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Is it Still a Full Funnel That Leads to Fortune?

14/03/2023
Advertising Agency
London, UK
337
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In light of the John Lewis review, McCann's global head of retail strategy and head of effectiveness Jamie Peate on what we really mean with we think about retail effectiveness

When it comes to retail effectiveness John Lewis has been gold standard, winning multiple IPA awards including a Grand Prix by investing across the whole funnel with their brand platform of ‘more thoughtful giving’.

But now the account is up for review, adam&eveDDB are not re-pitching and all of the chatter around the re-pitch suggests a move to more loyalty and data driven marketing.

This raises the question of what do we really mean when we think about retail effectiveness and where does the god old traditional sales funnel now fit in.

The ‘Cockroach of Marketing Concepts’ is how the Sales Funnel was described in a Marketing Week Article from Sept 2021 by Tom Roach, written to celebrate its (almost) 100-year birthday. 

This less than glamorous epithet was chosen because despite frequent reports of its death, and surprisingly little evidence that it reflects how advertising works, ‘The Funnel’ was more alive than ever- adapting to the environment it found itself in.

The roots of ‘The Funnel’ lie very firmly in sales and selling, and it was in 1924 that a book called ‘Bond Salesmanship’ by William Townsend first overlaid the funnel metaphor on top of the AIDA sales model (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action).

The retail business has always held a special interest for The Funnel and the effectiveness it has on advertising and marketing. To be effective the top of the funnel is fed by brand building and conversions are made at the bottom through performance marketing.

However, the term ‘Performance Marketing’ has in my opinion done something rather unhelpful – it has dispositioned any other type of marketing, particularly what is often referred to as brand building, as ‘not performing.’

If you are a retailer facing a chilly economic outlook and challenging sales targets, where is it more attractive to put your time, money and resources? Into the marketing that ‘performs,’ I would suggest, with all its seductive efficiencies and ROI figures.

This has led to a separation of the funnel activities into two discrete things with top being easy to neglect, allowing the short term tactics at the bottom to dominate.

Despite this, rigorous analysis of highly successful retailers shows time and time again that you need to invest across the full funnel for both short-term and long-term success, and to think of your retail business in a more continuous and holistic way.

Why is that? Well in retail there is a simple aphorism you should never forget:

‘If you do not attend to the long-term you will not have a brand, if you do not attend to the short-term view, you will not have a business.’

To do this successfully your retail brand needs a ‘Meaningful Role.’ 

At McCann Worldgroup we believe a retailer’s ‘Meaningful Role’ is the most powerful tool to organize the entirety of their business across all constituencies. The role can deliver the mission, vision, and values of a retailer across everything they do. It can, and should, define all activities from purpose to profit.

Quite simply it is their brand’s intention.

Most importantly it leads to the development of an enduring brand platform. A brand expression that can stretch across the whole funnel from the top to bottom, where it helps a retail business grow future sales by building salience and consideration amongst potential customers, while also helping to convert current customers that are in the market for what the retailer is selling.

It means that all the retailer’s activity across the ‘full funnel’ builds brand fame and converts sales, even as the focus and channel mix switches from the longer to shorter term, because all the activity re-enforces the retail brand’s ‘Meaningful Role.’

For IKEA it’s ‘The Wonderful Everyday’ born of their Meaningful Role of ‘Creating a better everyday life for the many people.’

For ALDI it’s ‘Everyday Amazing’, the brand expression that brings their Meaningful Role ‘Making access to high quality food a right for everyone’ to life.

Every piece of brand building ‘future sales’ activity will help convert sales now, and every piece of performance marketing will help build sales for the future – the ultimate in retail effectiveness.

The great Jeremy Bullmore, often described as the adland’s greatest philosopher once said,

“A good ad will sell now and forever.”

You are much more likely to get advertising that sells now and forever with a retail brand platform that works in the long-term as well as the short-term.

Credits
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