Do you have my attention!

A movie came on the TV the other night and my wife said "Do you want to watch it?"

I said yes and she proceeded to go to our video library to get the DVD of the movie that was about to play on the TV. I said "Why are you putting on the DVD?" and she replied "Because I don't want to watch the commercials".

This got me thinking that in a world full of mobile technology, and easy access to information, are traditional means of conveying information as relevant as they once were?

I mean, ask yourself how many times do you pre-record shows to watch later, and how often do you skip through the commercials because you don't want to waste time. Or how many times do you read a paper or magazine these days vs scrolling through your mobile phone to only read the news that YOU want to read.

Think about this morning when you got out of bed and how long it was before you were on your mobile device to check the news, the weather, or any one of your three or four other social media apps?

Despite what you already know to be true, companies continue to over invest in traditional forms of marketing and communication, in the face of shifting attention.

Fear of the unknown

In most cases there is an underlying fear of change and the unknown. I mean what if you start to invest more money in exploring new attention platforms only to reveal that years of traditional advertising was not cutting through and a waste of money. Who wants to deliver that information to their superiors, and who wants to pay for that!

Safety in numbers

I have been on the account management side of the ledger and when budget money is being handed out, it is like seagulls fighting over a chip. Accounts are always coming up with new ways to generate income and as the account manger your primary goal is to grow sales and share within your accounts. Sometimes in the process, at the expense of your colleagues accounts.

So more money is invested into these accounts for self preservation, share and sales growth and in part out of fear that if you don't invest more, your competition might.

The danger with this approach is that the deeper you go, the more handcuffed you become, which can be problematic in itself as many companies ousted off the supermarket shelves can testify to.

Cross-over

This one always amuses me, when a supplier tells me that they don't want to engage because of cross-over. I mean when was the last time you said to a trade magazine that you only wanted your advert showing in the magazines of the retailers you don't currently have your product in. Or attended a trade show and seen a sign on a supplier stand that said "Only approach if we are not already dealing with you" Ridiculous!!

Whenever I talked to a supplier about where to range their products in stores, it was always met with "In multiple locations, as more points of engagement drive sales". So how is cross-over a bad thing?

It's not! Because you do it every day in your marketing spend, and more points of engagement, more eyes on your products is never a bad thing!

Instant gratification

Most businesses in my experience are great at servicing existing customers, but poor at finding new business. This is because you are not going to deploy your most expensive asset (People) against a function that provides the least return (Prospecting).

It is perfectly valid that in a world where product life cycles are less than 12 months, and performance is measured in quarters, that sales and growth are paramount.

But there needs to be some level of focus and investment on the horizon, otherwise when the market moves, and the attention shifts, where will that leave you?

Underpriced attention

It is easy to dismiss innovation and say that we will worry about this when it becomes an issue for us, or even worse when we are forced to, however right now emerging platforms that have growing attention are significantly underpriced by comparison. This makes them great value at this point in time, and a low cost way of understanding the shift attention of retailers and consumers, which will not always be the case as demand for these programs grows.

Time

Ironically the very thing that you are trying to appeal to is exactly the same thing that is holding you back. Time!

In the end we are all consumers and our values do not change because we jump from B2C to B2B. As humans, time is the asset we value most, so when confronted with anything that either takes time away from my day-to-day or requires more of my time, will result in a low level of interest and attention.

It is the very reason why, cold calling does not work, the very reason why traditional marketing is loosing it's relevance despite a continued over investment by most companies, and the very reason why retailers are responding to new programs like ours.

When you deliver something that saves time, you get the attention.

Thanks for your attention!

Craig

Craig Matthews is the founder and Managing Director of Stock Box, a product sampling service for suppliers and manufacturers looking to increase their ranging and distribution within the independent retail channel. We make product sampling simple, and now offer tailored Discovery retail programs for groups banners and suppliers. For more information go to mystockbox.com.au or call or email craig.ma@mystockbox.com.au