Digital Strategy: Week Three

DIGITAL STRATEGY
Week Three
April 25, 2011

Copyright © 2011 by IQ Agency

AGENDA
• Review Case Studies

• Discuss Audience Research

• Your New Clients

• For Next Week

Copyright © 2011 by IQ Agency 2

YOUR HOMEWORK WAS...
Take one of the campaigns presented last week (either as part of another student’s
homework or during the unpacking discussion) and write up a case study using the
format we’ve just discussed.

• Business Goal

• Audience Insight

• Solution

• Results


CUSTOMER RESEARCH


Customer
research is where
we ﬁnd our
insights in digital
media strategy.


WHAT IS RESEARCH?
Let’s list some examples.


MY RESEARCH MANIFESTO
Knowing a lot about your audience is an important first
step, but not the final step. You have to learn to think
and feel like your audience.

Research is about finding the deep customer insights you
need to inform a compelling creative strategy. Those
insights come from empathy, not statistics.

Fundamentally, you need to develop a sensitivity to the
differences and similarities in humanity. Use research to
sharpen that overall sensitivity and, whenever possible,
talk to real people to challenge your assumptions,
validate hunches, and fine tune your ideas.


WHAT KIND OF RESEARCH?
Depending on the client, the timeline, and the budget
research could mean:

Generative (generating new data)

• Talking to and involving real customers

• Observing people in real life (or online)

• Interviewing stakeholders

Non-generative (reviewing data already generated)

• Reviewing data

• Reading articles about research other people have done


GENERATIVE RESEARCH STAGES

Exploratory Evolutionary Evaluative

open-ended focused


SKIPPING PHASES CAN COST YOU*
• In 2009, Walmart wanted to do something new, something transformative, to out-innovate rival
Target.

• They a sense that Target is cleaner, better designed, less cluttered. Walmart aisles are crammed,
packed, an infinite jumble of product.

• Their big idea was to undertake an uncluttering project. Strategic. Huge. Millions of dollars.

• Before they made any changes, they floated the idea by customers.

• Walmart conducted a survey, asking customers: would you like Walmart aisles to be less cluttered?

• Customers said, "Yes, now that you ask, yes, that would be nice."

• Walmart spent hundreds of millions of dollars uncluttering their stores, removing 15% of inventory,
shortening shelves, clearing aisles. Yes, it's expensive and time-consuming, but this is what
customers said they wanted, so they did it.

What went wrong?


• Sales went down. Way down. Walmart has lost over a billion dollars in sales. It's actually closer to
two billion dollars of sales they missed out on, and maybe more.

• The executives in charge of the project have been fired, and Walmart is spending yet more money to
return to its original, time-tested strategy of offering a huge (albeit cluttered) inventory at low
prices.

• The mistake was a lack of customer focus.

• Walmart didn't pursue the question of what customers wanted. Instead, Walmart came up with the
answer first, then asked customers to agree to it.

• That's exactly the wrong thing to do, because it ignores customers while attempting to fool
stakeholders into thinking that the strategy is customer-centered.


Put another way, Walmart based this incredibly expensive misadventure on what
customers said, rather than what they did.

• Customer experience is all about what customers do.

• In real life.

• No hypotheticals.

• Walmart acted without considering the customer experience, and that was a big mistake.

The lesson: ignoring the customer experience is an expensive mistake. Be sure to listen
to customers the right way, so that you get a strategy that actually works.

* This case study stolen completely from: http://goodexperience.com/2011/04/ignore-the-customer-e.php


GENERATIVE RESEARCH STAGES

START
HERE

Exploratory Evolutionary Evaluative

open-ended focused


EXPLORATORY RESEARCH
• Why: Exploratory research is used to uncover customer behaviors
you don’t fully understand

• When: When you’re developing new concepts

• How: Interviews, ethnographic studies (observation), contextual
inquiry, and (much less often today) focus groups

• What: Journey maps, personas*, mood boards

* More on this later!


EXPLORATORY: INTERVIEWS
• One-on-one (interviewer and interviewee) with open-ended questions

• Interviewees are recruited to match target audience

• Number of interviews depends generally on time, money, and how certain you need to be

• Researcher creates an interview guide to steer the conversation

• Qualitative method: you get themes, concepts, and ratios (not percentages!)


EXPLORATORY: ETHNOGRAPHY
• Observing a population in their environment (e.g., shoppers in a store)

• Researcher observes and counts behaviors over an extended period of time (e.g., several days to
weeks)

• People don’t know they are being observed.

• Qualitative method that generates a lot of data for detailed analysis

• Digital ethnography includes similar activities in the digital space

- Social listening

- Becoming a member of an online community made up of your target audience and watching
how they interact, what they talk about, etc.


EXPLORATORY: CONTEXTUAL INQUIRY
• Similar to interviews in that it is typically one-on-one

• Similar to ethnography in that it involves observation

• Participants know they are being studied

• After a period of observation (or sometimes during) the interviewer asks questions to help them
understand the behavior they are observing


EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH
• Why: Used to help you flesh out rough ideas or choose among ideas.

• When: After you have an initial concept or concepts but before
you’ve executed them

• How: Interviews, co-creation exercises

• What: Personas, wireframes, lo-fidelity prototypes


EVOLUTIONARY: INTERVIEWS
• In this phase your interview questions are more focused

• Ask questions that help you determine how likely your idea is to connect to an audience

- Technographic information

- Domain information

• Don’t lead the interviewee


EVOLUTIONARY: CO-CREATION
• For development of websites, mobile apps, and other digital experiences

• You invite members of your target audience to help you create

- Whiteboard

- Pen and paper

• Look for patterns among participants and real insights into the design problem


EVOLUTIONARY: SURVEY
• Allows you to quickly gather data from a large number of participants for statistical purposes

• You can ask:

- Basic behavior questions

- Ask an audience to compare or rank ideas or design concepts

• People interpret questions differently and can’t ask you questions for context

- Similarly, you can’t ask follow up questions to understand their responses fully


EVALUATIVE RESEARCH
• Why: Your have a clear idea of what needs to be created but still
have questions about the details

• When: Once you have a single, well-formed concept or after an
concept has been executed

• How: Analytics, usability tests, heuristic evaluations, surveys

• What: Reports, detailed wireframes and flows, detailed design
recommendations, application changes.


EVALUATIVE: ANALYTICS
• Digital is inherently measurable

- Number of clicks, visits, sales, time on site, number of comments, favorability, etc.

• Tells you how people are interacting with your digital media executions

• Can tell you how people are interacting with your competitors digital media executions as well


EVALUATIVE: USABILITY TESTS
• Like interview, participants are recruited to represent the target audience

• Usually 5-8 participants per target group are enough

• A moderator asks the participant to complete a series of tasks with a website, app, etc.

• Participants are asked to think aloud and talk about what is going right and wrong in the user
interface they are using

- It could be a fully developed interface, high-fidelity prototype or even a paper prototype


EVALUATIVE: HEURISTIC EVALUATIONS
• An expert review of a digital execution

- Evaluates based on accepted best practices

- Can point to problems that can be fixed quickly or evaluated in usability testing

- Usually gives a score that can be compared to a previous score or the score of a competitor


EVALUATIVE: SURVEY
• Can be done in person, over the phone, or over the web (WebMonkey, Survey Gizmo, etc.)

• Generally, you want to get lots of responses from a particular audience or group audiences to a set
of questions.

• Results are broadly generalizable within a margin of errors.

• How an respondents are recruited and the structure of the survey affect how sure you can be of the
results.


WHAT KIND OF RESEARCH?
Depending on the client, the timeline, and the budget
research could mean:

Generative (generating new data)

• Talking to and involving real customers

• Observing people in real life (or online)

• Interviewing stakeholders

Non-generative (reviewing data already generated)

• Reviewing data

• Reading articles about research other people have done


NON-GENERATIVE RESEARCH
One of the key strategic competencies all members of an
agency team needs is the discipline to seek new
information about an audience and discuss insights with
team mates.

Sometimes this will mean generative research, but more
often it means finding and reading primary and
secondary sources of customer information one the
Internet.

The slides from Week One contain lots of the sources I
use on a routine basis. There are many, many others and
new sources appear all the time.


WELCOME TO QUENCH


OUR NEWEST CLIENTS


STRATEGY LEADS
Student Client Website Review

Caitlin Ayala’s Herbal Water http://www.herbalwater.com/ http://www.drinkwhat.com/zero-calorie-ginger-
lemon-peel-flavored-ayala’s-herbal-water/

Danielle Purity Organic http://www.purityorganic.com/ http://www.drinkwhat.com/purity-organic-drinks/

Ladi Zico http://zico.com http://www.drinkwhat.com/zico-pure-premium-
coconut-water-tao-mango

Sarah Guayaki Yerba Mate http://guayaki.com/ http://www.drinkwhat.com/guayaki-healthy-energy-
drink-yerba-mate-revel-berry/

Sharron Neuro http://drinkneuro.com/ http://www.drinkwhat.com/drink-smart-drink-neuro-
sun/

Vivian Spartos http://www.spartos.com/ http://www.drinkwhat.com/spartos-all-natural-
protein-water/

Whitney Snow http://www.snowbeverages.com/ http://www.drinkwhat.com/snow-natural-soda-with-
vitamins/


CREATIVE BRIEF


THE ASSIGNMENT
Increase sales of your beverage brand in major grocery and retail chains by raising
awareness, creating preference, and motivating loyalty.

AWARENESS
AWARENESS CONSIDERATION PURCHASE USE LOYALTY
CONSIDERATION

PURCHASE

//


TACTICS MAPPED TO FUNNEL
Digital shopper marketing
Non-digital shopper marketing
Primary shopper flow

AWARENESS CONSIDERATION PURCHASE USE LOYALTY
Search Social Media e-Circular Social Media Brand CRM or loyalty
advertising & blogs and brand sites program
(feedback)
Traditional Retailer website
AT HOME media
Brand site Retailer CRM email

Word of mouth

a
Location-based Mobile Utilities
Mobile CRM
Mobile website advertising offers for in-use scenarios

Mobile couponing
ON-THE-GO Retailer/ product In-store comparison
finder and research

t
IN STORE
In-store media

Circular Kiosks
Employee advice
Digital enhancements
to packaging (QR, etc) Post-purchase coupon


THE SITUATION

While sales a health food and high-end grocery chains like Whole Foods are strong, they
limit a brand's growth within a relatively small consumer base. Moving in to big box
retail (i.e., Walmart and Target) and major grocery chains (i.e., Publix, Kroger), can
help a brand move from a niche product to a nationally-known brand.

The healthy beverage market is highly competitive. Not only do brands compete directly
with other health beverages, they also compete with mass-market soda, juice and water
brands. Success means a creating a loyal following who believes in the unique
characteristics of your brand enough to buy again and again (and tell their friends).


WHO ARE WE TALKING WITH

High-End Hippies
A true hippie would only drink "whole beverages" like water, tea, fair trade coffee, and hemp milk.
This audience tries to make healthy decisions for themselves and the planet, but not at the expense of
style, ease, comfort and taste. Aged 25-35 and tending toward female, this audience is well educated,
upper-middle class, and defined by a love for the environment and an interest in health, fitness, and
well-being. Even with these shared characteristics, the group is not homogenous. At different ends of
the spectrum you have single adults with new careers and married adults with more established
careers and children.


WHAT’S THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT IDEA
WE CAN CONVEY?
We can help you be the person you want to be.


WHY THEY SHOULD BELIEVE IT

The beverage you hold in your hand tells people who you are. Walking into a room with
a soda from McDonald's tells a very different story than a Kleen Kanteen water bottle.
Holding [your brand] in your hand means: [Unique brand characteristics].


THIS WEEK’S HOMEWORK
Create a target audience persona for your client by answering the following questions
about the target audience:
• What is her/his name? • Describe his or her mobile use? What kind of phone does
s/he use?
• How old is s/he?
• What does s/he do? Where does s/he work?
• Where does s/he live (city, state, maybe neighborhood)?
• How does s/he spend her free time?
• Where did s/he go to college and when did s/he
graduate? What was her/his degree in? • What kind of car does s/he drive?

• What kind of music does s/he listen to? • What 3 things would s/he take with her/him on a desert
island?

• Where does s/he shop for clothes/furniture/books/
groceries? • Who is her/his hero?

• What kind of shoes does s/he wear? • What goals is s/he trying to attain in her/his life/career/
health?

• What kinds of magazines does s/he read? • Why does s/he buy your drink brand? What does s/he
love about it? What could make it better?
• What websites does s/visit?
• Is s/he single, married, has children.
• Describe her/his social media use.


EMILY LEAHY (32)AN ADVERTISING AGENCY
SR. EXPERIENCE STRATEGIST AT
ROSWELL, GA
MARRIED WITH 1 SON, WILLIAM (3)
“Health is more than fitness. It’s all the choices I make -- including what I drink.”

• Listens to a variety of music, but Hip Hop in the car. Favorite song to work out to is “Bombs Over
Bagdad” by Outkast.

• Usually shops for groceries at Whole Foods once a week (it’s a bit of a drive) and fills in with things
from Publix, Kroger, and Target as necessary. Some things she buys are only at one store and not the
others.

• Her hero is Juliette Gordon Lowe, founder of the Girl Scouts. She was a Girl Scout through college
and even the leader of a troop. Probably wouldn’t be involved again, but values the mission of
empowering young women through hands-on learning.

• Shops primarily at Macy’s (her husband works in IT there and gets a discount) and online at Etsy,
Modcloth, Bluefly, Shopbop, Anthropologie, and 6 pm. Goes through phases online.

• Subscribes to Real Simple and Runners World but seldom has time to read either. She prefers digital
formats, but doesn’t subscribe to digital magazines.

• She drives a 2003 Toyota Camry that was the first car she ever bought. She’s thinking of buying a
new car this year -- probably a hybrid.

• Has her mobile with her all day long and uses it as a calendar, notebook, newspaper, etc. Has apps
for her and her son.


EMILY LEAHY (32)
SR. EXPERIENCE STRATEGIST AT AN ADVERTISING AGENCY
ROSWELL, GA
MARRIED WITH 1 SON, WILLIAM (3)


HAVE A GREAT WEEK!


Digital Strategy: Week Three

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