2 Brand experience takes centre stage
Connectivity has a fundamental influence on how people consume media and make brand choices. It gives brands the opportunity to increase reach exponentially. But nearly a third of consumers globally report that brands don’t deliver the same level of service online as they do offline, according to the latest Connected Life study from Kantar TNS. Marketers need to better meet the personal expectations of their consumers across different touchpoints.
The consumer journey has changed dramatically in recent years. Different types of consumers take different paths to purchase, and each use the internet in their own way. Diversity of purpose creates multi-modal brand touchpoints, so one shopper’s point of purchase may simply be a source of product information for someone else, or another person’s go-to place for cool content. Trends in Europe, for example show that consumers pass from social, to brand-owned, to offline touchpoints throughout the consumer journey. But in emerging markets there is a far greater preference to interact with brands on social at all stages. These differences create big challenges for channel owners, forced to play multiple roles and juggle numerous requests.
In the year ahead, we’ll see the number of touchpoints available to consumers
Today’s connected world makes it too easy for brands to annoy customers with an inconsistent experience. In 2017, successful brand stories will be built on delivering a consistent experience across touchpoints, and less on the number of touchpoints used.
continue to grow. And when comparing traditional digital touchpoints with mobile touchpoints marketers are faced with a greater risk of delivering an inconsistent brand experience. Nearly 90% of internet users own a smartphone, and the more connected a consumer is, the greater the challenge becomes for brands. Marketers should also be aware of younger consumers who have grown up in a connected world. They are impatient with disjointed online/offline models that are older than they are, and will move away from brands that don’t adapt.
Today’s connected world makes it too easy for brands to annoy customers with an inconsistent experience. In 2017, successful brand stories will be built on delivering a consistent experience across touchpoints, and less on the number of touchpoints used.
Creating a single view of the customer is the first step towards delivering a consistent brand experience, across touchpoints – at the right moments. For example, in the Philippines Mcdonald’s delivered a hugely successful campaign, bringing together social and OOH. Drivers, frustrated by being stuck in traffic, were ecouraged to visit a Mcdonald’s drivethru, where changing daily specials were offered depending on the colour of the consumer’s car. This is a good indication of the thinking required to align touchpoints into a single view, but true consistency will require considerable time and investment, and for many established brands, this will be a longer-term focus on company structure and data management. But throughout all the likely changes ahead, marketers must concentrate on the experience they want to deliver to their customers; the essence of what they want their brand to be – and from there look at how it can be delivered across key touchpoints.