First of all, if we’re talk­ing about what hap­pens between stim­u­lus and trans­ac­tion, search has to play a big part in the activ­i­ties of the con­sumer. Lecin­ski agreed, but was quick to point out that the online ZMOT extends well beyond search.

Jim Lecin­ski: “Yes, Google or a search engine is a good place to look. But some­times it’s a video, because I want to see some­thing – I want to see it in use, show it to me. Then – your social net­work. I might say, “Saw an ad for Bobby Flay’s new restau­rant in Las Vegas. Any­body tried it?” That’s in between see­ing the stim­u­lus but before the shelf – in that case, mak­ing a reser­va­tion or walk­ing in the door.

We see con­sumers using sort of a broad set of things. In fact, 10.7 sources on aver­age are what peo­ple are using to make these deci­sions between stim­u­lus and shelf.”

A few columns back, I shared the pin­ball model of mar­ket­ing, where mar­keters have to be aware of the mul­ti­ple touch­points a buyer can pass through, poten­tially head­ing off in a new and unex­pected direc­tion at each point. This mud­dies the mar­ket­ing waters to a sig­nif­i­cant degree, but it really lies at the heart of the ZMOT concept:

Lecin­ski: “It is not intended to say, ‘Here’s how you can take con­trol,’ but you need to know what those touch points are. we quote the great mar­keter Woody Allen, “Eighty per­cent of suc­cess in life is just show­ing up.” So if you’re in the makeup busi­ness, peo­ple are still see­ing your ads in Cosmo and Mod­ern Bride and Elle mag­a­zine, and they know where to buy your makeup. But if Make­u­pal­ley is now that place between stim­u­lus and shelf where peo­ple are research­ing, learn­ing, read­ing, review­ing, mak­ing deci­sions about your $5 makeup, you need to show up there.”

Herein lies an inher­ent chal­lenge for the orga­ni­za­tion look­ing to win the ZMOT – who’s job is that? Our cor­po­rate org chart reflects mar­ket­place real­i­ties that are at least a gen­er­a­tion out of date. The ZMOT is vir­gin ter­ri­tory, which typ­i­cally means it lies out­side of one person’s job descrip­tion. Even more chal­leng­ing, it typ­i­cally cuts across sev­eral departments.

Lecin­ski: “We offer seven rec­om­men­da­tions in the book and the first one is “Who’s in charge?” If you and I were to go ask our mar­keter clients, “Okay, stim­u­lus -  the ad cam­paigns. Who’s in charge of that? Give me a name,” they could do that, right? “Here’s our VP of National Advertising”

Shelf – if I say, “Who’s in charge of win­ning at the shelf?” “Oh. Well, that’s our VP of Sales” or “Shop­per Mar­ket­ing.” And if I say, “Prod­uct deliv­ery,” “Well that’s our VP of Prod­uct Devel­op­ment” or “R&D” or what­ever. So there’s some­one in charge of those clas­sic three moments. Obvi­ously the brand manager’s job is to coor­di­nate those. But when I say, “Who’s in charge of win­ning the ZMOT?” well, usu­ally I get blank stares back.”

If you’re intent on win­ning the ZMOT, the first thing you have to do is make it somebody’s job. But you can’t stop there. Here are Jim’s other suggestions:

“The sec­ond thing is you need to iden­tify what are those zero moments of truth in your cat­e­gory? Know what those zero moments are. Iden­tify them. Start to cat­a­logue what those are and then you can start to say, “Alright. This is a place where we need to start to show up.”

The next is to ask, “Do we show up and answer the ques­tions that peo­ple are asking?”

Then we talk about being fast and being alert, because up to now, stim­u­lus has been char­ac­ter­ized as an ad you con­trol. But some­times it’s not. Some­times it’s a study that’s released by an inter­est group. Some­times it’s a prod­uct recall that you don’t con­trol. Some­times it’s a competitor’s move. Some­times it’s Col­bert on his show pok­ing a lit­tle fun at Mir­a­cle Whip from Kraft. That wasn’t in your annual plan, but now there’s a ZMOT because guess what hap­pens – every­body types in “Col­bert Mir­a­cle Whip video.” Are you there, and what do peo­ple see? Because that’s how they’re going to start mak­ing up their mind before they get to Shop­pers Drug Mart to pick up their Mir­a­cle Whip.”

Win­ning the ZMOT is not a cake­walk. But it lies at the crux of the new mar­ket­ing real­ity. We’ve begun to incor­po­rate the ZMOT into the analy­sis we do for clients. If you don’t, you’re leav­ing a huge gap between the stim­u­lus and shelf..and lit­er­ally, any­thing could hap­pen in that gap.

Orig­i­nally pub­lished in Mediapost’s Search Insider July 28, 2011


Biography / Resume : Gord Hotchkiss is the founder and senior vice president of Enquiro, now part of Mediative. He is renowned in the industry for his expertise when it comes to understanding online user and search behaviour. He and the Enquiro team have built a solid reputation for being the leading experts when it comes to understanding what happens on a search portal and why. Before Enquiro, Gord was chairman and director of SEMPO (The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization), he worked as a columnist for MediaPost and Search Engine Land, and he was a regular speaker at industry conferences and events. Gord is also the author of The BuyerSphere Project: How Business Buys from Business in a digital marketplace.