What Sells? Technology or Personality?

Spokescharacters on TV, mobile phone circulars and a shopping cart Kinect prototype. All competing for consumers. Which is most valuable? Which offers a lasting connection? Which will pocket the cash? These answers and more…in this week’s post. Sounds like the opening to a reality show doesn’t it? I suppose it could be if you had agencies competing, but this is my post and we’re here to talk real life examples and their positives and negatives.

1) First up, spokescharacters on TV and Spam’s ‘Sir Can-A-Lot.’ Yes, spam’s agency has rolled out a spokescharacter to celebrate 75 years and its name is ‘Sir Can-A-Lot’
http://bit.ly/zCMgjS
.

The positives: Spam is meat in a can, and they’re seeking to inspire people to spice up meals by adding spam. What kind of character typically saves the day? A knight, which is exactly the character chosen. It makes sense, and so spam wins some points there. Will it attract attention? Possibly, if anything because it’s new and different.

The negatives: Cartoon characters are becoming a turnoff for adult consumers, and this is spam’s audience because they are the ones cooking for their families. Just look at all the backlash about recent car insurance ad characters in a recent car insurance commercial. Cartoon characters? Not the best motivator for these consumers.

The verdict? Least likely of the three to rake in the best results. Sir Can-A-Lot doesn’t immediately make you think of spam, and isn’t likely to motivate consumers to buy it popping out of an egg carton. What spam should be doing? Some type of contest featuring recipes with spam and online voting via their social media site for the most creative one and best tasting one. 

2) Whole Foods’ Kinect shopping cart prototype. Whole Foods is testing the Kinect technology on shopping carts as a way to ease the shopping process
http://bit.ly/y9KrbD
. The technology identifies loyalty card shoppers, scans each item placed in the cart and checks out customers.

The positives: This could be a platform for advertisers, as their ads could be featured on the screen as customers shop. It would be the most profitable for stores and could even be called The Smart Cart. The convenience factor is another plus, as it even crosses items off your shopping list, essentially managing the whole shopping process for you.

The negatives: As it currently stands, this concept is quite futuristic and threatens jobs, which is not likely to make a big splash anytime soon. Also, as it doesn’t currently feature ads, it’s missing an opportunity to stand out.

The verdict? More likely to attract shoppers than Sir Can-A-Lot but a little too futuristic to be relevant in today’s economy. Also, without ads it’s missing a crucial selling point.

3) Mobile phone circulars a la Walgreens. Walgreens has partnered with LocalResponse to make the mobile check-in experience more like a circular
http://bit.ly/AiWxPt
. When customers check-in they are pointed to special products and given coupon incentives.

The positives: This idea has a lot of potential. First, companies who implement it can emphasize their efforts to go green. Getting customers into digital circulars would reduce or eliminate paper ones, saving paper and boosting their position. This idea also involves more direct interaction with consumers at point of purchase. The closer to point of purchase the better the outcome.

The negatives: Lack of targeting. The article mentions Walgreens’ partnership with Halls and how check-ins direct customers to Halls in-store. However, that’s not always what consumers have come for or need. The other offer mentioned is a coupon for batteries, which is generic enough that its widespread use isn’t a stretch. Still, no excuse for not targeting via customer history. Pointing you to common items you buy that are on sale or offering up a coupon for the same? Now we’re talking.

The verdict? Certainly more effective than Sir Can-A-Lot. However, this concept still needs some work. It’s the closest of the three because of its use of mobile and mobile being the go-to shopping device.

The overall verdict? Out of the three, Walgreens wins. When it comes down to technology versus personality, especially with these three examples, technology has the edge. Personality may draw people in but the interactive and convenience qualities of technology make it more accessible and effective.

Turning Check-ins into Checkouts

Mobile check-ins are like store visits. It’s one thing to get a customer to come into your store, but it’s another thing to get them to buy something. So many companies have been focused on check-ins but not necessarily on turning them into sales, until now. Sure there have been rewards or deals offered for checking in but they are not always consistent or related to sales. Some deals are for free things and some rewards are not even deals at all but badges. Increasingly, services are popping up to generate coupons each time customers check-in so businesses can increase customer loyalty and capture more sales. There are a few different ways to check-in and various ways to tie a check-in to a checkout. One such way involves a consumer internet company called Meebo
http://nyti.ms/lrtcIz
. Meebo allows users to check into websites in order to receive deals, and regular visitors will soon be able to receive VIP status. VIP status includes earning rewards from businesses and suggestions for content they might like. VIP visitors can also follow each other and receive feeds of websites that others are checking into. In this way it still pays homage to the badge origin of check-ins while tying in crucial deals that will create repeat customers. Another is an ad network called LocalResponse
http://bit.ly/m6lfNv
. LocalResponse combines check-ins from 30 of the most common sources, generating relevant deals in real-time to those who check-in either directly or indirectly through a publicly posted sentiment or mention of a location. Additionally, LocalResponse is also targeting people who publicly post about brands or products. Meeting customers where they are in real-time is key to driving sales. That is what makes this next one, which involves geolocation in a different way, an interesting venture. As if we have not seen everything yet, here is a new reinvention of the billboard. There’s been ones that smell, such as the one I wrote about in my entry Taco Bell and Olfactory Billboards, there’s been augmented reality billboards and even live Twitter billboards.

Now there are gaming billboards where you can play for rewards that are redeemable nearby, such as this McDonald’s one in Switzerland
http://on.mash.to/lDkghb
. Any player with a smartphone that is in range of the billboard can play the interactive billboard’s game, which just happens to be Pong. Interesting retro throwback there. Basically, a player types the URL into their smartphone browser and when it confirms that the player is in the area the game begins. Players control the billboard game by utilizing their smartphone’s touchscreen. What they see on the screen is being played out on the billboard and vice versa. The game gets harder and harder, but if the player can last for 30 seconds they receive a coupon redeemable at a nearby McDonald’s for the reward they selected at the start of the game. A coupon is sent to their smartphone and they can redeem it at the register. Imagine if this concept came to the US. All of these methods are creative and relevant ways to lead customers from check-in to checkout. However, I think they can take it a step further. I think that when a customer checks in their purchase history should be tied into the types of targeted deals they receive, kind of like the coupons you get at the grocery store checkout. I also think that a map of the store they are in should pop up and it should be an interactive map that takes them directly to the product in the coupon they receive. One thing I have learned in all my years of customer service is the more seamless and easy you make the sales process, the more likely the customer will purchase what you are suggesting. In other words, make it so easy and accessible that it is highly unlikely that they will turn your offer down. It is good to see a solid start to closing the gap between check-in and checkout, and it will be interesting to see the statistics from these methods. I hope that, just like anything else, they will use this as a jumping off point and continue to add to it. Maybe even in some of the ways I have suggested here. Regardless, this type of innovation is the inevitable next step in the check-in process and should produce some interesting results.