The Importance of Small “Differences”
Recently, services containing the term “360” such as Salesforce Customer 360, Adobe 360 Degree Customer View, and SAS Customer Intelligence 360 have become increasingly common.
The goal behind “XXX 360” solutions is understood as follows: Unlike during Japan’s period of high economic growth—when products sold explosively and population and buyers increased steadily—today’s market does not grow in such a simple, upward manner. Therefore, the aim is to get to know customers better so they will continue to use one’s products and services over the long term. However, on the other hand, human behavior and thought processes are not so simple as to be fully captured just by recorded data.
A 2018 survey by Groupon on impulsive buying attitudes (*1) yielded interesting results:
- One in two people make impulse purchases at least once a month.
- About 60% of people regret their impulse purchases.
From this, we can hypothesize that even if you know your customers well, stimulating purchase and retention motivation may still be difficult.
In other words, what businesses must focus on going forward is to “trigger impulse buying and maintain ongoing communication so that customers do not regret their purchases.”
What is key to encouraging impulse buying and sustaining ongoing communication? We believe the answer lies in content.
Many people have probably experienced making an impulse purchase triggered by a video seen on the street or moved emotionally by a TV commercial.
When customers choose between similar products or services, content acts as the means to create the small “difference” that makes your brand stand out.
Encounters with Customers through Content
For example, when asked, “We want to play videos in a popup store opening next week,” how might you respond?
- Gather videos from an internal server and create a looped video playlist
- Upload videos to YouTube and create a playlist
- Save videos on a USB and hand it over
These on-demand responses are common. If your company uses a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system, video preparation might be smoother. However, from the viewpoint of content that creates a small “difference,” several questions arise:
- Are the videos compelling enough to attract customers?
- Do they stimulate purchase motivation?
- Are they videos that customers barely notice whether they play or not?
Customers visiting stores differ by day of the week and time of day. Even the same customer’s mindset may change depending on weather or season.
If daily life isn’t just a repetition of the same things, then videos that emotionally resonate and cause people to stop and watch will also vary. Providing content that reaches these subtle emotional shifts can make brand-customer encounters much more memorable and special.
In 2018, Chanel raised the challenge of how to enhance customer engagement at popup stores (temporary retail locations). Existing popup stores had become somewhat templated spaces, lacking compelling information, content, or attractions. When building a completely new content platform while leveraging existing assets, the following points were emphasized:
- Support for regionally appropriate content distribution
- Support for flexible content changes on-site
- Support for interactive initiatives
Regarding region-specific content distribution, a digital wall was developed to retrieve and display content via API using metadata tags assigned when content is stored. To enable easy content selection on-site, a management interface accessible via smartphone or tablet was created, allowing staff to change distribution content by setting keywords or selecting images. By decoupling the presentation layer (digital wall) from the content management layer and communicating via APIs, flexible content use that was previously impossible became achievable.
To increase customer interaction, an initiative called “Read My Lips” combined a mobile app and facial recognition technology. This system extracts lip shapes via facial recognition, performs personality analysis based on lip shape, and recommends suitable lip products accordingly. Such interactive technology created an environment more acceptable than one-way staff suggestions for customers unsure about which lip product to choose. It was effective in enhancing customer engagement and attracting attention in-store.
“Read My Lips” also uses a decoupled architecture between the presentation layer (mobile app and display) and content management layer, enabling flexible content use while leveraging existing content.
Expanding Support Services with Content
When your hands are full—cleaning, cooking, or repairing equipment—you may want to look up information or operate other devices. Possible options include:
- Freeing your hands to perform the task
- Using non-hand methods to perform the task
From a technology perspective, voice-interactive smart speakers like Google Home and Amazon Alexa, and AR/MR headsets like Microsoft HoloLens or Magic Leap that operate via eye or body movements, are increasing. However, brands still struggle to provide adequate content across various devices. One reason is that existing FAQ systems or knowledge portals were designed assuming content is displayed on screens, making adaptation to other devices difficult.
In 2019, German cleaning equipment manufacturer Kärcher launched two Alexa Skills for “Kärcher Smart Home”:
Kärcher Info: answers questions about how to select and use cleaning devices
Kärcher: controls sprinklers and other devices via voice commands
Kärcher initially planned to extend their existing FAQ system but faced challenges:
- Expected questions were too long to be effectively used as conversational data
- Answers were too lengthy, making it hard to provide concise responses
They redesigned the FAQ from scratch, building a platform capable of multilingual and multi-device content delivery. The redesigned FAQ is stored multilingual in the content platform and communicates with the presentation layer via API, enabling rapid release of skills for multiple languages. The content can also be accessed via a Smart Home app, allowing seamless support for device operation and settings not only by voice but also through the app interface.
Whether impulse or purposeful buying, maximizing post-purchase support experience is critical to keeping customers valuing your services. Being able to control devices and ask usage questions by voice may seem like a small “difference” for brands with extensive web help pages. However, providing content suited to diverse customer needs creates better experiences. Addressing the diversification of needs demands advancing from conventional screen-based content management to more flexible management.
The Value Delivered by Headless CMS
Cases like Chanel and Kärcher demonstrate that traditional web-centric content management struggles to keep up with technological changes and providing compelling content.
When thinking about “continuously delivering content in a manner suited to the times,” utilizing Headless CMS is one solution.
Headless CMS decouples the presentation layer from the content management layer, with communication via APIs. This architecture allows content delivery independent of UI, as in Kärcher’s case. Content management via APIs also enables secure and flexible integration with existing systems.
The Potential of Headless CMS “Contentful”
In recent years, “Contentful,” a German-born Headless CMS, has gained attention among Western brands. Unlike CMS designed to create pages, Contentful is built as an API-centric content platform.
For example, when displaying images in an app, it is desirable not just to fetch stored images but to obtain images resized, cropped, or modified to suit the display environment. Contentful provides APIs to support these needs, allowing apps to retrieve images in the desired format simply by calling APIs. Various other APIs support flexible content use as a platform.
While making the most of what you have is important, investing “time for ingenuity” to create small “differences” using forward-looking technology will likely lead to increased brand value.
Reference *1: Survey on Impulse Buying Attitudes, Groupon Japan, 2018
Contributor:Hidenobu Sakata
