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There was a great turnout for the Figaro Digital Marketing conference at the Royal College of Physicians in London considering the blazing heat wave taking place outside on 18 July. There seemed to be a flurry of activity for both presentation tracks, and even the news that Louis, the chimp from the PG Tips adverts, had sadly passed away the week before at the grand old age of 37 didn't seem to dampen spirits too much.
Sarah Mansfield, media director, Unilever UKI, who announced the sad news about Louis, also delivered an interesting session on 'The digitally empowered customer'. She explored how the customer journey has become more complex with multiple touchpoints, but was keen to point out that just because everything is different doesn't mean that everything has changed.
Consumers still want value and advice -- it's just the approach to shopping that has changed. Research online, purchase offline is now a prominent trend and, more often than not, it's mobile that is the connection between on and offline. Equally, traditional channels are not dead, just more powerful when combined with online channels.
John Lewis was an example that Mansfield cited as fully embracing the multi-channel customer, once the retailer realised that a multi-channel customer was worth 3.3 times more to it than a pure store-only customer. Consequently, John Lewis has grown its base of multi-channel customers by 27 per cent since 2010. This really demonstrates that it is talking to its customers at the right touchpoints where it is most relevant for the customer.
Mansfield also rightly stated that it's only the brands that think of things in a multi-channel environment that will be the true winners....