Digital Marketing Strategies: What’s Next in Consumer Marketing

If the consumer won’t come to the supermarket, then the supermarket must go to the consumer

Digital marketing strategies in consumer marketing

Tesco Home plus is South Korea’s number 2 supermarket chain but it has recently become number one in online sales thanks to a very original and clever virtual marketing strategy. Tesco Home plus is very close to surpassing his largest competitor, E-Mart, and without having to open new stores. Tesco’s sales grew 130% thanks to the increase of 76% of registered users in the online supermarket.

Digital Market Strategies and the Future of Consumer Marketing – How Tesco became number 1 in online sales and is quickly reaching number one in sales in the country both online and off-line.

How did they do it? First, they did their due diligence as good marketers: they studied their consumers. This is how they reached the conclusion that South Koreans dislike having to go to the supermarkets to do their shopping. They knew that this is a technologically advanced and savvy consumer. This is a country where children do not carry books to school but PCs, tablets and smartphones. Thus, the campaign had to leverage off the daily use of these mobile devices and it had to make weekly supermarket shopping, a pleasurable experience.

Therefore, they placed ads on the main subway and metro stations resembling supermarket shelves. Each product with its QR code, thus tying it to the physical product. All consumers had to do was to scan the QR codes they wanted, review their shopping basket and pay for them all with their smartphone or mobile device. The products are delivered to their home right away.

Were they able to turn the weekly supermarket shopping into a fun and enjoyable experience? Let’s watch the video:

Digital Marketing Strategies in Consumer Marketing: Can we do this in the U.S.?

On one hand, 21% of Americans ages 13 and older use smartphones and they are accustomed to shopping online. Nielsen reported that slightly more males than females are getting smartphones (53% versus 47%) which is what we would expect for technical early adopter products. In terms of demographics, Hispanic Americans and Asians are slightly more likely to have a smartphone than what their share of population would indicate, which is a trend we see in the adoption of other mobile data services. While smartphones started out in the business segment, two-third of today’s buyers of smartphones are personal users.

On the other hand, not that many cities in the U.S. have a transportation system with high traffic of smartphone users.

Maybe this strategy could be implemented New York city’s subway and see how it fares. Or better yet, move it to the airports, where travelers returning from a trip could easily “pick something up” on their way home.

by Claudia “Havi” Goffan

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