The Venetian, and its adjoining properties, the Palazzo Hotel and Sands Expo, are now home to countless marketing, marketing tech, and other conferences, on the Las Vegas Strip. It felt like half a day of walking before I saw the tangerine lanyards, signaling my arrival at Groceryshop, the event for grocery and CPG innovators, now in its second year.
The location made a lot of sense. What better place to learn about omnichannel marketing and customer experience, than in Las Vegas?
Moments that Matter
The conference kicked off yesterday afternoon with a series of short keynotes. The conference was divided into four separate tracks, and I made sure to be in the omnichannel track.
The first two speakers seemed to agree that the core of successful omnichannel marketing is being nimble and reactive, and leveraging data to create memorable experiences.
“It’s about creating moments that matter,” said Heather Kang, global VP of digital demand at Mars Wrigley. Kang described her journey from sales, to marketing, to her near-obsession with data, allowing Mars to strategically place their product to best set up their customer for success.
For example, Mars Wrigley is partnering with dating apps to help would-be lovers to make sure their breath is fresh. This kind of accessibility seems cutting-edge, but it’s representative of the experience brands are increasingly expected to deliver; an experience which goes beyond good products and services.
ECommerce to hCommerce
Glamsquad CEO Amy Scheter uses her data to deepen her understanding of her customers and their pain points, in spite of offering what may seem like generic services.
“Our core customer is 25 to 55, and that’s kind of broad,” she admitted in her afternoon session. While that may seem like a large, nonspecific segment, she has gleaned invaluable insights. No matter what age these women are, or where they are in their careers, they had a singular concern: hairspray. The feedback was overwhelmingly similar — many customers were complaining that the hairspray was two heavy or too light. The product team responded by developing their own proprietary hairspray. It’s not quite there yet, but it’s a process.
Lastly, she said that we should expect another shift, from eCommerce to hCommerce, “h” standing for “home.” Since other eCommerce companies are competing with Amazon for convenience, the logical opportunity for a brand like Glamsquad was coming straight to the consumer’s home, delivering in-person hair, make-up, and nail appointments.
Omnichannel lessons
Omnichannel is fundamentally changing the way brands relate to their customers. The demand is higher that ever to make sure that the customer is engaged across channels in a similar way, from social media to the eCommerce store, to the brick-and-mortar to direct marketing collateral.
And it’s more complicated than it looks: it’s not merely taking the piece of content and pushing it out on a bunch of social media channels and writing generic follow-up emails. Customers are people, and people are creatures of habit, but habits change.
You lose weight. You have a child. You change jobs. As life changes, so do habits. Brands are using data to keep up with the ups and downs of their consumers’ lives, and letting data lead the way.
