Proctor and Gamble has for years now used the phrase "First Moment of Truth" (FMOT) to speak of the moment when a shopper is standing in front of a grocery store display making her decision as to which brand to grab and place in her cart. In fact P&G takes this notion so seriously that it is said to reverse engineer its marketing campaigns from that moment back.
Some short time later, Google added a new phrase to the marketing lexicon, a powerful concept call the "Zero Moment of Truth," (ZMOT). The ZMOT is what immediately preceeds the FMOT, which is then often followed by the SMOT but we don't need to get into that today.
Google's Jim Lecinski wrote an ebook about ZMOT titled: Winning the Zero Moment of Truth. In it he lists these possible ZMOT scenarios:
- A busy mom in a minivan, looking up decongestants on her mobile phone as she waits to pick up her son at school.
- An office manager at her desk, comparing laser printer prices and ink cartridge costs before heading to the office supply store.
- A winter sports fan in a ski store, pulling out a mobile phone to look at video reviews of the latest snowboards.
You get the idea. The ZMOT is the time spent researching a product or service before going to the store to purchase. How important is this idea? According to Licinski 70% of Americans look at product reviews before making a purchase. Another 79% of consumers say they now use a smart phone to help with shopping. And 83% of moms say they research products on the internet AFTER seeing commercials for those products on television.
So let's look at the timetable of a purchase. First a branding effort builds brand awareness (or you could say: reduces sales resistance) of a product/service among its targeted consumers. A need or desire for that sort of product or service arises. This leads to the ZMOT, the research a consumer conducts online or through a mobile device. The purchase is now imminent. A quick trip to the store presents the FMOT and a purchase is made. Or in the case of a service, a decision is made and followed up by a phone call.
How important is the ZMOT stage? Critical. How much time is your organization devoting to reaching the consumer at their Zero Moment of Truth? How much effort are you dedicating to making sure you are at your customers' ZMOT with the information that they are looking for? Do you even know where to be, what to offer?
I find this stuff fascinating. This is a new stage to the purchase process and it raises all sorts of questions and opportunities. Marketers were not talking about this only 5 years ago. This is why I love marketing so much today. New technology brings innovative opportunities which call for strategy and creativity to work together better than ever.
Tomorrow I'll talk some about how to win at the ZMOT.
Some short time later, Google added a new phrase to the marketing lexicon, a powerful concept call the "Zero Moment of Truth," (ZMOT). The ZMOT is what immediately preceeds the FMOT, which is then often followed by the SMOT but we don't need to get into that today.
Google's Jim Lecinski wrote an ebook about ZMOT titled: Winning the Zero Moment of Truth. In it he lists these possible ZMOT scenarios:
- A busy mom in a minivan, looking up decongestants on her mobile phone as she waits to pick up her son at school.
- An office manager at her desk, comparing laser printer prices and ink cartridge costs before heading to the office supply store.
- A winter sports fan in a ski store, pulling out a mobile phone to look at video reviews of the latest snowboards.
You get the idea. The ZMOT is the time spent researching a product or service before going to the store to purchase. How important is this idea? According to Licinski 70% of Americans look at product reviews before making a purchase. Another 79% of consumers say they now use a smart phone to help with shopping. And 83% of moms say they research products on the internet AFTER seeing commercials for those products on television.
So let's look at the timetable of a purchase. First a branding effort builds brand awareness (or you could say: reduces sales resistance) of a product/service among its targeted consumers. A need or desire for that sort of product or service arises. This leads to the ZMOT, the research a consumer conducts online or through a mobile device. The purchase is now imminent. A quick trip to the store presents the FMOT and a purchase is made. Or in the case of a service, a decision is made and followed up by a phone call.
How important is the ZMOT stage? Critical. How much time is your organization devoting to reaching the consumer at their Zero Moment of Truth? How much effort are you dedicating to making sure you are at your customers' ZMOT with the information that they are looking for? Do you even know where to be, what to offer?
I find this stuff fascinating. This is a new stage to the purchase process and it raises all sorts of questions and opportunities. Marketers were not talking about this only 5 years ago. This is why I love marketing so much today. New technology brings innovative opportunities which call for strategy and creativity to work together better than ever.
Tomorrow I'll talk some about how to win at the ZMOT.
No comments:
Post a Comment