For real-life sway, brands show a digital side

Online is the way that CPG brands can powerfully engage consumers away from the shelf battlefront.

Online is the way that CPG brands can powerfully engage consumers away from the shelf battlefront. When they have a potential buyer’s full attention, brands can be at their best by offering positive experiences through the screen. Brands can give immediate gratification in the form of exclusive promotions or discounts, tips, games, a mobile application, or another differentiating benefit.

How much influence can a good digital experience have on purchase behavior? Plenty, according to a new study called FEED: The Razorfish Digital Brand Experience Report:
•    Two out of three consumers (65%) say a digital experience, either positive or negative, changed their opinion of a brand. Within this group, 97% said the experienced influenced whether or not they eventually bought that brand.
•    Also, nearly two out of three consumers (64%) made their first purchase of a brand because of a digital experience (either a website, microsite, mobile coupon or e-mail).
•    People who actively engage with a brand digitally are far more inclined to buy and recommend that brand to others.
•    Of consumers who follow a brand on Twitter, 44% say access to good deals is the main reason.

These figures were drawn from the Razorfish survey of 1,000 ‘connected consumers’ with broadband access that spent certain amounts of time and money online. The company says 200 million consumers in the United States meet this definition and comprise ‘the new mainstream.’

“In today’s digital world, the experience is the message…driving the bottom line,” says Garick Schmitt, Razorfish group vice president of experience planning and FEED editor. “For brands to be successful in retaining and creating customers, they need to shift their focus away from awareness and impressions, and focus on creating experiences that move consumers to engage, purchase and spread the word.”

The takeaway from this annual survey is for CPG to understand they can fully control the space, the message, the offer, and the quality experience that consumers have when engaged with their brands online. It’s a manageable opportunity to impress. And it is a world apart from the elbow-to-elbow confrontations at the shelf, with all the ‘noise’ from competing messages and distractions as shoppers wheel by. Brands, show your digital side and flourish in the relative peace of that interaction with consumers.