Mark Johnston:
Hi, I'm Mark Johnston.
Greg Marshall:
And I'm Greg Marshall.
Mark Johnston:
We're co-authors of Marketing Management, and today we'd like to talk about omnichannel marketing. In today's fast-paced world, Greg, digital first, consumers are no longer tied to a single shopping channel. They might browse on their smartphone, research on their laptop, and make a final purchase in a physical store. The fluid journey between online and offline touchpoints creates a lot of opportunities and challenges. So Greg, what is omnichannel marketing?
Greg Marshall:
Well, that's the question that we all need to be thinking about in this day and age. Let me tell you. Omnichannel marketing basically refers to creating a seamless and consistent customer experience across all platforms and channels that are available. And that's a big ask because these may include websites, mobile apps, social media, email, physical retail stores, yes, they still exist, and customer support lines. Unlike multichannel marketing where each channel operates independently, omnichannel marketing integrates these channels. That's the beauty of it. And the goal is for customers to feel like they're interacting with one unified brand, no matter where or how they engage with that brand.
Now, here's an example. Imagine a customer adds a pair of shoes to their cart on your website, but doesn't complete the purchase. A few hours later, they receive a reminder email with an incentive to buy. Clever, eh? When they decide to visit your store to try on the shoes, a sales associate knows exactly what they were looking for thanks to an integrated customer database. That's omnichannel marketing in action, folks. So Mark, what about omnichannel marketing is so important?
Mark Johnston:
Well, Greg, thanks for that explanation of what omnichannel marketing is. And clearly, omnichannel marketing is more than a buzzword. It's a strategy. And the reason that it's become so important is because we've seen consumers change the way they behave. And we have a lot of examples of this. So consider for the fact that we know that shoppers today will, a very high percentage, almost 80%, will look at a purchase over multiple devices. They'll look at it on their phone, they'll look at it on their laptop. And then as you said, perhaps they'll go into the store to actually purchase. And so as they move across these different platforms, they're looking for information to help them make a better decision, hence omnichannel marketing. We know that an approach which allows the consumer to move across devices to look at multiple channels for information actually boosts customer loyalty.
We see, for example, that 70% of consumers have an increased brand loyalty when they are able to move seamlessly across different channels. We can also see that omnichannel marketing will lead to increased revenue because we know that somewhere between five and 10% of users that are using multiple channels for information will spend more. And then finally, as we see consumers move from phone to laptop to a physical store, we're able to capture a lot more information about them, the proverbial big data, which will ultimately allow companies to make even better decisions going forward. So we've talked a little bit about what omnichannel marketing is and why it's important. Let's talk a little bit about some of the steps that allow a company to integrate online and offline experiences. What do you think, Greg?
Greg Marshall:
Well, I think that's really the core of the point because this is a very stepwise process and let me share a few steps with you here. I would call these steps really actionable strategies that help you or I, the marketer, create a successful omnichannel experience for the customer. So step number one, ensure consistent branding and messaging. Now, that is a rubric for all of us in marketing, no matter what the channel we're using, of course. But when we're talking about using a truly omnichannel approach, it heightens the importance that your brand's visuals, voice, and tone should be consistent across all those channels. And frankly, that's really hard to do. That consistency is the key. So think of it this way. Whether a customer sees your social media ad, visits your website, or walks into your store in person, or any of the other modalities possible, they should immediately recognize your brand, however they encounter it.
So one of the great examples of all time of this for all of us, of course, is Apple because Apple maintains a quite minimalist, you might say. I would call it sleek, aesthetic across its website, and you find that same feel in the mobile apps, in the physical stores, and in fact, in the products themselves. This consistency reinforces the Apple brand identity. Let me give you another one of these potential steps towards seamless integration of the experiences with your brand. This one is create unified customer data. I don't know how it would be possible to successfully execute marketing of any type in this day and age without having great customer data and the management of that data, but when we're talking about all multichannel, omnichannel, broad-based approach to this process, the data is absolutely necessary. And so you and I would want to have a state-of-the-art customer relationship management system, often referred to as CRM, and CRM helps us to integrate this data from all the channels.
So when your sales support teams, or when the salespeople themselves, or when others that are customer facing in your organizations can access purchase history and preferences from this single source within the CRM, they can provide a more personalized experience consistently for the customer. Now, my favorite example on this, and for many of you, I hope you relate the same way, is Disney, because My Disney Experience app, that app, My Disney Experience, it syncs with the park visits when you come to see Disney, and guests can book rides, make dining reservations, check wait times, all of these different activities that are just so much fun as part of the Disney experience, seamlessly. It's a seamless experience from online to the park. That's a very, very big deal. And I'll throw out one more here that I like, and I think this is another very, very important way to make sure that you're integrating your online and offline experience.
And that is to implement click and collect. Cute, right? Click and collect services. What the heck is that? Well, basically, services like buy online, pick up in store. How about that for a B-O-P-I-S? B-O-P-I-S. Buy online, pick up in store. That's the mantra. And this type of system bridges the gap between digital and physical channels. It offers convenience while increasing foot traffic to the physical locations. All the great retailers in this day and age must be cognizant of the fact of that connection. So one of my favorite examples in retail always is Target. And I will confess that the very first job I ever held was at Target. As a high school kid working part-time, I won't tell you how long ago that was, but Target I thought was pretty good back then. Let me tell you, Target is one of the few survivors in the retail business that's still really, really good today.
And this B-O-P-I-S service, again, that's buy online, pick up in store. That at Target is golden because it truly allows that seamless approach. You order online, you go in curbside or in store, your choice, you pick it up and you feel real good because the overall shopping experience makes you understand that the store is dependable in terms of both inventories and securing the purchase products themselves. Mark, do you have some other examples of these online, offline experience?
Mark Johnston:
Yes. Let me follow up with Greg, those were some great points you made. Let me follow up with a couple of others. First of all, one of the keys, as we know from omnichannel marketing already, is the ability to move between devices and to collect information and then move to another device or maybe to a physical store. Well, what's the device that we carry most often? What's the device we use most frequently today? It's our phone. And so for a true omnichannel strategy to work, we've got to be on that device. If you are working in a store for a company, you know that an omnichannel strategy has to be based in part on leveraging mobile apps and allowing the client, the customer to create a unique personalized experience on that app.
And we could come up with many examples, but one example that immediately jumps to mind is Starbucks and the ability on that Starbucks app to either go in the store and purchase right there. Or what we see happening with greater frequency is someone making the purchase on their phone on their way to Starbucks or driving by a Starbucks and then picking it up, much like Greg said. And that requires a mobile app.
And so having a mobile app strategy that allows you to leverage not just what's happening at a physical store, but allow the customer to interact with the app and then perhaps pick it up at a store or in some other way is another critical strategy to omnichannel marketing. Another tool is to integrate digital tools inside the physical store experience. So example of this would be having products with QR codes. So the customer is standing there in front of the product, they can scan the QR code and get additional information about the product, or perhaps you've been in a store where they have digital kiosks. These are all additional information tools, additional selling tools that are available for the customer to enhance the experience they're having in the store. A great example of this is if you've gone into a Nike store recently, they use multiple digital tools to enhance the shopping experience.
They allow the customer, for example, to digitally almost show them using some of these products in the store. They can scan for a great deal of information about the product. There are many, many tools that Nike has built into the in store experience that enhance the experience, but are part of the omnichannel marketing strategy. Another step in this process is to create very personalized marketing channels. Today, consumers want personalization. They want it in the products they purchase and they want it in their channels of distribution, in the channels, sources of information. And so this is why you may have shopped for that product online, but then a few hours later, you could possibly get an email saying, "Hey, have you thought more about this?" A great example of this is Sephora, the beauty store, where if you go online and you're looking at a product, and this often happens, you look at a product, you put it off to the side, you save it, perhaps you even put it in a cart.
But one of the things that happens is at Sephora, they're watching your behavior and when you put something in a cart, if you haven't purchased it, they will be following up with you just within a few hours and they'll follow up with you the next day, "Hey, have you thought about purchasing this product?" So the idea there is they're taking the information that they're getting and they're providing a very personalized experience for you. And the final step would be to take all of this information that you're collecting from your customer and use it to drive and enhance their experience. So this step actually feeds back into the other steps that we talked about, which is to say, collect this information, analyze it in an effort to enhance and improve the customer experience and hopefully move them through the sales cycle even faster. Greg, can you identify some leading brands in omnichannel retailing?
Greg Marshall:
Well, there are some leading brands, and these are the ones that everybody aspires to follow. We already mentioned Target. I think that's a good example. Let me give you a few others. Amazon, what can we say? Amazon has successfully integrated its online presence with physical stores through the Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh. And in these stores, customers can scan their app, shop, walk out without checking out thanks to their, "just walk out technology." Pretty cool branding on that, isn't it? This is like a frictionless experience, frictionless. You and I don't have anything holding us back. That beautifully blends, the digital and the physical. So Amazon first, I want to also add Walmart here. Walmart has really evolved to offer a comprehensive omnichannel experience. That includes the BOPIS, B-O-P-I-S that we talked about earlier, home delivery, their app that enhances the in store experience with features like in store navigation, barcode scanning for product details.
The power is in the hands of the customer when you're in Walmart. You're not running around looking for a salesperson or an employee unless you absolutely want to, because it's all in your hands. Their investments in this digital innovation continue to make Walmart a shopping experience that is frankly seamless across their different platforms. And then one other one in retail that I think you'll enjoy as an example is Nordstrom. Now, very different player obviously than Walmart. We're looking at two different ends of the spectrum in terms of pricing and other related merchandising areas in retail. But I'll tell you this, Nordstrom's reserve online and try in store service allows their customers to browse online, reserve items there, then go into the store and try them out. And of course, in a higher end retailer, and particularly when you're in the clothing space, that tryout is very, very important.
Sales associates prepare fitting rooms in advance for your entry, and the customers can receive personalized assistance if they wish, based upon their online activities, tremendously integrated. And then I'm going to throw one more out, and that is Home Depot. Again, very different types of product lines and certainly a different shopping environment from Nordstrom's or the others. But what they've done using those same techniques, the omnichannel, BOPIS approach, they've also got things like in store lockers for pickup. They've got a mobile app that provides in store navigation. Ever try to navigate inside a Home Depot for a particular bolt? Yeah, this works really, really well because it will not only take you to the right aisle, but the section of the aisle and exactly the spot on the aisle. Incredibly, incredibly useful. Their strategy ensures that the do it-yourself customers who tend to come in and shop Home Depot, get what they need, when and how they need it.
And also, frankly, it's a big boon to the professionals who shop at Home Depot as well. Plumbers, electricians, carpenters, they want to get in and out, find what they need, have it serviced, and then start their job that day. Home Depot gets great kudos from that community for what they've done there. Mark, any final thoughts for our podcast today?
Mark Johnston:
Well, first of all, we hope that this has been helpful and useful for you in understanding what omnichannel marketing is. In the world we live in today, omnichannel marketing is no longer a luxury. It is a necessity. Companies have to adopt some type of integrated frictionless strategy that connects the customer across devices and allows them to view information in different ways and to get as much information as they need in order to make a good purchase decision. So the idea behind our podcast today is to help you understand that companies need to focus on consistent branding. They need to bring data together to unify their data. They need to create personalized strategy and very seamless services across all of their devices and channels. And if they're able to do that successfully, they're going to find that a very successful strategy for their customers, and more importantly, they'll keep them coming back. So thank you for listening. We hope you've enjoyed it and we look forward to talking with you again soon.
Greg Marshall:
Take care. Bye-bye.
