Using Digital Media Kiosks for Retail Promotions

Given the changing behavior across many demographics from physical to digital media, one of the most persistent questions becomes: how can a brick-and-mortar retailer remain relevant in the movie/music space and how will it leverage digital media to maintain brand awareness and drive store traffic?

The most compelling solution is also one that is near and dear to my heart–using in-store kiosks that already deliver digital media to create successful marketing programs.  This is not a new idea for MOD; we are a pioneer in the use of in-store kiosks for media delivery. Five years ago we started with an idea to let the consumer create her own CD, developed that further into providing downloadable feature films from major studios, and very soon will deliver a tremendous variety of music content in MP3 format.  Leveraging existing in-store kiosks with a solid marketing plan will drive store visits, increase average basket size during that visit, and create more loyalty to a retailer.

The great thing about the MOD solution is that a retailer can continue to use their best practices, as well as add new and innovative marketing strategies, to drive more foot traffic.  Many major retailers still invest heavily in print advertising. You can see this every Sunday when you open the paper and see the effort put into creating the circulars. (I have to admit, that’s one of the reasons I still get the Sunday paper – I love to see what’s on sale, the latest movies and music, and the newest gadgets.)

A great deal of thought and effort goes into planning every successful retail promotion. There are discussions about pricing, projections for stock, planning for in-store displays, meetings for ad layout and product placement in email, print, and web advertising. Each of these steps is dependent on the others and all of them must be executed in perfect harmony for a customer to leave the store happy-- and with product in hand.  If a consumer visits the store for your promotional product and it is not available, you will have an unhappy consumer who just might tell his friends about his experience.

A MOD solution provides some great value propositions:

• Unlimited stock – because the product is digital, you can’t run out.
• No need to estimate order quantity – with a digital product, you won’t need to preorder anything.
• Promotional Codes – you can supply your customers with promotional codes for a free rental, or promotional track; this is already happening on the web, but is much tougher to do in a retail environment.
• Additional cross-product sales – a customer downloading a “free track” might be more likely to purchase the device to load it on, which may lead to other purchases.

Once the user is in the store to pick up the digital content, the location and store signage of the kiosk is critical to ensure a seamless experience.  If the retailer has digital services, we can integrate with them to create more tightly coupled services leveraging recommendation engines and user accounts.

Today self service has become such a standard part of our lives that most users will not need much assistance; but for the first few months, we recommend offering help when needed. This may present an opportunity for the salesperson to suggest a new set-top box or DVD player that supports GreenPlay, a new MP3 player, a netbook or flash media device.

Our goal is to provide consumers a personalized experience that allow them to create a wish list at home and then fulfill it in the store.  When the customer is in the store we can immediately create other offers that might generate additional, unanticipated revenue. Additionally, you can contact the consumer via email, keeping your brand foremost in his mind, resulting in more in-store visits.

The MOD vision is to create more tightly integrated marketing solutions that combine online services (pc), mobile services, consumer electronic playback with branding, and in-store kiosk opportunities.  The one key element in our solution is that we drive traffic into the store which really keeps the brick-and-mortar retailer relevant in this digital age.


Thanks,

David Hostetter
david.hostetter@modsystems.com
VP, Engineering, MOD Systems