Mobile Internet and Your Brand

May was the month of Mother’s Day and while the Web was flooded with content related to the event from Mother’s Day Card, to Amazon suggested Mother’s Day Gifts and the History of Mother’s Day. Just what were Mom’s searching for during the Month of May?

Like in every other month Mom’s were searching for the little moments in life the “mom moments”, the how do I? What do I? Can I? Moments that define all of us from day to day. Whether its researching baby friendly hotels for their next vacation, assisting with homework or learning how to set up their new home printer. Moms were turning to the internet in their time of need no matter how big or small.

What exactly are these mom moments though and how are they important to your brand? The concept of the Moment is related to the Marketing principle of the “Moment of Truth” which marketing gurus would define as the moments which define a consumer’s experience and journey with your product or brand of which there are exactly three moments, the first, second and third moments.

These Moments were true a decade ago and is related to the concept of push marketing where advertisers and brands felt the need to tell you about their related products and services, this push is in fact the first moment. This is where the company confronts you with their wonder brand. Chemical X is designed to clean your bathroom and maybe give you super powers! It’s the traditional market pitch scenario and its usually delivered through means of mass media. Your second moment, is the purchase and use, we need to sanitize our counters and we’ve been convinced to buy chemical X, but did it quite live up to all of the promises of the pitch?

Hopefully it would have and a product which realizes its promise (the first moment) in its usage (the second moment) would create the third moment of truth. The fan moment where you become a great fan of the brand and spread the message either in person or via social media i.e. the referral. So we have the first moment (the sales pitch), the second moment (the buying and use) and the third moment (the referral).

How well does this age old mechanism stand up for today’s hyper connected consumer aka mom? Well it turns out it doesn’t quite fit anymore and while this is being explained by new concepts such as Google’s “Zero Moment of Truth” it can also be explained by the “Amazon Moment” or any other term that reflects the new consumer, who is often empowered, more connected and more knowledgeable than any before it. The reality has created a new marketing model that is not “push driven” but “pull driven”.

Today’s consumers go around having new “us” moments like our moms every day, every moment they search, they search for solutions to their “now” problems whether it’s a new hair dryer, a new way to lose weight or a new brand of pampers. They’re connected to a worldwide resource of people reviews and information which influence and determine their buying patterns.

A simple need for ice cream driven through a web search would bring up the nearest ice cream parlour along with reviews, contact information and driving instructions, in what would be a clean simple example of a consumer demand driven experience. Consumer behaviour has changed forever with the internet and especially due to mobile internet. Today’s battle for the hearts, minds and dollars of our moms, dads and everyone else is won (or lost) in these moments which has created a new dynamic for decision making and preference shaping throughout the entire consumer journey.

Let’s look at some of the stats (source Google/Ipsos “Consumers in the Micro-Moment”)