Let’s take a moment to discuss moments

  |  

blog-moments.jpg

Living in the moment has taken a new meaning.

Google recently defined “micromoments” as times when people search for something—when they want to know something, or go somewhere, or do something, or buy something.

From a marketer’s perspective, these moments make up a customer’s journey. With luck, good karma, or great planning, they lead to a purchase.

We’ve always had these moments. But what we are doing during them—browsing restaurant reviews by location, researching how to make crème brûlée, planning a kitchen remodel—changes frequently as the technology we’re using evolves.

Marketers today need to consider the nonlinearity of a customer’s experience. They need to assume that customers are engaging in parallel touchpoints—or, on impulse, are skipping from awareness straight into a purchase moment.

Here at Ready State, we also think about retail moments, real-time marketing moments, and the “zero moment of truth” Google has called out. We like to meet customers on their own turf.

In creating sites and marketing materials, we start with the customer. We clarify our clients’ business and marketing goals, identify where they are best suited to meet customer needs, then build messaging around that sweet spot.  We turn to moments when it’s time to deliver those messages. We think about the micromoments Google has coined, and we think about a few more.

The “I want to” moments align with what we call “lean forward” moments. (We wanted to call them “lean inmoments, but, well, that term was taken.)

We call another set “lean back” moments. These are the new couch potato moments—the times when consumers are in a mind-set to relax, not wanting anything except a little Facebook feed, Houzz image, or Flipboard headline browsing. It’s less about wanting or doing than about seeing beautiful and interesting things, branded or unbranded. It opens up some interesting opportunities for marketers.

This orientation to the moment provides us with strategic inspiration and validation. We’re working to build beautiful things—and help people connect with them at the right moment. Stay tuned.

 

Topics: marketing strategy, moments, customer experience

Katherine Ogburn, Director of Strategy

Katherine Ogburn, Director of Strategy

Katherine builds foundations for brands and marketing programs, and helps clients define marketing goals that are grounded in business needs and user-centric audience views. While much of her recent work has been for large companies such as Google, Intel, iShares, General Motors, and Microsoft, she also enjoys helping define identities and competitive differentiation for startups and small companies. Prior to Ready State, Katherine worked at MRM, McCann, FCB, and McKinsey. She has a master's in business administration from Columbia Business School, a master's in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley, and a bachelor's in Russian studies from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.