Voice-activated virtual assistants are posing a unique challenge to marketers, adding another wrinkle to the already complex path to purchase. The use of multiple devices like tablets and cell phones already made it difficult to trace the origin of a consumers intent to purchase, but virtual assistants create a whole new dimension for marketers to consider. In this research presentation, Janice Caston will present new, original survey data from Toluna that highlights consumer behavior changes following virtual assistant adoption, and how marketers can tap into everything this technology has to offer.
1. How Virtual Assistants are
Changing the Marketing
Landscape: Challenges and
Opportunities
Janice Caston, Vice President, Global Marketing, Toluna
2. 2
• Toluna fielded a report on Virtual
Assistants mid May
• As head of Global Marketing with most
of what I do accomplished digitally – I
worry about ads bypassing my target
market
Who am I and Why am I here?
3. 3
The consumer landscape is now digital & social
While they’re the same person – they behave differently
Consumers are Changing
6. 6
How are Virtual Assistants Used?
1000 Internet Rep US Audience – Surveyed May 10 2017
7. 7
High Net Promoter Score and Likelihood of Referral
Nearly 40 percent of those who do not currently own a voice-activated
virtual assistant indicated that they plan to purchase one in the future.
9-in-10 of voice-activated virtual assistant owners say that they would
recommend to a friend that they purchase a voice-activated virtual
assistant.
1000 Internet Rep US Audience – Surveyed May 10 2017
9. 9
Age Group Impact
60% of millennial voice-activated virtual assistant owners report that their retail
purchases have declined since acquiring their voice-activated virtual assistant.
Voice-activated virtual assistant ownership impacts male shopping behavior more than
their female counterparts.
Nearly one-fourth of female voice-activated virtual assistant owners (22%) say that it
has had no impact on their shopping behavior, while only 6% of male voice-activated
virtual assistant owners said the same.
1000 Internet Rep US Audience – Surveyed May 10 2017
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Key Takeaways
While near-term, the use of Automated Assistants will
clearly have an impact on retail, ad exposure, and more –
we can understand what types of groups are most likely
impacted.
Clearly consumer desire having marketing assist them in
their daily life, as opposed to interrupting it*.
We’ve found a way to monetize most anything – I am sure
this will be the case as well at some point.
Forrester report on advertising 2017
Notas do Editor
Consumers are digesting millions of messages via multiple touch-points from thousands of brands, constantly! It’s getting tougher and tougher to cut through the clutter and establish brand loyalty (brand ‘love’), and is only going to get tougher.
The shift to digital has happened – it’s no longer a theory. Globally, more people use a mobile phone than they do any other device, and more and more, different types of digital devices are emerging, offering new ways to consume content and brand messages. Brands are constantly presented with new ways of advertising and reaching their target consumers.
The devices at the top are less interesting than the emerging devices shown at the bottom like:
Kindle
Amazon Echo – Alexa
Amazon Dash Buttons
Google Dot
Instant feedback
Customized/new solutions
Coupling transactional/behavioral data with social and survey data.
Analytics, dashboarding and more.
Digital tracking
The days of in-person interaction with brands are decreasing. Even Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, closed more than 250 stores last year worldwide. Digital interaction is much less personal, and without face-to-face feedback, tougher to gauge success.
Today’s consumer expects more from brands than ever before. As customers provide lots of info about themselves to brands (as we purchase, answer surveys, post on social media, etc.), they’ve come to expect that today’s savvy retailer ‘knows them’ and stocks the products they want, when they want them.
Not long ago, a retailer’s main goal was to getting shoppers to their store. Now they need to do that but also engage them in-store and digitally. With a mobile phone is in your pocket, you’re ready to make an online purchase in-store with the competition if you don’t find the item you want at the right price.
“Segments of one” or “mass customization” may not have been possible 20 years ago, but with advances in and adoption of technologies, there is no reason why a person can’t receive a promotion while they are at the store standing in front of the cereal section, that is targeted based on previous purchase behavior. This is a new kind of thinking that retailers are being forced to understand.
Notably the activities most often undertaken are activities that typically are associated with advertising/content push. Shopping and price comparison, checking scores/weather/asking questions. Music
Over half (53%) of voice-activated virtual assistant owners say that they make fewer in-store purchases after acquiring their voice-activated virtual assistant.
Over half of voice-activated virtual assistant owners (51%) say they do less research online using traditional web browsers because of their voice-activated virtual assistant.