The “last mile” of integrated marketing

When we talk about ROI, it is no longer an abbreviation of the three principles of relevance, originality, and impact, but the return on investment of advertising.

In the marketing planning PPT, terms such as commercialization, monetization, and user growth have gradually replaced the AIDA formula and AIDMA marketing rules.

1. Why has the effect of integrated marketing disappeared?

Before the birth of the Internet, people used Lewis's AIDMA marketing law (Attention, Interest, Desire, Memory, Action) to do marketing and achieved good results, but later most of those who used this method for online marketing failed.

Because, although the Internet seems to be able to achieve "unbounded connectivity", it is actually more fragmented than the real world, and each virtual community classifies users according to their interests. Therefore, the most important thing in marketing on the Internet is how to integrate this group of scattered users and at the same time attract them to split, share and break the circle.

It was not until Dentsu proposed the AISAS model (Attention, Interest, Search, Action, Share) that the emergence of two "s" with network characteristics: Search and Share made most marketers realize that online communities are the main battlefield for consumers to share.

As a result, integrated marketing, which has been popular on the Internet and mobile Internet for decades, has been subdivided into interactive marketing and digital marketing that are more likely to generate sharing behavior, which fully reflects the impact and changes of the Internet on consumer behavior.

In the world of the Internet of Things, which has been transformed by the Internet, the process by which consumers receive information and make purchasing decisions has changed again. People no longer trust KOLs, word of mouth, and reviews. Consumers desire more authentic information and a more experiential purchasing experience.

The environment in which merchants and brands operate is more fragmented, consumption scenarios have become fragmented, and consumers' purchasing desires have become more rational. As a result, the effectiveness of integrated marketing faded along with product managers and the AIDA formula and AIDMA marketing rules.

2. Focus on the last mile of integrated marketing

In fact, whether online or offline, modern marketing advocates "channels are king and terminals win." However, in the fragmented consumer market facing more rational consumers, if neither channels nor terminals can truly impress and connect consumers, high-profile integrated marketing will hardly produce results.

Therefore, the SIVA model (solutions, information, value and access) was launched, which combined with the characteristics of the Internet, and found a way for marketing to understand the market from the perspective of consumer sovereignty.

Simply put, there are two points: ① In the Internet era, consumer sovereignty returns to consumers, and it is an era in which consumers make active decisions; ② At each stage, scenario and moment of consumer decision-making, we can use technology and data to conduct real-time model learning and analysis.

Specifically, online, we can use integrated marketing, leveraging a combination of media, platforms, and KOLs to fully reach consumers and stimulate consumption at key points. Offline, we can use more fragmented advertising placements, big data and artificial intelligence to fully reach and analyze the moments when consumers are willing to consume.

There is still a long way to go to achieve full coverage of offline scenarios, but there are still "key nodes" in the last mile that integrated marketing has not yet touched. It is not on the LED screen of a large supermarket nor on a street billboard where people gather, but at the elevator entrance that people must pass through to go to get off work, buy vegetables and eat.

Offline elevators connect offline communities with stable traffic and consumption demand. Although their individual size is small, the space is huge; although the unit price of consumption is low, the repurchase rate is high. Using community elevator media to open up the "last mile" for brands to reach consumers is fundamentally no different from the underlying logic of Didi and Mobike.

3. Focus on gameplay innovation in large-scale community gathering places

In fact, due to the bombardment of advertisements, today's consumers have already produced "advertising immune antigens" in their bodies. However, when facing people with whom they have a close relationship, their vigilance will be greatly reduced.

However, people in the community have common interests or goals within a certain time and space and can form relatively stable social relations. Therefore, the credibility and influence of communication are much better than traditional advertising. What really influences purchasing decisions may be a word from a buddy or a comment from a neighbor, rather than overwhelming advertising slogans.

It is precisely because of the "yeast" of trust that the "credibility" of information content is greatly fermented, and the efficiency and speed of information dissemination are also improved. This is the unshakable advantage of community marketing.

So what rules should we follow when conducting community marketing? "Creating viruses", "gathering people for a purpose", and "sincerity as the basis" should be a few unshakable basic points.

The marketing activities currently carried out in domestic online communities mainly include creative interactive event marketing, ordinary brand advertising, etc. Most of the above marketing activities only use the community as a medium for advertising and fail to fully utilize the characteristics of online communities.

I prefer creative interactive event marketing. The core of this method is to package brand information into a "virus" that is topical and spontaneously spreadable, allowing users to voluntarily become nodes of nuclear fission-like transmission, which can truly unleash the power of community marketing.

For example, David Mop’s viral video on New Trend Media is a good “virus source” that continuously strengthens brand awareness through repeated brainwashing in a small space.

In addition, maximizing community marketing can also stimulate the experience of community residents.

A more interesting case is the special Spring Festival interactive case "Gujia Year·Enjoy Home Fun" launched by Xinchao Media and Gujia Furniture during the Spring Festival.

Gu Jiajia Furniture has noticed that there are many non-local employees in the company, including many young people who cannot return to their hometowns to reunite with their families in the first year after graduation. For this reason, Gu Jiajia Furniture specially filmed a blessing video for them, and through the targeted delivery of Xinchao Media, brought the dialect blessings to their families and sent them to their hometowns.

It is really a very topical and heartwarming thing that blessings from thousands of miles away are delivered to your doorstep during special times. Through this advertisement, the warmth and innate humanistic feelings of community media and corporate brands can be truly reflected.

In short, when conducting community marketing, companies must be sincere to community members, and the description of products or services cannot be exaggerated or false. The judgment of things in the community is no longer an individual judgment, but a judgment of collective wisdom. Fraud can be easily exposed and the consequences are serious.

Author: Community Marketing Research Institute

Source: Community Marketing Research Institute