Each day, reflect how you forgot to do different things (especially purchases). How could a marketer have helped you remember these?
Life can be pretty chaotic, and forgetting things happens to me very often. Thankfully, a marketer could definitely help me not to forget at least about buying things. This week, on Monday, I celebrated my birthday and as soon as it became my biggest recent concern, I forgot several other things.
First of all, being busy with preparations and going out to have a party, I completely forgot about buying groceries on Monday. It was frustrating because I had no normal and fresh food to eat on the following day. I don’t like buying groceries for the whole week in advance because I prefer eating fresh food. Therefore, I buy things 3-4 times a week. There are no big supermarkets with everything I need nearby, and usually I order these products online using the Meituan app. I believe that marketers could have helped me in this situation by app notifications so I wouldn’t need to rely solely on my memory. In fact, according to Efimova (2023), push notifications are effective in improving user engagement and reminding customers of upcoming tasks.
On Tuesday, I missed a limited-time offer. About 2 weeks ago I accidentally found a notification in one of the group chats about games, that one of the titles that I really wanted to purchase would be sold at a very low price on that day. However, on Tuesday I completely forgot about that and was very sad the next day, when I realized that I missed that opportunity. To address this, a marketer could utilize social media platforms more and send reminders more often. At least, a notification 1-2 days just before the event would be fine. By creating a sense of urgency, marketers can trigger an immediate response. According to Liang (2023), time-limited offers significantly influence purchase decisions, especially when delivered through social media.
On Wednesday, I forgot to buy a gift for my boyfriend’s birthday which will be on October 20th. In fact, I spent the whole evening trying to come up with a decent idea, and after I found the gift on Taobao (an online shopping platform), I put it into the cart and decided to search for some other ideas just in case I would find something even better. However, when I finished around 1,5-2 hours later, I completely forgot about the gift in the cart, closed the app, and went to bed with the feeling that I already paid for the gift and was simply searching for something additional. I found out that nothing was bought only the next morning. I believe that this situation can be easily overcome if the app reminds you about the last items added to the cart before quitting.
On Thursday, I forgot about the appointment. It was a personal one, and I’m not sure whether the marketers could have helped me with that. Probably, they could have advertised organizers and calendars with notifications a better way, so that I would finally start using them in order to not forget such things in the future. But not today.
Today, when I’m writing this Learning Journal, it is Friday morning in China. I wonder what I will forget today. To sum up, I believe that reminders and personalized marketing approaches would help me remember important things and purchases. By using mobile advertising and social media platforms, marketers can effectively reach out to me and provide timely reminders or incentives. These strategies align with the prevalent digital landscape in China, where smartphone usage and social media engagement are widespread.
References
Lian, C. (2023, July). Online promotion effects under time limitation – A study of survey and physiological signals. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167923623000386
Efimova, A. (2023, June 21). How push notifications improve user engagement and retention. Retrieved from https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2023/06/21/how-push-notifications-improve-user-engagement-and-retention