Google released a free eBook yesterday titled The Zero Moment of Truth, or simply ZMOT (“ZEE-mot”).
It’s 75 pages and available in pdf, Scribd, Google eBookstore, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Nook & Apple’s iBook formats. Best of all it’s free and full of useful information. You can find the book here: http://www.zeromomentoftruth.com/
So what is the the ZMOT?
ZMOT is that moment when you grab your laptop, mobile phone or some other wired device and start learning about a product or service you’re thinking about trying or buying.
An example of a Zero Moment of Truth is: A WINTER SPORTS FAN IN A SKI STORE, pulling out a mobile phone to look at video reviews of the latest snowboards.
To define the impact of ZMOT in numbers, Google commissioned a major study from the independent research firm Shopper Sciences. They reached 5,000 shoppers across 12 different subcategories with surveys specially designed to show exactly which sources influenced shopper buying decisions.
The Key findings were:
- 84% of the shoppers said that ZMOT shapes their decisions.
- 70% of Americans now say they look at product reviews before making a purchase
- 79% of consumers now say they use a smartphone to help with shopping
- 83% of moms say they do online research after seeing TV commercials for products that interest them
- 37% of shoppers find online social sources to be an influential driver when making decisions. That was up from 19% in 2010
- 54% comparison-shopped for products online
The top online social activities among shoppers:
- Getting an online referral from a friend
- Becoming a friend or follower of a brand
- Reading blogs where the product was discussed
- Seeing the brand mentioned on a social networking site like Facebook
Audiences are asking three things about your product:
- Will it save me money?
- Will it save me time?
- Will it improve my life
When people ask each other about your product at ZMOT, you can bet they’ll be talking about one of these three things.
This all means that Pre-shopping before buying has become a huge, huge part of customer behavior.
Google is challenging businesses with this methodology. They recognize that companies for decades have focused on three critical moments: stimulus, shelf and experience.
What they want businesses to do is to ask the question: What do we have in place to win that grabbing-the-laptop moment?
Changing your marketing mental model to include ZMOT will allow you to gain a very big competitive advantage. Because you’ll reach those millions of shoppers who are making decisions before they enter the store.
If you’re available at the Zero Moment of Truth, your customers will find you at the very moment they’re thinking about buying, and also when they’re thinking about thinking about buying.
Google thinks that the future belongs to marketers who recognize the power of ZMOT, staff for it, even reorganize for it.
I’m only scratching the surface here but this eBook is full of useful research with examples from different categories like packed goods, auto, entertainment and insights from industry professionals. I highly encourage you to check it out and we’ll put a link to it on our website.
