[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/03\/23\/how-to-take-your-brand-beyond-the-digital-veneer\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/03\/23\/how-to-take-your-brand-beyond-the-digital-veneer\/","headline":"How to take your brand beyond the “digital veneer”","name":"How to take your brand beyond the “digital veneer”","description":"To offer a truly digital experience, brands need to embrace change on every level","datePublished":"2016-03-23","dateModified":"2022-01-11","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/reza-soudagar\/#Person","name":"Reza Soudagar","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/reza-soudagar\/","identifier":157,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/03a1edae123e98b88d509b4ca2e759e3132480030c5d0f688c9dd3c2c273a82d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/03a1edae123e98b88d509b4ca2e759e3132480030c5d0f688c9dd3c2c273a82d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Future of Commerce","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","width":172,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/thumbnail-d3615ce70b24fb2a1b4c4c98ec1457f0.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/thumbnail-d3615ce70b24fb2a1b4c4c98ec1457f0.jpeg","height":375,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/03\/23\/how-to-take-your-brand-beyond-the-digital-veneer\/","about":["B2C Commerce",{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/commerce\/","name":"Commerce","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Commerce","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q26643"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/customer-engagement-marketing\/","name":"Customer Engagement","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Customer_engagement","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q5196451"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/customer-experience\/customer-experience-general\/","name":"Customer Experience","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Customer_experience","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q984142"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/commerce\/trends-commerce\/","name":"Trends","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fad","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q787045"]}],"wordCount":570,"articleBody":"The digital reality has radically changed the way we live and go about our daily tasks\u2014from the way we catch a ride, watch movies, set our thermostat, connect with friends, and even manage our fish tank! Digital business models are making our lives better and our economies more efficient, and are keeping us healthier and more fit. And incidentally, they also generate tons of shareholder value.That\u2019s why businesses are rapidly setting up digital transformation offices, appointing chief digital officers, and generally moving toward everything digital. The term\u00a0digital disruption\u00a0is even starting to show up in annual reports.Digital transformation vs. digital veneerBut there are differences in their approaches. On one hand, there is true digital transformation:\u00a0a new business strategy that focuses on creating and delivering unprecedented value to customers\u00a0at\u00a0very large scale.\u00a0On the other hand, there is the \u201cdigital veneer,\u201d which wraps old business practices in the cloak of digital technologies: adopting social media, creating a host of mobile apps, or refreshing the company websites. Like any veneer, it looks good, can be done quickly, and is not expensive. But does it really work?Let me share with you my personal experience with the digital veneer.I recently tweeted a product complaint and promptly got a response asking me to send a private message (PM) with more details. A few days after I sent the PM, I received an email notifying me that my case was with the customer service department.About a week later, I got another email from customer service asking for some pictures.\u00a0By then two weeks had passed. After another week, I received a voicemail asking me to call a customer care agent. After playing phone tag for a week, I finally got a chance to speak to the agent, who basically told me that there was nothing they could do.This was very far from an Uber-like experience, and it begs the question: Why do smart companies opt for a digital veneer?There are two fundamental reasons. First is the need and urgency to act quickly. In a recent survey of more than 900 business leaders conducted by\u00a0Global Center for Digital Business Transformation, respondents believed that roughly 4 of today\u2019s top 10 incumbents in each industry will be displaced by digital disruption in the next five years. Translation: \u201cWe need to do something and we need to do it fast.\u201dSource:\u00a0Digital Vortex, Global Center for Digital Business Transformation, June 2015The second reason is that true digital transformation is hard to achieve, especially for the incumbents, because it challenges the status quo, questions traditional assumptions, and affects almost every function in the organization. Companies need to rethink their business models, their investment focus, monetization model, routes to market, and many other fundamental aspects of their business \u2014 most importantly, their corporate culture.To harness the benefits of the digital opportunity, incumbents must have the willingness and courage to go beyond the digital veneer. They must adopt new KPIs, develop new capabilities to empower customers, redesign many of their core processes to become more transparent and collaborative, and ultimately, find new ways to drastically create more value for their customers. This remains a high-stakes game, with very high rewards for the organizations that are determined to become a digital business.  Modern business, meet revenue:\u2013 End-to-end connected data\u2013 Engage quickly with a great CX\u2013 Sell anytime, anywhereGet going TODAY. "},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2016","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"03","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/\/03\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"23","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/\/03\/\/23\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"How to take your brand beyond the “digital veneer”","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/03\/23\/how-to-take-your-brand-beyond-the-digital-veneer\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]