l2 intelligence report: content & commerce
TRANSCRIPT
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October 27, 2014
CONTENT & COMMERCE
INTELLIGENCEREPORT
in partnership with:
2
L2 INTELLIGENCE REPORT CONTENT AND COMMERCE
October 27, 2014
Content & Commerce: The Royal Wedding Marrying content with commerce is reason for fanfare as conversion increases. As content moves closer to the consumer (i.e., buyer), deft brands are lubricating the purchase funnel and reducing dependency on traditional media partners. New direct-to-consumer, owned platforms (branded URLs, social channels, etc.) offer brands a chance to stray from traditional formats and present and deliver content that offers relevance and resonance vs. reach and frequency.
Soft TissueAll brands and retailers are looking for tangible differentiation vs. the Great White Shark of Retail, Amazon. Brands and retailers can press on the Seattle firm’s soft tissue via deft leverage of two assets: brick-and-mortar footprints, and opportunities to engage the consumer with digital content only available on the brand site. This ability to weave together content and commerce may be what separates retail winners from losers. 78 percent of consumers now report engaging in “webrooming,” or purchasing a product in-store after browsing online, and brands are sensing the opportunity to secure the sale before the consumer enters a traditional retail format.1 Branded content, delivered in
tandem with product information, provides the texture for a consumer to mentally commit to a purchase.
NascentRed Bull made a formidable, speculative investment in branded content with the launch Red Bull Media House in 2007. Media House is now an independent, near profitable division with assets including The Red Bulletin, an online and print magazine with circulation comparable to Sports Illustrated,2 and The Art of Flight, a snowboarding documentary with a $2M budget. The brand is recognized as one of the most successful content marketers in history. However, for many brands, branded content creation efforts are nascent. Substantial budget has been allocated to content, but just 39 percent of B2C brands have a documented content strategy in place, and only 67 percent have a dedicated executive in place to oversee content efforts.3 This lack of organizational vision and process dilutes content ROI.
Content and Commerce: How B2C Marketers Rate Their Organization’s Success at Tracking ROINorth AmericaOctober 2014, n=307
Content and Commerce: Percentage of B2C Organizations with a Documented Content StrategyNorth AmericaOctober 2013, n=307
Source: 2014 B2C Content Marketing Trends–North America: Content Marketing Institute/Marketing Profs.
Source: 2015 B2C Content Marketing Trends–North America: Content Marketing Institute/Marketing Profs.
1. “Seamless Retailing Research Study 2014,” Accenture.2. “How Red Bull Takes Content Marketing to the Extreme,” Mashable December 12, 2012.3. “B2C Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America, Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, October 2013.
39% YES52% NO
9% UNSURE
SUCCESSFUL NOT SUCCESSFUL
5 4 3 2 1 We DoNot Track
6% 17% 24% 23% 9% 21%
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SaturatedBrands have also struggled to make their content relevant and findable. In early 2014, a viral blog post popularized the term “content shock” to describe the inflection point when the volume of available content will surpass human capacity to consume it.1 While the marketing community has responded to the notion of content shock with skepticism, brands must contend with a saturated content landscape. Cutting through the noise requires exceptional quality, and a thoughtful approach to organization and distribution. In contrast, efforts to ‘game’ SEO algorithms have incentivized marketers to continuously produce and publish low-quality assets.
Competitive EdgeEven brands distributing officially through the Amazon platform, and making substantial investments in enhanced Amazon product detail pages, can offer a richer, more content-driven e-commerce experience on their own site. Most organizations find it impossible to compete head-to-head with Amazon on pricing or fulfillment. However, content remains a domain where brands have the home field advantage, leveraging flexible platforms to support unique content/commerce integration.
AMAZON.COM NEWBALANCE.COM
Content IQ = Shareholder ValueL2’s inaugural Content & Commerce study examines the efforts of 80 global brands to produce and syndicate content across environments they control–brand sites. Insights are organized around the four types of content that L2 believes have disproportionate impact on conversion:
L2 attempts to determine the brands and best practices that are removing organizational and technological barriers to deliver an integrated content and commerce experience, and drive sales online and in-store. Like the medium we are assessing, our approach is dynamic. Please reach out with comments that improve our methodology and findings.
Regards,L2 & Demandware
1. “Content Shock: Why content marketing is not a sustainable strategy,” Schaefer Marketing Solutions, January 6, 2014.
Brands that distribute officially through the Amazon platform still offer a far more compelling e-commerce experience via content-rich product pages on the official brand site.
CONTENTTYPES Blogs &
MicrositesVideo & Tutorials
UserGenerated
Content
Guided SellingTools
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BEST PRACTICES PLAYBOOKBLOGS & MICROSITES 25 Evaluating Content
Investments
27 Tying Content to Commerce
28 Survival of the Fittest
VIDEO & TUTORIALS30 Rise of Video
31 Embargo
32 Shoppable Video
33 Catwalks & Commerce
USER GENERATED CONTENT34 User Generated Content
35 Consumers As Marketers
GUIDED SELLING TOOLS38 Guided Selling Tools
39 Guided Selling in Beauty
40 Product Finders & Fitters
BRAND LIST
METHODOLOGY
KEY TAKEAWAYS7 Content & Commerce
Pain Points
8 The Power of Platforms
9 The Business Value of Content & Commerce
KEY FINDINGS10 Branded Content is Exploding
11 Contextualizing Success
12 Biggest Barriers
13 Missed Opportunities
15 Illusion of “Integration”
17 Achieving Scale
19 The New Grid Page
21 The New Product Page
REGIONAL SPOTLIGHTS29 Chinese Content Ecosystem
37 UGC in Asia
FLASHES OF GENIUS14 Window Into
Commerce: Barneys
16 New Navigation Structure: Estée Lauder
20 Fit Guides: Suitsupply
36 Beauty Board: Sephora
42 Content Integration:L’Oréal Paris
L2 TEAM
ABOUT L2
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BEAUTYn=15
BRAND LISTn=80
LUXURYn=18
APPAREL & ACCESSORIES
n=27
SPORTING GOODSn=
6
FOOTWEAR
n=12
DEPARTMENT STORES
n=6
AdidasAldo
BrooksConverse
New BalanceNike
Nine WestPuma
ReebokRockport
TimberlandUGG Australia
BurberryCalvin Klein
CartierChristian Louboutin
CoachCole Haan
DVFGucci
Jimmy Choo
Kate SpadeLacoste
Louis VuittonMichael KorsRalph LaurenTiffany & Co.
Tommy HilfigerTory Burch
BurtonCallawayColumbia
Mountain HardwarePatagonia
The North Face
Barneys New YorkHarvey Nichols
Macy’sMarks & Spencer
NordstromSaks Fifth Avenue
7 for all MankindAmerican Apparel
American Eagle OutfittersAnthropologie
Banana RepublicDiesel
Forever21Free People
French ConnectionGap
GuessH&M
J.Crew
Land’s EndLevi’s
Lucky BrandPacSun
QuiksilverRay-Ban
Scotch and SodaSuit Supply
TumiUniqlo
Urban OutfittersZara
Bare EscentualsBenefit Cosmetics
Bobbi BrownClarinsClinique
Estée LauderFresh
Kiehl’sL’Occitane
L’Oréal ParisLancôme
LushMAC
Sephora
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L2 INTELLIGENCE REPORT CONTENT AND COMMERCE
Availability on home pages:
Video & TutorialsLook BooksBlog ArticlesGuided Selling ToolsUser Generated ContentSocial Media Streams
Consumer pathways from content:
Directs to Product PageDirects to Grid PageDirects to Content PageStatic / Unclickable
Balance of content and product promotion
Availability on grid pages:
Video & TutorialsLook BooksBlog ArticlesGuided Selling ToolsUser Generated Content
September 9, 2014
Note: In instances where L2 reports data by region, Asia represents an average of data points collected across China, Japan and South Korea, while Western Europe represents an average of data points collected across the U.K., France and Germany.
HOME PAGES GRID PAGES BLOGSCONTENT PAGESPRODUCT PAGESAvailability of dedicated pages:
Video & TutorialsLook BooksGuided Selling ToolsUser Generated Content
Integration of commerce:
No IntegrationLinks to Product PagesIntegrated Buy ButtonsIntegrated Buy All Buttons
Positioning of blogs:
Blog on Main SiteBlog on MicrositeBlog On Tumblr / Equivalent (Naver, etc.)
Integration of commerce:
No IntegrationLinks to Product PagesIntegrated Buy ButtonsIntegrated Buy All Buttons
Availability on product pages:
Product PricingEditorial / Full-Look PhotographyFull-Look Cross-SellUser Ratings / ReviewsProduct Q&A / Customer ForumsVideo & TutorialsLook BooksBlog ArticlesGuided Selling ToolsUser Generated ContentAdditional Content on Product / Brand / Heritage
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Clarins, which has the highest overall content score when averaged across regions, leverages its global e-commerce platform to consistently execute.
U.S. FRANCE GERMANY
Content & Commerce Pain PointsThree content/commerce strategy pain points hamper organizations worldwide:
1. CONTENT OWNERSHIP: In roughly half of organizations, the e-commerce team, tasked with improving conversion, owns content creation. In the other half, a marketing or editorial team, tasked with building brand awareness, manages content production. These competing objectives, while not mutually exclusive, create visible rifts across site experiences and impact the type and quality of content being created.
2. CONTENT OBJECTIVES: Many organizations still do not embed content across the broader e-commerce site, including transactional pages, in order to maximize reach. Furthermore, commerce integration is inconsistent, varying based on the type of content and where it sits on the site. Ultimately, brands continue to publish content that is difficult to find, and to shop – curtailing ability to impact the bottom-line.
3. CONTENT GLOBALIZATION: Brands continue to approach content creation with a U.S.-first mentality. Site experiences in Europe and Asia are often weaker from a content perspective, owing to the challenges of content localization, a decentralized approach to site management, and a fragmented platform landscape that impedes the export of assets across regions.
These challenges are closely related, and often mutually reinforcing. Brands have struggled to identify solutions; as a result, when quantified on their content performance, the majority of brand fall into a “Weak Content” quadrant when their scores are averaged across regions (see next page). Among brands that average “Strong Content” performance across regions, roughly one-third still exhibit high variance across sites – meaning content efforts in some regions are weaker than in others, even as they may be more tailored towards local consumers.
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The Power of PlatformsBrands with high content variance can often attribute discrepancies to disparate platforms. These brands may sit on a best-in-breed e-commerce platform in the U.S., but on homegrown solutions in Europe and/or Asia, making it difficult to organize for content success globally. On the contrary, the majority of brands
that fall in or near the “Strong Content, Low Variance” quadrant leverage a single e-commerce platform across multiple regions. The platform supports efficient content management, and provides a flexible springboard from which to launch strategic content initiatives that can be cascaded globally.
Content and Commerce: Strength and Variance of Brand Site Content Investments Average Across Regions September 2014, n=80
WEAK CONTENT,LOW VARIANCE
WEAK CONTENT,HIGH VARIANCE
STRONG CONTENT,HIGH VARIANCE
STRONG CONTENT,LOW VARIANCE
8.0
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
10.0 12.0 14.0 16.00.0 2.0 4.0 6.0
SCORE RANGE ACROSS REGIONS
AVERAGE CONTENT SCORE
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The Business Value of Content & CommerceBrands’ content scores correlate with their estimated e-commerce conversion rates, underscoring the quantitative relationship between content and commerce. The causation likely runs both ways – brands that are investing heavily in their e-commerce businesses, and thus recognizing a higher conversion rate, are prioritizing reinvestments in content. In turn, these assets are driving online sales, creating a virtuous content-commerce relationship tied to shareholder value.
The most successful brands are prioritizing the following tactics:
BLOGS & MICROSITES Blogs are integrated into the main site
experience, versus sitting on distinct URLs Links to product pages / buy buttons are
incorporated into articles Relevant blog content is promoted on
the homepage, grid pages, and product pages as a way to providemarketing texture
VIDEO & TUTORIALS Rather than acting as a static asset,
video promoted on the homepage linksdirectly to product
Brief videos (1-minute or less) areembedded across transactional pages(grid pages /product pages) as a way tomarket product attributes
Shoppable video content is re-engineeredto provide a seamless commerce
experience Runway footage is exploited by Luxury
brands for maximum impact, and linksdirectly to product pages and/or storelocators
USER GENERATED CONTENT Similar to video, user generated content
feeds on the homepage link directly to product
Hashtag campaigns designed to solicitUGC are directly linked to commerceexperiences
UGC is promoted on relevant productpages, to contextualize brand marketing efforts
Consumers are increasingly empoweredto provide detailed information on their content, including tagging and reviewing products
GUIDED SELLING TOOLS Guided selling tools are naturally
positioned across the site for maximumdiscoverability by new and existingcustomers
Guided selling experiences are created forboth technical and non-technical productcategories, capitalizing on customer service and upsale opportunities
Content and Commerce: Content Score vs. Estimated Conversion Rate U.S. September 2014, n=39
0%0
5
10
15
20
25
1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6%
U.S.
CON
TENT
SCO
RE
ESTIMATED 2013 U.S. CONVERSION RATE*
*Source: 2014 Internet Retailer 500 conversion rate estimates (parent company figures used for URBN Inc., L’Oreal Inc., Gap Inc.)
Content and commerce are converging to both create brand value and drive revenue.”“ ROB GARFVice President, Industry Strategy and Insights, Demandware
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Branded Content is ExplodingIn 2013, Content Marketing surpassed Email and Social Media as the leading focus of marketers worldwide.1 Organizations have supported this shift in priorities by allocating the incremental resources required for success. In a survey conducted in summer 2013, 15 percent of marketers in North America reported that they planned to “significantly increase” their spend on B2C branded content over the next 12 months, while an additional 45 percent plan to “increase” their spend.2 The trend is mirrored in Western Europe, where a total of 56 percent of marketers plan to increase or significantly increase their B2C content marketing spend.3 On average, branded content now accounts for 24 percent of total marketing budgets among North American companies4 (growing to 31 percent for U.K.-headquartered organizations).5 The byproduct of this explosion has been a glut of branded content. Organizations have focused on ramping up output – 72 percent of North American organizations created “more” or “significantly more” content over the last 12 months – but at the expense of more focused investments to improve content quality, visibility and utility.6
1. “2013 State of Content Marketing,” CopyPress, February 2013,2. “B2C Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America,” Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, October 2013.3. “Content Marketing in the United Kingdom: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends,” Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, December 2013.4. “B2C Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America,” Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs.5. “Content Marketing in the United Kingdom: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends,” Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs.6. “B2C Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America,” Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs.
Source: Content Market Institute and MarketingProfs, “B2C Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America,” October 2013.
Content and Commerce: Percent of Total Marketing Budget Spent on B2C Content MarketingNorth America 2013
“B2C Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends - North America,” Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, October 2013.
0% 1-4% 5-9% 10-24% 25-49% 50-74% 75-99% 100%
4%
17%14%
20%
9%6% 5%
1%
NORTH AMERICA, n=307, AVERAGE: 24%
Content and Commerce: Leading Focus of Marketers Worldwide2012 vs. 2013, n=317
2012
Social Media24%
ContentMarketing
19%
6% CPC
3% Mobile 3% Media Buying
19%SEO
26%Email
2013
10%
3% Media Buying
24%Social Media
14%SEO
3% CPC
9% Mobile
37%Content Marketing
28%
45%
Content and Commerce:B2C Content
Marketing Spending Anticipated Over Next 12Months, North America
October 2013, n=307
15%
1
0% 2%
Rem
ain the Same
Incre
ase
Significantly Increase
Unsure D
ecrease
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ROB GARFVice President, Industry Strategy and Insights, Demandware
Contextualizing SuccessCreating branded content is expensive – a defensible return-on-investment is essential for ensuring that the content engine continues to get greased. Yet some brands expect their content investments to pay dividends only in the form of increased brand awareness and engagement – important but intangible outcomes that are difficult to measure and reinvest. While 79 percent of brands classify awareness as a major goal, 51 percent now also want their content to drive conversion.1 The top three metrics used to assess content performance in North America are web traffic, social media sharing, and time spent on site, with direct sales used as a KPI among 44 percent of teams.2 One-in-three organizations report that they are unsure whether their content marketing investments have increased sales.3
1. “B2C Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America,” Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs.2. Ibid.3. “Content Marketing Trends in 2013,” Axonn Research, August 2013.
Source: Content Market Institute and MarketingProfs, “B2C Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America,” October 2013.
The strategic value of branded content in the shopping journey will continue to rise as digital influence on retail grows. Leading brands are responding to research online, purchase offline with richer content and product information, guided selling tools, and other features—to foster consumer confidence in their purchase decision.”
“
Content and Commerce:Organizational Goals For B2C Content Marketing
North AmericaOctober 2013, n=307
BrandAwareness
79%
CustomerAcquisition
71%
Engagement
64%
WebsiteTraffic
62%
Sales
51%
CustomerRetention
65%
EQUITY METRICS COMMERCE METRICS
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E-Commerce Team
50%
Editorial Team Marketing Team
30%
20%
Biggest BarriersAttribution challenges, while complex, are only reported by 4 percent of large companies as being their biggest barrier success with branded content.1 More likely to be cited by marketers are challenges related to quality of content, resource constraints, and organizational structure. Domain over content marketing remains bifurcated in organizations, with control divided between e-commerce and marketing / editorial teams.2 The differing incentives of these two functions – driving sales and conversion versus brand equity and awareness, respectively – prompted 29 percent of marketers to report that their company lacked organizational buy-in and/or integration with respect to content marketing.3 While these objectives need not be mutually exclusive, L2 research reveals that the majority of brands skew towards one extreme, rather than balancing competing objectives. Organizational rifts are mirrored in brands’ technology decisions. E-commerce platforms, and web content management system, if purchased and managed by distinct teams, can result in limited front-end integration, creating a fragmented consumer experience if teams don’t collaborate and exercise joint planning.
1. “B2C Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America,” Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs.2. “Where Content and Commerce Collide,” Econsultancy, July 2014.3. “B2C Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America,” Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs.
Content and Commerce: Content Marketing ChallengesLarge Companies (1,000+ Employees), North AmericaOctober 2013, n=307 ■ Quality of Content ■ Organizational Challenges ■ Resources Constraints ■ Attribution Challenges
Content and Commerce: Ownership of Content Marketing in OrganizationsJuly 2014
Source: “B2C Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America,” Content Market Institute and MarketingProfs, October 2013.
Source: “Where Content and Commerce Collide,”Econsultancy, July 2014.
Producing Content that Engages 16%
Lack of Organizational Buy-In/Vision 15%
Lack of Integration Across Marketing 14%
Lack of Time 14%
Lack of Budget 7%
Lack of Knowledge and Training 5%
Producing Enough Content 5%
Inability to Measure Content Effectiveness 4%
Producing a Variety of Content 3%
It’s not about content or commerce; it’s about creating the experiences that consumers desire. To differentiate in today’s competitive marketplace, brands are evolving the customer experience on-site with content that engages and educates the customer in a seamless journey flowing from discovery to purchase.”
“ELANA ANDERSONSenior Vice President, Worldwide Marketing, Demandware
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1. “The Role of Content in the Consumer Decision Making Process,” Nielsen and inPowered, March 2014.2. “The New Digital Divide,” Deloitte Digital, April 2014.
Content and Commerce: Impact of Content on Purchase Intent Percent Lift, Purchases $50-$399 March 2014
Source: “The Role of Content in the Consumer Decision Making Process,” Nielsen, March 2014.
Content and Commerce: Percent of Consumers Who Research Online Before Purchasing By Market 2012
Source: Google Consumer Barometer, 2012.
Missed OpportunitiesOrganizations that fail to hold their content to the standard of being a conversion-driver, and make the necessary organizational alignments to support this goal, will miss sales opportunities online – and in-store. More than any other content type, branded content has the greatest impact on consumer purchase intent for low-consideration items ($50- $399), creating a lift in purchase intent of up to 125 percentage points.1 In this context, branded content outperforms more objective content types, including expert content (third-party articles and reviews from sites and blogs dedicated to the product category) and user-generated content (consumer reviews). Strategically deployed content has the potential to accelerate the purchase funnel online and offline. In September 2014, the U.S. reached a tipping point, with 50 percent of all retail sales influenced by digital in some capacity (in more mature categories, and for highly considered purchases, this milestone was passed far earlier).2 In select countries in Western Europe and Asia, the use of digital channels to research products has long outpaced the U.S., underscoring the importance of exporting and localizing content investments to global markets.
Branded Content
125%
Expert Content
113%
User GeneratedContent
75%
Apparel &Accessories
Beauty
34%
24%
Germany
42%
35%
U.K.
45%
45%
France
18%
U.S.
45%
55%
Japan
37%
34%
Hong Kong
20%
eCommerce is sitting at the nexus of several retail paradigm shifts - global expansion, omnichannel, and brands as publishers. True economy of scale is achieved when content can be syndicated across every brand touchpoint, globally, and propel consumers through the funnel. That is content’s true promise of power.”
“ELANA ANDERSONSenior Vice President, Worldwide Marketing, Demandware
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Window Into Commerce Barneys
The Window, a content hub created by Braneys New York, both emulates and enhances the in-store experience. Originally launched in 2011, The Window has continued to evolve as an area of focus for Barneys New York. Earlier this year, the brand brought on Marissa Rosenblum, previously of Refinery 29, to serve as editorial director and lead efforts to enhance the brand’s content offering.1 The Window serves as a hub for editorial content and features a mix of designer interviews, trend highlights, and behind-the-scenes stories. Content from The Window is syndicated across multiple social properties, which in turn directs readers back to full stories on the microsite.
In April 2014, Barneys New York released a new branded app to extend the content-rich experiences across devices. Fueled by content from The Window, the app makes it easier for consumers to access content on-the-go, including while browsing in-store at a Barneys location. New content following Rosenblum’s appointment has contributed to The Window gaining a 20 percent increase in site traffic and a 70 percent increase in page views. Similarly, over half of the new apps’ users are now spending ten minutes in the portal and are converting at higher rates than customers who do not use the app.2
1. “Barneys Builds Out Editorial Site,” WWD, Rachel Strugatz, May 2, 2014.2. “Why Barneys New York is betting on content to drive sales,” Digiday, Brian Balker, May 12, 2014.
Updated daily, The Window includes designer interviews, trend highlights, and behind the scenes stories.
The Barneys New York app features a feed of content from The Window from which users can seamlessly purchase featured items.
Articles published to the app contextualize products while providing a path to purchase.
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Illusion of “Integration”The disappearance of “double door” sites, save for a handful of luxury players, has lulled many marketers into the belief that their brand seamlessly integrates content and commerce across the site experience. For the majority of brands, this is not the case – rather, updated navigation strategies have ensured that content remains as firmly siloed as ever from transactional pages (even as the percentage of brands relying on a double door implementation decreases). One such strategy is reliance on tabbed navigation to house branded content in a dedicated “World Of” or “Explore” section, distinct from the product catalog. A surprising number of brands have adopted separate content tabs, even those with an otherwise sophisticated and holistic digital strategy, such as the digitally native Michael Kors or e-commerce veteran Ralph Lauren. While content repositories are not inherently problematic, the tactic becomes limiting when content assets are not syndicated across the site as a way to contextualize the shopping experience.
Content and Commerce: Fashion Site StructureU.S. Sitesn=64
Source: L2, “Digital IQ Index®: Fashion”, November 2012 and December 2013.
Separate “content tabs” have replaced the double door sites seen in early e-commerce implementations.The more deft approach is to blend content and commerce assets on the homepage and throughout the site, as exemplified by Burton.
Double Door Site Experience 20%
Integrated Site Experience 80%
Double Door Site Experience 14%
Integrated Site Experience 86%
NOVEMBER 2012, n=64 DECEMBER 2013, n=64
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New Navigation Structure Estée Lauder
Estée Lauder relaunched its brand site in July 2014, unveiling a fresh design and revamped navigation structure. Noticeably absent from the new navigation bar was the “Style Guide” tab, which had previously housed all Estée Lauder branded content (including video tutorials, beauty diagnostics, virtual makeover tools, and articles). While the disappearance of the Style Guide tab seemed to signal a de-prioritization of content, the brand is in fact creating more assets than ever (in part to seed its new on-site editorial destination, The Estée Edit). Additional brand content, ranging from video and user-generated content to shade finders and product comparison tools, are now hosted directly on transactional pages. By eliminating its dedicated content repository (still seen on the brand’s European sites), Estée Lauder has created an experience that consistently blends content and commerce throughout the purchase journey.
The Style Guide tab, still visible on the brand’s European sites, previously housed the majority of Estée Lauder content in the U.S.
Content, ranging from guided selling tools to UGC to blog articles, is made naturally discoverable onrelated product grid pages.
UNITED STATES
EUROPE
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Content and Commerce: Content Types Promoted on Grid Pages All Verticals, By Region September 2014
Achieving ScaleScale is a critical element of content marketing. It is most readily achieved when marketers capitalize on their greatest digital asset–a highly trafficked brand site–and strategically place pieces of content so as to maximize their visibility. This means leveraging the high traffic of transactional pages and embedding relevant content in order to make it naturally discoverable. Many brands take the opposite tact, creating distinct content destinations and then struggling to generate the page views to justify their existence.
Forward-looking marketers are exploring the potential for transactional pages to act as content repositories. While this transformation has been occurring for some time on product pages, largely with established content types such as user reviews and product videos, only a handful of brands are experimenting with the promotion of content assets on grid pages (pages that display all SKUs within a given category). Brands that are starting to build out their grid pages into more flexible content-commerce layouts have largely focused their efforts on the U.S. market, at the expense of Western Europe and Asia.
Kiehl’s promotes its Routine Finder on grid pages, making the high-quality tool visible and accessible to skincare shoppers.
Look Books
Videos
Tutorials
Blog Articles
Guided Selling Tools
U.S. Western Europe Asia
5% 1% 0%
27% 15%23%
22% 9%22%
14% 1% 9%
12% 4% 3%
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Levi’s well-positioned Curve ID tool helps consumers who are comparing different cuts and styles to hone in on the right fit.
Coach links to its Wallet Guide directly from the Wallets grid page, ensuring consumers can find the information they need to make a purchase decision.
Achieving Scale (Cont’d)
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The New Grid PageThe preceding examples (Kiehl’s, Levi’s and Coach) demonstrate brands linking from an e-commerce grid page to a highly relevant piece of content, in order to help the consumer to further refine their consideration set. While this strategy is appropriate in many contexts, it does necessitate that the consumer navigates away from the grid page in order to interact with the content. Some brands have eliminated this extra step entirely and started to integrate small pieces of micro content directly onto grid pages for immediate consumption. This tactic helps to further reduce fragmentation in the purchase journey by making content available to the consumer without disrupting the shopping experience.
For their new ZeroGrand product line, Cole Haan published a mini-lookbook of “4 Ways to Wear ZeroGrand,” which can be browsed directly on the collection grid page.
DVF was an early adopter of product page video in the Fashion category; the brand recently ported video to the grid page environment for easy viewing while browsing.
As with everything in the digital age, the best user experience is an effortless one. Engagement should require very few clicks. In the consumer consideration phase, context reigns supreme. Product content—video, looks, tutorials—helps the consumer make the mental leap from browse to buy.”
“ELANA ANDERSONSenior Vice President, Worldwide Marketing, Demandware
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Fit Guides Suitsupply
Suitsupply, a high-end menswear manufacturer, recognized the importance of content in educating consumers on its product. To help online shoppers select between their thirteen different suit cuts, the brand delivers a wealth of information via prime real estate on the suit grid page. Suitsupply embeds micro content directly onto the grid page, in the form of 1-minute videos that profile suit fabrics, structure, and details. The retailer also promotes the availability of fit guides for each of the thirteen suit cuts from the grid page. Selecting any fit redirects to a content-rich page where the consumer can compare and contrast tailoring features, watch additional fit videos, and get size advice using an interactive tool.
Although these assets are available elsewhere on the Suitsupply site, including on the “About Our Suits” features page, there is no guarantee that a search-and-destroy consumer already in the consideration phase will uncover the valuable content. Positioning the fit guides and craftsmanship videos in the same environment as the full suit catalog is a strategic way to ensure that content and commerce are browsed in tandem.
From the grid level, Suitsupply embeds micro content videos, and links to its thirteen suit fit guides.
Each suit guide includes fit videos as well as information on tailoring and craftsmanship details.
An interactive tool helps consumers to determine their optimal size in each of the different cuts, increasing consumer confidence to make a purchase online.
“ The store is a highly sensory experience, especially in apparel. But leading brands know compelling, expert content can convey brand value and guide consumers to the right purchase decision. Your top sales associate knows how to sell the product quality as the consumer considers fit and style. Will you let her enter the dressingroom without educating her on the right assortment?”ROB GARFVice President, Industry Strategy and Insights, Demandware
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The New Product PageSimilar to grid pages, product pages have been undergoing a content revolution, at an even faster pace. User reviews and video are starting to reach maturity as a standard element of the product page, with U.S. adoption rates of 71 percent and 47 percent, respectively. Incorporation of more differentiated content types, including tutorials, user generated photos and guided selling tools, still lags across global markets. A select number of organizations have set a new bar in product page content integration, particularly brands that play in technical categories. Exploiting the quantitative, tangible attributes of their products, these brands are producing a wealth of content to help the consumer compare specs and make informed purchase decisions. Lifestyle brands are following suit, albeit at a slower pace.
Content and Commerce: Content Types Integrated Onto Product Pages All Verticals, By RegionSeptember 2014
Products don’t sell themselves. Consumers weigh a variety of datapoints when making a purchase - everything from price to quality, color, style, and features. Smart retailers don’t leave the consideration and imagination on the consumer; rather, they guide the consumer to the right product that fits their needs - through product finders, reviews, and recommendations.”
“ELANA ANDERSONSenior Vice President, Worldwide Marketing, Demandware
Reviews
Videos
Tutorials
User GeneratedImagery
Guided Selling Tools
U.S. Western Europe Asia
71% 37%49%
47% 18%35%
33% 9% 29%
15% 3% 8%
14% 11% 2%
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The New Product Page (Cont’d)
Product details fully cataloged with visuals
User generated content hashtagged with the product line name
Curating owned and earned media specific to the product
Product specs allotted substantial page real estate
Highly quantitative user reviews capitalize on the product’s technical nature
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Cross-sectional videos illustrate unique snowboard qualities
Mix of quantitate and qualitative product descriptors
Short videos blend lifestyle content with craftsmanship stories
Burton upsells through boots and bindings recommendations
The New Product Page (Cont’d)
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CONTENT & COMMERCEPLAYBOOK
Best Practices
Does your strongest content sit somewhere other than your brand site?
BLOGS & MICROSITES, P. 25–28
Is your most expensive content a commerce dead end?
VIDEO & TUTORIALS, P. 30–33
Are your hardest-working content publishers being ignored?
USER GENERATED CONTENT, P. 34–35
Does your top sales associate provide better customer service than your digital channels?
GUIDED SELLING TOOLS, P. 38–41
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Evaluating Content InvestmentsContent investments, as with all digital investments, should be evaluated for their capacity to:
• Drive brand equity and awareness at scale.
• Drive sales, by increasing online conversion or catalyzing offline purchase.
As seen previously, 79 percent of organizations self-report that driving brand awareness is a top goal.1 However, many organizations critically neglect to do so at scale. The disconnect occurs when brands position valuable digital assets such that only a fraction of site visitors ever see or interact with the content. Those that do are often brand loyalists, already compelled to actively seek out branded
content, minimizing assets’ value as customer acquisition tools. Blogs exemplify this trend, particularly those that sit as a microsite with a distinct URL. These blogs can receive as little as 0.2–0.5 percent of the traffic enjoyed by the main brand URL; moreover, bounce rates are typically two to three times that of the main site, reaching as high as 75 percent of visitors.2 Brands that publish the majority of their content assets to these secondary destinations are doing themselves a disservice when it comes to generating branded content ROI. Brands with superior blog strategies, such as LUSH, house the blog on-site, and actively incorporate content articles across transactional pages to provide marketing texture and boost visibility.
Blog
Retailer Forever 21American Eagle Outfitters
Urban Outfitters
French Connection
BobbiBrown
U.S. Blog Visits/Month
45k 25k 45k 20k 20k
Content and Commerce: Main Site vs. Blog TrafficSeptember 2014
U.S. Main Site Visits/Month
16M 6.7M 6.5M 520k960k
Content and Commerce: Site Integration: U.S. Brand BlogsSeptember 2014, n=34 Blogs
On Site56%
On Microsite38%
On Tumblr 6%
Leading with commerce compels the consumer to continue their journey and enables them to easily purchase products. The right blend of brand and product content will help retailers increase consumer engagement, optimize conversion and encourage customer loyalty.”
“1. “B2C Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America,” Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs.2. Similarweb.com, 2014.
ELANA ANDERSONSenior Vice President, Worldwide Marketing, Demandware
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Seasonal articles from the LUSH blog offer engaging pathways on the homepage.
The LUSH blog is integrated into the main site navigation; articles consistently link back to product pages where consumers can purchase.
Each product page includes a feed of relevant blog articles, providing ingredient information, product stories, and category-level content.
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Tying Content to CommerceIn addition to driving brand awareness at scale, blogs and other digital content investments should push the consumer down a path to purchase. Commerce integration can take several forms; brands select from among a spectrum of strategies depending on the content type and objective:
NO INTEGRATION: All-too-frequently, brands publish content without an explicit connection to commerce, even when a piece of content features a product available for purchase elsewhere on the site.
LINK TO PRODUCT PAGE: Often employed for content types that sit in isolation (e.g. blogs, microsites), linking back to a product page puts the consumer back in the purchase funnel. The content experience is typically disrupted in the process, as the consumer is taken to a new page to browse and buy.
INTEGRATED BUY BUTTON: For content integrated into the commerce site, brands have the advantage of being able to integrate buy buttons throughout the experience. This allows consumers to add products to their cart without navigating away from the content, and also ensures they are able to shop multiple items from the same story.
INTEGRATED BUY ALL BUTTON: For content types that feature a collection of products, such as an outfit or beauty regimen, an integrated buy all button allows the consumer to add all products to their cart with a single click. This strategy is a natural fit for content stories, and has the added benefit of implicitly cross-selling items to drive larger basket sizes.
The Everything Bobbi blog, which is hosted on a microsite, links from articles back to product pages on the main site.
LINK TO PRODUCT PAGE
H&M blog articles often do not link back to product, even when they profile a specific product, as seen in “The Item” posts.
NO INTEGRATION
The Tory Burch Fall 2014 lookbook includes a button to “Add All to Bag,” allowing consumers to shop entire outfits with a single click.
INTEGRATED BUY ALL BUTTON
Ralph Lauren Style Guide articles can be shopped without leaving the lookbook environment.
INTEGRATED BUY BUTTON
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Survival of the Fittest Among blogs analyzed in the U.S. and Western Europe, between 71 and 77 percent had some form of e-commerce integration, depending on the market. While these numbers seem robust, the inverse–that roughly one-in-four brands have yet to integrate commerce into their blogs in any capacity–is disappointing.
In a survey of marketers on the types of branded content they produce, blogs were the only content type to decline in use, down 5 percentage points year-over-year from 2013 to 2014.1 If marketers continue to see a weak ROI on blogs – the result of the limited commerce integration just described – the reallocation of capital away from blogs, towards content types with superior performance, will likely persist.
1. “B2C Content Marketing: 2015 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends – North America,” Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, October 2014.
Content and Commerce: Percent of Brand Blogs with Commerce Integration All Verticals, By Market September 2014
Content and Commerce: B2C Content Marketing Tactics North America October 2013 vs. October 2014, n=307
■ 2013 ■ 2014
75%
76%77%
71%
France, n =16Germany, n =17
U.S., n=22U.K., n=3489%
+5%93%
Social Media
+0%Articles78% 78%
+2%Branded Video74%
72%
+3%39%
Mobile Apps42%
+10%Branded Content Tools 47% 37%
+1%Micosites44%
43%
-5%Blogs67%
72%
+4%80%
Email Newsletters76%
Source: “B2C Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends–North America,” Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, October 2014 and 2014.
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Burberry and Kate Spade, both early adopters of WeChat, recognized the power of the platform as a content syndication tool.
RoseBeauty, a content-rich BBS site managed by Lancôme, provides a highly visual community forum for conversations about beauty.
Content and Commerce: Most Effective Types of Content Marketing in China Percentage of RespondentsDecember 2013, n=1,176
Source: PR Newswire, “Content Marketing Trends and ROI Impact Assessment by Companies in China,” December 6, 2013.
Brand Sites/Microsites Weibos WeChat Branded Videos Social Media Blogs
53% 48%24%
17%9% 7%
Chinese Content EcosystemThe content ecosystem in China is unique, and involves a host of platforms that have yet to gain relevance in Western markets. Marketers in China report that some of the most effective types of branded content are published to weibos (i.e. Sina Weibo), and WeChat, both of which outpace blogs and other social media platforms in terms of relevance to the Chinese consumer.1 Recognizing return, organizations are doubling down on Chinese content investments–65 percent of marketers report that they plan to increase investments in WeChat over the next 12 months, while 53 percent will increase investment in weibos.2 By contrast, only 12 percent of marketers reported plans to increase investments in blogs in China. Rather than adopting a “one-size-fits-all” approach, sophisticated brands are developing native assets and localized content destinations to serve the distinct needs of the Chinese market. Lancôme’s RoseBeauty portal, a bulletin board site (BBS) that functions as a community forum for beauty aficionados, has been a major component of the brand’s digital dominance in China. Similarly, global fashion brands Burberry and Kate Spade were early to WeChat, recognizing the power of the natively Chinese app to deliver highly visual content to consumers via their mobile devices.
1. “Content Marketing Trends and ROI Impact Assessment by Companies in China,” PR Newswire, December 6, 2013.2. Ibid.
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Rise of VideoVideo continues to increase in relevance as one of the most influential types of digital content in driving purchase decisions. The trend has been consistent globally, with between 35 and 53 percent of consumers in the world’s largest markets using digital video as a source of recommendations.1
Despite the maturity of the medium, and outsized influence in emerging markets, L2 found that, on average, just 1-in-5 brands are investing in product page video in Asia. This number jumps slightly in Western Europe, where roughly 1-in-3 brand are investing, but has yet to reach the level of adoption seen in the U.S.
1. “The Age of Curation: From Abundance to Discovery,” Bain & Company, November 2013.
Content and Commerce: Digital Video Used as a Source of Recommendations Percentage of Respondentsn=6,251 ■ 2010 ■ 2013
Asia
18%
Western Europe
35%
U.S.
Content and Commerce:Percent of Sites with
Video on Product PageAll Verticals, by Region,
September 2014
47%Source: “The Age of Curation: From Abundance to Discovery,” Bain & Company, November 2013.
Brazil India Russia China U.S. Germany France U.K.
+8%
+5%
+7% +2%+7% +8%
+7% +8%
44%
49%
38%
45% 44%42%
34%
41%
33%
41%
28%
35% 35%
27%
45%
53%
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EmbargoBrands struggle to leverage existing video assets across multiple markets, due to organizational hurdles (a decentralized approach to e-commerce and web maintenance) and/or the challenges of content translation and localization (cost, consistency, and vendor management).1 Even in situations where the export of video should be relatively straightforward–such a porting an English-language video from the U.S. to U.K.–brands often miss the opportunity to make their content work harder across multiple sites.
1. “Cloudwords Global Content Marketing Report,” Cloudwords, September 2013.
Clinique has yet to relaunch its European sites, limiting the brand’s ability to export video content across global product pages even when the same SKUs are sold across markets.
U.S. U.S. U.K. U.K.
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NOW NEXT
Shoppable VideoRecognizing the power of video and its ability to drive conversion, the next step for many brands has been to explicitly tie together content and commerce in the form of shoppable video. While the shoppable video format means different things to different brands, many organizations have ultimately missed the
mark. Most “shoppable video” investments are simply highly-produced videos that feature product and link to purchase in some capacity – but do not support an inherently more seamless shopping experience.
Reebok’s “shoppable videos” feature athletes in twenty vignettes.
Every item in the video can be selected, unlocking a product description.
Clicking through to purchase the specific item directs the consumer to a grid page featuring dozens of SKUs.
Pausing the video at any point brings up a menu of product categories. Users can explore the items featured in the current shot, buy directly without interrupting the video, and then resume viewing.
Anthropologie presented its September lookbook in the form of a shoppable video, embedded directly on a grid page.
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Catwalks & CommerceRunway footage is another category of video that has been underleveraged by the majority of Fashion brands. While runway footage represents some of the highest-quality video produced by a brand in any given year, tactical oversights have diluted the commercial power of the “shoppable runway.”
NOW NEXT
Louis Vuitton runway videos sit in isolation on the brand site. Unlocking additional content requires the customer to click through to “Discover the Collection.”
The “Discover” button leads to a catalog of the season’s looks, still with no commerce integration.
Selecting an individual outfit transforms the grid-based catalog into a flipbook. The products are not itemized, nor can they be purchased directly or located in a boutique environment.
Detailed product content is integrated alongside video, while the “Shop” button allows the consumer to add products to the cart without leaving the video.
Burberry differentiates by integrating runway content one level deeper. Runway photography is included on PDPs as a contextual marketing tool. The brand also cross-sells the additional items seen in the runway look.
Burberry provides a catalog of all outfits seen on the runway. Unlike Louis Vuitton, these assets are integrated directly into the runway experience.
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72%ContentDead-End
43%Static (nowhere)
29%Content Page
14%Grid Page
14%Product Page
18%UGC onHomepage
28%CommerceFunnel
User Generated ContentMarketers are embracing user generated content, leveraging imagery and user reviews as a way to signal authenticity and resonate with a millennial demographic. Although an increasing number of brands have invested in tools to curate consumer content, organizations are still positioning UGC as a top-of-the-funnel brand equity play, rather than a way to drive conversion. While 18 percent of brands stream user generated photos on their U.S. homepages, fewer brands (15 percent) syndicate the content onto their product
pages – the environment where consumers ultimately make purchase decisions. Of those who do include UGC on the homepage, just 28 percent lead the consumers back to a transactional page, including a product page (14 percent) or grid page (14 percent). The remainder of brands link from the content to a non-transactional page (29 percent) or have yet to make the UGC clickable (43 percent).
Columbia is among the 14 percent of brands with UGC on the homepage that links to product.
Content and Commerce: Pathways from Home Page UGCAll Verticals, U.S.September 2014
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NOW NEXT
The Never Hide campaign was incredibly successful from a consumer participation perspective, generating an enormous amount of aspirational collateral for the brand.
Ray-Ban missed the opportunity to put consumers on a path to purchase by linking back to product from each photo in the gallery.
Each image is tagged with the specific shoe being showcased, and links back to the corresponding product page.
Nine West maintains a UGC gallery on the brand site.
Consumers As MarketersOne-in-three brands have established a separate hub on their site where they collect user-generated photos, often in conjunction with a specific campaign or hashtag. More than half (52 percent) of these dedicated environments are not shoppable in any way; 36 percent link back to product pages, and only 12 percent can be shopped directly via integrated buy buttons.
Nine West expands the reach of the Shoe & You gallery by syndicating UGC photos of the shoe onto product pages, under Style Spotlight.
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Beauty Board Sephora
Sephora redefined UGC marketing in March 2014, when it launched Beauty Board on the brand site. Toted by the brand as a “social shopping platform,” the content marketing destination is explicitly commerce-oriented. Users upload photos of their beauty looks to the searchable Beauty Board. Unlike more traditional UGC implementations, which require brand marketers to tag each photo with the specific SKU pictured, Sephora has empowered consumers to do the tagging. An intuitive upload interface with auto-complete functionality helps consumers to locate the products they used to create their look, and tag their photo accordingly. Viewers can then click through to buy the exact product, down to the shade level, on Sephora.com. By tapping into its robust Beauty Insiders community, Sephora has achieved unprecedented levels of consumer engagement and upload volume to the Beauty Board, averaging over 50 unique consumer photos per day. The brand has maximized the impact of the successful initiative by promoting UGC looks on product pages, inspiring consumers with real-life examples of products in action.
Beauty Board, launched in March 2014, receives, on average, over 50 consumer uploads per day.
The products used to create each consumer beauty look are cataloged; clicking a product directs back to the PDP where it can be purchased.
Sephora has empowered consumers to tag the specific products they used to create their look, leveraging auto-complete technology for consistency.
On all product pages, Sephora features posts on the Beauty Board that feature the specific product, further inspiring the consumer.
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Benefit Cosmetics is a global leader in UGC marketing; the brand frequently integrates consumer content into product launch campaigns, as seen in the Korean roll-out of Lolli Tint.
Content and Commerce: Marketing Rated Most Effective by Marketers By Country and Type June 2013 ■ Ads ■ UGC ■ Social Media ■ Paid Search ■ Email
Source: “Click Here: The State of Online Advertising,” Edelman Berland, June 2013
Content and Commerce: Percent of Sites with UGC on Product Pages Beauty Brands, By Region September 2014
14% 19%0%
U.S.Western Europe Asia
UGC in AsiaWhile marketers in the U.S., U.K., France and Germany report that traditional ads are the most effective type of marketing (outperforming user generated content, social media, paid search and email), marketers in APAC, specifically South Korea and Japan, have found that UGC-marketing delivers the highest return.1 The success of UGC in Asia speaks to cultural differences in the way consumers across markets interact with brands, and is reflected in the type of content highlighted on product pages in various countries. The trend is most evident in the Beauty category, where consumers are more prone to UGC creation on account of customer demographics and a higher degree of brand loyalty. On average, 19 percent of Beauty brands incorporate user generated content onto product pages in Asia, a higher proportion than in the U.S. (14 percent). No Beauty brands were observed embedding UGC on product pages in Western Europe, where consumer participation in campaigns is often more difficult to solicit.
1. “Click Here: The State of Online Advertising,” Edelman Berland, June 12, 2013.
49%
27%
7% 7%5%
46%
26%
5%9%
6%
31%
12%
4%8%
29%
37%
12%
5%2%
41%
20%
7% 6% 8%
55%
18%
6%4% 4%
U.S. U.K.
19%
JapanSouth KoreaFrance Germany
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“Please rank your top three goals as a digital marketer today.”
14%Deliver Relevant Offers
48%Serve and Retain Customers
42%Build Brand Awareness
22%Provide Stellar Customer Service
40%Deepen Relationships with Customers
41%Increase Customer Loyalty
26%Generate Customer Insights
18%Provide Personal Experiences Across Touchpoints
50%Acquire New Customers
Guided Selling ToolsDigital marketers report that their top performance objectives are acquiring new customers (50 percent), serving and retaining existing customers (48 percent), and building brand awareness (42 percent).1 Personalization via digital gives marketers the tools to accomplish all these aims, and positively impact acquisition, retention, loyalty, and awareness metrics. While only 18 percent of marketers state that one of their top goals is delivering personalization across multiple touchpoints, this number is on the rise. Marketers have recognized the power of personalization to drive meaningful e-commerce experiences; from 2013 to 2014, branded tools saw the highest increase in adoption as a content type (besting social media, email newsletters, video, and mobile apps).2 The positive trend is expected to continue year-over-year as organizations see return. Guided selling tools blend content and personalization technology to drive purchase intent, yet are only employed by 31 percent of brands as a marketing
tool on U.S. sites. Moreover, brands that have made substantial investments in guided selling technology often make tactical missteps that diminish the impact of these tools. Beauty brands in particular have invested heavily in the space, in digital experiences including foundation finders, skincare diagnostics, shade matchers, and other tools. While 79 percent of Beauty brands have created one or more such tools (over-indexing substantially versus other verticals), only 57 percent promote the guided selling experience on the brand homepage, curtailing potential impact as a customer acquisition vehicle. Similarly, only half of Beauty brands promote guided selling tools on grid pages, and just 7 percent promote on product pages. Brands that do neither fail to make their content naturally discoverable to consumers in the consideration phase.
Source: Forrester, “Refresh Your Approach to 1:1 Marketing: How Real-Time Automation Elevates Personalization,” August 2014.
Content and Commerce: Integration of Guided Selling Tools onto Brand SitesBeauty Brands, U.S.September 2014, n=14
Content and Commerce: Top Goals of Digital Marketing According to Digital Marketing ExecutivesNorth AmericaApril 2014, n=121
1. “Refresh Your Approach to 1:1 Marketing: How Real-Time Automation Elevates Personalization,” Forrester, August 2014.2. “B2C Content Marketing: 2015 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends -- North America,” Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, October 2014.
GUID
ED SELLING TOOL(S)
PR
OM
OTED ON GR ID PAGES
PR
OM
O T E D O N P R O DUCT
PA
GE
79%
50%
57%
7%
PROM OTED O
N HO
MEP
AG
E
PROMOTED O
N HOM
EPA
GE
CREA
TED BY BRAND
PR
OM
OTED ON GR ID PAGES
PR
OM
OT ED O N P R O D U CT P
AGE
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NEXTNOW
Guided Selling in BeautyBeauty brands are significantly more mature than other categories in developing guided selling tools, recognizing the challenge of identifying cosmetics with specific attributes and efficacy to suit various skin types and tones. While matching a consumer to their ideal foundation or cleanser has traditionally been
the purview of sales associates at department store counters, Beauty brands have invested in digital tools to provide this level of customer service at scale. Brands exhibit varying levels of sophistication in how these tools are marketed across the site.
Rather than sitting on foundation product pages, Bobbi Brown’s Foundation Formula Guide is only accessible via a non-transactional “tips and tricks” page on the U.K. site.
The Formula Guide is a static PDF page with shade descriptors and no interactivity – a huge miss for the brand.
Bare Minerals promotes its “Find Your Match” tool from the brand homepage, ensuring new customers are able to quickly identify products to suit their skin tone.
Similarly, the tool is promoted on the Foundation grid pages, targeting consumers who are shopping the category.
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Source: “Navigating the New Path to Purchase,” MilwardBrown Digital.
Product Finders & FittersProduct finders are beginning to take hold outside of the Beauty category. As consumers do an increasingly higher percentage of their shopping online, without the guidance of skilled sales staff to guide and upsell them, brands have recognized the importance of replicating the customer service experience digitally to drive both conversion and basket size. Consumer categories with technical attributes lend themselves well to product finders and comparison tools, as seen in the Brooks Shoe Advisor tool. The five-step diagnostic identifies a consumer’s ideal running shoe based on their foot shape and activity type. Brooks also helps consumers switch from another running brand to a Brooks shoe, with its “Switcheroo” program that matches
popular styles to their Brooks equivalent. The Brooks suite of tools is robust enough to imitate the experience of trying on a sneaker in person – which 88 percent of consumers report is the reason they prefer to shop for athletic footwear in-store versus online.1 Even in non-technical categories, brands have found unique ways to inject personalization and interactivity into the product discovery process. UGG Australia, which sells fashion footwear, offers a product finder that recommends shoes and boots based on a consumer’s size and style profile, ranging from “sporty chic” to “glamazon.”
1. “Navigating the New Path to Purchase,” MillwardBrown Digital.
Source: “Navigating the New Path to Purchase,” MilwardBrown Digital.
COST OF SHIPPING IS TOO HIGH
BETTER PRICES
TRY THE PRODUCT IN PERSON
88%
33%
RECEIVE ITEMS IMMEDIATELY
SALES PERSONContent and Commerce: Reasons Why Consumers Prefer to Purchase Athletic Footwear In-Store
Percent of In-Store Purchasers
16%
32%
33%12%
88%
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Brooks’ Shoe Advisor tool makes personalized recommendations for runners.
The Shoe Advisor tool is promoted on the site homepage for maximum visibility.
The five-step diagnostic tool incorporates the user’s gender, foot size, weight, activity profile and pronation into its algorithm.
Brands in non-technical categories are beginning to experiment with guided selling tools. UGG Australia recommends fashion footwear based on consumers’ style profiles.
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Content Integration L’Oréal Paris
L’Oréal Paris is unmatched among brands in the study for its syndication of content. By consistently using all pages on the site as a repository for branded collateral, L’Oréal Paris ensures that the substantial volume of content it regularly produces is maximally impactful. Consumers are naturally guided through a site experiences that blends content and commerce; strategic placement of assets ensure this journey is never fragmented, and ultimately leads to product.
A content calendar on the brand homepage displays the freshest videos, blog posts and product stories.
Guided selling tools are promoted on relevant grid pages, such as the foundation shade finder.
L’Oréal Paris differentiates by providing a wealth of curated content on all product pages.
L’Oréal Paris links to relevant tutorial content from its grid pages.
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Scott Galloway Professor of Marketing, NYU Stern Founder, L2
Professor Galloway founded L2 after developing an algorithm to assess the digital competence of brands. Scott is a Clinical Professor at the NYU Stern School of Business where he teaches brand strategy and digital marketing. In 2012, Professor Galloway was named “One of the World’s 50 Best Business School Professors” by Poets & Quants. He is also the founder of Red Envelope and Prophet Brand Strategy. Scott was elected to the World Economic Forum’s Global Leaders of Tomorrow and has served on the boards of directors of Eddie Bauer (NASDAQ: EBHI), The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), Gateway Computer, and UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. He received a B.A. from UCLA and an M.B.A. from UC Berkeley.
Maureen Mullen Co-Founder, Head of Research, L2
Maureen leads L2’s research and advisory practice, where she helped develop the Digital IQ Index®. She has benchmarked the digital marketing, e-commerce, and social media efforts of more than 300 brands across pharma, auto, luxury, specialty retail, beauty, and CPG. Maureen also has led digital strategy consulting engagements for a variety of Fortune 1000 clients. Before joining L2, Maureen was with Triage Consulting Group and led managed-care payment review and payment benchmarking projects for hospitals, including UCLA Medical Center, UCSF, and HCA. Maureen has a B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from NYU Stern.
Rob Garf Vice President, Industry Strategy and Insights, Demandware As VP of Industry Strategy for Demandware, Rob Garf is no stranger to the industry and the challenges retailers face. As the former retail strategy leader for IBM Global Business Services and vice president of Retail Strategies Service at AMR Research, Rob’s been on all sides of the business. He currently guides Demandware’s retail and product strategy.
Elana Anderson Senior Vice President, Worldwide Marketing, Demandware Elana Anderson has extensive experience as a marketing software executive, industry analyst and marketing consultant with companies ranging in size from startup to Fortune 100 to her role at Demandware. Prior to Demandware, she served in a number of technology and marketing strategy roles, including VP of Strategy and Product Management of IBM’s Enterprise Marketing Management software group, VP of Products at Unica Corporation and the VP & Research Director of the marketing practice at Forrester Research, Inc.
Claude de Jocas Study Director, L2 Claude started her career at Educational Consulting Services, Corp. (ECS) in hometown Toronto, Canada before joining L2 in 2012. At L2, Claude has benchmarked the digital efforts of over 400 brands across luxury, beauty, hospitality and retail, as well as led advisory engagements for a variety of L2 member brands. She currently manages the omnichannel research portfolio, and has authored reports examining omnichannel readiness across the U.S., U.K. and Canadian markets. Claude holds a B.A. in Economics and Environmental Studies from Yale University.
Ashley Tolbert Research Associate, L2 Ashley began her career within Deloitte Consulting’s Strategy and Operations practice where she advised Fortune 500 companies on corporate strategy, operational improvement and analytics projects. Working predominately within consumer-centric organizations, she developed data models and frameworks to support strategic decision-making and counseled clients through execution. Ashley holds a B.A. in Economics from Spelman College.
Marielle Gross Art Director, L2 Marielle is L2’s Art Director and manages the Graphic Design team. She has worked at a diverse range of companies from corporate annual report and branding design firms to luxury advertising agencies. Marielle received a B.F.A. from School of Visual Arts.
Radhika Patel Graphic Designer, L2 Radhika Patel is a graphic designer who specializes in publication design as well as data visualization. She also has experience in motion graphics, electronic media, experience design, and animation. Radhika received her B.F.A. in Graphic Design from West Virginia University.
Special thanks to Colin Gilbert, Jake Matthews, Gia Cui, Nary Han, Mariah Lamb and Rachel Kim.
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L2 INTELLIGENCE REPORT CONTENT AND COMMERCE
October 27, 2014
L2 business intelligence for digital.
L2 is committed to keeping its members ahead of what’s next in digital. To facilitate this we host a series of educational events that bring together industry experts, academics and thought leaders.
RESEARCH
Digital IQ Index®: The definitive benchmark for online competence, Digital IQ Index® reports score brands
against peers on more than 850 quantitative and qualitative data points, diagnosing their digital strengths
and weaknesses.
Intelligence Reports: Intelligence Reports complement L2’s flagship Digital IQ Index® with a deeper dive
on platforms or geographies of future growth. Critical areas of investigation include: Mobile, Video, Emerging
Platforms, APAC and Brazil Russia India.
Insight Reports: Series of indepth/topical reports complementing The Digital IQ Index® reports.
EVENTS
The Forum: L2's annual flagship conference, held each November. The Forum is a one-day, TED-style
event that gathers CEOs, industry experts, academics and thought leaders who speak to innovation and
inspiration. Senior executives from the world’s most iconic brands will be in attendance.
Executive Education Clinics: L2’s version of the one-day M.B.A, our quarterly clinics offer members an
in-depth look at the issues, trends, strategies and technologies changing the face of digital.
Research Briefings: Held in cities across the world several times a month, these working sessions, typically
over breakfast or lunch, provide members with data and insights from L2's research portfolio.
MEMBERSHIP
For membership info and inquiries: [email protected]
Upcoming Events
BREAKFAST: SPECIALTY RETAIL
October 30, 2014 · New York City
FORUM
November 10, 2014 · New York City
LUNCH: FASHION
November 18, 2014 · New York City
LUNCH: BEAUTY
November 19, 2014 · New York City
LUNCH: BEAUTY & FASHION
November 25, 2014 · Paris
BREAKFAST: BEAUTY & FASHION
November 26, 2014 · London
Upcoming Research
DIGITAL IQ INDEX® REPORTS:
Specialty Retail
Russia Luxury
L2 INTELLIGENCE REPORTS:
Social Platforms
L2 INSIGHT REPORTS:
Omnichannel: Discounting
Auto: International Sites
Amazon: Fashion and Watches & Jewelry
Food: Online Grocery
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Contact Info:
155 Wooster Street, 2nd Floor New York, NY 10012
L2inc.com [email protected]
© L2 2014 L2inc.comReproductions Prohibited This report is the property of L2, Inc. No copyrighted materials may be reproduced, redistributed, or transferred without prior consent from L2. L2 reports are available to L2 Members for internal business purposes.