SJC 2013 Omni-channel insight report

Transforming the way brands engage with people.

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OMNICHANNELINSIGHT REPORT

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70% OF CONSUMERSLOOK AT REVIEWSBEFORE MAKINGA PURCHASE.1

WELCOME TO THE NEW OMNICHANNEL WORLD.Engaging with consumers is more complex today than ever before. We live in a multi-platform world, where content is consumed along various platforms, traversing multiple technologies. The way we shop is changing and marketing strategies are simply not keeping pace. Whether we’re shopping for cereal, concert tickets or a honeymoon in Paris, the Internet has changed how we decide what to buy. Today we’re all digital explorers, actively seeking out online ratings, social media-based peer reviews, videos and in-depth product details as we move down the path to purchase. Modern marketing strategies have to evolve with the changing shape of shopping.

Would it surprise you that 70% of consumers look at product reviews before making a purchase?2 Or that 79% of consumers use a smartphone to help with shopping?3 Or that 83% of moms do online research after seeing TV commercials for products that interest them?4 Virtually every aspect of our lives – the way we work, shop, communicate, seek information, spend our free time, and so on – is becoming digitized and that means data is being produced at a tremendous rate.

FROM EVOLUTIONTO REVOLUTION.

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#1 PUTTING OMNICHANNEL MARKETING INTO PERSPECTIVE

SINGLE CHANNEL

EARLYMULTICHANNEL

CURRENTMULTICHANNEL OMNICHANNEL

Marketers are feeling the impact. According to McKinsey & Company not only is the world’s data doubling every two years,6 digital campaigns are the source of some of the largest and most complex big data sets. Forrester agrees, highlighting that 45% of surveyed clients’ big data initiatives address marketing campaigns. In addition, the estimates for social media, email and mobile marketing market – which is a $6 billion market opportunity today – will be skyrocketing to $16 billion by 2016.7

As technologies continue to evolve – becoming faster, cheaper and more versatile than ever before – big data’s role will continue to swell and consumers and retailers will begin interacting across an even wider array of channels. Already it’s increasingly difficult to determine where e-commerce stops and in-store retailing begins. Forward-thinking marketers recognize they have plenty to learn from e-commerce sites like Amazon. Amazon’s five-year average return on investment is 17%; traditional retailers average less than half that at 6.5%.8 Simply developing e-commerce capabilities is no longer sufficient. Having a multichannel “presence,” or tracking customer data across one or two channels, is just not enough. Customers expect more. They expect a seamless and consistent experience across all channels. They expect you to be able to manage and integrate all their big data so you can provide them with an immersive experience, regardless of the channel where they found you. That is by definition the omnichannel marketing approach.

Omnichannel marketing differs from multichannel in that its goal is not solely to optimize the broadcast of content across customer touchpoints, but rather to create a media-agnostic infrastructure that links products, consumers, and communications channels together. This creates an ecosystem that is constantly evolving and getting smarter as new data is received.

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79% OF CONSUMERS USE A SMARTPHONE TO HELP WITH SHOPPING.5

An omnichannel go-to-market model is an idea whose time has come, at least according to Macy’s Chairman, CEO, and President Terry Lundgren:

We talk a lot at Macy’s about omnichannel retailing. Our customer is multi-dimensional. She is busy at work and out with friends. She always has her mobile device in her hand. She’s active on Facebook and Twitter and YouTube and a dozen other social media sites… We want that customer to be able to interact with Macy’s no matter where she is or how she shops. It makes no difference to us whether she buys something in our store or online… or whether she is shopping from her desktop computer or her Droid or her iPad. Macy’s best customers are those who shop us in-stores and online. We have a whole series of strategies in place to drive our store customers to the Web, and our online customer to the stores…Today’s customer is not monolithic. And that’s the way we are approaching our customer.9

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‘

’

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OMNICHANNELSHOPPERSOUTSPENDMULTICHANNELSHOPPERS BY 20%.10

In the good old days, it used to be that whatever brand shouted the loudest won. You could simply blast out your message on television, radio and in print. It didn’t matter what the value proposition was – frequency was your friend, and the world of “push marketing” never failed to target the shoppers you wanted to reach and capture their attention.

SAY HELLO TO THEOMNICHANNEL SHOPPER.

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# 2 HOW OFTEN ARE CONSUMERS SHOPPING?

Tablet PC

Mobile

Social Media

PC

Daily

Weekly

Monthly

Less than once a month

Never

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100

%

Source: Demystifying the online shopper: 10 myths of multi-channel retailing. PwC.

The Omnichannel Shopper isn’t handing over their hard-earned dollars without doing some research. From tablets to tables, they consume a multitude of information before making a purchase. While the consumption of content does fluctuate based on the product or service category, it’s important to note that even the lowest priced items are researched before they end up in the shopping cart. This isn’t surprising. Unlike traditional multichannel shoppers, this consumer uses all channels – store, catalogue, flyer, magazine, web and mobile – simultaneously.

The Omnichannel Shopper likes to get their research right from the source. Sixty percent head to the brand’s or manufacturer’s website. And according to Forrester, 57% will visit the retailer’s website.12

How long the Omnichannel Shopper spends exploring a brand depends on what they’re buying. For instance, 51% of consumers who recently purchased clothing started thinking about it within a day to within minutes before making the purchase, while only 22% said the same of a recent electronics transaction.13

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60% OF CONSUMERS INTERACT WITH BRANDS THROUGH MULTIPLE CHANNELS.11

A recent Forrester report reveals that the channels Omnichannel Shoppers rely on for purchasing don’t always align with the channels they use to research. In other words, they are exploring your brand anywhere, everywhere and at any time. Therefore, brands must allocate budgets and optimize content to make each interaction high-impact. Proper leverage of the most infl uential touchpoints has the potential to increase consumers’ spend or basket size, facilitating a smooth transition between the explore and buy phases of the customer journey.

The Omnichannel Shopper is the gold standard consumer. While the multichannel shopper will spend on average 15% to 30% more than someone using just one channel, the Omnichannel Shopper outspends the multichannel shopper by over 20% according to IDC Retail Insights’ research.14 What’s more, the Omnichannel Shopper exhibits strong loyalty and is more likely to infl uence others to endorse a brand or retailer.

Think about the last time a brand wowed you with great customer service. Did you keep it to yourself? One-fi fth of US consumers active online are frequently recommending brands, products or services to their friends and family.

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#2 HOW ARE CONSUMERS SHOPPING?

20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Books, music, etc.

Electronics

Electricals

H & B

Clothing

Furniture

Grocery

Research and buy in store

Research onlinebuy in store

Research and buyonline

Research in store and buy online

Source: Demystifying the online shopper: 10 myths of multi-channel retailing. PwC.

The key is to take an outside-in approach to knowing your customers’ business and purchase needs. Shift focus from product features and benefits to solving business problems that show economic value. Taking into account that store sales influenced by online customer research are up to four times higher than total e-commerce sales,15 the implications for brands and retailers are clear: Failure to deliver the complete package in terms of a unified omnichannel buying experience puts overall sales and customer allegiance at risk.

Rather than leaving a consumer to hem and haw over a product purchase, marketers can speed up the decision by providing relevant marketing messaging. But keep in mind, one size doesn’t fit all. To gain sales from Omnichannel Shoppers, protect yourself against falling into the trap of focusing on one channel alone or becoming locked into a channel-specific solution. Instead, take a unified and converged channel approach that supports seamless processes to deliver consistent information and marketing communications across all sales channels.

Retailers need to provide a complete package of pricing and product information in real-time and across every channel. Achieving this depends on having the right product content layer in place. Omnichannel Shoppers leverage different sources based on where they are within the purchase cycle and what they are buying. The trick is to fulfill their needs at every stage of the consumer journey. By doing so, the brand is rewarded with loyalty, repeat purchases and positive brand influence. In fact, more than half of US online consumers say they are or may be willing to pay a higher price for a product or service from a brand that is able to impress them with its customer interactions.

It’s not surprising that people love getting something extra for interacting with brands. More than half of US online consumers engage with brands to get deals, discounts, and special promotions and four in 10 do so to get free samples. While fewer people engage with brands for reasons unrelated to these types of benefits, 33% interact with brands in order to learn more about the latest offerings and another 31% interact just because they like the brand and like being associated with it.17

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50% OF CONSUMERS ENGAGE WITH BRANDS TO GET DEALS, DISCOUNTS AND SPECIAL PROMOTIONS.16

Mobile adds an important twist to the mix. Now that consumers are able to make price comparisons and access product reviews in real time while on the move, mobile commerce is proving to be a key enabler in the unifi ed retail consumer experience. As a result, retailers now need to cater to this additional channel to ensure customers and prospects buy through their desired brand, channel or outlet.

As consumers become increasingly channel agnostic, retailers need to ensure content seamlessly follows consumers on their cross-channel journey – providing the right information and incentives to maximize the purchase decision-making process at each and every point.

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#4 HOW ARE OMNICHANNEL SHOPPERS EXPLORING YOUR BRAND?

Join the brand’s email list

Join the brand’s customerloyalty program

Visit the brand’s physical store

Browse a brand’s website

Become a fan/friend of thebrand on facebook

54%TO GET DEALS,DISCOUNTS OR

SPECIAL PROMOTIONS

33%TO LEARN ABOUT THE LATEST PRODUCT OR SERVICE OFFERINGS

12%TO SHOW

SUPPORT FOR THEIRMISSION OR CAUSE 8%

TO SHARE CONTENT WITH

FAMILY OR FRIENDS

31%TO SHOW BRAND

LOYALTY AND AFFINITY

18%TO GAIN ACCESS TO THE

EXCLUSIVE CONTENT

38%TO GET CUSTOMER LOYALTY POINTS OR

REWARDS

41%TO GET FREE SAMPLES31 53 40 47 60

53 47 49 63 39

43 65 45 58 66

40 30 50 43 61

58

47

38

47

32

65

47

44

64

35

53

47

49

63

39

43

65

45

58

66

Source: How To Engage Your Omnichannel Consumer. Forrester Research, Inc.

NIKE SHOWS US WHY YOU SHOULD JUST DO IT. It’s no secret that Nike understands its customer. It was evident from the moment the iconic and incredibly perceptive tagline Just Do It was born. But like every great brand, Nike is constantly evolving. With the launch of Nike+ seven years ago, followed by Fuel Band in 2009, Nike moved from a horizontally integrated company that offered a wide variety of closely related products and services, to a functionally integrated company that is built around the consumer.

The magic of Nike+ and Fuel Band is that it helped Nike create a complete omnichannel ecosystem with the consumer planted fi rmly in the center. Nike’s market positioning and brand messaging combine across each and every channel to create a unifi ed customer experience. Technology provides the backbone for the experience with Client Relationship Management, payment systems, marketing campaign management tools and IVRs working in unison.

It is important for digital marketers to understand how their channel responsibilities fi t into the complete consumer journey. Nike achieves this through their mobile apps. Rather than creating a store in app form, they’ve created running and training programs to support what their brand stands for.

All of this results in rich data – in other words, it’s a digital marketer’s dream. Nike realized tying in-store, mobile, social and web customer data into a single, intelligent business system that drives next-best offers and can orchestrate one-to-one experiences is a utopia. A utopia that Nike can grow endlessly.

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THESE BRANDSKNOW HOW IT WORKS.

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DISNEY - TOY STORY 3 A BLOCKBUSTER OMNICHANNEL STRATEGY THAT’S RIGHT ON TARGET.

When Toy Story 3 was released 11 years after Toy Story 2, it dominated the box offi ce, doing just north of $1 billion in sales. That’s a big jump from when Toy Story broke onto the movie scene ($361,958,736) and then bested itself with Toy Story 2 ($485,015,179). Toy Story 3 soared above its predecessors by using an omnichannel strategy.

Toy Story 3 was absolutely everywhere when it launched. From faux-vintage toy commercials that went viral on YouTube, ticket sales where you could build your social group on Facebook, a full roster of mobile apps, to a broad range of print implementations – Toy Story 3 employed an omnichannel engagement model from the outset and targeted its markets with surgical precision. Back that up with Disney’s incredible in-store experience and merchandising, and you have taken touchpoints to a new level.

In the end, the campaigns for the fi lm before, during and after its release have solidifi ed Toy Story 3’s role in history, both as a feat in fi lm and as a great example of omnichannel marketing.

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SAMSUNGWHAT HAPPENS WHEN WIRELESS GOES SEAMLESS.

Consistency is one of the principal tenets of omnichannel marketing (along with awareness and tracking). Getting your products to market is the easy part. Getting your products to market with consistency seems easy enough, but with all the different retailers, agencies, let alone consumers touching your products, sometimes that consistency is elusive. Brands used to notoriously keep their assets in a “walled garden” with no access from the outside world. However, with the Internet and consumer reviews becoming a mainstay of how people search for products (think Google’s Zero Moment of Truth), brands are now opening their assets up to be used. Better to have retailers and consumers download a high-res picture, logo and block of copy than to take a shot of your beautifully designed product with their “happy-snap” and post that for the world to see.

Samsung has done an incredible job of product consistency worldwide. No matter what website you go to (Best Buy, Verizon, AT&T, Rogers, Bell, etc) or what blog you frequent for that matter, you get Samsung products that are displayed the way Samsung intended. And by opening up the walled garden, it provides Samsung the ability to track where and how their products are showcased and maintain even better control.

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HOW CANOMNICHANNELMARKETINGWORK FOR YOU?

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3. THINK CONTEXT AND CONTENT FIRST.

4. DON’T GET COMFORTABLE. MOVE WITH YOUR CUSTOMER.

1. SUPPORT INTERNAL OMNICHANNEL COLLABORATION.

2. CONNECT WITH CONSISTENCY.Real-time data is necessary when moving towards an omnichannel approach, as socially connected consumers move from one channel to another. A consistent and convenient brand exposure from an omnichannel retailer will create better top of mind awareness from consumers.

Rather than trying to present every communication permutation in high fi delity, fi rms should aim for the right fi delity to allow teams to get their heads around the customer journey and take action. Not all channels are equal in their importance or focus. The right content and context will elicit the highest rate of return.

Traditional measures are not always applicable within an omnichannel model. Rather, marketers need to review not only channel metrics but overall network metrics to ensure that the overall omnichannel network is successful and getting smarter. This involves analyzing behaviours and how customers are moving within devices. Overall accountability for the success of the networks needs to be centralized and not siloed. This ensures that the optimization and evolution of a single communication channel doesn’t overshadow the overall optimization of the network.

To give great results to the outside world, you have to look on the inside fi rst. Firms need to bridge gaps between internal silos. Investments are required to ensure that marketing, sales and technology teams are aligned on company goals and strategies.

HOW CANOMNICHANNELMARKETINGWORK FOR YOU?

5. TEST. TEST. TEST.

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“A RISING TIDELIFTS ALL BOATS.IT’S NOT UNTILTHE TIDE GOES OUTTHAT YOU REALIZEWHO IS SWIMMINGNAKED.”

– WARREN BUFFETT

Traditionally, brands only had to ensure that their print campaigns meshed with their TV spots, and that their TV spots meshed with their direct mail campaigns. However, as online marketing has increased in importance, a brand’s websites, email campaigns, banner ads and other online media must all tell the same story as its offl ine content. The marketing model of the not-so-distant past is now altered in a profound way.

It’s time to embrace ‘omnichannel customer engagement solutions’ that can draw in the most savvy consumer cohort in history. Brands need to look at solutions such as enhancing shopper marketing; delivering on-demand product comparisons and recommendations; creating unique and richer connections between products and digital experiences; connecting print advertising, out-of-home, digital and augmented reality; and fundamentally transforming marketing and media communications to cross-channel, participatory, interactive and two-way media.

The key takeaway for brands – as the consumer moves towards multi-touch, multi-delivery, 360-degree product and service experiences – is to deliver relevant messaging along the consumer’s path to purchase. Delivering enhanced omnichannel marketing solutions in balanced, measured and optimized ways (at home, on-the-go and in-store), enables brands to deliver the most innovative, relevant messages to consumers at the right time and in the right place.

In order for brands to take advantage of the business potential in this evolving marketplace, they must focus on the requirement to manage content and distribute it over an exploding number of current and emerging digital channels. Social networking applications, e-commerce initiatives, email blasts, web 3.0, mobile, news feeds, animation and access to product and service information at the POS level are all being added to the brand’s arsenal of marketing strategies.

High-performing brands are heartily tackling the new paradigm and omnichannel marketing – an approach that’s all about end-to-end, closed-loop campaign creation, execution and analysis. Once implemented, it holds tremendous promise for streamlining marketing processes and providing meaningful insights into the ROI for omnichannel customer engagement programs. It is well within any brand’s grasp to move down this path, and brands are advised to move swiftly before their competitors do.

Let’s call it a convergence of media with the rise of the active consumer. Marketing needs to be holistic, 360 degrees and integrated to take advantage of the active consumer. People want to share by nature – and, given the chance, they will socialize and evangelize brands that make it pleasurable to do so. Brands and organizations that fail to take their cues from connected consumers will be missing a great opportunity.

THE WRAP-UP.

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MARKETING NEEDS TO BE HOLISTIC, 360 DEGREES AND INTEGRATED.

St. Joseph Communications is spearheading transformational change by redefining the way in which organizations connect with their customers. Our omnichannel marketing approach lets us build solutions and ecosystems anchored by people, technology and insight that intuitively merge all data and visual assets to create multichannel publishing solutions for all mediums. This gives marketers the opportunity to be more efficient at creating and grouping content while focusing on strategy and analytics. Through these solutions we can deliver the widest array of interconnected solutions across our Content, Media and Print groups. By redefining how brands develop experiences, we build sales, boost loyalty and create evangelists across all communications channels and technologies.

Simply put ? We transform the way brands engage with people.

For information about this report, its contents and usage, please contact our Corporate Marketing team at [email protected].

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ABOUT US

REFERENCES1. The New Info Shopper. Penn Schoen & Berland Associates.2. Ibid.3. The Mobile Movement. Study. Google/Ipsos OTX Media CT4. 2012 American Media Mom Report. BabyCenter.5. The Mobile Movement. Study. Google/Ipsos OTX Media CT6. “Ten IT-enabled business trends for the decade ahead” by Jacques

Bughin, Michael Chui, and James Manyika (May 2013). McKinsey & Company - McKinsey Global Institute.

7. How Forrester Clients Are Using Big Data. Forrester Research8. “We’re Ready for the Omnichannel Revolution -- Are You?” by Lisa

Arthur (May 8, 2012). Forbes.9. “Macy’s Terry Lundgren talks holiday trends, Black Friday, and the

importance of “believing”” by Ellen Davis (November 18, 2010). National Retail Federation Blog.

10. Retail Insights Predictions 2013: Retail Report. IDC Corporate USA.11. Demystifying the online shopper: 10 myths of multi-channel retailing.

PwC. 12. Consumer Buying Decisions Most Influenced By In-Store Experience.

Forrester Research, Inc.13. Ibid.14. Retail Insights Predictions 2013: Retail Report. IDC Corporate USA.15. The Conversation Index. Bizarre Voice.16. How To Engage Your Omnichannel Consumer. Forrester Research, Inc.17. Ibid.

Transforming the way brands engage with people.

For more information, visit stjoseph.com