The Reality of Consumer Behaviour
Humans are creatures of habit. While brand owners often believe that consumers obsess over brands and purchase decisions, in reality, consumers care and change very little. As Martin Weigel stated in 2012, “Most people don’t care that much about brands [and] don’t know much about the brand they buy.” His devastating statistic: “80% of a brand’s buyers know little or nothing about that brand.”
The conclusion you might draw: advertising doesn’t work. Consumers just buy the same thing, again and again, with little thought. If advertising worked, they’d know deeply about the brands they buy and would be passionate about each one. But in reality, while purchase decisions are highly emotional (80% by some standards), it is an emotional gut reaction that drives choice or mere habit. Humans are cognitive misers and as Richard Shotten puts it, “people have so many decisions to make every single day they don’t have the time or the energy or the wherewithal to weigh those decisions in a fully considered manner.” As a result, people often “repeat the same behaviours again and again” when faced with similar situations.
The Critical Role of Advertising
The challenge for marketing is disrupt, momentarily, and place a brand at a consumer’s top of mind so that when they need to buy into that category, that brand comes to mind first. This is critical as, flying in the face of another brand owner belief, growth does not come from getting people to buy more – it comes from getting people to buy once in a typical purchase cycle.
More advertising, not less, is critical. For the majority of consumer engagements, it is not there to inform and build deep emotional connections. It is just to put that brand marginally ahead of the nearest competitor, ensuring stronger ‘mental availability,’ as Byron Sharp has it, than the next option.
YouGov provides consistent data: ad awareness correlates highly to prompted brand awareness.
Advertising drives top of mind awareness, SOURCE: YouGov, UM
This suggests the higher your ad awareness, the higher your brand awareness and, by default, the more likely you will be chosen when a buying occasion occurs.
The Challenge of Fixed Location Advertising
Consumers are creatures of habit. They watch the same things, take the same routes, they stand in the same places. To do different requires thought, and thought “is to humans as swimming is to cats. We can do it but we’d rather not” (amusingly put by Daniel Kahneman). Habit is, in actuality, a human shortcut. It is just easier, less energy wasteful, to do what we did last time.
Consumers Are Creatures Of Habit (even if newspapers are not so readily read).
This is particularly evident in commuter behaviour. Each morning and evening, the same routine follows. Stand on any UK platform and watch – the same people stand in exactly the same place. Similarly on a tube platform, more so at a bus stop. People are “reluctant to change because of a deep-seated desire for consistency with their past selves.” This need for self-consistency makes it less likely for commuters to deviate from their established routines. With an estimated 45-54% of all weekday rail journeys undertaken by commuters, this opens up a challenge for marketers in the out-of-home environment.
This compounds the out of home challenge. A poster is fixed. It might remain for four weeks, seen by the same people many times. While accounted for in a decent media plan, reach of that site is more limited than might be believed. Which is why media plans need to be disruptive. They need to disrupt consumer behaviour, not just to drive a purchase but to find alternative ways to build awareness. In out-of-home, mobile advertising on taxis and buses goes some way to solve this problem, providing roving advertising but they cover vast areas, often not addressing the brand audience. Digital, with six plays (or even time-of-day driven plays) has made significant steps to address the challenge. But it is still location fixed. And those commuters? They have a habit of using their phone – nose diving – and miss the changing plays (although the transition is more disruptive and impactful than fixed).
The Mobile Digital Solution
This is why at Ad|MOTO, we’re revolutionizing the way brands reach consumers through mobile digital out-of-home advertising. Our high-definition screens mounted on bikes provide the ability to land messages in front of consumers when they’re in motion – moments when they’re significantly less likely to be face-first in their mobile devices. Also, in areas, where out of home media doesn’t even exist. So, with eyes up and forward, ready to see a brand’s message, Ad|MOTO bikes are able to cut through the noise and reinforce recognition of distinctive assets, brand messages and calls to action, as commuters move between locations.
Digital mobile out-of-home is now a powerful addition to any media plan. It is driving brand awareness among audiences that, through their habitual approaches to time and motion, will not otherwise be reached as effectively as might be desired – be it on the first or reinforcing second, third, fourth and so on impacts.
Touch Points Are Critical
As Grace Kite’s work shows, touchpoint synergies are critical. While each new touchpoint drives increases in brand purchase metrics, huge synergies are garnered from seeing a campaign on multiple touch points.
SOURCE: Grace Kite, Published in Marketing Week and Other Locations
Through mobile digital out-of-home, we can find new ways to address these marketing challenges, ensure every category buyer is made aware of a brand, and fill the gaps between static out-of-home locations. And the longer the campaign runs, the more the impact.
Take Action Now
Ready to break through consumer habits and reach your audience in new, impactful ways? Contact Ad|MOTO today to discover how our mobile digital out-of-home solutions can enhance your media strategy and drive meaningful brand awareness. Email info@ad-moto.com to start your journey toward more effective audience engagement.
