Consistent, seamless Customer Experience Management involves a high degree of complexity, including large product portfolios, many touch points and multiple channels. The consumer expects a consistent customer experience, consistent products, consistent prices, consistent search and consistent advertising. New approaches in dealing with customer insights and digital marketing are necessary to manage this complexity. And marketing is changing radically. According to a study by Adobe, European Marketers see the rapid change and the need to re-position. However, organizational barriers slow down the change.
There has been pioneering developments in Customer Experience Management.
Hybris, the leader in multi-channel management, markets one of the most comprehensive e-commerce platforms for online and offline channels. SAP, the leader in enterprise solutions, has acquired Hybris in August 2013 and linked it to existing services. By integrating the in-memory database SAP HANA, one of the fastest databases, huge data sets can now be analyzed in real time, across various sales and communication channels (online, offline and mobile). In March 2014, SAP and Adobe (the leader in digital marketing) concluded a strategic partnership. Since September 2014, Adobe Marketing Cloud offers a combination of the Hybris platform with HANA technology. Companies can now analyze large amounts of data and business processes in real-time from all communication and distribution channels. This allows Marketers to create personalized customer interactions and a seamless, consistent, cross-channel shopping experience. It is a new dimension for marketing, based on real-time insights, real-time interactions and real-time executions. Channels and systems from third party can be integrated into the Adobe Marketing Cloud (incl. television, print media, public relations, events, search, display advertising, email campaigns and social media). Via GPS and the indoor location system iBeacon Apple (introduced in 2013) the user’s location can be accessed via the Adobe Marketing Cloud in order to turn on location-based advertising. In September 2014, Adobe and Publicis Group have concluded a strategic partnership with Adobe Marketing Cloud. The technology is now available to all agencies in the Publicis network and their customers. The Publicis Group Always-On Platform creates an inter-agency data level, which is unique in the advertisement industry. It aims to provide a consistent, seamless and effective customer experience.
Two weeks later, the Omnicom Group announced a strategic partnership with Salesforce.
An almost identical arrangement such as the Adobe Publicis partnership. With the partnership of WPP and IBM, in December 2014, the three largest advertisement networks have taken the step into the direction of insight-driven marketing. To provide a consistent brand experience, as well as targeting specific groups and individuals has never been easier. Such tools and partnerships provide effective and efficient ways for the marketing of tomorrow.