A Closer Look At How ShopLocal Can Help Brands

Branding vs. Direct Response vs. Community.  This new three-way tug of war that most brands are locked up in does not have to be a no-win scenario (yes, I am a fan of Captain J.T. Kirk).  They can all coexist in harmony.  That is the mission of a new partnership that Ripple6 and ShopLocal are beginning to forge.  Here is how it might work…

1. Branding: This is a lot more subtle than may expect, but still effective.  It has to be careful balanced since users are so smart and sensitive to something feeling to corporate and branded.  So instead of a 30 second video clip, this may be some small logos sprinkled throughout or some peripheral display ads.  People are smart, so they’ll get the fact that the entire experience is being sponsored and brought to life by the brand.
2. Direct Response: In the most simple of terms, for a brand this is the activation piece.  Classic questions like “is the item on sale” and “where nearby can I buy the item” must be addressed.  This is where the ShopLocal multi-retailer promotional data set comes in.  By being able to offer a brand content that can answer these two key questions, all of the branding and community dialogue can hopeful be converted into a sale in a local retail store.  This is the product that ShopLocal called SmartBrand, since it is a single brand-centric, multi-channel comparison shopping tool that is typically deployed as an embeddable widget or iFrame within an overall larger site experience.
3. Community: This is where the magic of Ripple6 comes in, whereby they create and moderate custom branded communities that get real eveyday people to engage with each other and a brand in a natural, conversational way.  This is really the main attraction that gets users there and keeps them coming back.

Shown here are all the retailers that currently are promoting Suave brand products within their local stores . All of these products shown for each retailer here would be on sale currently.

Depicted here is a retailer store locator that only shows those nearby retailers that currently have a special promotion going on for Suave brand product.