Musings from GroupM: The Digital Shelf. Attribution and a Call for Understanding the Role of Search - Rob Norman - MediaBizBloggers

It is perfectly obvious that the only marketing activity that influences the sale of detergent is the number of facings in the store The shopper goes to the store they are arrested by the display and they buy As a consequence the entire marketing budget should be expended on securing that shelf spaceGiven this quite obvious correlation between the last prepurchase exposure to the brand and the purchase itself it is perhaps surprising that the brand39s owners do not allocate budgets in this way and instead spend significant amounts of money all the way back from the shelf to the living room of the prospective buyer They do this because they know through a heady cocktail of regression analysis and common sense that multiple contact points contribute to the emotional and rational preconditions for purchaseThese days we call this attribution modelling We attempt to ascribe values to actions and attempt to create a communications recipe from assorted ingredients in order to create the intended outcome This is not to underestimate the value of shelf space and most brand owners do notMore puzzling is what to do about digital shelf space Itamp8217s been said by wiser commentators than me that the results pages of search engines are very often the first digital touch point for brands and this has been extrapolated to describing those very results as shelf space In the event that the shelf puts the consumer a click away from a transaction this description has resonance When it does not the analogy fades in both accuracy and relevance yet in both cases there is an assumption among the sellers of search clicks that budget allocation should start with them and only go toamp160other channels when sufficient funds are allocated amp160to capture every available clickThis represents a compound fallacy First wider marketing activity drives clicks second a huge quantity of consumer interaction with brands remains unmediated by search and third if all marketers drank the same Kool Aid with the suggested vigor the results would be an inflationary spiral and an unwinnable gameSearch strategy is brand specific it requires a determination of how and why people become aware of brands and of the path to preference and purchase It requires knowledge of the brandamp8217s channels to market and of the relative influence of each touchpoint The focus needs to be on share of wallet in the category and not on share of clicks The binary nature of search metrics is seductive but not everything that seduces you is good for youThis is not the first time this blog has mused on this topic and it wonamp8217t be the last Search has costs and it has opportunity costs The attraction is that the costs are incurred against actions rather than exposures The opportunity cost is related to those options you decline in order to fund those actionsRob Norman is a member of the GroupM Global Executive Committee and is CEO of GroupM Interaction Worldwide Robamp8217s principle tasks are developing the interaction organization within GroupM developing positioning and thought leadership and leading the interaction contribution to business development Rob can be reached at robnormangroupmcomRead all Rob39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Musings from GroupM MediaBizBloggersFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBlogger

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Musings from GroupM: The Digital Shelf. Attribution and a Call for Understanding the Role of Search - Rob Norman - MediaBizBloggers

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