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Influencer Archives - NVISION, A BradyPLUS Company

NVISION Insights and Innovation Team
In Marketing Trends, Marketing Strategy, Retail Trends, CPG, Food for thought

How Wine Industry is Shifting to Connect with Customers

Wine companies invest significant resources in conducting studies to learn what customers look for when shopping for their ideal wine.

However, it’s becoming more and more evident that many wine consumers don’t actually know what they want in a bottle of wine. Consequently, these efforts usually bring wine brands with little useful insight and only wasted money.

According to Gregory Carpenter and Ashlee Humphreys at Harvard Business Review, there is a more effective approach to gearing your brand towards consumers – educating and engaging with them. If most customers don’t know enough about wine to know what they want to buy, wine brands need to take the initiative and proactively inform them.

So, how can wine companies successfully engage with their customers?

Wine glasses

Influence Customers’ Tastes

Many businesses aim to meet customers’ needs through their products. However, in the wine industry, many customers don’t know enough about wine to have predictable preferences. So, how can wine companies know what to produce to satisfy consumers’ desires?

Wine companies can use their expertise in the industry to give shoppers what they want before they even realize they want it. Brands can put a personal touch on their products by producing wines that they want to bring to market, rather than reacting to consumers’ preferences.

The most effective approach to success for winemakers is to influence the tastes of their customers. By coming up with innovative labels, branding and marketing planning, and products, wine brands can attract customers and drive sales for their products.

Develop Relationships with Industry Influencers

Certain critics and influencers have strong product views that can affect buyers’ decision-making processes. So, what’s the best way to capitalize on critics’ positions of power in the market? Impress them with a truly superior brand experience.

Creating a smart and innovative atmosphere where critics and social media influencers can experience and taste your brand’s wines will increase brand awareness and demand for your products. At the same time, it will enable you to develop long-lasting, profitable business relationships with influential figures.

As a result of the growing relationships with wine-industry critics, wine companies can use those reviews and ratings to better market their products and drive sales for their brand.

influencer marketing

Build Brand Loyalty with Shared Customer Experiences

Consumers seek advice by reading reviews and ratings. If wine companies want to wow shoppers, they need to focus on displaying these factors that can sway customers’ decision-making process.

The trick is creating a brand experience that is truly superior to the competition. As Carpenter and Humphreys explain, “Consumers become fans and pay premium prices, despite the availability of literally thousands of excellent alternatives.” When your customers believe that they are purchasing the best of the best, they will be willing to pay more.

The in-store display can be an excellent way to promote your products. Having a vibrant yet elegant display stating positive reviews and comments by influencers and customers will help accelerate your product sales by swaying the purchase decisions of customers. Sometimes too much information is better than lack of one, especially not many customers have expert knowledge when it comes to selecting a bottle of wine.

And they will keep coming back for the same brand and products in the future, hence, growing brand loyalty.

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Wine brands are discovering new ways to reach their customers. Instead of wasting money and resources surveying shoppers to learn about their wine preferences, they are focusing on influencing consumers with innovative products and creative packaging, and through influencer marketing.

Recommendations and strong reviews by influencers are an essential part of the decision-making process for modern-day consumers. By understanding the thought processes of shoppers, wine brands can help navigate them to make the right decision. As a result, it will create a fan base of customers who will remain loyal to your brand and increase your brand’s footprint in the market.

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Why NVISION?

For more than three decades we’ve partnered with Fortune 500 companies to deliver marketing operations solutions. Led by a strategic account management team, we’ll help you develop, procure, fulfill and distribute printed collateral, signage, point-of-purchase displays, direct mail, branded merchandise and much more.

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NVISION Insights and Innovation Team
In Marketing Trends, Digital Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Gaming, Online shopping, E-Commerce

There’s a New Sheriff in Town: How to Market to Generation Z

gen-z-holding arms together

Predictions indicate that by 2020, Generation Z (Gen Z) shoppers will make up 40% of the consumer industry. This generation, comprised of people who were born after 1995, are a new breed of customers.

Consequently, brands need to take specific consideration when it comes to marketing strategies that will effectively target this group.

According to the Forbes Expert Panel and Business Development Council in their article, “This powerful consumer base is the next group of consumers that can help your business grow its revenue, as long as you take note of them now and prepare your marketing strategies to cater to their needs.”

In order to ensure future success, brands need to begin implementing strategies to draw in Gen Z shoppers. By not doing so, you could miss the mark on future profits from this emerging consumer group.

So, what marketing strategies can brands employ to effectively draw in and engage with Gen Z?

woman shopping on tablet

Meet Them in Their Natural Habitat

Generation Z is highly detached and tech-centric. The online is their comfort zone, so brands should start their marketing efforts on social platforms with clean and straight forward brand messaging; utilizing various touch points and forms of media along the way.

Gen Z shoppers spend time doing their research on products. They read multiple reviews of a product before making a purchasing decision. The user-generated content (UGC) by other customers significantly impact the decision-making process of the Gen Z shoppers.

So, it is important to ensure that your product has positive reviews and comments that are contributed by previous users on popular online platforms. It is a powerful way to not only increase your brand awareness but also impact Gen Z shoppers’ opinions regarding the value of your product and brand.

Entertain Them

Because technology has largely impacted the nature of their upbringing, many Gen Z shoppers have a shorter attention span than previous generations. In order to draw them in and keep them engaged, brand marketers need to focus on providing authentic interactions that will keep these shoppers coming back.

Forbes’ expert panel member Lisa Box explains, “To win with Gen Z, marketers have to evolve from informing to delighting, from celebrity to authenticity, and from generic to predictive.” This consumer group looks for brands that grab their attention and identify what they need for them.

Develop fun and catchy marketing assets that will simultaneously entertain and dazzle them into your store to make a purchase. A useful method is to come up with interactive games to play with Gen Z shoppers in-store and advertise them using vibrant and interactive signage. Then awarding them with personalized reward toward purchasing would be even more ideal. This will attract and entice this growing group of consumers to interact with your brand.

customer-satisfaction on ipad

Advertise Based on Benefits and Results

Gen Z shoppers don’t trust a product simply because the brand says it’s a good product. They are mostly driven by results that they can see. To generate demand among this group of consumers, brand marketers need to clearly and effectively show them the benefits of a product.

Showing them what they can achieve by using the product will maximize the sale of your products as well as elevate your brand’s status as an expert who understands their lifestyle and needs.

Once the relationship is established, Gen Z shoppers will likely become your brand ambassadors by influencing their friends and acquaintances by promoting your products and brands.

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Gen Z shoppers are growing as a segment, and businesses need to prepare for this emerging group of consumers. Because they have different qualities and needs from other consumer groups, brand marketers need to focus on developing new marketing tactics to effectively advertise to them.

Reviews, entertainment, and results are important factors for Gen Z shoppers when it comes to making purchases. Using creative marketing materials, such as signs and POS displays, to show off positive reviews, provide entertainment, and demonstrate product benefits is an effective way to draw in and connect with Gen Z shoppers. By understanding this emerging consumer group, brands can capitalize on new opportunities to directly engage with them.

And by working with a trusted partner who can help you prepare for the emergence of Gen Z shoppers, your brand can increase competitiveness in quality, effectiveness, and providing delightful customer experience.

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Why NVISION?

For more than three decades we’ve partnered with Fortune 500 companies to deliver marketing operations solutions. Led by a strategic account management team, we’ll help you develop, procure, fulfill and distribute printed collateral, signage, point-of-purchase displays, direct mail, branded merchandise and much more.

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NVISION Insights and Innovation Team
In Marketing ROI, Marketing Trends, Marketing Operations, Marketing Strategy, Online shopping, E-Commerce

Top Trends for Influencer Marketing: Are Your Audiences Under the Right Influence?

influencer marketing

“Why should I trust you?”

This is the question from customers that even the best marketing departments dread. Because after all, why should a prospect or a customer believe marketers are telling the truth when their clear intention is for their audience to spend money on their products.

Studies have shown that overall consumer confidence in the trustworthiness of corporate marketing is declining. According to some estimates, as much as 69% of consumers inherently distrust brand advertising, and 43% of respondents report that they trust brand advertising less than they used to.

Enter Influencer Marketing.

While consumer trust in brands has fallen off a cliff, trust in their fellow consumers has risen precipitously. 70% of shoppers state that they are influenced by recommendations from their peers and fellow “normal people.” In fact, consumers today are 30% more likely to purchase if it is recommended by a trusted influencer, rather than a celebrity. And 74% of consumers say that they do trust social media networks to guide them to purchase decisions.

This is where influencer marketing presents an enormous opportunity for smart companies. Let’s take a look at what Brandon Brown of Grin has identified as some of the biggest current trends in influencer marketing.

Retail Influencer Marketing Is Growing

From lifestyle to home décor to fashion, retail brands are embracing influencer marketing faster than any other segment. In fashion, for example, well-known brands like Bloomingdale’s, Bergdorf Goodman, Zara, and Sephora are working with popular social media influencers to model their products and give audiences a taste of what they, too might look like in the featured clothes or cosmetics.

In fact, Lord & Taylor recently ran a successful campaign where they tapped 50 influencers to each post photos wearing the exact same dress and tagging it with a predetermined hashtag. The result? The dress sold out of every Lord & Taylor in America in three days. Retail brands should give influencer marketing heavy considering in their marketing plans.

people whiteboarding-marketing assessment

The Rise of B2B Influencer Marketing

The power and promise of influencer marketing isn’t just limited to retail and B2C brands, however. And one of the ingenious ways B2B brands are leveraging it is with employee advocacy programs. Over the last three years, employee advocacy programs among B2B brands have increased by 191%.

Employee advocacy programs offer the best of both worlds in influencer marketing. The brand, for its part, enjoys the trust, authenticity, and believability that only real social media advocacy from real employees can garner. The employees themselves, on the other hand, benefit from the increased “professionalism” that such content brings to their social media pages.

The fact is that B2B brands need to capture the attention of their audiences, and more so, they need to do it in a way that is authentic and lasting. Influencer marketing and employee advocacy programs are an efficient way to do both.

The Ability to Measure ROI Will Be Crucial

As with all marketing efforts, the ability to definitively prove the value and effect of influencer marketing programs will be critical to securing ongoing buy-in from key decision-makers within your organization.

Fortunately, many savvy brands are implementing clever ways to improve their ability to measure influencer marketing ROI. Just as many brands are linking their digital and print marketing channels with the use of custom URLs and promo codes, so too are they measuring influencer marketing ROI. On the simple end of the spectrum, fastidious use of one or two set hashtags for each campaign enables marketers to easily search the engagement of those hashtags.

Likewise, many brands are now distributing custom discount and coupon codes to their influencers, encouraging them to share them with their audiences. That way, whenever a customer enters that unique discount code, the brand can know for certain that they were referred by that particular influencer, and his or her promotional activities.

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As consumer trust in brands and marketing departments continues to plummet, B2B and B2C brands alike are turning to influencer marketing as a smart, cost-effective way to make their marketing budgets go further. If your brand is struggling with trust and authenticity, influencer marketing may be an excellent solution to consider.

Subscribe to the Blog

Why NVISION?

For more than three decades we’ve partnered with Fortune 500 companies to deliver marketing operations solutions. Led by a strategic account management team, we’ll help you develop, procure, fulfill and distribute printed collateral, signage, point-of-purchase displays, direct mail, branded merchandise and much more.

LEARN MORE