SITUATIONAL MARKETING: COFFEE IN BED? HERE’S AN AD
Take a trip down the chronology of marketing and
you’ll find out that marketers’ efforts size is shrinking as the time
grows. There were times when marketing
use to be big and on a larger scale but these days marketing is personal. It
doesn’t mean that marketing is dying out; in fact it’s on the contrary as
marketers are ever closer to the consumer as never before.
In the early days, marketing was limited to
newspapers, and then in came the box that revolutionized how humans lived their
lives in their homes, the television. With that invent marketing took a leap
forward and spread its wings to a bigger diameter. If that wasn’t already
enough there came in that thing which was to be called ‘The Internet’. Internet
not only boosted the speed with which humans were interacting with the
information age but it also brought about a revolution in their personal lives.
And with the internet, marketing went digital as the marketers had the digital
playground in front of them.
Newspapers, TV and then internet, but that’s not
all. We still have the mobile platform, location-based services and of course
the wearables. With the availability of so many avenues to explore marketers
keep coming up with the tools for utilizing these mediums. Marketers utilize
these tools for example to accurately present the consumer with an option
according to where they are at a given point of time. The impacts of digital
advertising can be measured through comparing how many times an ad was clicked
online and how it got converted into a physical in-store sale.
But, hang on, these are all cool things, what if we
could suggest the consumer not only according to their location and where they
are at a particular point in time but also according to the ‘situation’ they’re in? Simply put,
‘Situational Marketing’ is an advertisement that’s designed around an
individual customer’s specific circumstances and needs. No more
one-size-fits-all, situational marketing is personal and relevant.
An example of situational marketing would be when
your consumer has just finished working out in the gym, that’s the right time
when he gets an ad about nutrition bar. He goes and buys when from the nearest
store. A classic example of situational marketing. One more example would be if
your consumer has just finished watching a movie and she’s planning to eat out
after the show. She gets an ad from you telling her she not only gets a
discount on your latest offering but also gets a free drink for each of her friends.
Even if she was planning for a pizza but upon seeing your perfectly placed
situational ad and the incentives she decides to give your product a shot.
Today’s customers will respond to businesses taking
the conversation to a micro-level through a hyper-personalised experience. Your
advertisement is not meant to intrude on a customer’s day; it’s meant to
benefit their day. Make your marketing strategy useful by switching to a
situational frame of mind. Situational marketing causes us to ask different
questions when thinking of strategy. These questions include: “What is on the
to-do list for my customer?” and “How can our marketing plan check items off
that list?” By aligning our advertisements with the activities of our
customers, we regain control of the conversation.
If you want to improve your relationships with your
customer then you need to make your advertisements as relevant to them as you
possibly can. Attention spans are short and competition is fierce, so make sure
you get in front of your target customers in the right place at the right time
to see real results from your marketing/advertising campaigns.
By: Unosha Shahid
