The battle in the business world today is in the customer experience. Brands and their marketing teams must ensure that they deliver unique experiences to the client, which manage to overcome the previous experience, not only with the brand’s own proposal, but also that experienced by the competition.
In other words, brands don’t compete with rivals, they compete with the ultimate customer experience.
After the coronavirus, the expectations of customers and consumers have increased. The customer now expects more than a simple digital transaction or an omnichannel offering. Tin brands are forced to anticipate experiences throughout the entire customer journey.
Thus, the competition is not with the rival of the category or that of another segment that begins to offer products of the branch. The true aspect to overcome will be the previous experiences that the consumer has lived.
Three aspects will be key to achieving the objective: Considering brand scores as a key KPI for the entire customer-facing organization, database creation and appropriate technology to support important use cases throughout the customer journey and align the individual and collective goals throughout the customer journey so that any disconnect between functional silos such as marketing, sales, and customer service is invisible to your end consumer.
In this game, there will be many aspects to consider, of which most will be linked to what has historically been done from the field of experiential marketing.
However, we cannot ignore that the mass consumer of a sense has changed because of the pandemic, a fact that will naturally have an effect on the way in which these experiences are received, evaluated and expected.
Although the factors are many, the truth is that the most obvious, tangible and sensitive has to do with fluid experiences, without obstacles. It is here where the actions of what is now known as marketing seamless become relevant.
The concept of seamless marketing refers to efforts focused on the user and whose objective is to make the user obtain their experience in the consumption of a product or brand in a simple, transparent and uninterrupted way.
With this in mind, and based on the findings of the study Global Consumer Insights Survey 2021-Mexico Chapter signed by PwC We share 3 keys to creating a seamless marketing strategy in the new normal:
Think of an omnichannel strategy
Perhaps this may seem obvious. However, in this post-pandemic era we have that, according to the data of the aforementioned investigation, a customer has before him 100 purchase routes, where 39 percent of the times he carries out the transaction in physical stores and 57 percent through a PC or a smartphone.
In this new normal, the options are endless and brands will have to choose those sales channels that best adapt not only to the demands of their consumers, but to their attention and service capacity. This point is extends to communication issues.
Meet the new consumer
This point has a lot to do with the previous one. And it is that as already mentioned the consumer has changed radically because of the health emergency.
Three pieces of information could be a perfect example to understand the new consumer we are talking about and their relationship with consumption:
- Price is the main decision factor, regardless of the purchase channel, whether physical or digital. The data reveals that 74 percent of consumers orient their purchases by price, while 61 percent prefer to save.
- The adaptation to a new lifestyle was reflected in the products that were acquired the most; fitness equipment (59 percent), health products, and foods for a healthier diet (90 percent).
- 70 percent of consumers buy products from companies that support environmental protection. 3 out of 10 are willing to pay a higher price for products made from ethical and sustainable practices.
This type of situation will lead to a segmented consumption and expenses oriented to new edges that can become a tool or a channel to improve the experience.
For example, spending expectations for the next six months around leisure activities are concentrated in home entertainment (45 percent), trips to restaurants and trips (49 percent) and virtual activities (37 percent).
Beyond cash
In the midst of the pandemic, the use of alternative payment methods to cash became the norm. Given the conditions, cash lost prominence in card transactions and payments as well as through applications were the leaders.
In a seamless marketing strategy this aspect must be considered. The consumer will look for integrated options where all these existing forms of payment coexist.