The necessary action to counter and capitalize on the 10 consumer trends detailed in my last blog is to offer targeted and enhanced personalized communications. Most printers offer the baseline of services required to compete, but they lack some of the more esoteric, and perhaps dynamic, services needed. More importantly, many printers lack the skills required to get the job done and done correctly.
I see the solution to be a true and valid example of media convergence—personalized communications with microsites and landing pages that are designed to be friendly, game-based, differentiated by language and cultural needs, and support traceability. They should also offer various style options and appeal to different stages of life.
Data capture, gathering and analysis will drive the appropriate solution to nearly every aspect of the 10 trends. Think I am wrong? Think again.
If you, the consumer, are asking to be relieved of your frustrations, then the marketer needs to know your levels of frustration and those infamous pain-points. Marketers can learn what consumers’ frustrations are through the use of surveys and surveys.
Social networking may, in part, provide the foundation needed for a corporation to be nice, accessible and popular, but direct mail and dimensional and interactive direct marketing can induce those consumers who perceive themselves as being nice to link-up with a nice corporation via a nice social network. Remember what your mom said: “Treat others as you wish to be treated.”
If you have not seen NFC (Near Field Communication) tags linked to an eWallet at work, just Google the term and you will find that it’s a cool and very popular (outside the United States) method for enabling an eWallet process. Since NFC links can and will be printed, learn to offer them as part of your print and multimedia services mix.
Integrating snap tags, interactive links, SMS, Digimarc and NFC capabilities into large-format output will fulfill the need for visualization and infographics. Large screens are cool, but in-store signage, displays, point-of-sale materials, window banners, and displays that are geo-fenced, print-based and linked to a tracking function are, as kids say, “The bomb!”
Trends 9 and 10 ( backtrack and life is a game) can be linked to online and printed games. Think about the need to be retro; children’s games such as Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders can come alive and be revived via the Internet.
People still do enjoy print, so TV-based links driving consumers to websites that will offer hard copies of their materials or perhaps personalized hard copy materials mailed to the consumer are both also good tactics to follow.
You now have the answers; go and profit from these labors.
Need more, interact with me at thad.nakinc.com or via thad.kubis@tifmc.org.
- Categories:
- Business Management - Industry Trends
Thad Kubis is an unconventional storyteller, offering a confused marketplace a series of proven, valid, integrated marketing/communication solutions. He designs B2B or B2C experiential stories founded on Omni-Channel applications, featuring demographic/target audience relevance, integration, interaction, and performance analytics and program metrics.