Omnichannel branding to develop integrated customer experiences

Consumers eagerly use their ever-increasing digital options: According to mycustomer.com 67% of customers start their shopping experiences on one device and finalize their purchases on another platform. 80% of all smartphone shoppers use their mobile phone as an aid whilst shopping in stores. Omnichannel customers generate 15-30% more sales turnover compared to single-channel purchasers. So what does this mean for brand management? More than ever the focus must be on experiencing a brand as a whole.

Relevance of integrated customer experiences
Precisely because today’s customers do not progress along the buying process in a linear manner, an integrated customer experience becomes all the more important. Previously, at the entry of the sales funnel, consumers would evaluate a certain selection of brands, then successively narrow it down in an elimination process and eventually decide which brand they wanted. Nowadays, with customers routinely informing themselves on comparison platforms and being regularly made aware of new brands, the choice of brands actually increases during that evaluation process. Therefore, orchestrating and coordinating the various “experience points” becomes increasingly significant in ensuring that a consistently better informed, more agile and networked consumer generation not only shortlists your brand but carries it across the finishing line. A cross-industry study by the Harvard Business Review (2013) demonstrates that overall customer experience correlates more strongly with the ultimate corporate result rather than the performance of the individual contact points: In terms of customer satisfaction it is higher by 30-40%; while parameters such as turnover, repurchase and recommendation are enhanced by over 20-30%. 
In which context then should the relevance of overall customer experiences be placed? Which ongoing developments can be identified?

Developments in the context of customer experiences
The following five developments illustrate which change dynamics strengthen the relevance of overall customer experiences.

1. Increase of contact points and positive impressions
Technological developments and innovations are the main driving force behind the sharp increase in brand contact points in customer experiences. Customers have ever more communication and sales channels at their fingertips through which to inform themselves and share information, or which are used as points of sale – digitally and physically.

2. From staging individual contact points to integral worlds of experience
Basic marketing communication and advertising may influence elements of the brand experience, but cannot in any way penetrate every dimension. A variety of aspects such as services, interaction, technology, architecture and environment, plus employee behavior also play a significant role in customer experiences.

3. From customer appeal to customer involvement 
The monolog brand – customer, e.g. through classic “push promotion” is increasingly transitioning into a dialog between brand and customer. Customers proactively search for information or actively share information with friends and family on the respective community platforms and social media.

4. From brand focus to customer focus
Digital natives among retailers such as Amazon or Zalando are renowned for anticipating customer wishes and adapting the customer experience accordingly so that consumers are offered more options and convenience at new contact points. One example is the Amazon Dash Button which enables customers to reorder consumer articles by simply clicking.

5. From sales promotion to loyalty creation 
Even though individual contact points may boost promotional sales in the short term, integral experiences have a long-term effect and promote value-enhancing parameters such as trust, purchase probability, customer satisfaction, loyalty and the willingness to recommend. True to the motto: “A brand is what consumers tell you it is.”

The logical step for brand management: Omnichannel
In order to develop an integrated customer experience, a holistic and cross-discipline approach to brand management is essential. Factors such as employee behavior, technologies, product innovation or sales organization which have a significant impact on customer experience must be included in the brand management concept.

In reality, however, these aspects are frequently handled quite differently. Many companies continue to reduce brand management simply to its communication function, with a focus on managing individual channels. The omnichannel approach is entirely different.

Multi vs. omni

Multichannel
-  Focuses on individual channels (e.g. digital) incl. management of individual channels
-  Employs a company-focused perspective
-  Concentrates on requirements
-  Promotes transactions on various channels
-  Based on CRM data, or collated customer input regarding products and services

Omnichannel
-  Focuses on integrated experiences
-  Employs a consumer-focused perspective
-  Concentrates on wishes, requirements and customer behavior
-  Promotes interaction across various devices and channels
-  Bases on big data and takes corresponding lifestyles and environments into consideration.

The four success factors when dealing with changing consumer behavior
Following an Accenture study (The New Omnichannel Approach to Serving Customers, 2015) four main success factors relating to the omnichannel concept can be identified.

1. Know the individual customer
The result: “I expect to be recognized as a customer and my preferences, inquiries and previous orders taken into account. I expect customized interactions, based on my previous activities, regardless of when and where these took place.”

The challenge: it is necessary to create data-supported, personalized experiences in order for the customer to feel recognized and understood. Thus the gentlemen’s clothiers Outfittery get to know their customers through selective surveys and suggest outfits based on the collated profile data. At Zalando they experiment with customer clones in order to base their product recommendations on customers with comparable buying behavior.

2. Anticipate customer wishes
The result: “I expect proactive personalized offers and product recommendations as well as the right information at the right time at the right place.”

The challenge: customer experiences that anticipate individual requirements. Amazon anticipates customer wishes and makes recommendations based on their profiles, search requests, clicks, recent orders, comparable profiles and wish lists. Moreover: Amazon filed a patent application for a pre-shipping system in 2014 already. With “Anticipated Logistics” they even know what products consumers will buy before they have actually ordered them. US department store Macy’s have launched beacons in over 800 locations and use this technology to track customer movements in order to selectively place individual product information.

3. Simplify the customer’s life
The result: “I expect simple interactions with the brand – when, where and how it suits me. It should make my life easier.”

The challenge: maximum flexibility in a seamless customer experience at all contact points. Enable customers to utilize all options independently. A case in point is the German interior brand PLY who made an app available enabling the customer to visualize the furniture on offer within their own four walls. After all, who has never struggled with the question of whether a piece of furniture really fits in their living room?

4. Value your customers
The result: “My trust and my loyalty are rewarded, the longer I use the brand, the more I value it.”

The challenge: handing control to the customer and boosting their loyalty through relevant incentives. Valuing the customer also includes paying attention to their opinion. A principle that transportation services provider UBER has taken to heart: Sharing Economy via Sharing Feedback. Equally, certain insurance companies have started rewarding customers for “commendable” behavior. Swiss health insurance specialists CSS’s (CSS MyStep) incentive, for example, grants premium reductions based on the amount of steps the customer takes daily: every step counts. Or, car insurances that reward customers for low-risk driving based on telemetry data which they receive automatically.

Challenges in addressing target groups in omnichannel branding
«Knowing the consumer in the omnichannel world is not equal to knowing your target group. You need to understand the individual not the general consumer.» 
yoox-net-aporter group; ynap.com

What challenges result from this development for brand management? The central topics in addressing target groups in an omnichannel context can be categorized under the following points:

1. Online-offline cross-linkage
80% of all smartphone users use their device in-store at some point during their purchase. 50% of all offline purchases are influenced by digital information. 39% of all retailers place information in stores to guide their consumers onto their digital channels. So much for the numbers (Worldplay 2015). Thinking in channels is outdated. Target group segmentation, identifying personas, use cases and defining individual customer journeys are the basis for a cross-linked on-and-offline experience.

2. Content – the right information at the right time at the right place.
65% of the consumers tend to buy in-store or online after receiving relevant and personalized offers (Accenture Interactive 2016). Fast-paced technological developments and the resulting increase in personalized offers accentuate the relevance of suitable messages and content. Which story is capable of providing the where, when and for whom, and creating a vibe that reaches beyond a technical device’s functionality.

3. Organization of omnichannel management
This cross-linkage of channels leads to the question of suitable customer-oriented corporate organization. Integrated, cross-departmental collaboration – often still organized according to channels – has become essential. This includes central management units such as:

-  Brand: coordination and management of customer experience
-  Customer insight: structuring customer data for all departmentsSales: coordination across all channels
-  Customer service: coordination of all incoming and outbound activities
-  Marketing: coordination campaign and customer contact
-  Product development/innovation: coordination of Services & Innovation Design to match customer requirements
-  HR: Training and development of executives and employees

4. Employees and brand behavior
Orchestrating an overall customer experience requires suitable employees who, in their role as brand ambassadors, shape and define the experience. This involves ...

... recruiting: reaching out to those talents who, with the necessary competencies, are able to support a customer-focused organization.

... empowerment: training of employees with a view to handling processes and tools, e.g. Design Thinking as a means to promote innovation.

... culture: establishing a culture of agility, openness, cooperation and innovation for a personalized customer experience.

5. Interpretation and handling of data
The right interpretation of collected data requires the correct observation and knowledge of customer behavior along identified personas and customer journeys. Linked to this is also the responsible handling of data – whether this is labeled big, small or smart data. Customers understand that they leave a data footprint, accordingly they expect this to be managed responsibly. Companies must create data transparency: “Data protection of the future will be that a citizen is able to view, amend and delete data saved about them with a single click.”(2b AHEAD Thinktank, 2015).

In order to successfully develop and manage integrated customer experiences through omnichannel branding, this strategic topic should be listed on the Executive Board agenda. More than ever, branding affects central corporate management functions.  Only in this way can the overall potential of a corporate brand – beyond its communicative force – be wholly realized. The name for this new discipline is of secondary importance: maybe in the future brand management will be subsumed under “Customer Experience Management”, or possibly a combination such as “Brand & Customer Experience Management”. What’s crucial, ultimately, is the focus on the customers. Because they decide on the success or failure of a company and this truth remains unchanged even in the omnichannel era.

*Pascal Geissbühler is Head of Strategy and Member of the Executive Board, Philippe Knupp is Strategy Director at specialized brand consultancy Branders, Zurich.