Posts

The Future of Omnichannel Marketing? A Lesson From the Beauty Industry

/1 Comment/in , , /by

I’ve been learning quite a lot about channel marketing and retail in the last couple of months, and as the journey of getting my master’s degree in marketing comes to an end I wanted to talk about what the future holds for the retail industry. 

There’s been a lot of talk on how traditional retail is dead, big retailers closing stores and e-commerce still growing strong and taking over brick-and-mortar stores, but I do not believe that is the reality, it’s not that retail is dying, but consumers are changing and businesses need to keep evolving, adapting and truly investing in digital and omnichannel strategies. 

The Beauty Industry

We can find a great example of this in the beauty industry. According to the NPD Group, the prestige beauty industry reached $18.8 billion in sales during 2018, that is a 6% sales increase over the previous year. And while this can be contributed to many factors, like new players in the industry, a lot comes from the way beauty retailers and brands are leveraging technology and in-store shopping to deliver unique experiences for their shoppers. 

Experiences and Innovation

Just today, I saw on the news that beauty retailer Sephora is planning to open 35 new stores in the U.S.. Sephora, owned by the French group LVMH, proves how the right mix of offerings and an omnichannel approach can benefit businesses. From their physical stores, that now offer multiple services for clients, like skin treatments or makeup classes, to their online strategy.

On their mobile app for example, users can not only easily shop for their favorite products but they can even try on shades of makeup thanks to AR technology. Continuously testing different strategies and innovations to leverage digital, the retailer focuses on their customers, providing them with a seamless and upscale shopping experience. 

Betting for Traditional

This is also working the other way around. In 2017 the online brand Kylie Cosmetics partnered with retailer Topshop and launched pop-up stores throughout major US cities, since opening its doors, all locations gathered massive crowds and completely sold out.

While this brand was already performing incredibly well in their e-commerce site, helping their founder obtain the title of youngest self-made billionaire, they saw an incredible opportunity in creating an experience for their customers that would allow them to interact with the brand and products up close and personal.

In a similar move, the brand made a deal with Ulta, a major beauty retailer in the U.S. to place a smaller selection of their product line on their shelves. Strategically priced in a mid point between drugstore and high-end brands and a limited selection, there was no surprise that the products were constantly selling out. 

Final thoughts

With a strong online presence, offline experiences, clever social media and influencer strategies, as well as consumer knowledge, the beauty industry is leading the way to what should be the future of retail. Leading companies are understanding the importance of innovation and adapting to new market trends and consumer needs, all of this to improve the overall shopping experience of their customers.

Customer Experience and Omnichannel Marketing

/0 Comments/in /by

It’s quite amazing when you stop and realize how much has marketing evolved throughout the years, especially thinking about channel marketing.

Today, industries traditionally centered in physical stores, like retail, for example, have already started making a switch to adapt to the new shopping behaviors of the digital era consumers, merging analog and digital worlds to create an integrated, omnichannel experience.

I recently attended the Digital Branding Analytics Miami 2019 Conference #DBAmiami and while listening to Kathy Mayor, CMO of Boxy Charm and former SVP & Chief Digital Officer of Carnival Cruise Lines, this whole concept of omnichannel marketing and customer experience really started to take form. Kathy spoke about her experience on Carnival and referred to a “7 part framework” highly focused on the consumer, their thought process, passions, experiences, and how to use this knowledge to find the best ways to approach them.

Brands that work with omnichannel strategies focus on understanding their audience, their customer journey and how the right combination of channels, campaigns, and content can finally influence purchases. As Kathy pointed out, they want to be able to reach all kinds of segments in the market, that’s why Carnival works not only through multiple channels, like social media, events, and activations, but with different partners like Amazon, Buzzfeed or celebrities like Ellen Degeneres or Guy Fieri and leverage the associations and distribution of these brands to help them tell their story and relate to their audience.  

Kathy mentioned a great example of how Carnival incorporated partnership into actual parts of their product with their work with Guy Fieri. Not only is he a spokesperson for the brand, but they have worked together in several campaigns, like “Carnival’s Kids BBQ Challenge” in Texas, the “#thankyouburger” campaign in support of the military and the launch of the “Guy’s Burger Joint” restaurant on board their ships, bringing all the positive associations with the celebrity’s brand into an actual experience for consumers.

Understanding their audience, and the benefits of each channel can help brands craft stronger strategies that will ultimately allow them to engage with their customers and offer them a far more rich and unique shopping experience.

 

You can watch Kathy’s incredibly insightful presentation in the video below.

Luxury Retail: Benefits of an omnichannel consumer experience

/0 Comments/in /by

The luxury retail industry, traditionally centered in physical stores, has dramatically changed these last few years. Making a switch for new technologies, social media, and e-commerce, luxury brands are adapting to new shopping behaviors where consumers are jumping from offline to online, merging analog and digital worlds to create an integrated, multi-channel experience.

Omnichannel marketing strategies start with understanding customers, getting to know what they need and how they shop so that retailers can provide a much more personalized experience. New technologies are making this much easier for brands to get data on their consumers’ shopping behavior, on and offline, allowing them to get valuable insights on how to reach their audience.

The role of the physical store has also evolved with the omnichannel approach, many luxury retail brands like Gucci or Burberry for example, not only keep the high-end experience with personal shopping assistants or offering champagne to their customers, but they also incorporate technology, where you can find big screens showcasing the latest collections or Ipads with your shopping history, which allows them to engage with their customers and offer them a far more rich and unique shopping experience.

Mobile Everywhere

/0 Comments/in /by

Smartphones have become the way user consume information today, and the faster we adapt our strategies and focused on creating a user experience for today’s consumer, the easier it will be to reach our goals.

Consumers will try to reach products and services from all types of devices and channels, and that is why concepts like multi-platform apps or omnichannel experiences are starting to get more attention. Companies are starting to understand that it’s not only about being mobile-friendly but that consumers will jump in between channels and devices and require the experience to be easy and fluid.

It’s easy to focus that quality content will be enough to satisfy the needs of consumers, but we tend to forget that the way users will consume the content can affect the success of our marketing efforts. We want to make our content easy to access and create designs that engage with users and gives them an enjoyable experience in any platform.