Field Marketing, recovering the consumer’s affection
If you are the same age as me (No, I will not reveal it) you have probably lived something like this and experienced the role of field marketing. As a child in your neighborhood there surely was a store. The typical store attended by that lady who always received you with a smile and knew from your name. It happened to you, right? (Then we are old.) But the following may also have happened to you:
Mr. López, who attended that little store, was lucky enough to be able to turn it into a mini-market, which with time would become the first branch of “LopezMarket”, a large supermarket chain.
At first, everything was incredible. Mr. López had taught his workers to welcome new clients with a big smile, to attend them in a cordial and helpful way. Actually, LopezMarket was an incredible supermarket.
But be careful, the story does not end here:
After a few years, things are not as before. When you enter the supermarket nobody welcomes you, the cashiers no longer smile and everything seems to be a robotic process. It feels that LopezMarket no longer has that “essence” that “something” that it had before. They do not want to buy there anymore.
What happened?
The growth of the company has led to the loss of that kind of tradition in which personal attention, closeness and quality of customer care were paramount.
After gaining this growth, those owners are no longer in contact with their consumers. It is exactly there, where relations with customers begin to be lost, where wear begins and where only typical advertising models are used to try to reach them.
Apart from that, each day a person receives an average of 30,000 advertising impacts from different brands.
Connecting with the consumer today by advertising is not an easy task.
Worse still, motivate sales, amidst so many messages.
How nice it would be to be able to recover that beautiful time and give them a little warmth, connection and attention to customers again, right?
Well, just for that, Field Marketing has been developed.
But what is Field Marketing?
The best way to explain it is with an analogy, for example:
Have you seen those far western movies, where those street vendors travel from town to town making incredible presentations of their magical “potions” and “concoctions” and interacting with the public?
Well, Field Marketing is something like that.
What you are looking for with Field Marketing (one of the 30 types of marketing that I previously taught) is that through events, road shows, segways, street marketing or different actions, you can generate a more direct sales relationship, more expensive to face the client, also involving the feelings and emotions of them.
Why?
Because in this way, they can create that feeling of “closeness” generated by many companies, businesses and establishments of the past, while explaining or demonstrating something about a product.
To understand in a better way is to be there, where the consumer is. Try to turn it from passive to active with us. Try to make him feel something, but face it.
What are the benefits of Field Marketing?
The biggest benefit is that the simple fact of getting in touch “face to face” by a company with consumers will generate a sense of closeness very important.
And why do you want to approach the client?
Because that kind of closeness produces confidence and confidence translates into sales. People like to hear things from the mouth of the owner, manager or perhaps the expert seller.
The second benefit is that putting managers, managers and consumers in contact, generates an interesting feedback tool between the parties.
The politicians usually do Field Marketing during their electoral campaign to be in contact and a greater relationship with their constituents.
The third benefit is that many of Field Marketing’s techniques are often creative and innovative, thus keeping brand recall for a longer time in the minds of consumers.
How to do Field Marketing?
The first point to keep in mind when applying marketing strategies is the target audience.
It must be defined correctly because this public will be the one that will provide feedback to the company but at the same time the public to whom it is desired to generate greater proximity.
The second thing is to plan the type of Field Marketing action that best suits that target audience, for example:
- Product’s release.
- Street Marketing shares.
- Events
- Actions at points of sale.
- Actions on public roads.
- Conventions
- Promotional parties
- Fairs
- Etc.
The third point is to see what human resources we will use to be in contact with customers.
This goes from some senior manager providing a presentation of products, to an excellent promoter at the point of sale of a supermarket.
What matters here is finding those human resources that will generate a good connection with consumers.
The fourth point, you must understand how you are going to engage with that audience, what kind of experience is going to be offered or in what way.
For example, make a game at a point of sale, where people interact with the brand after buying a product.
Remember that Field Marketing seeks to support sales, working with the target audience from the vicinity or from the point of sale inclusive.
Finally, the fifth point is to generate the necessary reports to be able to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Field Marketing action.
Field Marketing example
While there are numerous examples, such as showing a manager of a company, giving an exclusive presentation of a new product or service.
There are also examples of how Field Marketing can be used at the point of sale, to hook and treat the consumer.
Such is the case with the interactive Pull & Bear store:
Another brand that carries out many Field Marketing actions is Coca Cola, which at this point in life, many of us have seen its incredible campaigns in points of sale.
In short, Field Marketing is that type of marketing that approaches the client, who seeks to do a “face to face” with it in a different way to traditional marketing.
