The slightest discrepancy in your branding online can destroy consumer trust, which is why digital asset management helps boost revenues and mitigate risk as well as cutting costs.
Recent years have seen huge changes on the UK high street, with a host of well-known retail brands being consigned to the history books.
Mothercare, Bonmarché and Links of London are just a few of the retailers which went into administration in 2019 – a year in which retail sales fell for the first time in 25 years, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
But it’s not all doom and gloom across the retail sector.
Fashion retailer Boohoo reported record trading during the final quarter of 2019. It has benefited from the consumer shift to internet shopping – consumers now spend £1 in every £5 online, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Another reason Boohoo is succeeding is that it is using its brand assets to create a consistent – and highly lucrative – image.
A strong social media presence, dedicated apps and partnerships with influencers are just some of the ways in which the brand assets have been combined to grow Boohoo from a Manchester market stall to a leading name in the retail world.
The importance of brand consistency is not a new concept. Just look at Coca-Cola. No matter where you are in the world, you’re greeted with the same iconic cursive logo and brand experience, which stirs up feelings of familiarity, authenticity and positivity.
Another great example in the fashion world is Louis Vuitton. It may be over 160 years old, but Louis Vuitton has maintained a consistent brand identity (based on travel as well as that instantly recognisable motif), while at the same time undergoing a successful digital transformation. An early adopter of SEO and omnichannel capabilities, Louis Vuitton is followed by over 7 million fans on Twitter and 21 million on Instagram.
So what can companies do to emulate the success of these brands?
Firms are increasingly turning to a digital asset management (DAM) solution to help them create richer customer experiences. These solutions enable teams to focus on the tasks they need to, with instant access to the collateral they need to do their jobs effectively.
If a piece of content needs creating, anyone within the organisation can design impactful marketing collateral without worrying about breaking brand guidelines. What’s more, the impact of any marketing assets used can be measured, so teams can prove ROI.
The benefits a DAM platform brings to an organisation fall into three main categories:
- Reducing costs
The most obvious way that a DAM tool reduces costs is by streamlining workflows and making them more efficient. Primarily this will be in the creative department, but other parts of the organisation will benefit too.
For example, a DAM system can provide templates for regional marketing teams to create their own messaging, taking account of local language and culture, while locking in brand-critical elements such as typefaces, logos and colours.
- Increasing revenues
One of the crucial ideas of digital marketing is that brands are built step-by-step, at every point at which the business interacts with the consumer. Any inconsistency in the way the brand is presented will undermine its value.
The failure of trust caused by brand inconsistency can have more immediate consequences too. In an online world filled with scammers and spoofers, the slightest discrepancy in the way a brand is presented can raise a customer’s suspicions and send them off to a competitor site.
- Reducing risk
The fact that a DAM system can be integrated with the rest of your martech stack means every system that delivers content to the consumer will automatically use the most up-to-date assets in those communications. These integrations ensure that the right assets can be used in the creative and other communications that will be delivered to the consumer.
When making the business case for a DAM it is crucial that marketers focus on numbers that the board can appreciate – how much cost and risk will be reduced, how much extra revenue can be generated – and how all this can be measured.
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