Winning the ZMOT War – A Local Marketing Battle Plan

  

Tweet  

  

  

 delicious  

  

Google’s recent booklet on the Zero Moment of Truth (http://www.zeromomentoftruth.com) raises some eye opening questions on how consumers consume and marketers market. Clearly, connectivity has changed buying habits and marketers must take note.

That doesn’t mean, however, that everyone should run towards the Zero Moment of Truth (or ZMOT). In fact, many marketers should concentrate on ensuring ZMOTs never occur in the first place. Especially those whose products and services can be procured locally or impulsively.

In the Google booklet, author Jim Lecinski defines a ZMOT as “that moment when you grab your laptop, mobile phone or some other wired device and start learning about a product or service (or potential boyfriend) you’re thinking about trying or buying.”

For the local marketer, the words “start learning” are the critical juncture in that definition. Learning is most often not the sought outcome; a stimulus-response action with limited thought engagement, in contrast, is the objective. If I’m Tide Dry Cleaners, I don’t want anyone within my trade area grabbing a laptop or mobile phone to figure out a destination for his/her laundry needs. I want the response to the stimulus of dirty clothes to be a visit to my Tide location. I need a Local Moment of Truth – a fast, local resolution to my need – not a Zero version or a First one, where the consumer is staring at and deciding between options. I want the power of my location and/or the emotional attachment to my brand to displace any notion the consumer might have of entering a ZMOT.

The five steps below outline local marketing strategies for keeping customers/consumers out of ZMOTs. An additional five steps address how to win if/when a ZMOT does occur.

Usurping the ZMOT

A local marketer’s success (including those marketers with a host of local markets) is largely about winning this Local Moment of Truth and eliminating the ZMOT role in a consumer decision in the first place. So how does this happen?

1. Be familiar. ZMOTs happen when there is unfamiliarity with a product or service or its value. For the local marketer, avoiding the ZMOT simply means being known through signage, community/neighborhood involvement, business networking, word-of-mouth and any and every other form of awareness generation. It also means to be worthy of awareness through the products, service, friendliness and business ethics offered, the core business practices that create emotional connections between the local business and its customers.
   
   
2. Become preferred. Preference is earned, not acquired. The First Moment of Truth has long been held as that moment of decision between one or more choices – such as when the customer stands at a retailer’s shelf and selects one brand, a Burt’s Bees product over a house brand, for example. This is where you rely on the emotional brand connections you have developed. The Second Moment of Truth is when the chosen brand is being used at the buyer’s home and satisfaction or dissatisfaction follows. Becoming preferred is the result of consistently winning the Second Moment of Truth. And strong preference eliminates the need for a ZMOT.
   
   
3. Provide a ZMOT alternative. Midwesterners know there’s simply no better antidote to a hot, humid summer day than a Route 44 Diet Limeade at Sonic Drive Ins. But as big of fans as they may be, most individuals only know a handful of Sonic locations. When the Route 44 stimulus happens outside those known areas, Sonic risks a ZMOT. The minute someone grabs their Sprint phone and starts to search, Sonic’s loyalty is put at risk … not just for that $5 purchase but conceivably for many purchases to come. To combat this, Sonic needs to occupy not only the individual’s mind but his/her screen as well. Instead of a Google Maps query, Sonic needs the person to access a Sonic app that keeps them safe from the ZMOT risk.
   
   
4. Rethink local. Local marketing can happen when an individual is nowhere near the local business at decision time. For example, a person may not be aware of a Radisson Hotel near her home. And that doesn’t really matter. When she is looking for a local hotel, it is for a hotel that is where she is going to be, not where she is. Simply stated, local marketing is not just about where people are currently located, it is also about where they are going to be. A woman doesn’t need a ZMOT to “start learning” what she already knows. She knows that the Radisson brand means a great night’s rest and a refreshed start to an important day. To eliminate the risk of a ZMOT, the corporate marketer must circumvent it via the Local Moment of Truth … the customer’s preference in the context of what her location will be.
   
   
5. Be consistent no matter where LOCAL happens to be. Corporate marketing managers of distributed marketing networks understand full well the challenges of keeping hundreds to thousands to tens of thousands of local marketers around the globe delivering a consistent, common brand strategy and message. H&R Block is an example of a company that does this well. Using a distributed marketing management platform, Block and its local marketers synergistically deliver a consistent customer experience whether the Manhattan office is found in New York or Kansas.

Make ZMOTs Count

While a local marketer’s first objective may be to displace a ZMOT with a Local Moment of Truth, when a ZMOT happens local marketers must be prepared.

1. ALWAYS be part of the conversation. As Google’s research shows, connectivity has dramatically changed how buying decisions are made. Even, as Google notes, down to the cold medicine decisions made by soccer moms waiting to pick up kids. Local marketers must be part of these ZMOTs. Aggressive search marketing – both natural and paid – is critical but should be jointly developed between local and corporate marketers.
   
   
2. Turn current ZMOTs into future Local Moments of Truth. In many cases, such as a restaurant selection, a ZMOT inherently results in a local decision. But in many other cases, a ZMOT consumer is looking both at selecting the correct product or service and finding the best price/value and online options look attractive. Fight back.
   
   For example, a consumer might have ordered a digital TV wall mount online because it was less expensive, rated well and didn’t require a trip to the store. Had a local audio store joined the ZMOT, offered to deliver a wall mount for free the next day and install it for nominal fee, that consumer would conceivably have been all over such an option. A Local Moment of Truth was what may have been what he was after all along, he just didn’t have the knowledge needed for one. Plus, what if the person was also looking to upgrade his home stereo system? A correct response by the local audio store could have circumvented the ZMOT for that purchase, and landed the local marketer the business that really mattered.
   
   
3. Use your local advantage to hijack a ZMOT. In a ZMOT, the consumer educates him/herself on the product or service and then on where to make the purchase. When the outcome of the selection is a brand name product, use your local advantage to hijack the ZMOT. Move the prospect out of the generic search/review process and into your own consultative product review. Through that process, you can then show how your local business can deliver the product more quickly and how much simpler returns will be, if needed. Provide an incentive for the prospect to buy online at that moment and pick the item up at the store or receive value added service with a next day home delivery.
   
   
4. Mine ZMOTs for current customers. Never accept that a customer who has entered a ZMOT instead of a Local Moment of Truth is now up for grabs. Just presume they’ve made a small blunder and lead them back. Invest in local paid search placement focused on higher dollar ZMOT moments and messaged directly at wayward customers.
   
   
5. Focus on building customers that matter. Not all locally occurring ZMOTs are worth pursuing. While a visitor referred by Trip Advisor who spends $90 with you is a never a bad thing, unless your business is located in a high volume tourist area, local marketing dollars would be far better spent on capturing a $60 tab from a local family, who upon a positive Second Moment of Truth, become strong lifetime value customers. Let review sites influence all prospects and use multiple visit incentives to develop the customer relationships that really matter.

Key ZMOT Lessons

Google’s Zero Moment of Truth booklet should serve as a wake up call and/or reminder to local marketers that consumer decision development habits are changing rapidly.

Local marketers – whether corporate marketers with a local presence or front-line marketers – should aggressively seek to displace ZMOTs with Local Moments of Truth, those moments when there the local relationship simply averts thoughts of any alternative.

When a ZMOT does occur, local marketers must move aggressively to capture/kidnap the ZMOT and turn the decision into a local one. However, it is highly important for the local marketers to understand that not every ZMOT is created equal. Local prospects represent a potentially high customer lifetime value relationship. Local decisions by non-local buyers do not unless you can transfer a constant experience and customer lifetime value from local market to local market.

Finally, to minimize the risks of a ZMOT and to capitalize on the opportunity of a ZMOT, consistent customer experience matters. The “second moment of truth,” that experience the customer has with your product or service is essential for displacing future ZMOTs with local moments of truth. That consistency must also include marketing, brand positioning, and messaging.

As Google shows, consumer habits have changed. Change always equals opportunity and with the right moves local marketers can be well positioned to make the most of it.

For More Information

 
Download Saepio's Distributed Marketing Leadership Series guide, Exploding Brand Value at the Local Level, to help you identify the impact of the local marketer on your brand, then understand how best to leverage brand value given your business model and consumer interaction.