Greetings!
If you needed further proof that your customers are out and
about, sizing up your competition (just to see if they can save a few bucks), a
recent survey by TNS Compete and Google should straighten you out. They were
investigating a big increase in online shopper volume for car insurance and
found (no surprise!) most of the shoppers were current owners
looking for a price break. Here is the real kicker:
- 90% of those
looking to replace an existing auto insurance policy cited price as the main reason
for eying other options
- 65% cited "low
cost" as the most important factor
- Only 14% cited
brand reputation as most important
Oops. Brand connection is weak today. If you wondered why GEICO
de-emphasized the gecko and brought out that funny stack of money with eyes on it, now you
know. As usual, GEICO is on top of its game.
The only write-up I could find
about the survey (without registering as a prospect at www.compete.com) was the mediapost article,
but the description of the survey methodology seemed sound:
Article Link to Media Post
The Moral of the Story (Same moral as last month. A good story bears repeating!)
Good customer retention strategies are critical in this era of dissatisfaction and consumer distress.
This is Bad: Your customers are less loyal.
This is Good: Your competitors' customers are less loyal.
Get after both with honest messaging and real value.
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New Jargon: "The Consumer Decision Journey"
The same survey I cited above also
found some interesting proof that simple PPC analytics miss the whole "consumer
journey". That is, the tracking doesn't measure all the work the consumer does searching on and offline for
days, weeks or months before finally clicking on a link to seal the deal. McKinsey (the management consultancy that is also in the
business of making up new business jargon) did their own study of the consumer buying process recently (If the link doesn't let you in, e-mail me for a copy) and dubbed the empowered process "Consumer Decision Journey" because "it is not so linear" as
it used to be. Consumers start with a target list of vendors, but online search
is so easy that the next step usually expands the list, rather than winnowing
it, as traditional marketing tenets have held.
The Lesson:
Building awareness of brand and
benefits is still necessary to get on the start list, but consistent communication of
real value across all of your consumer touchpoints needs to occur to keep you on the list.
Recognizing that the marketing
process is a conversation is more important than ever.
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