“When we were watching TV or newspapers no one was worried about, can I click my newspaper article or touch my button on my TV and buy?” Jan Van Mossevelde, vice-president of strategy at VF, told Marketing Week.
“It was a vehicle to communicate to the consumer,” he said. And today the vehicle is increasingly likely to be digital.
“That doesn’t mean we need to be there with a ‘buy me now’ because we weren’t doing that when it was a print newspaper or TV 30-second ad,” he added.
But, as the work of Les Binet and Peter Field has shown, marketers have become enamoured of the efficiency of short-term activation in digital so they tend to put their money there rather than into the brand building that brings long-term benefits. (For more, read WARC’s report: Les Binet examines how digital affects brand building/activation model.)
VF’s brands are currently set on a course correction. “That’s the mental shift we have to make,” said VF chief digital officer Velia Carboni.
“Digital marketing for a long time really became about pushing that one-time sale and that model has significantly shifted because our consumers want it to shift and we as a company want it to shift,” she added.
“I’d rather not make the sale right now but make that long-term investment with you as a consumer and know we’re going to have more of a relationship over time. Sales will come from that.”
Sourced from Marketing Week; additional content by WARC staff