Case for Print 2 – Increases Traffic

Shoppers move agnostically through the different media channels as time and opportunity allows, not as brands direct. They will travel seamlessly between channels, using the format, computer, smart phone, print,  that best suits the information. Gathering information in one format, and using it another. They will happily sit down to read a catalogue, then go online to complete the purchase brands website, or make a special trip to a bricks and mortar store, increasing traffic both online and instore.

Print is an excellent referral source into the rest of a brands marketing ecosystem, particularly into the digital ecosystem. It is very easy for a person to transition from reading a poster, or a catalogue, to searching out the brands website, or social media. The implicit trust in print empowers people to take that next step into the ecosystem more easily, and this will result in more traffic both online and in store.

In 2015, Price Water House Coopers conducted a global consumer survey with over 19,000 respondents in 19 territories and 6 continents. They were trying to broaden our understanding of the changing retail environment in our post digital age. One of the surprising findings was in what is called showrooming behavior. People go into a retail store to see, touch and feel, then they purchase the item online. What they found is this behavior has reversed, and increases in online traffic are driving offline sales. This is called reverse showrooming. A person will research the item online, and then go instore to purchase.

This highlights the need for print even more. First as an referral source into the online store to research the item. Then secondly as part of a visual merchandising display when they come instore to purchase the item.

Each media channel is like an instrument in a symphony,

with its own unique impact profile and role to play

Elissa Moses, CEO of Ipsos’s

Neuro & Behavioral Science

Center of Excellence

Tactile

In a media landscape that often just assumes people

are turning to the internet for information when

purchasing or selecting any product, catalogues in

fact lead the way for more than 12 million Australians.

Tim Martin, General Manager – Media, Roy Morgan Research

In 2015 Canada Post conducted a neurological study into the effect of tactile print and how it related to motivation. Using EEG brain imaging, and eye trackers, they presented their subjects with promotions in tactile print format, and digital screen format. When discussing motivation the study says “motivation score was 20% higher than digital’s score. For motivation, we usually consider a 2% to 5% positive difference to be a predictive indicator of future behavioral change. If, for example, you’re choosing between two product packages and one generates a motivation response that is 3% higher than the other, we can confidently say that choosing the package with the higher score will make a positive difference in the marketplace. And the higher the score, the more dramatic the behavioral effect.
“By any standard, a 20% difference in motivation response is very, very big.”

Visual

A visual display is often a customers first contact with a brand. This may be while walking through a shopping centre and seeing the shop front displays instore displays, or it may be seeing car graphics or posters. It is generally agreed that the majority of buying decisions are not planned, and are not made until the customer is reaching for the product. The customer may have a need in mind they want solved, but they do not generally have the specific brand decided.

The major aim of visual advertising is to draw the attention of customers to enter the store, or to engage with the brand. TO encourage them to stay in the store for longer, or stay in contact for longer, and to motivate them to make a purchase. Simply put, a customer is more likely to purchase from you if they are in contact with your brand.

Nirma University, India,  conducted a survey of 385 customers as they exited a retail furniture store and the results showed that it was the window display that caught their attention  brought them into the store. Visual merchandising displays have many elements, including the goods sold by the store, and very often these displays rely heavily on print for backdrops or for props.

The University of South Africa in a study on visual merchandising for apparel retailers had similar findings. Using exit surveys they found that the window display, and store front were far and away the two most influential parts of a display for getting customers attention, and bringing them into a store. A similar study published on sciencedirect.com was carried out on footwear retailers in Lithuania, and it had almost identical results.

In 2016 Gap In CEO  Art Peck told analysts, “I think windows today are much less relevant than they have historically been and you will see this going forward, that we are actually ‘skinnying down’ our window treatments.” He decided that “If you haven’t won at the digital interface on the front end, your window in the mall store is probably not going to make a difference at the end of the day”. That year the turnover of Gap was down 12% while the S&P 500 for the rest of the country rose by 23% for the same period. This shows that in retailers cannot afford to ignore their window displays, and by extension cannot afford to ignore print.

Total Retail 2015:Retailers and the Age of Disruption, Price Waterhouse Coopers, February 2105
Connection for action, Canada Post, 2016
A Bias For Action, Canada Post, 2015
Impact of visual merchandising on consumer behavior: A study of furniture outlets, Nirma University, 2014
Visual Merchandising Displays’ Effect On Consumers: A Valuable Asset Or An Unnecessary Burden For Apparel Retailers
Yolandé Hefer, University of South Africa, 2013
Visual Merchandising Impact on Impulse Buying Behaviour, sciencedirect.com, 2015

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ACA Letterbox Top Ten Reasons – PMP Limited 2014

RMC Fast Facts Grocery – Roy Morgan Research Single Source (Australia 14+) July 2016 – June 2018

RMC Fast Facts Telecommunication – Roy Morgan Research / ~ 2,000 Quant #2 / November – December ‘ 18