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Making The Best Of Micro Moments

Business World Jun 22, 2015

Google’s latest study of consumer behaviour shows that on average, people turn to their phones as many as 150 times a day, making the ‘mobile-first’ phenomenon a reality that impacts all aspects of life, and of business. The global study titled Consumer Barometer puts a lens on the several purposes that mobile phones serve. Simon Kahn, chief marketing officer of Google, tells Shubhi Tandon how brands can best leverage mobile for marketing. The latest figures on consumer behaviour show Google has narrowed the conversation down to moments that brands can relevantly integrate themselves in, terming these as ‘micro-moments’. Such moments can be broken into four categories: ‘I want to know’, ‘I want to go’, ‘I want to do’, and ‘I want to buy’. “These reflect the intent to do something. These are times when consumers need to learn, discover, watch, find, or buy something and they reflexively turn to the closest device, to act on that need,” says Simon Kahn, chief marketing officer, Google. The growth of smartphones, especially in Asia Pacific, has a key role in the trends that Google identified in formulating marketing strategies for the region. Kahn reiterates that Asia is fast growing as the digital centre of the world with a high number of mobile-first markets coming from the region.  Asia’s embrace of the smartphone has made micro-moments more important to marketers here. Relevance The ‘I-want-to-do’ moments are rooted in intent to achieve something, where in most cases a brand or service is relevant to the consumer. Kahn elaborates, “I-want-to-do moments are those when a consumer wants to know something specific as to how to curl hair, fix a bike, or bake a cake. These moments can be incredibly valuable for brands and there are more of these moments in Asia than in the West.” Videos play an important role here. Unilever India recognised this when it created its ‘Be Beautiful’ YouTube channel — a hub for beauty tips and tutorials — and Nestle also tapped into this behavioural shift by featuring cooking videos on its channel. On the other hand, the ‘I-want-to-buy’ moments describe those times when consumers pull out a smartphone to compare prices or look up reviews — even when shoppers want to buy offline. But mobile isn’t just about e-commerce as consumers also turn to their phones for local information to find a gym or restaurants, and when they do this in Asia they want answers fast. “These data points are only reminders of how mobile has transformed consumer behaviour and how that is, in turn, interesting and transformative for marketers. Consumers are expecting immediacy and relevance,” says Kahn. Adding Value Kahn explains that brands can be present in a consumer’s life in interesting ways in the course of the various I-want-to moments. “There are two important things here. First, brands need to understand that intent matters more than identifying the consumer, and conversion matters like awareness. Second, there is a need for the right mobile assets in addition to right advertising assets.” His advice to marketers is to fully adopt the best practices so brands can relevantly be present in a consumer’s life, and add value, creating a meaningful place for themselves. “Consumers are expecting intelligence from devices. With voice search, various environments are created that need to intuitively understand what a consumer wants. The consumer is putting faith in the device to guide in situation such as routes or general queries, and that is the opportunity for businesses,” sums up Kahn.  <table align="center" border="5" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 500px;"><tbody><tr><td><img alt="" src="http://bw-image.s3.amazonaws.com/app-spending-lrg.jpg" style="width: 534px; height: 362px;"></td></tr></tbody></table> shubhi@businessworld.in; @shubhs78 (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 13-07-2015)