Retail Brands have significantly transformed from occupying a physical space to virtual shops beyond boundaries. While the current times undoubtedly hold e-commerce of utmost importance to generate sales, a well-executed marketing campaign is crucial to increase brand awareness and exposure. Although every brand is different, with different needs, a brand in the retail sector requires a certain level of expertise to devise an integrated campaign with online and offline touchpoints for sales all year long. Whether you own a brick-and-mortar store or an online one, we’ve listed down an ideal set of offerings one must look for in a retail advertising agency, to get desired and trackable results.
MARKETING SOLUTIONS
A holistic full-service agency should be a priority on your list. It helps you get the best of experts from varied sectors all under one roof, making it easier for you to brief the agency about your goals and to guide them constantly through the process. Marketing Solutions offered by agencies include lead generation, a personalised calendar to pick sale dates, discounts and other festive offers and neighbourhood marketing to bring the perfect fusion of online and physical stores to increase footfall. A mix of influencer and reputation marketing is yet another effective tool offered, to spread goodwill and make positive connections with your potential customers. With sprinkles of moment marketing in-line with brand relevant trends, your brand awareness is sure to skyrocket with this cocktail.
BRANDING
We can’t stress enough on the importance of branding to stand out from the crowd and create a human-like connection with customers. While we create a base with a set of ideologies and motives, we need to make sure our brand speaks in ‘one voice’ throughout all channels and communications. Just like our brains consider Tata synonymous with trust and Johnson and Johnson with motherly care, branding imbeds a certain outlook in the minds of the customer. A top-of-the-line advertising agency should creatively communicate your core messaging through all the channels, be it B2B, B2C, internal, corporate communications, collateral designs or digital.
INTEGRATED COMMUNICATION MIX
Retail advertising, because of the nature of the stores and audience, requires an effective integrated mix of traditional and new media to gain an extensive reach. Be on the lookout for an agency that can effectively deliver both, to save costs and increase efficiency. Traditional media services would include newspaper ads, radio ads, TV ad slots, media buying, hoardings, billboards, pamphlets, etc. New Media would be all about digital spaces such as social media, Google Adwords, SEO, SEM, Blogging and a whole lot more, to churn desired results. Set clear goals and targets with your agency for each campaign, to help them devise the hyper-personalised plan for you.
ON-GROUND ACTIVATION
Retail advertising is a tricky one. We need to keep our legs in two boats in order to sail safe to the shores. A great digital campaign but a dull in-person customer experience and vice versa is like a failed date. Customers in no time would hop onto another brand that does it better than you. While we’ve mentioned all the digital ways to create an impact, brands also need to set up on-ground activation in stores or malls to make your brand a favorable choice at the time of purchase. Brands need to relentlessly strive to catch the eyes of the customer, breaking the monotony on the rack, where the purchase decision is made.
DATABASE
Technology has travelled at the speed of light over the years, making it possible to track every second of your brand’s existence, competitors, customers, trends and future insights, evolving marketing into a creative science. The signs of a good retail advertising agency would highlight three stages of research and database for your company. The first and foremost would be an extensive market research about the needs/wants of the target audiences, along with identifying the brand competitors. The next step would be to devise a plan basis the research, by using targeted communication and mediums to connect with consumers at the right place, at the right time. The final stage is more like a continuous process of analysing the results and making necessary changes throughout the process. Converting data into insights helps brands understand their shortcomings, strengths, weaknesses and device plans according to it.
With constant in-flow and out-flow of stocks at multiple levels, managing employees, setting targets and achieving goals, we know it is a task to deep dive into advertising and customer service with so much going on. Look for an agency that eases the load off your shoulders, be it about advertising, tracking customer response, marketing on digital platforms or creating ground-breaking campaigns. Check it all off from your list with us at Collateral, with our expertise on curating retail campaigns for global brands like Tata Motors, Eureka Forbes, Marks and Spencer to name a few.
Reach out to us at collateral.co.in to create a success story of your own.
