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The Market Leader in In-store Broadcasting
The initiative to grow an asset.
Radio Retail was founded in 1999 with the idea that the dormant potential of the vast number of customers going through the retailers' doors, can be converted into hard sales. In the same way a radio station's assets are vested largely on the amount of listeners, a retailer also has a large number of 'listeners' in its customers. The idea that the retailer, also having this captive group of listners, cannot claim the same value as the radio station did not make sense.
Not only did the asset value of the amount of listeners come to the foreground, but also the fact that the retailer was spending large sums of its own marketing budget on external mediums, such as radio stations, to reach its own clients. It is important to note here that the retailer is obliged to market itself to actually get the customers to visit the store. From this viewpoint, we felt that one could generate sales by actually marketing products to the clients once they are in the store. Marketing focused on in-store activities:
- Sell non-discounted lines.
Use the loss-leaders and discounted lines to actually get the clients in the store. Once they are in the store, promote lines on which the retailer makes money.
- Stock problems.
Instead of dropping the prices of products that are selling slowly, products that are close to the expiry date (milk etc.), or products that are over stocked, these products could rather be promoted in-store without reducing prices at all.
- No marketing competition.
The in-store market is different in many ways. Should one look at the creative compilation of the marketing message in-store compared to the mediums external to the store, the following becomes apparent.
- All promotional messages on any medium external to the store compete for the same buying customer's attention. It is thus necessary to structure the message in such a way that the competing messages are compensated for(by means of lower prices, better guarantees etc.).
Once in the store, the messages that the retailer now communicates through to the client have got no competition. Messages can now be more subtle and without the 'hard sell' agenda.
The retailer now has more time to actually communicate with the clients. Messages that may otherwise have been less commercially viable can now also be used. (" Hello everyone, I am John Doe, your friendly store manager. If you need any help or would like to say hello, I am at the Fruit and Vegetable section.")
- All promotional messages to the consumers are now done for free, and can be repeated as often as the consumers deem acceptable.
- All messages can be specifically targeted at the consumers in that specific store at a specific time. The housewife coming to buy groceries just before picking up the kids from school is being delivered to differently than the shopper coming to buy something quick to eat during lunch hour.
- Baked goods can now be promoted as they come from the oven, with the smell of hot bread still fresh in the air.
The following requirements were focused on the technology on which the Radio Retail system is based:
- In each Radio Retail store, the broadcasting has to be specific to that store and its consumers. This would include all entertainment, commercial broadcasting, social broadcasting and corporate broadcasting. Even if two stores were geographically next to each other, but their client profiles differ, the Radio Retail broadcasting should be different.
- No human intervention should be needed to control the system. Should there be changes(volume changes, etc.) the changes should be made remotely(with local control also existing).
- Advertising is to be specifically targeted to the consumers in broadcasting medium's reach, at a specific time and frequency of broadcast, and in a specific relevant language.
- All promotions are to be monitored to prove the effectiveness of the campaign.
- Volumes are to change automatically to compensate for times when more consumers come into or leave the store. Effectively the volumes should increase as more people come into the store and the volume should decrease as people leave the store. This ambient noise compensation is essential for the audio comfort of the consumers. This functionality is also specific to each store in which Radio Retail broadcasts.
- Marketing campaigns can be initiated in parallel to allow for:
- a national campaign (comprising all stores),
- and/or a regional campaign (comprising a division or region of stores),
- and/or a selective campaign (comprising a selection of stores),
- and/or a local campaign (comprising advertising or broadcasting only in one specific store)
to be broadcasted at the same time.
It is on these basics that Radio Retail was built. To date, Radio Retail is broadcasting in seven countries and in 14 languages. Our vision to grow is based on our ability to grow with our existing clients, by convincing retailers to use Radio Retail for the growth of both parties.
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