fashion touchpoint strategy - the fashion cycle meets customer journey

- Pieter Jongerius-

FASHION TOUCHPOINT STRATEGY Fashion Cycle meets Customer Journey

Pieter Jongerius

@pieterj

2 EMERCE EFASHION The fashion industry needed some time to adjust to the age of digital media. Of course, this has everything to do with the

physical nature of our products, but mainly with the fact that fashion, by nature, is 90% brand communication. An enigma that only few may access. Not the best starting point for involving your customers, it seems…

Fashion has to open up. It has to show what it’s doing.

It has to interact with fashionistos and fashionistas from around the world.

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On or Off?

In other words: does the icon Karl Lagerfeld have to take off his sunglasses and come eye to eye with his audience?

KARL VS KARL BY NET-A-PORTER

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On the other hand: Fashion deserves ceremony. Karl Lagerfeld know this like few others and is building a creative mix. Check: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOnMSLSNmWY

LOCATION IS EVERYTHING

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One thing is for sure: for any fashion brand, it requires delicate decisions in which environments to endeavor.

STRATEGY Part 2 of 4

TOUCHPOINT STRATEGY

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Brand Target group Touchpoints

What can we do to maximize the exchange of value?

TYPES OF TOUCHPOINTS

Online & offline

Owned & bought & earned

Media & channels

Push & pull

Temporary & permanent

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ONLINE TOUCHPOINTS owned media ·  b2c website ·  b2b website ·  webshop (w, m, f) ·  mobile web ·  mobile app ·  tablet app ·  e-mail

·  p.o.s. interactive ·  narrowcasting ·  desktop widgets ·  embedded software

·  campaign site ·  affiliates

sales, content, … ·  social media

bought media ·  banners ·  Search Engine Advertising ·  advertorials ·  interactive television

earned media ·  social media ·  viral campaigns ·  blogs, news & more

…etcetera!

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OFFLINE TOUCHPOINTS channels ·  brand stores ·  multibrand retail ·  popup store ·  shop-in-shop owned: print ·  folders ·  DM ·  brochure ·  flyer ·  magazine

owned: business to business ·  yearly report ·  own publications

bought: mass media en spatial ·  RTV– spot/nonspot/… ·  print ads ·  advertorials ·  inserts ·  public space (mupi, billboard) ·  sponsoring ·  fairs owned media overig ·  customer card ·  own events ·  packaging ·  fleet signing ·  call center ·  SMS ·  employees

…etcetera!


CONNECTING TOUCHPOINTS

OFFLINE ONLINE

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OFFLINE ONLINE

Coupons Addres / maps

Mouth to mouth

Hyperlinks Social posts (Fb, Tw, ...) Likes, Mentions, Pins, ...

Promotion codes Mail-a-friend

SMS / messaging

Coupons Address/map

Geolocation / nearby Augmented reality

QR Codes Image recognition

Web-address Social handles Winning-codes

Corporate strategy

Touchpoint strategy

Design & implementation

Operation

APPROACH

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Corporate strategy


Touchpoint strategy

Operation

CUSTOMER JOURNEY

CUSTOMER LIFE CYCLE

Touchpoint strategy

Corporate strategy


Operation

AIDA IS DEAD

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transaction main initiative with brand

relation main initiative with customer

acquisition à persuasion à conversion

CUSTOMER JOURNEY 2.0

interaction à participation à promotion


Let’s start!

Defining a specific customer journey in five easy steps.

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1: DEFINE THE GENERIC CUSTOMER JOURNEY

Case: fashion retailer

2: IDENTIFY / RESEARCH USER EMOTIONS PER STEP

Surprise Greed

Insecurity Optimism

Insecurity Practicalities

Doubt Greed

Impatient Enthousiastic Disappointed

Curious Disappointed

Curious Enthousiastic Disappointed

?

3: DEFINE THE EXPERIENCE

Surprising Affordable Easy

Fun Plenty of choice Realistic

Overview In control

Confirmation Quality

Taking care Thourough

BFF Accessible Open

Care free Security

4: IDENTIFY CURRENT TOUCHPOINTS

5: DEFINE NEW & FUTURE TOUCHPOINTS

<> But… which touchpoints to choose? It all depends on your audience. Where they are, to what they will react.

However, I can point out a number of fashion media trends, later on in the presentation.

CUSTOMER JOURNEY

CUSTOMER LIFE CYCLE

Touchpoint strategy

Corporate strategy


KLANT

NEW CUSTOMER JOURNEY

Not every customer is the same. Some customers are new. They are just getting acquainted with you, and take a superficial route through your touchpoint landscape. For instance they might click a banner, make a first buy, and might return later.

KLANT

FAN JOURNEY

Other customers are real fans, and move about your social media elaborately and may even post some looks, before they return to you as a shopper. (IRL, you might create 3 or 4 of these customer profiles, and profiles for routing campaign traffic.)

TRENDS IN THE FASHION CYCLE Part 3 of 4

shows

THE FASHION CYCLE

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design, productie

EMERCE EFASHION 33 For the consumer, most shows are half a year early, because the collections are not for sale yet. At the same time they are being watched by more and more consumers, thanks to platforms like http://style.com.

SHOWS

34 EMERCE EFASHION So when the show is over, how can you keep your fans involved?

35 EMERCE EFASHION One way is to invite bloggers, and give them front row :)

shows bloggers

THE FASHION CYCLE

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design, productie

BLOGGERS TAKE FRONT ROW

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Fashion was built upon aspirational images. Controlled communication. This is what’s changing right now: the audience is contributing to the total image. The benefit of this to us: reach and authenticity.

IMPACT VAN BLOGS

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So while some are still stubbornly trying to control what you see, for instance based on where you live, the blogosphere is flooded with images of that recent collection. Especially in fashion, this hits hard.

More and more brands start their own blogs, in their search for control, SEO value and reach. Many feed prominent blogs with sponsored content. Some even go so far as to start a blog under a different brand, like Styld.by, by GAP.

shows bloggers

pre-ordering

THE FASHION CYCLE

print media

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design, productie

41 EMERCE EFASHION Another way to bridge the gap between the show and the collection hitting the stores, is pre-ordering.

Strange to see how mainly online retailers seem to offer this, and much less the brands. Lyst for instance allows people to pre-order and also offers different types of alerts, including an alert based on your pins on Pinterest.

They go further however, and inform the brands on their most frequently pre-ordered styles.

shows bloggers

pre-ordering

THE FASHION CYCLE

advertising

print media

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design, productie

There is another form of democratization going on in fashion. Although in my eFashion’11 ‘Branding vs Conversion’ talk I complained that all fashion adds look the same…

LANVIN PARIS

45 EMERCE EFASHION …there is an increasing number of campaigns with unexpected self-mockery. Like Lanvin Paris, with their viral based on the game “Just Dance”. A very special way to take yourself seriously!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwwcnUBY9Zg

TED BAKER: RUTTING SEASON

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Another example: Ted Bakers’s Rutting Season campaign for AW11. People were drawn to the stores to have their picture taken and win. Local bloggers were asked to take the pictures, which were put on Instagram and Facebook. The pictures with the most likes won considerable shopping credit. Results: 10% offline sales increase during the

campaign and tens of thousands of likes and followers.

shows bloggers

pre-ordering

shopping

social media

THE FASHION CYCLE

advertising

print media

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design, productie

SOCIAL MEDIA ON THE MOVE

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Whils blogs often succeed to offer quality, social media democratize radically. It is great to see this field move again after years of stability. The newcomers at the bottom of this screen each serve millions each month. Especially

Instagram and Fancy seem to be growing rapidly. Not to forget: Pinterest…

PINTEREST

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200k unique

visitors in May in

Netherlands.

200% growth

in 5 months*

* = Marketingfacts.nl

We are still learning so much. We do see that visitors coming from Pinterest convert much better than visitors from Facebook, for instance. And there’s a very good reason for that:

SOCIAL SHOPPING

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Conversion

Sharing Shopping

The established networks (like Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and Instagram) are in the ‘sharing’ range of social media. The range in which you cannot be overly commercial. There is a shift happening from sharing to shopping. The

newcomer networks (like Pinterest, Polyvore, Fashiolista, Lookbook.nu and Fancy) are predominantly about sharing products, not moments. No wonder that the conversion from these platforms is so much higher.

Sharing Shopping

SOCIAL SHOPPING

51 EMERCE EFASHION Eventually it is all about making a sale. This is why Lyst and others are entering this arena with another mindset:

not Pinterest’s serendipity, but real searching, browsing and finding, helped by a personal profile and those of your friends.

On Lyst, you’ll follow brands, magazines, designers and friends. This results in a personal stream. And what’s so special: it looks like a shop and it works like a shop!

Wereldwijd heeft Lyst naar sommige schattingen nu ongeveer 1M bezoekers per maand. Aan deze grafiek, die ze in maart 2012 deelden, lijk je te kunnen zien dat de groei voorlopig nog niet voorbij is.

THE FASHION CYCLE

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TNBT The Next Big Thing

customer profiling

PROFILING

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We have come to get used to profiling, in the platforms that we use. LastFM offer recommendations based on what you and your friends listen to. Shoedazzle uses a style-intake to give personal advice. Facebook uses your content

and behavior to offer ads. But most of this profiling happens within those platforms.

“...connecting every person on the web with their affinity for anything, from books to gadgets to music, restaurants, fashion, or vacation spots.”

The Taste Graph van Hunch is daarin radicaal anders, en is er echt op gericht om over zoveel mogelijk diensten heen je smaak vast te leggen, om vanuit statistiek je te kunnen adviseren op zelfs voor jou nieuwe terreinen.

Een goudmijn voor adverteerders en retailers.

CROSS PLATFORM PROFILING

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…however, Hunch and The Taste Graph were acquired by Ebay, end of 2011. Not long thereafter, the API was closed. It is very unclear who is still using Taste Graph logic and data at this point, beyond Hunch itself.

READY FOR EXTENSION

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But Hunch isn’t the only one investing in cross platform customer profiling. TastemakerX is a new mobile game in which trendsetters can point out music that they think will be successful. If they prove to be right, they win. (very interesting for

followers also, obviously). Their masterplan: extension to all relevant ‘taste verticals’.

scarcity

gifting

price cuts

autho- rity

SCIENCE ROCKSTARS: PERSUASION API

61 EMERCE EFASHION Finally Science Rockstars have found out that persuasion techniques (4 examples above) have a different effect on different persons. This personal sensitivity, however, is pretty constant throughout different product categories such

as clothes, electronics, et cetera. If you capture someone’s persuasion profile, that’s worth something!

TAILORING OUR PROPOSITION

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So, we will all be tailoring our proposition, not just garments. It will go beyond the selection of products and will include style of communication that will be based on the profile of our customers, that’s being recorded by third

parties that will market this information with everyone who is willing to pay. Dark side material? Maybe…

SO... Part 4 of 4

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How do you connect these developments to the surfing and shopping behavior of your customers?

CUSTOMER JOURNEY

shows

bloggers

pre-shopping

print media

social

social

shows

bloggers

pre-shopping

print media

social

social

shows

bloggers

pre-shopping

print media

social

social

shows

bloggers

pre-shopping

print media

social

social

shows

bloggers

pre-shopping

print media

social

social

shows

bloggers

pre-shopping

print media

social

social

By using this customer journey model you can see for yourself which of these and other trends fits your brand and customers. Also you can see where they would fit your cross-touchpoint story telling.

Very few brands are on top of this game. Seize the opportunity!


EFFECT

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So we are talking about democratization of the fashion market. More and more people create content, and the flow of content is by now truly overwhelming! Does this mean the end of the era of the star designer? Au contraire! Only the

most outspoken of designers will survive. Love them or hate them!

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Glasses: on. So: you’re allowed a pedestal. And Karl? He may keep is sunglasses on for another while.

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Pieter Jongerius

@pieterj

All images copyright of their respective owners

fashion touchpoint strategy - the fashion cycle meets customer journey

Lifestyle