Canadian Retailer - Summer 2013 - 21

Personalization

The Brand

Big Data

Retailers are recognizing that they
need to communicate with their
customer in person. Whether it’s
electronic or not—it simply can’t
be automated. Everyone’s trying
to return to an intimacy with their
customer. When someone has a
concern or a question or opinion
about a product or service, the
retailer needs to be able to engage
with them, in person. —Danahy

The brand and the authenticity
of the brand will always be any
great retailer’s most effective tool.
The big challenge is to protect the
integrity of the brand, given the
fact that we no longer control the
conversation, and by realizing that
we are now stewards of the brand
by influencing the conversation.
—Stueckmann

We are now in the age of big data
tools and dashboards that can help
us understand our customer better
and at which points of the purchasing cycle they are more likely to be
reached. Big data is also going to
allow retailers to zero in on the performance of individual stores and
reintroduce authority and decisionmaking to those stores by looking
at, not the national averaged data,
but at how the store is different and
how customer-specific decisions
can be made. —Danahy

Personalization of message is very
important. People are starved for
time, and their ability to pay attention to the messages we send is
constrained by the amount of time
at their disposal. People understand
what’s possible in the digital space.
We need to make sure we deliver
against that by driving relevant
messaging and information to the
consumer. —Stueckmann
education
The ability to continue developing
and refining the voice of your
organization, providing an educational piece to your marketing will
help develop a deeper relationship with your customers. It also
provides them with the information they need to make informed
choices about your products.
—Mogk-Edwards
Marketers should provide more
educational type pieces, informing
the shoppers about the benefits
of their product beyond the main
features—where those benefits
can help them in their daily lives.
Marketers are always trying to
stimulate a conversation. A lot
of marketing messages get a lot
of people intellectually engaged,
but the tipping point is when the
customer becomes emotionally
invested. That happens through
the educational conversation as
opposed to the feature and benefit
conversation. —Cook

Word of Mouth
The notion of word of mouth—your
existing customer base’s willingness to spread your message to
potential customers. That’s any
marketer’s first and best line of offense and defense. If you can get a
customer to talk you up to another
customer, that’s probably going to
be your most effective tool. Finding ways to appropriately get your
message included in the conversation is also vital. —Tompkins

Smart technology is in the hands
of the consumer, but our ability
to process vast amounts of transactions and turn them into actionable insights continues to progress.
Technology continues to influence
what we can do and will soon enable us to leverage big data in a
really powerful way.
—Stueckmann

Convenience

The Conversation

Consumers are extremely busy
today with a lot of responsibilities
in terms of day-to-day activities. So,
when they get messages from retailers that are catered to what they
like, it saves them a lot of time. As
a result, the retailer will get a lot of
return business. You can cater your
offering to the individual consumer,
creating ease and convenience.
—Mogk-Edwards

Retailers really have to pay attention to all of the conversations that
are happening. Many times the twoway conversation isn’t between the
retailer and the consumer. Sometimes they’re between customers.
It’s important to understand who’s
talking to who, and ensure that
you’re participating in the conversation at the right time.
—Tompkins

With the aid of technology, consumers have multiple channels and
ways to seek and share information. Conversely, retail marketers have
been presented with a multitude of opportunities to listen to their customer more closely than ever before. They've returned to a conversation
with the consumer that had long been interrupted by a stream of oneway messaging, enabling more opportunities for engagement and deeper
penetration. The challenge going forward will be in leveraging the available tools to deliver a message that is relevant and personalized to the
customer's needs and expectations.
The Retail Advertising and Marketing Club (RAC) of Canada is a valued
partner of Retail Council of Canada. For more information about RAC, visit
www.raccanada.ca.

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Canadian Retailer - Summer 2013

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