‘‘ To consumers , a brand interaction is a brand interaction , whether they are trying to buy from that brand , asking it a question , or engaging with a piece of its content . Those experiences are unlikely to feel coherent and recognisably branded , if the people planning them have completely different views of the touchpoints where the experiences happen .’’
Why should a social media platform just be used for customer service or brand engagement when a ‘ Buy now ’ button can be added to it ? For that matter , why should a store be used solely for buying things when forward-thinking brands can build entire , immersive experiences using them ?
People don ’ t stop having brand experiences just because they are using an eCommerce platform or walking down a supermarket aisle . And they won ’ t settle for having one type of brand experience on one channel ( an awareness-raising TV ad or a piece of social media content , say ) and then being forced to migrate to another channel to complete a purchase .
Coherent brand experiences need a unified view of touchpoints
If marketers are to cope with this world , they need to start by breaking down the siloes that exist within their own organisations . Before such siloes were a hindrance to creating coherent brand experiences ; now they are simply untenable .
To do this effectively , they need insight teams and market researchers that can back them up with a unified view of touchpoints themselves .
To consumers , a brand interaction is a brand interaction , whether they are trying to buy from that brand , asking it a question , or engaging with a piece of its content . Those experiences are unlikely to feel coherent and recognisably branded , if the people planning them have completely different views of the touchpoints where the experiences happen .
Why touchpoint planning needs to start with the audience A common view of touchpoints within the marketing department is an essential starting point , but it won ’ t in itself solve the biggest problem that the touchpoint revolution creates for brands .
People expect their brand experiences to be relevant , customised and valueadding within the context of the touchpoint where they take place .
They also expect each touchpoint to be inherently flexible , to play the role that they want at a given time : completing a purchase through Twitter or WeChat , or in response to the ad they just watched on Facebook .
How can brands balance this with the need to stay coherent – and differentiate themselves from the other brands scrambling to offer every experience at every touchpoint ?
Delivering relevant , branded touchpoint experiences becomes a lot more manageable when marketers clearly understand the needs of the people they are delivering those experiences for – and which touchpoints matter most to those people . The problem they currently face is that the technology used to reach audiences across digital touchpoints has tended to obscure any meaningful sense of who they are targeting and why .
When brands ’ use of programmatic is driven primarily by behaviour , it becomes blind to the people they are interacting with – and the experiences those people might want . Instead , marketers find themselves delivering the same experiences across all touchpoints , driven solely by the last action that people took . At a time when they need to be increasingly nuanced and responsive , this is the wrong way to go .
When brands base their programmatic targeting on digital segmentation they tend to transform their results , because they focus on creating relevant moments with the people most likely to buy from them .
How emotional linkage can recreate brand journeys
Turning autonomous touchpoint
20 MAL 15 / 16 ISSUE