MEC launches new proprietary planning approach

MEC said that when trying to understand the purchase journey, research commonly focuses on the things people do once they have consciously started the buying process, or the ‘active stage’. What is unique about Momentum is the emphasis it places on the ‘passive stage’ of the consumer journey, said Raj Gupta, MEC’s chief strategy officer for Asia Pacific.

According to MEC, people with a strong passive-stage bias consider fewer brands and spend less time in the active stage and are less concerned with price when making their choice. These consumers also tend to be happier with their decision after purchase. MEC’s research revealed that 53 per cent of consumers have a strong idea of which brand they will buy even before starting the process.

Using this study, MEC will identify media plans that will convert consumers from the passive to the active stage. This includes identifying paid, owned and earned touchpoints, which drive ‘passive-stage’ bias in its clients categories, ensuring messaging in these channels focuses on what makes brands distinctive and what consumers find most important in the given category.

MEC is also keen to integrate retail and promotional activity into client’s strategies, while also identifying new ways to execute across media and develop strategies to encourage brand switching.

This new approach has been rolled out in China, India, Malaysia, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Russia, the UK and the US. Currently, MEC is using the approach for 11 of its clients, Gupta said. It is also running pilots in Australia and certain Asian markets.

The study, based on over 100,000 respondents across multiple categories and countries around the world, offers insights into what buyers do during the purchase journey and how their perceptions of brands influence their behaviour. Momentum provides summary scores for each stage of the purchase journey and gives an overview of a brand’s performance compared to its competitors.

“Momentum measures the whole purchase journey in a new way. It gets under the skin of how people make decisions, unpicking the beliefs, whether preconceived or not, that they have about brands and how these influence behaviour, and the effect of brand communication throughout this journey,” said Melanie Varley, global chief strategy officer.