The 7 Keys to Creating Consumable Content
In a digital and omnichannel world, consumers have access to more information than ever before, and consumer goods companies have to keep up with content they need for all of their brands. That is why this month, CGT asks EnterWorks CEO Rick Chavie about creating consumable content through a robust product information management platform.
What do you mean by consumable content?
Chavie: Consumer brands have many content challenges in today’s physical and digital world, but delivering content is essential throughout a product’s lifecycle for generating awareness and conversions. Consumable content means delivering rich, personalized content in context of the:
• Shopping stage: e.g., research, comparison buy, point of purchase, etc.
• Consumer shopping occasion: e.g., major purchase, impulse or
convenience buy
• Consumer’s preferences: personal product and brand choices in their
desired channel
How do you enable consumable content generation in today’s omnichannel world?
Chavie: You must simultaneously understand both key product characteristics and a consumer’s individual needs and preferences. Not all content must be personalized on a 1:1 basis to be consumable, as creating appeal across like-minded consumers can be more efficient. But the delivery of such content starts in digital channels — where most product research is now done — requires a robust product information (PIM) platform for both digital and physical channels.
What are the 7 keys to creating consumable content?
Chavie: A PIM platform is the base to start the content journey for brand and product differentiation. There are seven keys that use that base to generate the right content that consumers need:
1. Industry relevant and compliant content. Consumer product sectors have rapidly evolving government and industry standards for key product attributes and details.
2. Real-time labeling. The SmartLabel initiative has 300 different attributes for food products — your PIM must digitally connect to print for dynamic updates for any changes.
3. Multi-domain Master Data Management (MDM). Beyond the product domain, you also need customer, location, and brand domains to place the consumer in a shopping context.
4. Syndication. The retailer is where consumers shop for most branded products, so you must have the right content for their preferred retailer to share with consumers.
5. Findability. The nuances of your products must be captured in a digital way that stores their attributes, images, details and relationship to the product category. The storage must be accessible digitally for search engines, websites and marketplaces.
6. Digital Asset Management. Ideally, digital assets are part of the MDM domain structure for improved searchability, but in any case, in today’s digital world, much of the most compelling content is visual.
7. Collaboration through Portals and Workflows. A manufacturing brand does not standalone, it works with distributors, retailers, agencies and interacts directly with consumers for indirect commerce situations and in leveraging user generated content. Such collaboration is enabled through PIM-related portal and workflow engines.
Who should lead the effort for developing consumable content at a manufacturing brand?
Chavie: Every department plays a role: Marketing in understanding the B2B partner’s content needs and insights into a consumer’s preferences, category managers in defining assortment and category attributes, visual merchants and e-commerce leads in ensuring that content is compelling, data analysts and scientists in assessing content effectiveness, the CIO in determining how the platform pieces fit together, and the list goes on. But ultimately, the CEO or president of the brand must support the initiative to drive its effectiveness as an organization.
What do you mean by consumable content?
Chavie: Consumer brands have many content challenges in today’s physical and digital world, but delivering content is essential throughout a product’s lifecycle for generating awareness and conversions. Consumable content means delivering rich, personalized content in context of the:
• Shopping stage: e.g., research, comparison buy, point of purchase, etc.
• Consumer shopping occasion: e.g., major purchase, impulse or
convenience buy
• Consumer’s preferences: personal product and brand choices in their
desired channel
How do you enable consumable content generation in today’s omnichannel world?
Chavie: You must simultaneously understand both key product characteristics and a consumer’s individual needs and preferences. Not all content must be personalized on a 1:1 basis to be consumable, as creating appeal across like-minded consumers can be more efficient. But the delivery of such content starts in digital channels — where most product research is now done — requires a robust product information (PIM) platform for both digital and physical channels.
What are the 7 keys to creating consumable content?
Chavie: A PIM platform is the base to start the content journey for brand and product differentiation. There are seven keys that use that base to generate the right content that consumers need:
1. Industry relevant and compliant content. Consumer product sectors have rapidly evolving government and industry standards for key product attributes and details.
2. Real-time labeling. The SmartLabel initiative has 300 different attributes for food products — your PIM must digitally connect to print for dynamic updates for any changes.
3. Multi-domain Master Data Management (MDM). Beyond the product domain, you also need customer, location, and brand domains to place the consumer in a shopping context.
4. Syndication. The retailer is where consumers shop for most branded products, so you must have the right content for their preferred retailer to share with consumers.
5. Findability. The nuances of your products must be captured in a digital way that stores their attributes, images, details and relationship to the product category. The storage must be accessible digitally for search engines, websites and marketplaces.
6. Digital Asset Management. Ideally, digital assets are part of the MDM domain structure for improved searchability, but in any case, in today’s digital world, much of the most compelling content is visual.
7. Collaboration through Portals and Workflows. A manufacturing brand does not standalone, it works with distributors, retailers, agencies and interacts directly with consumers for indirect commerce situations and in leveraging user generated content. Such collaboration is enabled through PIM-related portal and workflow engines.
Who should lead the effort for developing consumable content at a manufacturing brand?
Chavie: Every department plays a role: Marketing in understanding the B2B partner’s content needs and insights into a consumer’s preferences, category managers in defining assortment and category attributes, visual merchants and e-commerce leads in ensuring that content is compelling, data analysts and scientists in assessing content effectiveness, the CIO in determining how the platform pieces fit together, and the list goes on. But ultimately, the CEO or president of the brand must support the initiative to drive its effectiveness as an organization.