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New Research: How Consumer Attitudes Have Changed Toward the Amazon-ified Whole Foods
Food & CPG, Revenue GrowthOn June 15, 2017, my phone showed a news alert that Amazon had agreed to buy Whole Foods. I was not anticipating this and it inspired my imagination, as it did for millions of others who took to social media to talk about it.
No one knew what Amazon would do with its largest entrance yet into bricks and mortar retailing. The deal closed in August and Whole Foods received a flurry of attention that focused on an announcement that the chain would cut prices on some top sellers like avocados, almond butter, and rotisserie chicken.
My industry colleagues and I frequently talk about the reinvention of Whole Foods. It left me wondering what the average consumer thinks about the new Whole Foods.
So, Revenue Architects conducted a survey in February 2018 to assess changing consumer perceptions toward Whole Foods.
Most notably, most consumers surveyed (54 percent) don’t ever shop at Whole Foods. Many consumers avoid Whole Foods because of a perception that its prices are very high or because they are seeking a broader, more conventional selection of goods. In addition, Whole Foods has only about 470 stores, far from covering the entire United States. By comparison, Walmart has over 4,700 stores and Kroger’s retail brands have nearly 2,800 stores.
When we focus just on those who do shop at Whole Foods, most of them (52 percent) won’t be changing their shopping behavior because of the Amazon purchase.
A notable portion of the survey respondents say they are less likely or much less likely to shop at Whole Foods now, and it will be important to track whether and in what way the spending of those shoppers is migrating. Some have hypothesized that dedicated organic shoppers might be wary that Amazon will stray from Whole Foods’ product standards, a departure that seems possible after a report that Amazon’s management is interested in adding popular, high-volume, conventional products like Coca-Cola to its shelves.
An almost equal portion of shoppers, though, say they are more likely or much more likely to shop at Whole Foods now, possibly inspired by the innovation and lower prices that Amazon might bring to the chain.
What is abundantly clear, though, is that Amazon has invested considerable sums into dominating online retail, and that they are actively seeking ways to bring innovation to traditional bricks and mortar retail.
Importantly for manufacturers who sell to and aspire to sell to Whole Foods and Amazon: Have you created a plan to address these coming changes?
Chatbots – Can A Robot Be Your Best MarTech Friend?
Account-Based Marketing, B2B Marketing and Sales, Marketing Automation, Revenue Growth, Revenue Systems, Sales Enablement, Technology & WebsitesChatbots aren’t just for Facebook, Amazon, and Apple. Innovative brands are adding artificial intelligence and natural language processing technology to their marketing mix for an excellent reason. When done well, a chatbot delivers tangible value for the brand and, moreover, an excellent buyer engagement experience for customers. An actual win-win!
Chatbot benefits for brands:
It’s time to face it….capture forms are dead. They still provide a valuable utility to brands looking to attract and retain customers but forms have their limitations. Namely, customers have developed an aversion to providing an email address to acquire information. Faced with the trade-off of growing brand awareness or supporting the sales funnel, more and more brands are deciding to un-gate their content in order to reach prospective customers at the top of the funnel.
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Knowing Is Growing: Identifying Your Ideal Target Advisors and Influencers
B2B Marketing and Sales, Revenue StrategyEffective advisor engagement begins with an understanding of the ideal advisors and influencers for your investment products and offerings.
Your marketing success will depend on strategies and programs that rely on accurate identification and targeting of market segments. Depending on your business model, you will target a variety of different advisor audiences. You might consider the top-level groups like Wirehouse FAs, Independent BD firms, and independent/Fee-Only RIAs and Hybrids. However, these groupings do not go far enough to properly tailor your advisor engagement strategy. Engagement strategies will vary significantly across these groups and even further within each group. There are a wide range of advisor types and styles that you must consider when crafting an engagement strategy.
Yet too often, our marketing and communications efforts are not targeted towards the most promising target segments. The benefit of improved segmentation is the ability to drive sales by crafting differentiated communications, deploying customized marketing programs, aligning distribution strategies and improving marketing and sales focus.
So how do we identify our ideal advisors and influencers?
The answer is to segment the market around criteria that matter.
Understand segmentation and the factors in your business model that should determine the ‘ideal advisors’.
Go beyond groups (like Wirehouse, Indy, RIA) and consider factors that distinguish advisor’s likely interest, fit and engagement styles. Examples you might consider are:
Identify and focus on the segments that work for you
Download your copy of the Buyer Engagement eBook: “Exposed: The False Promises of Revenue Marketing”
Knowing Is Growing: Identifying Your Ideal Customer or Client
Buyer Engagement, Financial Advisor Marketing, Investment Management, Revenue GrowthEffective Asset Management buyer engagement begins with an understanding of the ideal customer or client and influencers for your products and services.
Your marketing success will depend on strategies and programs that rely on accurate identification and targeting of market segments. Depending on your business model, you will target a variety of different audiences. An asset management firm might consider top-level market segments like Wirehouse FAs, Independent BD firms and independent/Fee Only RIAs and Hybrids. But these groupings do not go far enough to properly tailor your advisor engagement strategy. Engagement strategies will vary significantly across these groups and even further within each group. There are a wide range of advisor types and styles that you must consider when crafting an engagement strategy.
Yet too often, our marketing and communications efforts are not targeted towards the most promising target segments. The benefit of improved segmentation is the ability to drive sales by crafting differentiated communications, deploying customized marketing programs, aligning distribution strategies and improving marketing and sales focus.
So how do we identify our ideal advisors and influencers?
The answer is to segment the market around criteria that matter.
Understand segmentation and the factors in your business model that should determine the ‘ideal advisors’.
Go beyond groups (like Wirehouse, Indy, RIA) and consider factors that distinguish advisor’s likely interest, fit and engagement styles. Examples you might consider are:
Identify and focus on the segments that work for you
[E-book] Exposed. The False Promises of Revenue Marketing
Buyer EngagementThis eBook was published by Revenue Architects with a focus on B2B. It describes the 9 Principles of Effective Buyer Engagement that serve as a practitioner’s guide to increase leads, conversions, pipeline velocity and revenue impact.