Figure 5-1. Omniture advertising on Digg.com
During the need recognition stage, consumers realize they have a specific need or want due to an internal or external stimulus:
An internal stimulus is based on the consumer’s internal system. For instance, when a consumer becomes hungry or sleepy, or if her laptop breaks, the consumer recognizes that she must do something to satisfy her need (get some food, take a nap, or buy a new laptop).
An external stimulus is based on external factors which cause the consumer to recognize a specific need or want. Late-night advertising of fast food, weight-loss products, or money-making schemes is aimed at stimulating potential consumers to recognize a specific need.
Although marketers can do very little about internal stimuli, most types of advertising are designed as external stimuli for consumers to recognize a need. Also, in some instances, social pressures or norms stimulate consumers to recognize a need or want. High school or elementary school students are stimulated by the social pressures of their peers to own particular items. Apple’s products, such as the iPhone and iPad, are successful because of their social acceptance as being “cool” products. Of course, the quality of these products also positioned them to enjoy great success.
On the Web, banner advertising plays a role in stimulating consumers to recognize a need. As people browse online, banners that relate to the content they are viewing can spark them to recognize a need. Selecting the right medium and how relevant the banner is to the content will have the most impact on the banner’s effectiveness. Figure 5-1 shows a banner advertisement on the popular social website Digg.com for Omniture, the enterprise analytics package. The banner advertises an Omniture white paper titled, “Can You Quantify the ROI of Social Media?” Although the topic is important to those who work on social media strategy, it is difficult to see how this paper will be relevant to 99.99% of the visitors to Digg.com. Yes, Digg.com is a social media website, but the average Digg.com user is in his 20s, either a college student or a recent graduate. These visitors usually come to Digg looking for quick news updates. Do you think Omniture is getting great ROI on this particular social media advertising?
Ecommerce companies with large customer databases can be sitting on a wealth of information with the unique ability to create external stimuli. Customers provide insights to items they are interested in either explicitly or implicitly. Examples of using customer data in email campaigns include the following: