In-store targeted-advertising
Today, the Wall Street Journal reports about the latest efforts of the marketers to tailor ads to specific consumers in the store. The approach is mostly that the marketers install new digital screens that are appearing next to cash registers and in store aisles. Because cameras are embedded in many of these digital screens displaying the ads, marketers are hoping to serve up ads based on the consumer’s appearance. In detail WSJ describes two cases of Dunkin’ Donuts in USA and of Procter & Gamble in Germany:
Dunkin’ Donuts is among the first marketers in the U.S. to begin testing the technologies, at two locations in Buffalo, N.Y. People ordering a coffee in the morning can see ads at the cash register promoting the chain’s hash browns or breakfast sandwiches. At the pick-up counter, customers see ads prompting them to return for a coffee break in the afternoon and try an oven-toasted pizza.
In a separate test, Procter & Gamble is placing radio-frequency identification tags on products at a Metro Extra retail store in Germany so that when a customer pulls the product off the shelf, a digital screen at eye level changes its message. When a consumer picks out a shampoo for a particular type of hair, for instance, the screen recommends the most appropriate conditioner or other hair products, says John Paulson, president of G2 Interactive, a digital-marketing arm of WPP Group’s G2 Network.
Furthermore they write that all of these “instore targeted advertising” options are still in their infancy and much research still needs to be done to evaluate the best types of ads to display and the way consumers respond to messages.
“I’m a skeptic on technology in the shopping environment,” says Andy Murray, chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi X, the Publicis Groupe agency that focuses on in-store marketing. “Screens need to be useful to get people to pay attention, and if stores are just using them to sell products, shoppers won’t be receptive,” he says.
Press article WSJ August 21, 2008
