In moving from channel-centric business models to one where customers can expect a relevant, contextual and consistent experience across every channel, companies need a single commerce technology platform that:
- Enables brand consistency, in terms of the context of underlying assortments, offers, promotions content and policies, across all customer touchpoints
- Provides a real-time system of reference that enables single views of product, pricing and promotions, inventory, orders and customers
- Incorporates mobile as essential for continuous customer engagement
- Is built on an open foundation that easily integrates legacy systems as well as emerging touchpoints and experience-focused technologies
All of these platform functionalities are needed to achieve optimum levels of customer engagement and commerce effectiveness.
Establishing consistent brand messaging and differentiation is becoming more difficult as consumers develop impressions about brands from inputs and influencers outside a marketer’s control, such as social communities, forums, and product ratings and reviews.
Further, companies traditionally have been able to offer distinct channel (whether physical or digital) assortments, prices, and promotion policies while remaining in-step with individual channel competitors.
But customers are forcing a change: they don’t see “channels”; therefore, a brand must distinguish itself consistently wherever a customers engage the brand – and companies are investing heavily and changing business models to respond to that change.
In the retail industry, this change in customer relationship is being acknowledged. Silos are “out,” brand consistency is “in.”
Brands need to be consistent across all physical branding elements: in-store signage, shelf labels, catalogs, and product displays; their digital counterparts: product content, visual assets, price and promotions on own sites and marketplaces; and across all accessible via smartphones, tablets, PCs, and kiosks.
