Written by Melanie Huet – Vice President, Marketing at Kraft Heinz

The path to purchase has shifted dramatically in less than 3 decades. From 2007 to 2011, online grew sales by +$35B, while brick and mortar shrank by -$30B (Census Bureau).

How consumers are buying continues to evolve rapidly and marketers need to stay in front of these trends if they want to gain, hold or sustain category leadership. New technology allows for all sorts of hybrid approaches to buying. No longer do you need to enter into a shopping app to buy. You can purchase directly through social media with hyperlinked images and words that promptly load the item into a cart for you with one click. If you don’t want to click then you don’t have to do that anymore either. Welcome Siri and Alexa.

Siri and Alexa have entered our homes transforming shopping into simple voice commands. Digital Assistants offer a variety of welcome advantages to busy households where parents feel constant stress from work and household chores and need solutions to quickly get through an endless list of tasks. Shouting out an order and have it completed is much simpler and faster than taking the time to use a device, open an app or program and then complete the task yourself. Younger generations like Gen Z gravitate to digital assistants for one simple reason – it’s easier. Why wouldn’t you take the hassle free approach?

The rise of voice powered artificial intelligence opens up an entirely new world for marketers. Now the busy person’s dream of having a personal assistant has magically come to life for a one time investment of $100. A 24×7 assistant is at your beck and call. She never tires and always is loaded with new answers. Simply voice commands across the room and Alexa can build a shopping list for you or purchase items to be delivered to your front door.

The implication for marketers is significant. When the transaction becomes voice based you remove the other 4 senses of sight, touch, smell and taste. Marketer’s spend millions of dollars in building memory structures that are multi-sensory. Now these vanish with AI powered shopping focused on sound alone. These 4 things become critical to your brand’s future success:

1. Gaining Top of Mind Unaided Awareness In Your Category
2. Earning 1st Position In Search Results
3. Delivering Complete Customer Satisfaction to Gain Repeat Purchase
4. Owning the AI Experience

1.      Gaining Top of Mind Unaided Awareness In Your Category

When getting a sale relies solely upon conversation then top of mind unaided brand awareness is the #1 most important job to be done. You want your consumer to request your product by name. Siri, please put Brand X Food into my shopping cart. Alexa buy Brand Y Toiletry. If your brand is not top of mind then you risk not being recalled at all. Therefore optimizing your brand strategy and media plan to increase unaided awareness becomes critical for future growth.

When getting a sale relies solely upon conversation then top of mind unaided brand awareness is the #1 most important job to be done.

Players that do this best will do more than seed the brand name with consumers. Top players will deliver strong brand awareness linked to a powerful point of difference that drives purchase intent.

2.      Earning 1st Position In Search Results

If voice shopping is AI powered then you will likely only get back one recommendation for purchase. This is radically different than today’s world where a screen full of choices appear. Voice powered shopping is already being used by 1 in 5 consumers. Voice powered shopping will become mainstream in the next 5 years. Gen Z is rapidly adopting the behavior and will soon be a driving force in the US economy. The implication of a single recommendation being returned from an AI voice assistant means that if you aren’t listed first then you may as well not be listed at all. As marketers this changes the game for us. We need to understand the algorithms that drive first position. All of our marketing tools and assets will need to be optimized to get first place search results for the category. A trend already observed with search behavior will likely crossover to voice searching. If the consumer does not name the product by it’s brand name then the consumer will likely ask for a product with a superlative descriptor. I would like the “best” or “cheapest” or “highest recommend,” etc. Brands will need to strive for first place and be clear about which superlative they will own when defining the brand’s point of difference.

3.      Delivering Complete Customer Satisfaction To Gain Repeat Purchase

Consumers are highly influenced by ratings, reviews, social media influencers, friends and search results. Successful brands will employ a consumer strategy that aims for total satisfaction. Consumers are quick to share negative feedback that discourages trial. Whereas positive reviews and experiences lead to consumer acquisition. Turning loyal consumers into devoted brand advocates drives both acquisition and retention. The advocates will naturally help populate positive rating and reviews and be perceived as more credible and authentic than social media influencers that constantly provide paid product recommendations.

4.      Owning the AI Experience

Brand disintermediation is already beginning as consumers purchase products through links and images in other apps and vehicles. As other vendors own the experience with the consumer and become the primary access point, how will we control our branded experience? Start now with owning the experience by establishing strong brand DNA and understanding your memory structures and brand identity for sound, sight, touch, feel and smell. As voice technology displaces the screen, ensure you have a simple, strong and recognizable sonic I.D. Every time that sound is heard you want consumers to recall your brand. Yes in some ways we are back to the early days of advertising with jingles and touch tones that evoke emotion. Sound is a very powerful space. Think of the iconic tones played by NBC or HBO. Establish your unique brand identities and then repeat, repeat, repeat.

Finally, take control of the artificial intelligence and ensure you are mentoring it to deliver your desired result. How can you mentor and influence the AI to recommend your brand? Partner now with companies in this space to understand the predictive analytics around shopping behavior for your category and customize your approach to win by leveraging this data. A small investment now could have a tremendous payback in the future.