When a national household fixtures company wants to introduce a new product line to consumers and builders alike, they have a number of barriers to overcome. Awareness can be addressed through traditional advertising, but trial, hands-on exposure and in-depth explanation of the product’s advantages are something entirely different. An experiential mobile tour can address these issues specifically, while increasing sales and awareness.
The Campaign
Our case study program was conducted in three phases spanning 24 weeks, activating at home and green shows, as well as at retail locations in 13 states. The team interacted with over 115,000 patrons, while handing out close to 80,000 brochures at a total of 77 events. The events aimed to interact with and educate consumers, while driving product sales and trial at the individual locations.
The Measurement Strategy
When the program entered the 3rd phase, PortMA was invited to develop an on-site survey to measure the program’s impact on purchase and recommend intents, as well as the level of brand affinity consumers had in the category. To these ends, the survey asked patrons about:
- How likely they were to purchase the product in the next 30 days
- How likely they would be to recommend it to a friend or family member
- Their overall awareness or prior usage of the product.
Questions were added to analyze the impact of various product features on purchase intent, as well as overall purchase drivers within the product category.
Demographics were tracked by recording the gender and approximate age of survey respondents. Recording these allowed PortMA to segment key findings by the various grouping to unveil hidden trends within certain categories.
Finally, questions were added to measure how much the patrons enjoyed the event, as well as what aspects they would change. Their input offered insights into how the program might be changed or improved in the coming years to better fit the consumers’ expectations.
All told, the structure of the survey allowed PortMA to implement its own ROI model which evaluates the impact on non-customers’ intent to purchase, as well as the value from the word of mouth recommendations and on premise event impressions. This was used over the three phases of the program to measure which set of events offered the greatest return.
Key Findings/ Insights
When reviewing the data, the PortMA team uncovered some interesting findings. For starters, we found that:
- 57% of patrons said that the shape of the product influenced their purchase decision.
- Only 44% said that the color had the same influence.
This told us that the product’s shape had a stronger influence over whether or not people would buy than its color.
Price turned out to be a larger motivator for men than women, with 63% of men citing it as their primary concern (as opposed to 39% of women).
When asked what else they would like to see at the event, information on the environmental impact of the product rose to the top, which is something the brand team can use in their messaging strategy in the years to come. The team also found that those reporting their event experience as ‘positive’ wanted more information about the environmental impact of the product. Those who had a neutral event experience wanted more product details, indicating that they felt the event failed to meet their expectations about overall product details.
After running our ROI analysis we were able to determine where the program had the most impact compared to its cost. The third phase of activation generated over $1.48 million in sales revenue from new customers and an additional $4,000 in impression value. PortMA calculated that the third phase had a 971.3% return-on-investment. By comparing this ROI to the 1st phase’s 641.7% and the 2nd phase’s 162.7%, we were able to quickly see that the third phase outpaced the others with higher returns.
Lastly, PortMA was able to identify a target market (those with the strongest purchase and recommend intents) of those between the ages of 25 and 50. Those with prior awareness of the product also had a stronger intent to purchase than those who arrived at the event with no prior information, indicating that the spread of awareness is effective in accomplishing the brand’s objectives.
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