Recommended reading: Keeping up with customers and a roadmap for change
Marketing Week reviews the latest books and articles for marketers.
How can financial services marketers keep up with their customers?
By Sharona Sankar-King, Christine Removille and Francine Gierak
Retail might monopolise the headlines, but the financial services sector has seen change from Covid-19 that is equally rapid, this study suggests.
It points out that physical branch closures have meant a sudden online migration of services. Likewise, contactless payments and electronic signatures have taken off as people cannot go into branches, and advertising is migrating to digital channels. Financial services marketers, therefore, have their work cut out to keep up with the changes to consumers’ lifestyles.
When might consumers become less concerned about personal safety and switch their attention back to other product features? Or will there be another shift in priorities that marketers will have to respond to in the meantime? The authors question whether current operating models will work in a post-Covid-19 world, with speed of decision-making a key issue to overcome.
Crucially, the research also finds that a third of marketing “laggards” in the sector say slow decision-making is holding back their marketing effectiveness.
READ MORE: How Can Financial Services Marketers Keep Up with Their Customers?
Grocery ecommerce: You won new online customers during Covid-19 – now how will you keep them?
By Mark Burton
Online grocery sales have been a clear winner during the Covid-19 lockdown, with reluctant customers overcoming their reservations in droves to adopt online ordering.
The hard work will now be in retaining these new customers. With much of the investment in improving physical delivery infrastructures now complete, the online customer experience is set to become a key retail battleground, according to Mark Burton at Dunnhumby.
According to Burton, retailers in the Asia-Pacific region are now looking beyond the panic of the first wave of Covid-19 to take stock of the changes that have occurred and how they must adapt if they are to thrive in a post-pandemic world.
The scale of uptake of ecommerce in some markets has been staggering. Dunnhumby quotes figures from China which showed 29% growth in ecommerce during 2019 and expectations of 60% growth during 2020. While some lockdown trends – such as stockpiling – have come and gone quickly, growth in online shopping is set to stay, says Burton.
But he cautions that the development is a double-edged sword: “Your competitor store is no longer one kilometre away, it is one click away.”
Making it easy to use existing in-store loyalty schemes online, clearly signposting value and optimising navigation are three tips given for bringing traditional retail customer experience elements to the world of ecommerce.
Slow change is no change
By Julie Teague
Group finance director of Cogent, Julie Teague, gained a distinction from the IPA for her essay that argues a case for revolution, not evolution, within modern marketing agencies.
Teague maintains that atificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), global networks and automation have made physical barriers and international boundaries redundant, and this change is reflected at agency level. New players that can seize on new technology are smaller and more agile than established agencies, and are better able to change at an exponential rate.
For change to be effective in such a world it must be done quickly, argues Teague: “Slow change is no change, it is one step forward, leaving you two steps back. We need to take three steps forward in one stride.”
But forward motion is of no use if you don’t know which direction you are heading. Teague uses three key points to establish a roadmap to follow on the high speed journey she says agencies must take. These involve establishing a clear purpose, measuring effectiveness and appreciating the value and needs of people, summarised as PEP (Purpose Effectiveness People).
“This is not a thought piece; it is a call to action,” Teague concludes.
READ MORE: Slow Change is No Change
The top ten personal care brands in digital
By Irene Yoon
Consumer thirst for branded content may have become more acute as we endured extended lockdowns during the pandemic.
Research from Gartner shows that successful personal care brands have continued to evolve their provision of educational content, with online features built around content strategies that adopt new business models.
Key objectives seen in Gartner’s sector study this year include a drive for category expansion and an increase in direct-to-consumer (D2C) fulfillment, the latter in particular a result of the Covid-19 crisis.
Gartner’s Digital IQ Index: Personal Care US shows Pampers as the leading brand in the sector, for its high visibility on Amazon and Walmart sites, followed by Gillette. Third ranked Burt’s Bees is the top scoring face skincare brand. It impressed Gartner with its rich guided selling content and ability to filter ratings and reviews by writer attributes.
Highly ranked brands offer subscription offers, editorial content and reviews all clearly available. They are also strong in terms of social media content and leveraging organic engagement.
Yoon says Covid-19 has resulted in a “chaotic surge and sway” in consumer demand for personal care products based on our current “at-home lifestyles.”