The primary objective of modern marketing is to draw a line for the consumer between their needs and wants, and the products or services a brand has to offer. The consumer needs to see the utility in the solution being offered by the brand, as well as its value, especially considering how crowded and loud the market has become. This makes it necessary for the brand to build a relationship with the consumer.
Field marketing is a branch of marketing that facilitates relationship building ensuring the consumer consistently chooses your brand whenever they need to make a purchasing decision. It involves a significant amount of interpersonal interaction between the consumer and the brand’s representatives.
By establishing and building relationships with consumers, field marketing offers the unique opportunity for consumers to interact directly with the brand through field marketers, brand ambassadors, and other team members deployed to the field in various capacities.
Well-trained brand ambassadors have a deep understanding of the brand’s offerings and can speak confidently about the brand at length. The authority held by the brand ambassadors inspires the consumer’s trust, which is then extended to the brand as a whole.
Create Relevant Content
People have a much stronger memory of how certain events, people, and activities made them feel then they do the specific details about those things. The trust they feel when speaking to a reliable representative of the brand lingers long after the interaction. They may even forget the interaction itself, but the association between the brand and their positive feelings is quite persistent.
Field marketing makes it easier for new customers to switch to your brand by promoting brand loyalty. The human mind is wired to be consistent with its past choices and experiences and as a result, we choose to purchase products from the same brand, or even the same variant of a brand’s product over and over again. In the same vein, trying a new product or a new brand is always a hard decision to make.
Field marketing creates the opportunity for new customers to feel safe by trying new products, or switching to a new brand, largely owing to the human interaction they have with brand ambassadors. Consumers are free to ask questions and field marketing personnel can address their concerns on the spot. If the consumer is contemplating switching from the brand they currently use, the brand representative can help them see how your brand is the superior option for their specific needs.
Improves Brand Perception. Consumers may sometimes have negative misconceptions and ideas about your brand. This could be the result of someone within their community has had a negative experience with your brand. Alternatively, they or someone influential in their circles may have a strong and negative opinion about your products and services. Lastly, they could have a very strong opinion about a competing brand, and due to the tribal nature of human associations, any brand that is not their preferred brand is seen as inferior.
Field marketing leverages human interactions to help consumers see your brand in a more positive light. If they or someone they know has had a negative experience with your brand, your brand ambassadors can discuss how your service offering has improved since then, your policies on returns and replacements, or even how to use the product or service properly to avoid negative experiences. All this culminates in the consumer feeling reassured that your product or service is as good as or better than your competitors.
Closing the Deal. A customer’s journey from being aware that a particular brand, product, or service exists, to point of purchase can be quite long. More often than not, most consumers never get to the point where they purchase a product.
Field marketing teams’ efforts can increase the number of people who eventually buy the product. Their understanding of the customer, their needs, and their deep product knowledge gives them the insight they need to show the consumer why they should buy a product.
In an organization where there are separate sales and marketing departments, field marketers hand over a large number of prospective customers who are not only interested in your products or services but also have a clear understanding of why your brand is the best option for their needs.
We explore this further in our article “How Field Marketing Affects Purchasing Decisions at the Point of Sale”
Provides valuable insights into the needs and perceptions of consumers. Field marketers are uniquely positioned to gather data about the consumers and their perceptions of your brand. They sometimes work in or near retail outlets for campaigns, where they spend a fair amount of time interacting with consumers. This allows the field marketers to collect a significant amount of qualitative data that is difficult to get by other means. This data can then be used to inform future marketing decisions or even product development and campaigns.
Field marketing provides several benefits which have a very tangible impact on your revenue and brand. Through field marketing, consumers get the chance to experience the brand in unique ways which are not possible in conventional buyer-seller relationships. Additionally, your brand, through field marketers, will gain deeper insights into your customers and how they respond to your brand in the marketplace.
If you want to enhance your marketing strategy with field marketing’s personal touch, get in touch with us today. We have a team of well-trained, highly motivated, and experienced field marketing practitioners ready to help you, and we would love to discuss how we can grow your brand.