The digital revolution that has been sweeping over the world of retail and marketing continues to evolve, with sophisticated solutions emerging to address constantly changing consumer behavior. Furthermore, trends that had already been playing out for some time are being accelerated by the Covid-19 outbreak.
Most prominently, more consumers are bypassing brick-and-mortar shops in favour of ecommerce platforms due to pandemic-related lockdowns and restrictions, rapidly accelerating a trend that had been playing out for many years.
“These abrupt shifts have left many retailers scrambling to effectively serve customers through other channels. Digital-first and omnichannel retailers have pivoted more easily, but retailers that prioritized physical stores and face-to-face engagement over omnichannel strategies have struggled to respond,” said consultants at McKinsey in a report.
However, the rapid shift to ecommerce is not the only trend marketers have to contend with. Social shopping – where consumers research products on social media before making a purchase – is also becoming increasingly popular. According to e-commerce agency Absolunet, around 30% of consumers said they would shop directly through social media platforms such as Facebook or Instagram.
Shoppers are also craving more personalized offerings. In response, brands have been working to customize the customer experience based on individual preferences, interests, and behavior by leveraging digital solutions such as machine learning.
New marketing solutions
Amid the shifting environment, brands will have to rethink their omni-channel ecommerce strategies, and develop new solutions to keep pace with changing consumer behavior. Many are adopting marketing automation solutions that can manage an increasingly complex and dynamic customer journey, encompassing numerous touchpoints across multiple devices.
Looking ahead, another exciting marketing solution that is emerging involves the use of personalized surveys to help brands better target their audiences. One leading player in this new space is adtech start-up KPub, which is developing an advertising platform that can effectively target their audiences, and follow-up with tailored surveys to enable greater impact and more accurate feedback on their campaigns.
In an innovative twist, 100% of the revenue generated by advertisements and surveys from the platform will be returned to users in the form of tokens, which can then be used to purchase various products and services made available on the KPub app.
The information collected from the app will be made accessible to advertisers in the form of anonymous data. Brands will also be given access to a ranking of advertisements based on user appreciation ratings. “These ratings are designed to motivate advertisers to put out original and relevant content on the platform,” explained Nicolas Tourne, CEO and Co-Founder of Zircon, the company behind KPub.
Providing relevant ads
Another of KPub’s goals is to provide consumers with relevant advertisements by enabling them to determine which types of advertising they would like to watch, based on their own criteria.
“While advertising can deliver value in terms of knowledge about products and services that can improve our lives, the problem is that most of the advertising we see today is irrelevant to us. Through KPub, consumers will be more receptive to the advertising, as they are empowered to decided what type of ads they wish to view,” said Mr. Tourne.
Furthermore, advertisers on the KPub platform will be able to put a limit on the number of times each day or month a user views a particular advertisement.
“In today’s advertising model, it is the platform that benefits from both users’ data as well as the advertisers’ spending. KPub aims to change this dynamic by acting as a facilitator, as opposed to an intermediary. Our goal is to connect users to the advertisers, and for advertisers to give back to their audience. In this way, it is the advertisers and users that gain from what they share, and not just the platform.”
Giving back
As more consumers prioritize brands that emphasize sustainability and doing good, KPub also comes with a charitable element. For one, the company will be part the “1% for the planet” initiative, where members commit to giving 1% of gross sales each year to approved non-profit partners through a variety of support.
Said Mr. Tourne: “Through KPub, we want to give our users the ability to give back to society by simply spending some of their time on the app.”
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by Zircon Group
source: Forbes.com
