Uniforms have both a functional and a communicative purpose in our society. It is most likely that you have worn a uniform in one form or another in your lifetime. You might even be wearing one right now as you read this blog. We commonly associate a uniform with organizations such as Police, Security and Armed Forces; a sports team such as NBA or NFL franchise; or an educational institution such as a private school or university. In all of those cases, uniforms are intended to help you quickly identify a group of like individuals. In the case of the armed forces, a uniform would also indicate the rank of the individual within the group.
What you probably don't realize is that you are wearing a digital uniform right now. Your online behaviours and profile have helped smart marketers associate you with other like individuals in their community, essentially placing you in a digital uniform. When you engage with the brand at any touch point (e-mail, web site, online promotion, coupon, e-commerce, SMS) your profile is enhanced, which may result in a change to your digital uniform. All of this is happening behind the scenes, without your knowledge as a consumer, which is often seen as a bad thing. However, the concept of the digital uniform is actually beneficial to both the brand and the consumer. That being said, it must be executed properly to achieve the desired results. I'll give you a quick example below.
You visit a brand web site to get more information. You are prompted to sign up for an insider program for special offers and exclusive content. You fill in the registration form and you are now officially a part of the brand community. You configure your preference center to indicate your interests and preferences towards certain types and channels of communication, basically stating the terms of your desired relationship with the brand. The brand then automatically configures their current and future marketing campaigns to meet your individual needs. You only get the offers that you are interested in, you get communicated to in the medium of your choice and you get opportunities presented to you that like-minded community members found valuable. If at any point in your relationship with the brand, you change your mind and wish to be communicated to in another fashion, you have the ability to redefine the relationship and have those changes made immediately. If you had such a positive experience with a brand wouldn't you want to tell your friends and colleagues about it?
As with most things in life, there is a catch. The challenge lies in the technology needed by marketers to actually define the digital uniforms, build a central profile of the consumer and integrate the point solutions used to communicate with the consumer (e-mail, SMS, DM, etc.). In most cases, the marketing solutions used by marketers are siloed point solutions such as e-mail, SMS, database management, contesting, couponing, etc. All of which are exceptionally good at delivering a positive experience within their solution, but for the most part have no idea that other marketing solutions exist. Therefore, there is not enough data in any one of the solutions to properly identify your digital uniform. You can imagine the problems you might have in the real world if you confused someone wearing a police uniform from another wearing a prison uniform or worse, if you were forced to wear a prison uniform when you did not commit a crime. That is the same challenge that exists today with the concept of the digital uniform; technology and integration challenges are preventing marketers from properly identifying your digital uniform, resulting in a largely negative consumer-brand experience.
So how do I properly execute on the concept of the digital uniform?
- Collect - behavioural and profile information on your opted-in consumer community.
- Understand - the marketing that drives certain groups of individuals to purchase or take action
- Integrate- the various data sources and marketing point solutions to deliver a fluid consumer experience and properly identify the digital uniform of consumers
- Action - Use the information you have collected and the concept of digital uniforms to drive higher ROI and lifetime value through relevant and targeted marketing and communications
There is one important point that I need to impart on you to truly understand the value of the digital uniform. The digital uniform does not define you as an individual, rather it defines you in a group of like-minded or similar individuals. It is still important to recognize that although a digital uniform can help to group individuals within a community, true connections are built by understanding the unique behaviours and traits of the individuals wearing that digital uniform. It is important that the marketer can truly understand the key profile and behavioural attributes that define the digital uniform. It is not good enough to just define me by my age or geographic location, make sure you also look at how I'm engaging with your brand. It could be the difference betwen being fired or promoted.