over multiple channels.

Reward

A few years back Reward content was primarily coupons or discounts. Though these still have their place in lead or new user generation reward content has changed significantly. Marketers should now focus on rewarding with S.A.P (Status, Access or Power).  These rewards are harder to replicate and are more valuable and engaging to most consumers, especially your brand advocates and enthusiasts.

One of the best examples I’ve seen of this lately is the Sony X experiment out of Sydney.  For this project Sony launched a private Facebook page, inviting 100 fans from their public page after extensive interviews and tests.  These people were given access to new products, pre-launch swag and to the teams that actually designed and built the products.  In essence Sony created a new world of influencers by merely offering S.A.P.  The result was thousands of dollars of free marketing, media and goodwill for the price of some free products and a community manager’s salary

Final lesson: Combine your platforms

Content works best when it is working on multiple fronts, providing the audience multiple reasons to enjoy a branded experience.  For this reason it is vital that you look for easy ways to combine at least two of the three keys of content in your thinking. So next time you are coming up with a product competition, included a brand aligned story, allowing you to engage your audience beyond the desire to just get free stuff.

Looking for more inspiration?  Check these out:

Utility: Jay Baer.  http://tinyurl.com/bcnheqx

Storytelling: Robert Rose. https://twitter.com/Robert_Rose

Reward: Sony X. https://www.facebook.com/sonyxaustralia