YAA - ZMOT!

Here's a new acronym - ZMOT ! By the way ... did you know there's an acronym to describe the sad state of affairs - YAA (Yet Another Acronym).

ZMOT stands for 'Zero Moment of Truth' and it is a new concept introduced by one of the Managing Directors at Google, Mr. Jim Lecinski. It highlights that consumers today want to explore and think about how products can improve their lives. They do the background study to gain the insights they need and they’re driven to interact and bond with others in order to enrich relationships as they learn about the products.

The traditional cycle of a product-consumer match can be described in three stages: stimulus, shelf and experience.

For example: you are watching your favorite sitcom on TV and you see an advert about a digital camera. Since you were thinking of buying one but kept delaying it, you sit up and take notice. That's the stimulus stage!

Now, you go to a store and see a stand up display of that brand of cameras. you get interested in the overall proposition and after much deliberation (read: checking your wallet) decide to buy it! That's the shelf stage!

You come home and immediately start clicking pictures and recording videos much to the horror of your loved ones and neighbors ;) and you like the results...voila! perfect ending! That's the experience stage.

Oblivious to the customers, marketers have charted out couple of important milestones in the whole process, called the moments of truth. Consider the shelf stage: once you go to the electronic store, chances are you will encounter many more brands .. some good ... some bad some chinese :) so you are standing there, looking at all that different camera brands and deciding which one to buy. Procter & Gamble called this moment the First Moment of Truth or FMOT. Now once you buy the camera, come back home there's another moment to reckon with: Second Moment of Truth or SMOT. This is when you use the brand — and are delighted, or not!

Now there’s a new critical moment of decision that happens before consumers get to the electronic store. Whether you sell cameras or shaving cream, your customers’ first impression — and quite possibly their final decision — will be made in that moment: ZMOT.

“Engagement with the customer today isn’t just pouring a message down on their head and hoping they get wet. It really is understanding that you must be present in a conversation when they want to have it, not when you want to.” — Bob Thacker, Gravitytank, Strategic Advisor and former CMO of OfficeMax

The big news for marketers today is the critical new moment between stimulus and shelf in every product category. You are still watching TV and you still see the TV advert. But now you grab your laptop off the table and search for “digital camera reviews.” You look at comments from users on CNET and two other sites. You goes to Facebook, Twitter and post: “Can anybody suggest a great camera for under Rs. 15000?” You go to YouTube and search “digital camera demos” Before the sitcom ends — and before you get to the store shelf — you are ready to make a decision.

And by the way, it’s not just stores and FMCG I'm referring to. ZMOT applies to almost all product categories. Google has conducted a research with Shopper Sciences to prove it! Shoppers are digging up more information, from more sources, before they buy. ZMOT shapes shoppers' decisions and is now just as important as stimulus and FMOT in moving consumers from undecided to decided.

The original three step process still holds true: The stimulus still has to drive the consumer to think about a digital camera. You still need the shelf stage and experience stage for a happy ending. What’s changed is that the stimulus now drives consumers to a new stopover on their way to the shelf. When you began searching, the information wasn’t “poured on you” — you actively hunted for and pulled down what you wanted.

Marketers need to realize that its okay to spend millions on advertising campaigns through the conventional media, but do they have what it takes to win that grabbing-the-laptop moment — the Zero Moment of Truth?