DM Magazine August 2019

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The big small business market

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Why Christmas (prep) in August PM 4 0 0 5 0 8 0 3

vol. 32 • No. 8 • August 2019

The Authority on Data-Driven Engagement & Operations

Achieving sustainable e-commerce ❱ 12 Dawn of the Corporate SuperCitizen

❱ 17 Elections:

think like a machine

❱ 18 Visitor insights

Jennifer O’Neill

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// 3 Customer Centricity

Corporate Reputation

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The big small business market

Trust that makes the difference

Vol. 32 | No. 8 | August 2019 EDITOR Brendan Read - brendan@dmn.ca

Fulfillment & Shipping

PRESIDENT Steve Lloyd - steve@dmn.ca DESIGN / PRODUCTION Jennifer O’Neill - jennifer@dmn.ca

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Dawn of the Corporate SuperCitizen

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Courtesy Marc Gordon

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Christopher Alexander Mike Robitaille Greg Brown Jackie Sebesta Larry Filler Stephen Shaw Saul Klein Karl Swannie Aleena Mazhar Miki Velemirovich Greg Neath Cami Zimmer Seth Patin

© 2019 LogistiVIEW

Advertising Sales Mark Henry - mark@dmn.ca

Why Christmas (prep) in August

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Why community connections matter

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Elections: think like a machine Tourism New Brunswick

Courtesy Lowe-Martin Group

Features

On the cover ❯❯7

Achieving sustainable e-commerce

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Visitor insights

Emerging opportunities

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The key to fulfillment

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Going the last mile (km) for customers August 2019

Managing the brand in disasters

The relatable brand comes of age

EDITORIAL CONTACT: DM Magazine is published monthly by Lloydmedia Inc. plus the annual DM Industry Guide.

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Events

❯❯21 Calendar Excellent Execution

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Preventing data breaches DMN.ca ❰

Customer Centricity

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The big small business market

Miki Velemirovich is president of Cargo

Canada (www.thecargoagency.com). Prior to joining Cargo, Miki, an experienced marketing expert, spent 20 years with big brands like IBM and Mercedes-Benz in a variety of sales, marketing and finance roles. Miki provides expertise in building strategies that drive results and maximize return on investment, while recognizing and mitigating the pain points big brands feel when trying to market to small businesses.

For these reasons is where a personalized approach makes all the difference. Why? Because most big brands market to small businesses in one of two ways: as business-to-business (B2B) or as businessto-consumer (B2C). But the truth is, SBOs are in their own category—business to small business (B2SB)—and this category is wildly misunderstood and underserved.

Market with heart The number one frustration SBOs have with marketers and big brands is that they don’t take the time to understand small business; they just want to sell to them4. To SBOs, everything is personal, and every decision is made with a combination of head and heart.

To be successful in B2SB, marketers need to first move the heart to move the mind. This means marketers need to engage with and motivate them, so they feel the benefits of the relationship and can ultimately act on it.

Market to motives Traditionally, marketers use industry verticals when building their approach. But with more than a thousand different verticals in the small business community, it is impossible to reach decision-makers through traditional methods. Instead, marketers must think horizontally. Rather than trying to reach all 140,000 small businesses in retail, marketers need to ❱ DMN.ca

understand the common emotional drivers, let’s say, between a clothing retailer, corner grocery, electrical or plumbing supply house and a computer dealer.

It’s important that marketers connect and motivate SBOs through unobservable traits. Uncovering an SBO’s underlying values and behaviours is key to motivating and engaging with them.

Courtesy Cargo Canada

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n Canada, small business is huge, accounting for 97.9% of all businesses across the country. Out of an estimated 1.18 million enterprises, 1.15 million are those with fewer than 100 employees1.

A community this size deserves attention. But in order to reach it effectively, marketers need to understand its unique needs.

Unfortunately, on average, more than 50% of small business owners (SBOs) feel big brands are ineffective in engaging with them, neglecting and ignoring them2.

This also means that half of every brand’s marketing spend is being wasted3.

While this looks like a failure, Cargo sees it as an opportunity. Over the last decade we have studied the drivers, motivations, values and behaviours of SBOs to better understand their mindsets, and have learned the following: ❯❯ Relationships matter. SBOs are very loyal once there is an established and reliable relationship with a brand. Like any relationship, they want to feel like an individual with value: not just another account number; ❯❯ SBOs are engaged on everything related to their businesses. They are driven to succeed because for them, their business is their life. Marketers then need to make SBOs feel motivated while appealing to their unique business needs; and ❯❯ Emotion is a key factor that sets small business apart from big business. Emotional ties make SBOs think, act and feel more passionately about their businesses than big brands. Therefore, SBOs need to feel before they will act.

Market to mindset An important distinction in B2SB marketing is that not all SBOs are entrepreneurs: or want to be. Through Cargo’s experience and research, two very distinct mindsets of SBOs emerge: the Artisan and the Crusader.

The Artisan has an art, skill or craft that they have turned into a business. Their goals are tied to maintaining a perfect products or skills: everything is about changing “their” world.

On the other hand, the Crusader is all about changing “the” world. These are the people we classically think of as entrepreneurs; they are constantly looking forward, focused on the next big thing and how they can scale their ideas into a worldchanging enterprise.

Market the experience With all small business owners, Artisan or Crusader, the common misbelief among big brands is that price is the most attractive purchasing factor. In reality, SBOs want to buy the best they can afford, which comes from a combination of real and perceived value.

To a small business owner, value goes beyond just the cost; it includes their experience with the product or service. Instead of listing the impersonal technical capabilities of the newest computer, the secret is to market with emotion and communicate how a product or service will make the SBO’s life easier and their business better (by their definition).

For a community as large, diverse and dynamic as Canadian small business, the opportunity to be creative is limitless. The more than one million SBOs in Canada want to work with big brands, but need them to recognize that they are hands-on people who are emotionally invested in every business decision.

They are so much more than just another account win. Working with Canadian SBOs through B2SB is a big business opportunity for the brands willing to commit to understanding and building meaningful connections and relationships.

1 Statistics Canada, “Key Small Business Statistics”, January 2019.

2 Cargo, “Vol. 4 Canada Brand Study: Canadian Brands, You’re Not Hearing Me Either”, July 2013.

3 Vol. 4 Canada Brand Study, Ibid.

4 Cargo, “Vol. 6 Canada Brand Study: Canadian SBOs are going places. Fast!”, March 2014.

August 2019

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Fulfillment & shipping

Why Christmas (prep) in August

By Seth Patin

But are companies ready?

According to a mid-2017 study by Radial, in partnership with EKN Research, 67% of retail CEO survey respondents said that the costs to fulfill orders have increased over the past several years, with 37% citing that inventory order and supply chain operations are not properly aligned, resulting in the rise.

Now is when companies must be rigorous; it is the difference between making or breaking a company’s fiscal year. There is no magic wand; action must be taken now. As examples, often both labour productivity and availability are problems during the holiday season. But it is not too ❱ DMN.ca

© 2019 LogistiVIEW

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or companies that rely on the holidays the clock is ticking to Black Friday and the holiday season. One thing is very clear: consumer expectations of excellent e-commerce fulfillment are on the rise.

Distribution and fulfillment is the critical last step of the perfectly executed holiday push and the next 90 days will make all the difference in being ready. The time to prepare is now.

Companies with a heavy dependency on holiday spending have already projected demand for products and set production targets. Throughout the supply chain and manufacturing networks the operations and purchasing departments have most likely submitted orders to suppliers and have begun receiving the materials needed to produce holiday seasonal products. Within weeks, products will be rushing out of manufacturing plants into distribution centres, ready for the holiday push.

While there are numerous challenges to making the holiday sales goals a reality, we assume the demand planning and manufacturing parts of the process are resolved and running smoothly. If not, then it is probably too late to prepare for the 2019 holiday shopping season.

late to solve them before reaching the holiday critical mass.

Learning from the past season While this may seem like an oversimplification, the best answer is to learn from the past. Unless a company is an e-commerce startup, experiencing meteoric growth, the same issues experienced last year will crop up again this year unless a new action plan is implemented.

Almost every issue that happened last year will be worse this year if there is forecasted growth in volume. The real key is not identifying WHAT to fix, but HOW to fix it.

There are lessons to learn from the last holiday season. Maybe there is an opportunity to secure more business with a better process for order customizations or more flexible transportation processes. Perhaps the warehouse had insufficient space for all inventory; if so, then physical expansion certainly seems logical.

Too often, fast-growing companies have adequate space, but they could not get orders out the door fast enough to arrive in time. That problem is a bit trickier to identify root cause. Perhaps more labour is the answer: if the workforce is both affordable and available. With low unemployment it has become more difficult to find seasonal holiday warehouse workers.

Perhaps the lessons from last

year were more painful. The system crashed last year or ground to a snail’s pace ruining labour productivity because it could not scale to customer demands.

One such very recent example is the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), whose wellpublicized distribution technology challenges over the past few months have left shelves bare, depriving many Canadians of their favourite cold beverages at the height of summer grilling season.

While the LCBO will bounce back, many businesses would not be so fortunate.

New technology to help If technology performance, training complexity and inefficient processes are the most likely problems, there is still time to implement new technology that solves those problems this year. A new type of workforce enablement software called Connected Worker Technology helps warehouse workers be more efficient and more accurate with streamlined processes that don’t require major warehouse management system (WMS) modifications.

This technology leverages the power of industrial smart devices that many companies already have and can be rapidly installed to speed up tasks, such as receiving, putaway, picking, replenishment, sortation and packing. With intuitive augmented reality visual

and voice instructions, workers can train in minutes and maintain higher levels of efficiency and accuracy.

Additionally, companies using Connected Worker Technology are achieving better workforce visibility. They are using the data collected from connected workers to better understand costs and the factors impacting workforce performance.

If a company does not have confidence in its peak season preparedness, now is the time to act before system and process changes become too risky to implement. Enhancing business processes with Connected Worker Technology now can take critical stress off an operation and make order fulfillment more predictable this peak season.

Seth Patin is the founder and CEO of

LogistiVIEW, (www.logistiview.com), a software company that uses artificial intelligence and augmented reality on industrial smart glasses to improve the productivity and job satisfaction of task-oriented workers Since starting his career at supply chain software vendor, RedPrairie (now JDA), over 15 years ago, Seth has worked in several roles as a technology vendor, customer and consultant.

Seth’s experience in logistics and his vision for a better approach to human/computer interaction led him to found LogistiVIEW in 2014 and lead the company to become a pioneer and leader in the development of connected workforce technology.

August 2019

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Fulfillment & Shipping

Achieving sustainable e-commerce

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he emerging core market of e-commerce is coming to the forefront at Lowe-Martin. We are now faced with the challenge and the often-competing priority of delivering products faster and in perfect condition, while still maintaining our commitment to protect the environment: including reducing our carbon footprint.

When I joined Lowe-Martin I quickly learned that this company is a true steward of the environment.

Environmental practices are embedded in our culture and every year we measure our progress and set improvement targets for the following year. In 2018 we: ❯❯ Were awarded Canada’s Most Environmentally Progressive Printer by the Canadian Printing Awards; ❯❯ Reduced natural gas consumption by 24%; ❯❯ Increased purchases of Bullfrog Power by 300%; ❯❯ Increased carbon-neutral projects by 20%; ❯❯ Purchased 85% of all paper classified as FSC (Forest Stewardship Council); and ❯❯ Had a 97% diversion rate company wide.

Delivery speed impacts In our e-commerce division we are adapting to market needs. Last year we addressed the “Amazon Effect” and how it has put pressure on the business-to-business (B2B) market to provide an Amazonlike experience with a focus on delivering orders faster, in most cases same-day or next-day.

Any customer, whether they be business-to-consumer (B2C) or B2B, now has an expectation that when they hit Submit on their online order that it is at their doorstep or place of business in no later than 24 hours. In most cases consumers choose this option because the shipping is free; why wait for something when you can have it now!

As a result, reported Axios, e-commerce users are becoming August 2019

increasingly addicted on speed of delivery, which means smaller number of packages are being delivered more often. But the stress that same-day and nextday delivery have put on the environment is now taking focus in 2019.

As annual emissions and sustainability reports have come out by the major courier companies, they are seeing emissions increase year-overyear, said Axios. The annual sustainability report from UPS, which is one of the biggest enablers of the e-commerce boom, says it emitted 13.8 million metric tons of CO2 while delivering 5.1 billion packages in 2017 by ground and air. Emissions from FedEx were 15.1 million metric tons in 2017.

In order to meet demands, many warehouses are being developed on open space, (like on lands that have been used for farming).

“There are climate benefits to e-commerce, but those disappear as delivery gets faster and faster,” Miguel Jaller, a professor at UC Davis, told Axios. Faster delivery is not the only culprit. Warehouses are popping up in outskirt communities in order to meet delivery demands, putting more pressure on the electric power grid, while the packaging materials that go into delivery boxes is a major driver of the global plastics crisis, said Axios columnist Erica Pandey1.

As e-commerce providers we have the power to change behaviours and create awareness.

Studies have shown that 75% of Millennials, dubbed “The Green Generation”, are willing to pay extra for sustainable products; this demographic will represent 75% of the workforce by 20252.

With a generation that is aware they will continue to demand for more environmentally progressive strategies to keep their evergrowing adoption of e-commerce but ensure that it’s done in a way that protects their environment.

The sustainability checkout What if we gave consumers a

choice and showed them the importance of this choice?

If we showed consumers the impact at the check-out page this may persuade them to make a different choice. At the very least I believe a consumer would ask themselves “do I really need this today or tomorrow?”

For these reasons our e-commerce team is in the research and development phase of developing alternate check-out pages that focus on environmental impact. Once all items are added to a consumer’s cart, we can provide an option to present them with an eco-impact checkout to drive different shipping option behaviour.

The sustainability checkout is also a means of reporting, giving e-commerce companies an opportunity to show their B2C consumer or B2B company a monthly environmental report card based on the choices they made during the checkout process. The key here is driving awareness and product/marketing professionals could start setting targets based on their end consumer’s choices.

At Lowe-Martin we are driving environmental awareness at all levels and divisions. Specifically, within our e-commerce division we are also: ❯❯ Partnering with transportation companies that focus on future drone deliveries and electrifying their truck fleets; ❯❯ Our fulfillment centre recently purchased a packsize machine that comes with many benefits for the environment. It enables the use of smaller boxes, which reduces the demand for corrugated cardboard and for void fillers. It also frees up free up valuable warehouse space,

Courtesy Lowe-Martin Group

By Jackie Sebesta

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storing products instead of boxes, thereby managing our footprint; and Programme analytics delivered on a quarterly basis are highlighting opportunities for clients to reduce their overall carbon footprints by changing online ordering habits and identifying carbon-neutral programmes.

As an industry we need to stay committed to our environment and create awareness that will eventually drive different behaviours. By adapting to the behaviours of Millennials, the e-commerce industry can take advantage of today’s opportunities to capitalize on their sustainable aspirations.

Jackie Sebesta has over 14 years of experience in the e-commerce and marketing supply chain outsourcing industry with a keen focus on client engagement and retention. As director of client engagement, e-commerce and fulfillment at Lowe-Martin (http://www.lmgroup.com), Jackie is a subject matter expert who works with clients to enhance the e-commerce and fulfillment offering.

1 Erica Pandey, “The climate stakes of speedy delivery”, Axios, June 21, 2019.

2 Tim Price, “‘Generation Green’: how millennials will shape the circular economy”, Environment Journal, November 13, 2018.

DMN.ca ❰

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Fulfillment & shipping

Emerging opportunities

By Greg Neath

D

irect marketing, like most industries, has seen tremendous change over the last decade, primarily driven by rapid changes in online technology. This has led to many new opportunities for companies like ours; we have witnessed business-to-business (B2B) clients evolve their direct marketing campaigns with the ever-changing consumer.

Customers, such as retailers, financial institutions, insurance companies and brands are now relying more on companies that can provide services that allow them to react to the constant change of the industry and to better utilize the rich data they are collecting. With this assistance they can make quick decisions with the rapid deployment of their marketing campaigns.

With this evolution, new opportunities have appeared based on the convergence of print and digital media. We see a lot more customers looking to develop campaigns that provide strong response rates through emerging marketing fulfillment options.

Four top trends We have been told over and over that the web was going to kill print.

But that hasn’t happened. In fact, pure dot.coms (like Amazon and Wayfair) are investing in print as they have seen e-mail response rates drop dramatically and have had trouble reaching segments like Millennials who just don’t open e-mails.

This convergence has led to four big trends that we are seeing marketers leverage in the customer acquisition game.

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Personalized direct marketing.

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Individualized lead fulfillment.

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Loyal customer marketing fulfillment.

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Localized marketing fulfillment.

Personalization is the new standard, but it is especially critical in marketing high-value products. As an example, the automotive industry has been a leader in utilizing lead generation with personalized direct mail fulfillment to drive new sales. Dealers have learned that it is incredibly hard to sell a $60,000 car with an e-mail. But with highly personalized content across channels they can convert the right leads and yield brand loyalty.

Based on some age-old best practices, marketers are finding new ways to reach high-value leads who have raised their hands or have signed up for programmes. We can fulfill this segment with sign-up packages that are usually kits of many different printed items; the collateral can include promotional give-aways and free gifts or product redemption that is often a two-step mail-and-respond programme. As an example, we are beginning to see this in the newly forming cannabis industry, as reaching consumers is made much more difficult with the stringent marketing regulations.

Another growing area of direct mail fulfillment is centred around the loyalty programmes that most major retailers have developed. They now have access to significant data on their best customers. An example of how they use this data would be a direct mail programme we run for one of Canada’s largest pharmacy chains. We work directly with their beauty brand vendors to get samples and special offers into the hands of their best customers. This programme is incredibly successful and is a key ongoing part of their sales strategy with multiple brands running campaigns every month. The best part for the retailers is that the brands are happy to pay for the opportunities to get product samples to these high-value customers.

Historically, local marketing fulfillment was difficult to create and was mostly poorly executed. It has now exploded due to the introduction of simple online tools combined with on-demand digital printing.

Retailers (often at the individual store level) are able to create their own campaigns for events such as grand openings, product demonstrations and flu clinics that are fulfilled either using addressed mail or targeted unaddressed campaigns. Through TC Transcontinental, for example, they can create a multi-media campaign for social media, newspaper advertising, direct mail and in-store using head office-branded templates so they are always on brand. We expect to see this localization to continue to grow due to the high return on investment (ROI) and low overall investment cost; we believe it will be a key part of the future of direct marketing.

❱ DMN.ca

Implications What these new trends mean is simply that we continually need to find innovative ways to ensure these campaigns are successful and provide the highest possible response rates and ROI. From a fulfillment standpoint, we need to provide these services at the lowest possible costs, which has led to many new investments for TC Transcontinental Printing. We have built a call centre, an online marketing portal for our clients and developed merchandising and inventory forecasting capabilities as well as campaign management software and shipping and manifest support.

From a data fulfillment standpoint we have invested in developing sophisticated online tools for clients that allow them to move faster and target better: ❯❯ Data Analyzer: an online, self-serve, intelligent direct marketing data file analytics system that provides instant feedback and reporting. It includes artificial intelligence (AI) that determines record layouts and learns from past user sessions; and ❯❯ Neighbourhood Mail Tool. It is designed to help create complete delivery instruction data files for Canada Post that centre around one-to-many neighbourhoods at a time. With overlays for dwelling type and census demographics, we produce a series of reports that provide an overview of the campaign, including interactive maps that identify counts by delivery location across the country.

As part of the industry’s evolution, we realized we needed to provide these new resources and capabilities without higher costs and increase our overall value, so our customers would continue to invest in print as one of the critical parts of their successful direct marketing campaigns.

Greg Neath is general manager, in-Store

Marketing Products, TC Transcontinental Printing (https://tctranscontinental.com).

August 2019

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Fulfillment & Shipping

The key to fulfillment

By Greg Brown

E

-commerce continues to transform global retailing, and in Canada it is picking up steam. Online retail sales grew 30.6% (C$15.65 billion) in 2017: twice that of U.S. merchants1.

International sales are likely an important key to this momentum.

Canada’s geography also makes e-commerce a natural as much of the population lives far from major urban centres, while these centres are home to mobile web-savvy residents.

The key to e-commerce success is customer retention. It costs far more to obtain a new customer than to retain a current one2.

At the core of customer retention is getting the customer details right. Just one false entry in the contact data can cause a frustrating experience that leads to customer churn.

Unhappy customers are three times more likely to abandon a retailer3. This means that providing a great customer experience from the shopping cart all the way through to delivery is paramount.

Turning addressing into a fine art One way to simplify and speed up the checkout process is by utilizing an address autocomplete solution that verifies addresses as your customer types, thereby reducing keystrokes by 50%. This not only speeds up checkout, but it also ensures that an error-free, verified address is entered, thus empowering timely fulfillment and reducing returned mail. Plus, a friendly shopping cart drastically reduces cart abandonment.

Jerry’s Artarama is an online art and hobby supply store. The international e-commerce market presented a great opportunity for growth, but incorrect addresses plagued the company’s shipping process. Blamed on “fat-fingered” mobile orders, address problems were destroying customer retention. The retailer needed more accurate tools to verify crossborder addresses, help consolidate orders and improve international returns.

Jerry’s Artarama now uses an address autocomplete solution from Melissa called Global Express Entry, which is integrated

Harnessing the right tools to provide a seamless shipping process can help satisfy customer retention challenges.

Having accurate address data is therefore critical for making sales and providing support for in-country and cross-border parcel delivery. It is the key to fulfillment, both in guaranteeing accurate and timely delivery but also in delivering on the customer’s expectations for a seamless experience.

Harnessing the right tools to provide a seamless shipping process can help satisfy customer retention challenges while avoiding costly chargebacks. Here are several examples.

August 2019

within its Magento e-commerce platform to validate addresses at the point-of-entry on web forms. The type-ahead address autocompletion feature cuts data entry keystrokes in half, reduces incorrectly addressed mail and cures fat-fingered typos. According to Michael Marchetta, director of marketing operations at Jerry’s Artarama, the company saw a 30% decrease in ordering mistakes after implementing Melissa’s Global Express Entry.

Point-of-entry address verification can also group parcel

orders going to the same address when ordered separately, reducing packaging, postage and fulfillment costs, while simultaneously lowering trucking and associated environmental costs. Parcel grouping also improves the customer experience. The customer only has to physically be there, worry about or wait for one delivery instead of multiple deliveries.

address. Once realized, the credit card holder, bank or credit union will initiate a chargeback. This results in lost revenue, wasted shipping costs and forfeited goods.

One quick, accurate and affordable way to identify possibly fraudulent purchases is by matching a customer’s contact information with multi-sourced reference data sets: for example, matching a name to an address,

Managing this process well offers the opportunity to recoup lost revenue [and to] cross-sell and upsell.

For customers, address autocompletion means less time filling out forms, more time shopping and a speedy, worry-free checkout. In the customer’s view, this experience is just as important as a pain-free return policy.

Breaking chargeback trends Customers enjoy tracking deliveries, but they also want visibility into return shipments.

Many businesses see returns as only a business cost, but that’s a limited perspective. Returns are the new norm, and can be leveraged for customer retention.

95% of shoppers who were satisfied with a return process said they’d shop again3. Managing this process well offers the opportunity to recoup lost revenue, cross-selling and upselling, and maintain customer loyalty.

Yet if the return process is mismanaged, the customer might feel bilked and never buy again.

Or worse, they may simply initiate a chargeback, which is already on the rise. And international chargebacks are three times more likely to occur than domestic chargebacks4. Chargebacks happen when fraudsters use stolen credit cards to purchase items that get shipped to an address that doesn’t match the credit card holder’s

e-mail or phone number. This is a simple way for merchants to screen for fraud and prevent international chargebacks. Plus, it can all be done cost-effectively without having to use a full-blown identity verification service.

Z1 Motorsports supplies high-performance parts to do-ityourselfers all over North America, but it needed a better way to combat the fraudsters hurting its business.

Z1 spent seven minutes verifying each order by hand, but still suffered $250,000 in chargebacks!

Z1 implemented Personator Consumer from Melissa as an identity verification tool to reduce chargebacks. Personator can verify entire customer records within the CRM systems, so that you know customers are who they say they are. It can also update customer records for a complete picture and improved certainty. It enriches missing contact details like phone, e-mail and more. Plus, Personator adds geocoding. This further mitigates fraud by comparing addresses to locations, to make sure people are—and parcels go—where they belong, anywhere in the world. As a result, within one year of utilizing Personator,

Continued on page 19 DMN.ca ❰

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Fulfillment & shipping

Going the last mile (km) for customers

By Cami Zimmer

A

ccording to a 2018 Retail TouchPoints study, last-mile (or kilometre) services have risen by 50% in the last 18 months, with most of the increased demand coming from the business-toconsumer (B2C) e-commerce segment1. This has numerous implications for both customers and brands and is changing the way they interact with each other on a daily basis. A focus on that last mile is imperative for creating additional value that will improve customer satisfaction and encourage customer loyalty.

Rapidly evolving expectations Think about how you felt just a few of years ago whenever you attempted to purchase something via any method other than a traditional desktop browser. You were excited when you found a company that offered a purchasing option through an intuitive and secure mobile app. It seemed like the future of online shopping was finally here, and the adoption of technology, such as mobile wallets integrated with apps, hastened the evolution of expectations.

Now the expectation for almost every customer is that they will be able to complete a purchase and track delivery status on their mobile device in a matter of seconds. They also take for granted that they will be able to instantly chat with a representative right in the app to resolve any service issues—or even better—resolve the problems with a useful selfservice tool. The onus is now on companies to understand the current state of baseline customer expectations and adjust their capabilities accordingly.

Relationship-building opportunities While companies do have to step up to meet customers’ evolving last-mile expectations, they shouldn’t view it as a burden.

Instead, it is important for them ❱ DMN.ca

to see it as a new opportunity to engage with buyers and add value to their experience.

In the past, technology limited what innovations companies were able to introduce during the lastmile service phase. Many of those old barriers now no longer exist, which means that you are free to bring new elements to the table that will help you stand out from the competition.

Value is the fulcrum on which the brand/customer relationship turns, and anything you can do to increase the value customers receive is an opportunity to strengthen the relationships. Here are several examples: ❯❯ Allowing customers to opt into courier status notifications until the delivery times arrive; ❯❯ Enabling them to see where in the delivery process they are so that they can plan accordingly; and ❯❯ Giving them the option to share their location data with stores during curbside pickups for the ultimate customer experience.

We’re no longer talking about adjusting to meet customer expectations out of obligation. It’s now about taking steps to make their lives easier simply by virtue of being your customer.

Personalization, last-mile conjoined It’s impossible to talk about last-mile service experiences without placing a spotlight on personalization. Since every delivery or curbside pickup is a unique situation, it stands to reason that every customer will need something slightly different in order to have their expectations met. That’s why it’s crucial for any company that engages in last-mile interactions to choose a solution that enables them to seamlessly provide personalized experiences.

You can: ❯❯ Make it easy for your customers to access account and order details throughout the last-mile interactions;

❯❯

❯❯

Send them important information they might need for a service appointment; and Follow up on customers’ experiences in the immediate aftermath of deliveries or appointments, and strategically send them product education materials that will help them get the most out of their purchase(s).

The more personalized elements you can add to the last-mile equation, the more engaged your buyers will be throughout their experiences.

Visibility problem erased For many years, visibility was the key hurdle for businesses in improving their last-mile service capabilities. It’s always been better to give your customer more information than less in these scenarios, but limited technology meant that it was difficult to get real-time information to customers when they needed it the most.

Now companies have innovative tools at their disposal that allow them to remove barriers to visibility and meet customers’ expectations of remaining connected throughout the lastmile journeys. It couldn’t have come at a better time, because research indicates that over half of all consumers want real-time visibility for their order status2.

Glympse uniquely understands this necessity, which is why we work with major companies such as Rogers Communications and Rollins, Inc. to provide pioneering location-based technology that makes last-mile visibility problems a thing of the past3. Rogers and Rollins can now keep their customers informed throughout every stage of the appointment lifecycle with ease and make the experience more seamless for every party involved.

Risk factors Any company that offers delivery or curbside pickup, or dispatches

service technicians knows that there are myriad factors involved in the last-mile experience that can’t be controlled. Traffic and potential vehicle malfunctions are always going to be an issue.

Inclement weather can disrupt deliveries or affect the quality of temperature-sensitive products.

And if you deliver any kind of food, you know that product quality can suffer from the time it takes to reach the customer.

There are also the risks and costs associated with package theft.

It is estimated that one of every four people has been a victim of package theft, with the average value of stolen packages coming in about $1404.

In dense urban areas, it can incredibly difficult for those doing last-mile delivery to find the address, not to mention the issues associated with misaddressed packages. The number of challenges facing businesses dealing with delivery are almost too many to name. Some are more difficult to solve than others, and many can be avoided with transparency and communication throughout the last mile.

Creating memorable experiences But you don’t have to eliminate these factors to routinely create engaging and memorable last-mile experiences for buyers. Here’s how: ❯❯ Exploit every opportunity to make an impact on the parts of the process that you can control; ❯❯ Use innovative technology to add value to their purchasing journey during the last mile; ❯❯ Personalize their experiences in ways both big and small; and ❯❯ Remove their worries by providing accurate, real-time information and status updates.

Last-mile delivery and service appointment solutions empower you to put your best foot forward

Continued on page 19 August 2019

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Corporate Reputation

Trust that makes the difference

By Saul Klein

T

raditionally, focusing on an organization’s higher purpose has been the purview of social enterprises and not-for-profit organizations, or seen as an element of corporate social responsibility with limited impact on business practices.

More recently, however, we have seen a paradigm shift in the way customers and employees assign their loyalties to organizations, putting organizational purpose front and centre as a business driver and placing attention on the notion of “brand trust”.

The days of trying to cajole consumers, or even mislead them, are long gone. In the context of an emerging values-based economy, consumers pay close attention to what a company stands for, and how it goes to market matters.

Customers choose to place or abandon their trust in a brand based on the extent to which it acts responsibly and stays true to its values.

Social responsibility matters Companies realize that nothing says longevity as much as trust.

So, the question becomes, how do businesses build and retain trust in their brands?

At the Gustavson School of Business, we conduct an annual survey to assess consumer trust across more than 300 different brands and what leads consumers to recommend a brand to their

August 2019

friends and family. The team behind the study assesses “brand trust” overall as well as three core dimensions of trust: functional trust, relationship trust and values-based trust.

Analysis of the Gustavson Brand Trust Index (GBTI) 2019 results revealed that besides the functional performance of a brand (quality, reliability, value for money) and the way it relates to its customers, consumers also pay close attention to a brand’s values and its commitment to social responsibility.

Beyond the long-term positive impact of building trust, there can also be an immediate benefit for brands taking a strong stance on social issues. One example may be found in Gillette’s recent hardhitting “The Best Men Can Be” ad campaign, which challenged overt masculinity, addressed bullying and sexism and responded to the #MeToo movement. On the back of that campaign, Gillette witnessed an increase in its values-based trust score and in the perception that it cares about the well-being of society.

Authenticity counts No organization is perfect.

Mistakes happen. Those organizations that welcome feedback and use it to both fix an issue and empathize with the consumer and their experience engender greater consumer trust and loyalty.

This conclusion is evidenced

by MEC leading this year’s GBTI ranking, despite taking consumer criticism over the lack of diversity in its advertisements. MEC’s adept response to the concerns allowed it to edge into the top spot in this year’s ranking as Canada’s most trusted brand.

The MEC experience demonstrates that it is critical to respond to consumers with honest and authentic communications, followed by a plan of action, when faced with criticism. Trust, when correctly placed, is what makes all the difference. It is no coincidence that the top three most trusted brands overall in 2019 also received the highest relationship trust scores: measuring how a brand interacts with its customers.

Quality is critical For an organization to be trusted and seen as credible in playing a positive role in society, it must ensure the quality and competitiveness of its product and its customer experience.

As a case in point, Tesla Motors, carrying high hopes for a sustainable future, enjoyed a great deal of goodwill from consumers for several years, rating highly in the GBTI. But as reports surfaced of disappointing Model 3 production numbers, Elon Musk’s verbal miscues and teething troubles with driverless cars, the company dropped to 32nd overall on brand trust in 2018. While the electric automaker still ranked as the most innovative and the most

eco-friendly brand in 2019, the downward trend continued this year and Tesla slipped to 12th in the automotive category and 136th overall.

Canadian consumers closely link brand trust with consumer advocacy. Tesla also lags badly in terms of word-of-mouth recommendations, falling to 163rd overall in 2019.

The time to define If ever there was an opportunity for brands to define a real social purpose, it is now. Consumer concerns with corporate misbehaviour, worries about climate change and falling trust in key institutions make the time ripe for companies to stand out.

Every year, the GBTI provides new insights into consumer behaviour and interactions with brands. It measures how the corporate world is adapting to change and earning and keeping the trust of consumers.

One finding keeps coming back stronger each year and that is the importance of having a higher purpose that is infused into every level of an organization and communicated competently and authentically. Such values-driven organizations are attracting customers as well as investors and a broader pool of talent.

Saul Klein is the dean and professor of

International Business in the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business at the University of Victoria (https://www.uvic.ca/gustavson/).

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Corporate reputation

Dawn of the Corporate SuperCitizen

By Mike Robitaille

Y

esterday’s business playbook remains seductively simple: make a product, sell it, collect money for it, and spend as little as possible in the process.

The game was straightforward: companies held all the cards and the general public was happily oblivious and, for the most part, powerless. Life was simpler for business, and if businesses didn’t have to change, they probably wouldn’t.

The changing playbook Corporate reputation and momentum now swing at the behest of positive or negative social media. Superficial branding and corporate conduct struggle to stand up to the scrutiny of Internet transparency. The tables have rapidly turned: with power shifting from corporations and institutions to individuals and groups of people.

The future playbook for business must be written appreciating the landscape in which it competes has been largely upended.

The evidence of corporate leaders adjusting to reflect this shift in power and working toward a new relationship between commerce and society is abundant. Some are seeking to elevate the standards of business performance beyond profit alone. Others are aligning themselves with topical social issues in need of awareness and resources. They are, respectively, welcoming and supporting admirable acts to help right glaring wrongs and cast companies into more broadly meaningful roles in society. The investment of time and money in these subjects are powerful steps away from the pure ❱ DMN.ca

profit-motive playbook of the past.

The fascination with Purpose In the pursuit of this evolved version of commerce and capitalism we have introduced a new word into the lexicon of corporate jargon: Purpose. Most every progressive company today has one. TED Talks on the subject abound. Most service firms have been quick to offer advice and solutions. Purpose, however, is by definition the ultimate existential question, and importantly not an expertise or field of study associated with business.

Corporate philosophy may be the most interesting and fatiguing conversation being had in business today. The relationship between a company’s philosophy—its vision, purpose, why, mission, values— and its operations and bottom line, is far from linear. Our personal and organizational philosophies are the great intangible: regarded as invaluable by those who possess them, and odd abstractions by those without.

Curing transgressions such as environmental degradation, low worker safety, harmful office conduct or quality-compromising cost reductions feel necessary because they contradict an innate sense of right and wrong, fair and unfair. They also contradict the low expectations we set for each other as human beings: to be respectful, truthful and do right by each other. This low bar, however, is not the stuff of inspiring company purpose and philosophy. A great organizational philosophy will take for granted virtues such as honesty, respect, integrity, quality and diversity because living by the opposite would be considered

objectionable by most.

A company that stands for something great, perhaps, stands for something just a little bit more.

The worth of taking a stand When a political campaign suggests “Yes we can” or “A Time for Greatness”, or a company challenges you to “Just do it” or “Think different,” it stirs something much deeper than a simple right or wrong. It presents us with an ideal, a notion of what we might accomplish should we apply ourselves; a glimpse of our “better angels” or a “shining city upon the hill”. The society we dream we might one day build, and the people we might one day become.

It gives us a goal that is likely never to be fully achieved, but one we can rewardingly pursue throughout our time here. It gives us a star to help better navigate our way.

Great companies and social leaders garner support and enthusiasm because they play instrumental roles in helping people toward a human ideal; ideals such as equality, freedom, family, peace or self-respect. They see their laptops and smartphones as instruments of self-expression and freedom, their athletic gear as the catalyst for a personal fitness movement and a coffee shop that exists for personal reflection and appreciation.

Such companies become powerful and influential instruments of social progress, helping to lead people and society toward those stars. They are loved, valued and regarded as irreplaceable because their very existence illuminates our better selves: and they have underlying operating models worthy of admiration in their own right.

Becoming SuperCitizens Driven to demonstrate a singular human ideal in everything it says and does, in every contribution it makes to people and society, and with resources and influence no one person could muster these companies become “SuperCitizens”. Not because they asked for or wanted that status, but because we needed them to play that role. They effect the progress we desperately and deeply seek but could never possibly achieve as individuals. We do, however, know how to get behind them.

Companies motivated by human idealism are the ones people watch, follow and support. They are the ones with the stores that need to be experienced to be understood.

With the employees who just won’t shut up about how they could never work anywhere else. With the memorable ad campaigns, upright supply chains and with the more cooperative partners and investors who want to help support a compelling future. They are the companies people want to endorse, defend, cooperate with, work and cheer for, recommend and promote.

That human enthusiasm is the ultimate competitive advantage, and the next way to win.

The pursuit of a human ideal is at the root of every significant movement in social and commercial history. We want our worlds to be better and will throw every ounce of available energy behind those people, companies and organizations we believe can get us there.

When people want you to win, you become very hard to beat.

Mike Robitaille is president, Isaac Reputation

Group (www.isaacgroup.ca).

August 2019

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Corporate Reputation

Managing the brand in disasters

W

hen companies are faced with disasters the question becomes how best to respond in order to ensure a customer-accepting customer experience (CX), customer retention, loyalty and brand reputation.

This perennial issue came recently, dramatically and tragically back into spotlight with the fatal crashes of two Boeing 737 MAX airliners. For answers, DM Magazine interviewed Marc Gordon (www.marcgordon.ca). Marc is an internationally recognized authority in the field of customer experience. He shows companies how to create exceptional experiences that cultivate relationships and build loyalty.

DM Magazine (DMM): Disasters happen. From the CX and loyalty perspectives, are customers’ expectations of companies and brands in the face of these events changing and if so, how, and why?

Marc Gordon (MG): Over the last number of years, social media has empowered consumers to instantly share their opinions and experiences on a mass scale.

Companies that at one time dismissed such feedback are now in the spotlight of public opinion, with potentially millions of dollars in sales on the line. This has forced many companies to rethink how they deliver experiences and respond to criticism.

The challenge for companies is that public opinion often changes faster than they can respond. And in many cases, those opinions may be based on inaccurate information. But it really doesn’t matter because consumers will always view a company’s actions through the lens of their own personal beliefs and values.

DMM: Could you differentiate the brand impacts and the strategies companies can take for different events in order to plan, anticipate, respond and recover from disasters?

August 2019

MG: Regardless of whether a company has to respond to internal disasters (malfunctioning products resulting in tragedy) or external (terrorism), the key to managing the brand is through ownership. This does not mean taking the blame for something they had no control over. It means communicating in a way that shows they genuinely care.

This can be reflected in several ways, including compensating employees, environmental cleanups and/or cooperating with government investigators.

However, there is one variable that cannot be overlooked.

And that is organic loyalty.

When consumers have a strong emotional attachment to a brand, they can be incredibly forgiving.

Companies such as Facebook and Tesla have enjoyed such a high level of loyalty that events that would have negatively impacted most other companies (Facebook’s user data breach, Tesla owners killed while using autopilot) have had virtually no impact on them. In both cases the companies chose to downplay the incidents or simply rationalize their actions, with little or no negative reactions.

In contrast, companies like Boeing where consumer loyalty is virtually non-existent (has anyone booked a flight based on the make of the plane?), they do not have the advantage of a strong emotional connection. Which is all the more reason they need to be proactive instead of reactive when it comes to managing reputation.

DMM: Discuss the differences between customers’ risk perceptions and reality. How can companies best handle this issue?

MG: Perception of risk is rarely based on data and more so on emotion. For example, even with the recent Boeing disasters, flying is still the safest form of mass travel. Yet recent surveys have shown that some travellers are more nervous than before the events, even when flying on other

makes of planes.

However, for many companies there is reprieve.

People tend to have short memories.

From defective vehicles and tainted food, to data breaches and to corrupt business practices, consumers are loath to change their behaviour in any way that leads to inconvenience. In Marc Gordon the case of Boeing, consumers choosing to fly on other makes of aircraft will likely face fewer flight options and higher costs.

DMM: Let’s look at the Boeing 737 MAX events through these lenses, understanding that more information is coming out about them. What should Boeing and the carriers that fly the MAX have done when the accidents began to happen? And what should they do now?

MG: This is a classic case of hindsight being 20/20. It’s easy to say that Boeing should have stepped up after the second crash.

But no one immediately knew the cause or the connection with the first crash. So, should Boeing and the airlines have erred on the side of caution and grounded the 737 MAX planes?

I believe that consumers would not have responded with appreciation upon finding out their scheduled flights were delayed or cancelled. Beyond the financial losses the airlines would experience, the PR disaster alone would have caused an uproar.

While consumers do not want to be inconvenienced over what “may possibly happen”, they also want to be protected from what “could happen”. But they can’t have both.

DMM: Finally, what are the brand and CX lessons can companies, including Boeing and its competitors, learn from

Courtesy Marc Gordon

By Brendan Read

the 737 MAX disasters?

MG: Sometimes the right decisions will not be popular decisions.

And in some cases, no one will ever know if the right decisions were made. What if the Boeing crashes were caused by pilot error? Would grounding the fleet be hailed as a responsible and cautionary decision by Boeing’s execs? That would depend on a number of factors, such as timing, inconvenience, stock value and how the message was delivered.

I believe that human nature causes people to be upset about any decision that inconveniences, loses money or changes plans. But short memories mean those issues will soon be forgotten. However, when tragedy strikes, then people will be upset, looking for someone (or some company) to blame and asking why something wasn’t done sooner. But given enough time, those concerns will eventually be forgotten too. That’s why school shootings rarely lead to changes in gun laws.

So, is there a lesson here?

Perhaps that companies should only take ownership of situations where accountability comes into question. When people have a reason to question if decisions are made based on profits or people.

Or if the company genuinely cares about those who use its products. And when that decision is made, act on it with sincerity and honesty.

DMN.ca ❰

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Corporate reputation

Why community connections matter

By Aleena Mazhar

R

aptors fever took over Canada in late May and early June of this year. It broke when the Toronto, Ont. team won, for the first time, the National Basketball Association finals on June 13.

We knew we had something special as soon as the playoffs started, but I don’t think anyone (other than the players) believed that we’d make it this far. Since the beginning, we saw “Jurassic Park” (the public area adjacent to Scotiabank Arena) come alive in ways it never did during previous years. In the finals alone, people from all over the world stood in line for days to get into the coveted fan zone. This was just to be with the 10,000-plus die-hard fans in the park, and, no matter the win or the loss, they were in it together.

Many other little “Jurassic Parks” started to pop up. Like in Mississauga, Burlington, Ajax and London, Ont., Halifax, N.S. and Montreal, Que. Even in Almonte, Ont., the birthplace of James Naismith who invented the sport as a phys. ed. teacher in Springfield, Massachusetts, in the United States. Each of these communities had their own fan viewing parties.

Finding power in connection Why were people gathered in masses to watch a basketball game? There are many other options: bars, couches and even movie theatres. Instead, people across Canada stood together to potentially see the Raptors win a championship.

Here’s why. We as humans find power in connection. We crave connection and when it comes alive, it manifests in moments of community. There’s a magic in these moments that create a sense of community among those who wouldn’t normally be connected.

When Kawhi Leonard’s five-bounce bucket made it in the basket in Game 7 against Philadelphia, an entire city ❱ DMN.ca

erupted. People ran onto the streets, Yonge and Dundas in the downtown closed down, cars honked at each other, strangers high-fived and “We The North” chants broke out all across the city.

Our impulse in celebration was to make it as big, as wonderful as possible and with as many people as possible. Strangers and friends were all one; we were all fans. We became one giant community that is supporting an incredible team of athletes as they made us proud.

Searching for shared experiences We know that social cohesion and connectedness is a part of Canadian life, with 62% of Canadians believing in community belonging1. But we also see phrases thrown around by researchers like “generation lonely” 2 and in fact we live in a day and age where loneliness is on the rise,3: that though we live in the most hyperconnected time in history, we feel like we are alone. This is why we are searching for experiences that bring us together with others who have similar beliefs and interests as us. We are searching for those moments to actually build community and joy in real life. We know that those who have high community belonging4 experience high levels of mental health, unlike those who are isolated from the community.

A recent study showed that Millennials are a big factor in experiences for connection and community; 69% of them believe attending events makes them feel more connected to the community5. They believe that experiences are about identity creation.

The kicker, however, is the requirement of authenticity.

The challenge with our hyperconnected digital world6 is that we know in our hearts we are experiencing curated lives. Even our closest friends and family are only showing the best of themselves! We are making

assessments on people, cultures and even brands based on a “made for Instagram” story and visual identity. But it’s lacking the realness and authenticity of an actual connection, which is sometimes difficult, sometimes messy, sometimes raw and sometimes so joyful that you can’t contain yourself. It’s not neat, clean, beautiful and perfectly filtered.

This makes our expectations of our real-life connections even higher, because we are looking for these moments of authenticity with the people in our lives. We are looking for the emotional triggers that go along with these moments.

We want to feel alongside others and live in that energy of a Jurassic Park when the Raptors win a Game 7.

How marketers can help, authentically We as marketers and brand builders can make a difference in making these connections. We can find ways for people to come together and create a sense of community around the things they value.

But it doesn’t just hang on a historic playoff run. A sense of community can manifest in many different ways: from coming together and giving back to causes that make our communities better, to bringing people together to celebrate culture. It can also mean in moments of sadness when we as a community gather to experience pain together. When the Humboldt tragedy happened in 2018, you saw an entire nation come together with a small community in Saskatchewan to mourn them7. We can be together in our heartbreak as much as our joy: and a strong sense of community helps us get through our sadness to the other side.

My goal is to find ways for us as marketers to create and capture moments where we can be catalysts of connection for people.

We can leverage brand values to power these moments in ways very few others can, and we can bring

people the sense of community they crave. It is not a one-size-fitsall approach; it is very linked to a brand’s identity and purpose.

In this time where authenticity is currency and there’s a craving for connection, why not jump at an opportunity to figure out how a brand can fill in the gaps? I always get the question, “what about our business goals? Theoretically this is great, but we are trying to drive the bottom line.” Brands that stand for something are more popular than brands that don’t. To illustrate, a total of 56% of Gen Zeders consider themselves socially conscious and that influences their purchasing decisions8.

There are ways to drive your business goals while still creating something that’s legacy building for yourself, your community and your brand. If ever there was a time to leave a mark, this is it.

Connection is a human need and necessity. Let’s find ways to create more moments for communities to come together.

Aleena Mazhar is vice president and partner,

at FUSE Live (www.fuselive.ca). In the past eleven years Aleena has grown up within the ever-evolving live experience business. Her focus is to create experience-led integrated campaigns for brands that are looking to get noticed. Working with top tier clients on award winning work, Aleena works with a strong team of creative problem solvers to build moments of human connection that drive her clients’ businesses forward. Her passion for coaching a team, and solving big complex creative problems drives her continued excitement for the marketing industry.

1 Government of Canada, “The Chief Public Health Officer’s report on the state of public health in Canada 2008: Addressing Health Inequalities”, 2008.

2 Hayley Jarvis, “Generation lonely: Millennials loneliest age group”, Brunel University, October 1, 2018.

3 Cigna, “New Cigna study reveals loneliness at epidemic levels in America”, press release, May 1, 2018.

4 Canadian Institute for Health Information, “The health of Canadians, 2009: exploring positive mental health”, 2009.

5 Eventbrite, “Millennials Fueling the Experience Economy”, 2017.

6 Olivia Laing, “The future of loneliness”, The Guardian, April 1, 2015.

7 Cathal Kelly, “The Humboldt tragedy reminds Canadians that we are all in this together”, opinion, The Globe and Mail, December 30, 2018.

8 Megy Karydes, “Millennials Want Companies to Take a Stand. Here’s How to Do It Without Losing Customers”, column, Inc., May 15, 2018.

August 2019

Corporate Reputation

// 15

The relatable brand comes of age

T

he rapid growth of direct-toconsumer (DTC) brands may seem like a replay of the dot-com bubble in the Web 1.0 era. But what makes this new generation of DTC brands different is a genuine love for their customers.

They have infiltrated just about every consumer category— clothing and apparel, personal care, home furnishings, food and drink, travel, pet food—just to name a few. Hundreds of DTC brands, seizing market share from the big established consumer brands.

Known as “digitally native” brands, they are challenging every conventional idea of how to build a successful brand.

Many of these newly minted brands have become household names in just a few years. The mattress maker Casper has become synonymous with sleep. Warby Parker has transformed how eyeglasses are bought. Allbirds has become the hippest, comfiest sneaker in the market. Contact lens maker Hubble has freed lens wearers from paying extortionist prices. BarkBox delights petlovers with monthly deliveries of whimsical dog toys and treats.

The clothing company Everlane has woven price transparency, ethical manufacturing and quality materials into one of the trendiest fashion brands in the market.

These brands, and many more, have rocketed to fame on the strength of their digital mastery.

And they have won loyal fanbases by being “maniacally focused on the customer experience”, in the words of Bonobos founder Andy Dunn, whose online clothier company was inhaled by Walmart last year1.

Meeting the new customer ethos It helps that people today crave simplicity and authenticity, especially that cohort group known as Millennials, who are soon to become the biggest spending consumer demographic.

For one thing, they are the most August 2019

willing to experiment with new brands.

They are skeptical of corporate brands claiming to be social activists. They have a soft spot for rebels.

And they are drawn to brands that show, rather than simply say, they care. As long as the brand is relatable, Millennials will make room for it, no matter how unfamiliar it may be.

That relatable ethos is what accounts for the meteoric rise of DTC brands. It is what sets them apart from the corporate incumbents. And it is that intimate relationship with customers which gives them a distinct advantage over brands dependent DTC start-up brands follow a now-proven marketing formula based on identifying niche segments ignored by the big corporate on distributors and brands and turning those customers into a passionate community of advocates. retailers to showcase and sell their products. of perfection. The insight that we web era (1994-1999) when a slew Take Glossier, for example, had at Glossier was to encourage of venture capital (VC)-funded the skin care beauty brand that every woman to become her own “dot-coms” emerged to “change became an overnight sensation, expert”2. the world”. What they actually mainly by monetizing the fervour Glossier has proven that the wanted to do was “grow big fast” in of its devotees. Glossier fits the way to build a fanatically loyal a feverish sprint toward an initial definition of a social brand: maybe community is to resonate with public offering (IPO). And just even an egalitarian one, open to their world view, using social like today, the VCs were pouring ideas from anyone. Its adoring fans content to drive conversation, loads of cash into these early stage flock to Glossier’s Instagram site, and then harness the feedback to ventures, looking to make a killing where they eagerly post pictures develop products that customers the moment that IPO hit the street. of themselves using the products, will care enough about to promote Whether they were selling pet share beauty tips and submit ideas amongst their own friends. food, groceries, clothing, toys (“2019 needs to be the year that “Content is really our heart and or furniture, these fledgling @glossier finally puts out an eye soul”, said Weiss. e-commerce companies aimed cream”). They even petition to be to become category killers. Their a spokesperson (“I would LOVE to DTC then, and now strategy was to gain first mover be a glossier REP! Please DM me if That reliance on thoughtful advantage: and in the Web 1.0 era interested please”). content and a highly engaged that meant spending exorbitant What makes this brand so community is common across sums on broadcast media to gain beloved by its community of two most DTC brands. And it is why, awareness. The goal was simple: million Instagram followers is its unlike the early days of the build a large volume of web traffic credo that beauty is a matter of commercial web, when there were in the hope that profits would individual style. As founder Emily just as many aspiring e-commerce (eventually) follow. And while Weiss explained, “Beauty has start-ups, the prospects for longthat became true for Amazon traditionally been brands telling term growth and success are so several years after it was founded customers that they have some much more favourable. in 1998, the profits never did kind of inadequacy or that they The rapid ascendancy of DTC materialize for the vast majority should ascribe to a specific idea brands harkens back to the early of e-commerce companies, wiping DMN.ca ❰

Courtesy Kenna

By Stephen Shaw

// 16

Corporate reputation out almost all of them in the 2001 dot-com crash.

As it turned out, that first generation of DTC companies was way ahead of its time. Apart from too few Internet users in those embryonic years, plus their own reckless urge to splurge on mass advertising, their downfall was mainly due to an inadequate logistical infrastructure. Back then it cost a lot to deliver products to the doorstep. And running an e-commerce operation came with a high computing overhead. So, as the losses began to mount, with no end in sight, investor confidence vaporized, setting the stage for sudden extinction.

What’s different today, of course, is that everyone now lives a digital life. People are conditioned —indeed demand—to do stuff online, preferably on their phones.

A whole generation of digital natives has reached adulthood.

And the infrastructure costs are a fraction of what they were in the mid-1990s.

These days a start-up brand is able to maximize profits by controlling the entire value chain, from production to selling to distribution. They can easily piggyback on existing third-party infrastructure offered by such companies as Ottawa, Ont.-based Shopify, whose commerce platform supports everything from site design to order management and to fulfillment. All a start-up brand has to do today is come up with a Big Idea and, presto, they can be open for business in no time.

Looking for the long tail Coming up with that jackpot idea is the trick. There certainly needs to be a compelling business case to attract seed funding, or at least the faint promise of eventual riches. But how do you find a virgin market opportunity when global enterprises with enormous research budgets like P&G and Unilever are on the constant lookout for new product ideas?

The answer is to look for unrequited needs in places the major brands steer clear of, namely, the so-called “long tail” of the market. Corporate brands are in the business of serving the “fat tail” of the market where the greatest sales volume can be found, since their business models require ❱ DMN.ca

them to operate at scale, selling as much as they can to as many people as possible. Usually a niche market is just not worth pursuing for the relatively meager pay-off.

That makes corporate brands oblivious to under-the-radar segments that at first glance don’t warrant the investment. Which is exactly why many of the DTC brands are thriving. They found an underserved niche and came up with a winning idea by simply asking, “How can we help these people?”

Take Hims, for instance, launched in 2017. In just two years it has become the fastestgrowing men’s wellness brand, catering to younger men suffering from premature baldness, erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation or performance anxiety. Instead of skulking around a drugstore, searching for Rogaine, customers are given the option of consulting over the telephone with a qualified physician. Within minutes they can order medically prescribed products shipped directly to their home, saving them the embarrassment of buying in-store.

Hims’ lifestyle blog, Savoir Faire, tackles a wide range of personal wellness subjects, using a breezy, light, irreverent tone, just like two guys talking to each other (“You need erections when you want them, not when it’s convenient for your penis”). Whether it’s counselling guys to drink more rum, debating the merits of Cialis versus Viagra or suggesting how to fix your posture (“Let’s talk about posture, fellas. There’s a good chance yours could use improvement”), the idea is to open up a conversation about taboo subjects that most guys prefer to avoid.

Describing his formula for building a “unicorn” brand, Hims founder Andrew Dudum said, “You have to have incredible financials very early. You need diversity in revenue and customer. And you need loyalty and love that could last for 20-plus years”3.

Creating loyalty and love When a new brand is born inside a big corporation, its origin story is hollow, usually an agencyconceived bit of fiction. The product is incubated in a lab—tested through focus groups, artificially grown through advertising—and

survives only with the blessing of retailers. More often than not, the newly-launched brand fades from sight, ostracized by consumers.

Whereas a digitally native brand comes into the world with a genesis story based on the founder’s moment of epiphany.

The brand’s reason for being becomes a motivational “North Star”, attracting early followers by positioning itself as a force for good. Customer affinity grows over time, earned through one positive experience after another, ultimately leading to “loyalty and love”.

Here is how Brandless, a highly successful DTC start-up offering affordable quality products, sees itself. On its web site it says “We’re creating a new kind of customer relationship by being in direct, two-way communication with the people who buy our stuff and the people who make our stuff. The whole Brandless organization is built around customer feedback, as we grow a community of people who believe everyone deserves better.”

These brands always take the side of the customer—not just by going out of their way to help them—but by standing up for what’s right. They lead by example, they show empathy, challenge orthodoxy, expose charlatans and price gouging, serve as advocates for social change and are transparent and are champions of sustainability and equality.

But most important, these brands eliminate the tedium and bother of shopping: serving as curators, concierge services, community hubs, confidants, “explainers” but mostly as simplifiers. “Less is more” is their universal motto: offering a limited selection of quality products, sold below retail price and shipped directly to the door.

Above all, these brands relate to their customers as a community of like-minded people, not “online buyers”. They make them feel part of something special—members of a tribe—and encourage them to connect with each other. They become natural extensions of people’s lives—a brand to be experienced—simple, easy, fun, approachable, inspirational, reassuring and risk-free.

Social-driven impact All of these start-up companies,

many of them only a few years old, have grown at the expense of legacy brands that have spent years, sometimes decades, buying their way on to store shelves while advertising through mass media just to get consumers to remember their name. The DTC brands have silently crept up on them, gaining a foothold in the market by using social media to reach highly segmented audiences.

And that’s the big difference from the dot-com era. Social platforms have given these brands an easy on-ramp: an option that simply did not exist in the late 1990s. If Facebook had come along a decade earlier, many of those forerunner brands would likely have survived the nuclear winter that followed the 2000 crash.

The hypertargeting offered by Facebook, Instagram and Twitter —and their ability to improve the conversion rate algorithmically through “lookalike” modeling —allows DTC brands to find the right audience at an affordable acquisition cost. Once a relationship has been activated (a clickthrough, a sign-up, a purchase), the network effect takes over, leading to referrals by customers keen to serve as microinfluencers. That’s how Glossier grew so fast, recruiting its most prolific co-creators to become brand ambassadors.

It is a formula that has caught the attention of classic marketers like P&G that are becoming less afraid of alienating their retail partners by going direct. But to recapture market share from digitally native brands, the large enterprises will have to do much more than imitate their social media tactics. Because the biggest advantage the DTC brands have is the loving relationship they have with their customers and a sincere resolve not to disappoint them.

Stephen Shaw is the chief strategy officer

of Kenna, a marketing solutions provider specializing in customer experience management. He also hosts a regular podcast called Customer First Thinking. He can be reached via e-mail at sshaw@kenna.ca.

1 Andy Dunn, “The Book of DNVB”, Medium.com, May 9, 2016.

2 Amy Farley, “A Breakout Branding Master Class from Glossier, Sweetgreen, Away, And Walker & Co.”, Fast Company, January 12, 2018.

3 Hilary Milnes, “How Hims founder Andrew Dudum plans to build a $20 billion business”, Digiday UK, December 28, 2018.

August 2019

// 17

Features

Elections: think like a machine

By Christopher Alexander

T

he Coalition Avenir Québec’s (CAQ) success in the 2018 elections was a major blow to three major Canadian pollsters, which had predicted a much closer race between the CAQ and the Liberals. Failed prognosticating is certainly nothing new. But polling difficulties in both Canada and the United States have left experts to wonder where they had gone wrong and campaign professionals looking for ways to replace or validate their polling.

And with the crucial Canadian federal election this October and the U.S. presidential and congressional races next fall, they (and the candidates) have to get it right to avoid future election day surprises.

AI capabilities Enter the sometimes-fantastical world of big data and artificial intelligence (AI). There are some amazing new capabilities coming to the market that use analytics to provide a capability that is not quite as accurate as polling but offering larger samples of data than one might otherwise get from nine people in a single focus group.

And unlike polling, AI systems can provide updates every 24 hours, not weekly, monthly or quarterly.

Our firm works at the intersection of digital strategy, political engagement and strategic communications. Our AI-driven technology solution demonstrates how AI and machine learning, when coupled with natural language processing (NLP), can provide powerful decision-making tools for political campaigns. It scrapes 300,000 discrete sources of publicly available data, which is then analyzed by the AI to the sentence-structure level and categorized.

The AI reads every Tweet, Facebook post, news article, letter to the editor, etc., thinking in the same way an intern doing press clippings would. Namely, “is this article beneficial or harmful to the campaign?” The system then further categorizes the data into August 2019

a series of other considerations, including factors like location, gender, language preference and, of course, political leaning.

The AI system answers these other questions like “how are my candidate’s (or party’s) issues covered in large, left-leaning outlets?” and “how does that differ from right-leaning outlets?”

Social media data is then fused to traditional media. It answers questions like “what is the narrative around my candidate’s issues for older, female, Englishspeaking, Liberal supporters in Vancouver?” and “how about French-speaking, Bloc Pot supporters in Montreal?”

Processing mass quantities of media coverage on an issue and verifying the determinants as to whether breaking stories are to your advantage or disadvantage is daunting, especially amidst a campaign. AI reduces the time and stress variable in your decisionmaking and helps focus your narrative(s) while allowing greater visibility to avoid more treacherous issues that may be of less concern initially. These advanced systems really shine when they compare social media (best thought of as any interactive communication, or “many-to-many”) and traditional media (blogs, newspapers and online magazines where communication is “one-to-many”) to find anomalies.

Stunning results The AI-machine learning-NLP blend earned its spurs in 2016. Our team began to see patterns within our system during its infancy while it analyzed narratives surrounding the last U.S. presidential election.

We were left scratching our heads at the anomaly the system was clearly reflecting. Elite opinion makers and their coterie of experts made it clear months before November that the election would be a blowout. The union workers in Ohio and Wisconsin would carry those states so easily that the discussion amongst pundits was not the likelihood of victory for Hillary Clinton, but the magnitude of the victory.

Despite the assurances of the experts, which dominated the coverage and created a narrative of inevitable victory for the Clinton campaign, we saw a very different picture in social media’s landscape of “chatter” surrounding Hillary Clinton and eventually Donald Trump. The social media discussions were exactly the opposite of what the experts and their polls were saying.

It became clear that while elite American outlets were certain working-class voters in the Rust Belt would usher a Clinton victory in key states, the actual workingclass men and women were clearly indicating their support and/or interest in voting for Trump. In the end, the relatively simple-minded AI could “see” what the experts could not.

Newer tools There is an object lesson in this.

Because of the way the AI is taught to analyze and “think” about articles, it was largely devoid of bias. It’s diligence in reading everything it could find meant that confirmation bias did not create a false perception of reality. The data was not quantitative, per se, but the quantities were so vast, and could be organized to understand so much about news outlets and the general populace, that the data was compelling enough to act on: and eventually rely upon for wellinformed decision-making.

Ultimately, present day tools analyzing social media or traditional media help us monitor the news. The next-generation tools now debuting in the advocacy and campaign worlds synthesize and contextualize data for decisionmaking. Campaigns will better understand voters and issues in new and more nuanced ways, which means better campaigns with more attuned messaging to the will of the people. And all of this can be done without being overly invasive as the individual and their personally identifiable information or PII is not an issue; it is the aggregate interest and behaviour of groups of people that are analyzed by the system.

Place for people AI has a bright future in campaigns. But for professionals, we won’t be replaced by a robotic campaign manager anytime soon.

There is a great deal of confusion— and, as a consequence— mystery, surrounding the big data and AI concepts. AI-enabled capabilities are nowhere near the cerebral and intuitional sophistication of campaign professionals. And when it comes to winning, it is the human touch, even a recorded voice along with the candidates’ handshake and being greeted and contacted by volunteers, gaining one vote at a time (yes, the ground game) that counts.

But when massive data sets are required, AI capabilities serve as a digital legion of interns and analysts cutting media clippings and alerting decision-makers to inflection points, signalling the time to tailor creative or change the size of a media buy based on how prevalent an issue is. All of which can help propel a campaign to victory.

So how can you best benefit from these tools? First, make sure you don’t believe too strongly in your PR strategy. The horizon has presented new ways to consider the problems we face in campaigns.

Luckily, we have the expertise and experience to know how to solve our data-crunching problems by harnessing and focusing the power of AI. Second, keep an open mind.

New tech tools mean next to nil if, as campaign and communications professionals, we fail to drop our biases when introducing new forms of analysis or absorbing the inevitable surprises bound to come about at the ballot box or from the tech that helps us win there.

Christopher Alexander is vice president

of government services and strategic communication at SevenTwenty Strategies (www.720strategies.com) an independent woman-owned public relations and public affairs agency based in Washington, D.C. Their technology, Calibrate720, is engaging AI to help organizations inform their message: and drive the ROI of their campaigns.

DMN.ca ❰

// 18

Features

Courtesy Tourism New Brunswick

Visitor insights

Swallowtail Lighthouse, Grand Manan, New Brunswick.

By Larry Filler

F

or years Tourism New Brunswick sought to answer two seemingly simple questions: who visits the province and how do they spend their time during their trip?

The answers to these questions would have direct implications on the government-run organization’s marketing strategy.

These insights would help it determine who it had to connect with and what its message should be. For those visitors who had already showed an interest in the province, the goal would be to keep New Brunswick top of mind. For others, the goal might be to make them aware of all the wonderful things that New Brunswick has to offer so they will consider it as a vacation destination in the future.

While Tourism New Brunswick knew it needed more comprehensive visitor data to improve the effectiveness of its marketing initiatives it lacked the means to collect those data. Up until this point, the organization relied on collecting postal codes from visitors through surveys, newsletters and the reservation system for its provincial parks. It then linked those postal codes to Environics Analytics’ PRIZM and Destination Canada’s Explorer Quotient (EQ) segmentation systems for campaign targeting.

Though this approach worked, it did not include large swaths of visitors. As a result, Tourism ❱ DMN.ca

New Brunswick lacked a complete picture of its visitor segments.

“We wanted to link our marketing efforts with actual travel patterns within the province,” said Stéphanie Robichaud, senior business and data analyst with Tourism New Brunswick.

Mobile data fills the gaps The challenges facing the provincial tourism body were not all that different from those facing shopping malls or retailers that lacked customer-specific data, albeit on a much grander scale. As a solution, some shopping malls are now using mobile data as opposed to, or in some cases, in addition to, traditional visitor intercept surveys to enhance customer insights. Tourism New Brunswick wanted to see if mobile data could help it too.

“The fact that the data was anonymized and permissionbased, since it is collected through apps on a user’s mobile device, was very reassuring to us,” said Robichaud. “We knew it could identify devices observed within defined areas.”

Mobile data would also give the organization the ability to integrate the demographics, psychographics and behavioural habits of their visitors, which would be invaluable to its targeted mail and digital campaigns.

However, even with the additional data, the most important element of any analytics solution is the

process. In this particular case, defining the study was critical.

Tourism New Brunswick and Environics Analytics worked together to identify 91 geofences of interest to the provincial tourism industry. These include tourism regions, entry and exit points (road, water and air), major highways, scenic drives, parks and other key points of interest.

Through those geofences, Tourism New Brunswick collected about 240,000 trip records, representing roughly 7% of the visits to the province. Close to 90% of the observed devices were assigned to postal codes or ZIP codes and then linked to their respective PRIZM segments.

These data proved to be a good representation of the visitors to the province and gave Tourism New Brunswick and their stakeholders the confidence that this data could be used for better decision making.

Understanding travel patterns Integrating the mobile data into its existing segments allowed Tourism New Brunswick to link its customer targets to actual visitation and travel patterns. The findings revealed which segments were most likely to visit New Brunswick, as well as providing insights into which attractions they tended to visit. For example, “No-Hassle Travellers” are 93% more likely to visit New Brunswick than the average Canadian household, explained Robichaud.

“We never would have known this before,” she said.

Tourism New Brunswick was able to use these insights to understand the differences and similarities between its key visitor segments. The analysis helped the organization understand the visitor journey through the province. For example, it discovered that 29% of all visitors spent time in Moncton.

One in five visitors enjoyed one of the province’s scenic drives, with 61% of those taking the Fundy Coastal Drive.

These insights could also be used to spot other notable patterns, such as which cities people visited and the points of interest or attractions they toured during their stay. Understanding the seasonality effects on tourism in the province was another benefit.

For instance, through these insights, Tourism New Brunswick was able to determine that while Canadian visitation spiked in July and August, U.S. peak visitation started in June and lasted through October.

“Based on the mobility data, we have a more complete picture of our visitors,” said Robichaud.

“We were able to identify how visitors enjoyed our province, as well as how to segment them and communicate with them more effectively.”

Larry Filler is a senior vice president and

leader of the Tourism Practice at Environics Analytics.

August 2019

// 19

Fulfillment & Shipping

The key to fulfillment Continued from page 9

Z1’s chargebacks dropped to only $22,000: a 90% reduction.

International accuracy Accurate addresses are exceptionally critical for international shipments because of the added time, distance and return shipment handling costs.

Each country also has their own postal addressing protocol, making it even more challenging for e-commerce companies.

To realize the benefits of accurate addresses, you need all the right tools for the job. Global Express Entry and Personator both integrate easily and, especially when used in tandem, work miracles for online retailers.

They streamline the order and fulfillment process all the way from order placement through international delivery. Companies benefit from increased conversions and better-quality contact data for shipping and returns. Plus, chargebacks from fraud are dramatically reduced, which lowers the bottom line.

Quality addresses with international coverage are paramount to driving cross-border e-commerce turnaround. Provider solutions that keep contact details standardized across your system— and international borders—are

rare. Melissa is among a handful of vendors licenced by Canada Post® and USPS® to bridge intelligence across borders with applications powered by a SERP/ CASS™ certified engine. Complete, standardized U.S. and Canadian addresses valid to delivery point can drive more than ideal results.

With confidence in customer addresses, you can effectively expand past the borderline to grow and retain your international customer base.

Check us out online dmn.ca

For more information, visit www.Melissa.com or call 1-800-MELISSA. Greg Brown is vice president of global

marketing, Melissa (www.melissa.com).

Greg powers Melissa’s brand management, business-to-business, Internet and e-mail marketing strategies. He is an ANA-certified Marketing Professional and having worked for more than 15 years on both the client and the agency side, he brings a unique perspective to developing creative, results-oriented marketing programmes to acquire and retain customers.

1 Allison Enright, “Canadian online retailers grow sales 30% and are taking share from US merchants”, Internet Retailer, February 26, 2018.

2 Rustin Nethercott, “5 Reasons Why Repeat Customers Are Better Than New Customers”, infographic, Constant Comment.

3 Narvar, “Narvar Report: Making Returns a Competitive Advantage”, report, June 2017.

4 Chargebacks911, “International Chargebacks”, September 5, 2014.

Going the last mile (km) for customers Continued from page 10

during one of the most crucial phases of the buying journey.

When you pair that with effective training and team members who strive to exceed customer expectations, you have the ability to transform your lastmile experiences from logistical headaches into a true competitive advantage.

Cami Zimmer is executive vice president

of business development and marketing, Glympse (www.glympse.com). Cami is responsible for creating and implementing August 2019

strategies to enhance new business opportunities and elevate the company’s corporate brand through marketing, communications and public relations. In her first year at Glympse, she helped double annual revenue and reposition the company from a B2C to a business-to-business (B2B) and consumer to business (C2B).

1 RetailTouchPoints, “Retail TouchPoints Last Mile Benchmark Report 2018”, report, 2018.

2 “Last Mile Benchmark Report”, Ibid.

3 “Glympse Powers Rogers Communications New Tech Eta Tool In Canada; Now Providing Location Solutions For Top North American Cable Companies,” Field Technologies, news, December 13, 2016.

4 Smiota, “6 Shocking Stats about Package Theft”, February 27, 2019.

For online advertising opportunities contact

Mark Henry, mark@dmn.ca For online editorial opportunities contact

Brendan Read, brendan@dmn.ca DMN.ca ❰

// 20 PBI-DirectMarketMag_Ad_4.32x8_052919.pdf

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October

August 20-22 CONEX: The Content Experience 2019 Toronto, Ont. https://conex.uberflip.com/home

October 7 ACT Canada Forum Toronto, Ont. www.actcda.com/act-canada-forum/

September

October 16 Retail West Vancouver, B.C. http://retailwest.ca

September 3-6 Content Marketing World Cleveland, Ohio www.contentmarketingworld.com September 23-25 CX Week Canada 2019 Toronto, Ont. www.customercontactweekdigital.com/ events-cxweekcanada September 24 Retail Secure Mississauga, Ont. http://rcclpconference.ca

November November 13-21 National Philanthropy Day Victoria, B.C., Ottawa, Ont., Lethbridge, Alta., Montreal, Que., Hamilton, Ont., Winnipeg, Man., Vancouver, B.C. and Edmonton, Alta. https://afpglobal.org/afp-canada/eventscanada

November 22 CMA Awards Gala Toronto, Ont. www.the-cma.org/education-events/ awards November 25-27 AFP Congress Toronto, Ont. http://afptoronto.org/congress-2019/

December December 2-3 Data & AI Marketing Toronto Conference and Expo Toronto, Ont. https://datamarketing.ca/2019/

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// 22

Preventing data breaches A

s a marketing professional, are you fully prepared for a data security breach? When it is determined that confidential customer data has been stolen, and there will likely be a hefty price tag attempting to fix what went wrong, will you know how to react?

Finally, when the post-incident analysis occurs, will you know what your role should be? And more importantly, be able to execute whatever measures will be needed in a fast and timely manner?

Karl Swannie is the CEO of Victoria, B.C.-based

Echosec Systems Ltd. (www.echosec.net), creators of a data discovery platform of the same name and Beacon, an OSINT tool that allows an organization to safely search the dark web. A well-known technical thoughtleader and former chief technical officer, Karl comes from a 20-year career in geographic and land information management systems, where he worked with organizations such as Mercedes-Benz, Amtrak, Coca-Cola and Verizon.

Why marketers should care The direct marketer who thinks a security strategy should be dictated by the IT department is making a serious mistake. For a chasm has been crossed between the marketing and IT security teams and there is no going back. There are no longer black-and-white lines, but instead there is a steady shade of grey.

There are also new regulatory requirements that must be adhered to under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

Any breach that creates a “real risk of significant harm” must now be reported to the Privacy Commissioner’s Office and all individuals affected notified.

Meanwhile, findings in an annual global study, Cost of a Data Breach, by IBM Security and conducted by the Ponemon Institute, found that hidden costs in data breaches such as lost business, negative impact on reputation and employee time spent on recovery are difficult and expensive to manage. The average cost for each lost or stolen record containing sensitive and confidential information also increased by 4.8% year over year to US$148, findings revealed.

The direct marketer who thinks a security strategy should be dictated by the IT department is making a serious mistake.

“The goal of our research is to demonstrate the value of good data protection practices and the factors that make a tangible difference in what a company pays to resolve a data breach,” said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of Ponemon Institute. “While data breach costs have been rising steadily over the history of the study, we see positive signs of costs savings through the use of newer technologies as well as proper planning for incident response, which can significantly reduce those costs.”

This is incredibly important, particularly when you consider results of another report that found 75% of consumers in the U.S. said they will not do business ❱ DMN.ca

with companies that they do not trust to protect their data. It is unlikely that sentiment would change here in Canada or anywhere else in the world for that matter.

What can marketers do?

Last year’s IBM/Ponemon study, for the first time, examined, it said, “the effect of security automation tools, which use artificial intelligence, machine learning, analytics and orchestration to augment or replace human intervention in the identification and containment of a breach.”

“The analysis found that organizations that had extensively deployed automated security technologies saved over US$1.5 million on the total cost of a breach (US$2.88 million compared to US$4.43 million for those who had not deployed security automation),” said the study.

While those are big dollar numbers and likely equate to a larger organization, the use of technology advances such as open source intelligence (OSINT) can also be a pivotal tool for the direct marketer. They can use them not only protect a brand but gain an understanding of what is occurring both in the social media space and on the dark web.

Monitoring social media activity about your brand or your organization allows you to be informed and be proactive in any decision-making that may occur.

It is also safe to say that the more social media data is created, the better the potential for OSINT to work properly. And since it is now the marketing team’s responsibility to monitor that data, it forces everyone to be aware of any suspicious or alarming posts and keep up to date on any activity that may occur.

By that simple act, direct marketers can now play a key role in the overall security strategy of an organization. They can alert the IT department should there be concerns about the brand and/or the overall business.

The relationship between marketing and IT becomes symbiotic and even more important when it comes to the dark web. This is the home of the real bad dudes who design creative data breaches, sell stolen personal information, obtain contraband, get advice on performing nefarious acts and if they want, can be your own worst nightmare.

The dark web is where marketplaces such as Dream Market flourished before being shut down. But that is not a problem because at any one time an OSINT offering can uncover as many as 25 similar sites.

It can also detect and track potentially harmful conversations in any language.

The time spent using OSINT tools in social media and learning more about dark web activity related to your business could, in the end, prevent a data breach.

Armed with knowledge that can be passed on to an IT security team and others, measures can be put in place that will help protect your organization from losing the trust from the one group you simply cannot afford to lose: your customer base.

August 2019

Reach marketers & financial executives Our magazines are must-reads for key executives in core corporate competencies.

Can you help our readers: • Create a strong financial structure and healthy economic ecosystem to ensure capital and cash flow keep their engines running?

• Determine who their customers should be, how they can reach them most effectively, and how they can turn data-driven marketing into profitable sales?

• Build efficient and effective financial systems to enhance payments and billings between their companies and their customers and vendors?

• Convert all the data and information they collect from every contact point into tangible benefits that increase revenue and reduce costs?

• Equip their companies with the tools, technology, systems and hardware needed to manage their operations, to create new services or products, and deliver them to their market?

• Manage their customers with smoothly functioning support departments that are properly staffed and equipped to solve problems, foster loyalty and retain customers?

• Make any or every step in that chain better, faster, cheaper, and more profitable?

We can help you tap into the ecosystem at the points that will drive your campaigns.

To advertise or get more information and media kits:

Mark Henry 905-201-6600 ext 223 | 1-800-668-1838 | mark@dmn.ca Visit our websites:

DM Magazine, www.dmn.ca Contact Management magazine, www.contactmanagement.ca

Payments Business magazine, www.paymentsbusiness.ca Canadian Equipment Finance magazine, www.canadianequipmentfinance.com