http://www.google.ca/think/research-studies/2012-zmot-handbook.html
As it happens, there’s also a classic mental model for marketing. For decades we’ve practiced our craft by focusing on three critical moments: stimulus, shelf and experience.
Stimulus. Dad is watching a football game and sees an ad for digital cameras. He thinks, “That looks good.”
Shelf. He goes to his favorite electronics store, where he sees a terrific standup display for that same digital camera. The packaging is great. A young sales guy answers all his questions. He buys the camera.
Experience. Dad gets home and the camera records beautiful pictures of his kids, just as advertised. A happy ending. Those three steps have been themental model of marketing for a long time.
Figure 2-1: The traditional 3-step mental model
But the big news for marketers today is the critical new moment between stimulus and shelf in every product category. Dad still watches football and he still sees your TV commercial. But now he grabs his laptop off the coffee table and searches for “digital
camera reviews.” He looks at comments from users on CNET and two other sites. He goes to Twitter and posts: “Anybody have a great camera for under $100?” He hits YouTube and searches “digital camera demos.” Before the game ends — and before he gets to the store shelf — he’s ready to make a decision.
If you’re a brand manager, you’ve got policies, methodologies, training, shopper marketing agencies, partners and budgets to win those original three steps of stimulus, shelf and experience. But what do you have in place to win that grabbing-the-laptop moment — the Zero Moment of Truth? Probably not much. And you’re not alone. American households now spend as much time online as they do watching TV, according to Forrester Research. Yet in 2010, only about 15% of media ad budget money was spent online.
Online decision-making is skyrocketing; online marketing budgets aren’t. Change your marketing mental model to include ZMOT, and you stand to gain a ZMOT: Winning the Zero Moment of Truth very big competitive advantage. Because you’ll reach those millions of shoppers who are making decisions before they enter the store. And by the way, it’s not just stores and consumer packaged goods we’re talking about. ZMOT is at work across all industries, in B2B and B2C, and in areas like education and politics. Voters still see traditional billboards and lawn signs with classic calls to action like “Vote for Anderson” or “Punch #107.” But just like that dad looking for a new camera, voters today make a lot more of their decisions before they reach the ballot box, at the Zero Moment of Truth.