Why Product Content Is Your Brand's Omni-Channel Advantage
By Sue Sentell, president and CEO at Gladson
There has been much talk about omni-channel consumers and the impact they’ve had on traditional CPG commerce. While it’s true that the CPG landscape has undergone monumental shifts, the motivation for consumers is quite simple: to take greater control of their lives.
Today’s consumers want more control over their time, their health and wellness, and their money. They want to know what’s in the food they’re eating and in the lotion they’re putting on their skin. They’re also more cognizant of how they spend their hard-earned dollars and, likewise, their precious free time.
Accommodating consumers’ quest for greater control – at least in the CPG realm – begins with providing the product information consumers require to make informed decisions.
The expectation is for CPG companies to provide the right product images and information at the right time, no matter what channel the consumer is shopping in, including online, mobile and in-store.
While this might sound like an easy way to earn consumer loyalty, CPG manufacturers are finding that providing consistent, accurate and up-to-date product content across channels is easier said than done.
Omni-Channel Product Content
The types of CPG product content that are in demand today are more extensive than years ago. The days when brands could depend on a single product image and a few lines of descriptive copy to fulfill their product content requirements are long gone.
Today, a complete set of CPG product content includes:
Brands owners’ challenge in providing this content – quickly and cost-effectively – is made more difficult by the internal silos in most companies. In any given CPG organization, product images might be managed by Marketing, product dimensions by Category Management or Logistics, ingredients by R&D and other details by yet other departments.
The end result is a costly, inconsistent and fragmented approach to product content that can undermine customer relationships, brand integrity, internal efficiency and, ultimately, omni-channel effectiveness.
The Importance of CPG Product Content for Omni-Channel Success
The role product content plays in a brand’s omni-channel effectiveness is rather straight-forward:
Best Practices for Omni-Channel Product Content
To transform product content from an obstacle to an omni-channel advantage, brands can follow several best practices.
Leverage a Consolidated Source of Accurate Product Data
There’s a reason consistent and accurate product content is a major challenge facing CPG manufacturers today. Creating, maintaining and distributing their products’ images and information can be complex, costly and time-consuming.
In order for CPG brands to deliver consistent, accurate and up-to-date product content, it is essential that they leverage a consolidated source for images and information. A consolidated product content database that serves internal and external needs allows organizations to overcome the silos inherent in the way most companies manage product content.
If CPG brands do not have the processes or technology necessary to create, maintain and distribute their own product content – or do not want to invest in this infrastructure – they should consider partnering with a third-party provider that offers CPG product content creation, maintenance and distribution as its core competency.
Commit to Constant Updates
Packaging redesigns, updates to ingredients and nutritional values, shifting marketing messages, and other variations in product attributes are a constant reality. Those changes, factored across numerous SKUs and product categories, can wreak havoc on the integrity of product images and information.
Delivering up-to-date product content throughout the CPG product lifecycle requires a process-oriented and scalable approach to product content management. In order to maintain the integrity of product content, organizations must commit to constant updates of their product images and information within the consolidated database.
These updates should be performed by experienced professionals who understand the product content requirements of retailer customers, consumers and internal departments. It’s also imperative that the maintenance of the database consistently follows industry guidelines for product content management, has stringent quality assurance processes, and offers automation to ensure the most up-to-date product data is being fed to internal systems and third-party recipients.
Inject Flexibility and Scalability into Content Distribution
Requirements for product content have become as diversified as the CPG industry itself. Depending on the channel or application the content is being used for and the customer or vendor making the request, product content types and formats can vary greatly. As a result, content distribution models must be flexible enough to accommodate the requirements of each content consumer.
In addition to flexibility, distribution models must be scalable, allowing brands to distribute product content to vast quantities of the right recipients, removing much of the burden placed on internal resources. Organizations that are able to inject flexibility and scalability into their product content distribution models increase their omni-channel advantage through more consistent content, tighter brand controls, more responsive customer service and more repeat business.
There has been much talk about omni-channel consumers and the impact they’ve had on traditional CPG commerce. While it’s true that the CPG landscape has undergone monumental shifts, the motivation for consumers is quite simple: to take greater control of their lives.
Today’s consumers want more control over their time, their health and wellness, and their money. They want to know what’s in the food they’re eating and in the lotion they’re putting on their skin. They’re also more cognizant of how they spend their hard-earned dollars and, likewise, their precious free time.Accommodating consumers’ quest for greater control – at least in the CPG realm – begins with providing the product information consumers require to make informed decisions.
The expectation is for CPG companies to provide the right product images and information at the right time, no matter what channel the consumer is shopping in, including online, mobile and in-store.
While this might sound like an easy way to earn consumer loyalty, CPG manufacturers are finding that providing consistent, accurate and up-to-date product content across channels is easier said than done.
Omni-Channel Product Content
The types of CPG product content that are in demand today are more extensive than years ago. The days when brands could depend on a single product image and a few lines of descriptive copy to fulfill their product content requirements are long gone.
Today, a complete set of CPG product content includes:
- Product images (including a variety of formats, resolutions and angles)
- Packaging attributes (e.g., dimensions, weights)
- Product attributes (e.g., ingredients, nutritional values)
- Product highlights (information the brand provides on the package such as directions, warnings and marketing claims)
Brands owners’ challenge in providing this content – quickly and cost-effectively – is made more difficult by the internal silos in most companies. In any given CPG organization, product images might be managed by Marketing, product dimensions by Category Management or Logistics, ingredients by R&D and other details by yet other departments.
The end result is a costly, inconsistent and fragmented approach to product content that can undermine customer relationships, brand integrity, internal efficiency and, ultimately, omni-channel effectiveness.
The Importance of CPG Product Content for Omni-Channel Success
The role product content plays in a brand’s omni-channel effectiveness is rather straight-forward:
- Product images and information are necessary to engage with consumers across the path to purchase.
- Product content is essential to meet retailers’ requirements so they can market and sell products across channels.
- Product data is used to automate and feed internal systems (e.g. warehousing, transportation, ordering, etc.) to ensure operations can meet demand, profitably.
Best Practices for Omni-Channel Product Content
To transform product content from an obstacle to an omni-channel advantage, brands can follow several best practices.
Leverage a Consolidated Source of Accurate Product Data
There’s a reason consistent and accurate product content is a major challenge facing CPG manufacturers today. Creating, maintaining and distributing their products’ images and information can be complex, costly and time-consuming.
In order for CPG brands to deliver consistent, accurate and up-to-date product content, it is essential that they leverage a consolidated source for images and information. A consolidated product content database that serves internal and external needs allows organizations to overcome the silos inherent in the way most companies manage product content.
If CPG brands do not have the processes or technology necessary to create, maintain and distribute their own product content – or do not want to invest in this infrastructure – they should consider partnering with a third-party provider that offers CPG product content creation, maintenance and distribution as its core competency.
Commit to Constant Updates
Packaging redesigns, updates to ingredients and nutritional values, shifting marketing messages, and other variations in product attributes are a constant reality. Those changes, factored across numerous SKUs and product categories, can wreak havoc on the integrity of product images and information.
Delivering up-to-date product content throughout the CPG product lifecycle requires a process-oriented and scalable approach to product content management. In order to maintain the integrity of product content, organizations must commit to constant updates of their product images and information within the consolidated database.
These updates should be performed by experienced professionals who understand the product content requirements of retailer customers, consumers and internal departments. It’s also imperative that the maintenance of the database consistently follows industry guidelines for product content management, has stringent quality assurance processes, and offers automation to ensure the most up-to-date product data is being fed to internal systems and third-party recipients.
Inject Flexibility and Scalability into Content Distribution
Requirements for product content have become as diversified as the CPG industry itself. Depending on the channel or application the content is being used for and the customer or vendor making the request, product content types and formats can vary greatly. As a result, content distribution models must be flexible enough to accommodate the requirements of each content consumer.
In addition to flexibility, distribution models must be scalable, allowing brands to distribute product content to vast quantities of the right recipients, removing much of the burden placed on internal resources. Organizations that are able to inject flexibility and scalability into their product content distribution models increase their omni-channel advantage through more consistent content, tighter brand controls, more responsive customer service and more repeat business.