DAM for Retail

DAM Objectives

Making business more efficient

With digital asset management retailers can lower costs of doing business by raising output with increased collaboration across all those involved in the marketing production chain. By implementing a central approval process, errors are reduced.

DAM allows for improved shared processes by viewing content across different portfolios, product lines and subsidiaries.

Supporting multichannel marketing

Content creation can be consolidated and applied to multiple channels with the result that the customer message is improved with greater consistency across all channels. Retailers can reproduce the same or similar content across different websites so that regional or local markets are catered for.

As DAM supports print, digital and social activities, it is possible to target wholesalers, retailers and the general public equally easily.

Improving customer engagement

Consistent marketing messages and engaging content can be produced with the help of a digital asset management system. Content can be produced that matches a customer’s preferred media format and device. It also makes for improved data quality and readability of the product messages.

DAM Solutions

Integrations

Retailers can integrate their DAM with their other systems, such as:

• ERP
• eCommerce
• PIM
• POS
• Ticketing
• Shipping

These integrations will let retailers work much more in sync and manage their media assets much more efficiently, as well as deliver the content faster. Catalogues can be created and pushed out to print and online channels.

Central platform for all product related information

Employees across the world will have a centralised platform and consistent controlled access to all approved file types – images, documents, and video. It forms a part of product information management (PIM). Failures and inconsistencies will be reduced as there is only one location of content and one master original with version histories maintained for easy rollback.

All product information can be changed and updated in real-time so sales/marketing people on the road have instant access to up-to-date and the latest information.

Distribution of content

Easy access to digital assets will be available no matter where the office is located, be it the office in Sydney or an international office on the other side of the world. Media suppliers will be able to upload their work from any location and external retailers and outlet channels are able to get immediate access to current content.

The distribution of complex media such as video can often be solved with hybrid solutions that include CDN and/or YouTube integration. Device detection within a DAM solution means that bring your own device (BYOD) deployment is supported and enables mobile communication and collaboration.

Content in marketing materials

Most marketers use Adobe products, ie InDesign and Photoshop, in the creation and production of marketing materials and the results are usually larger and more complex layouts than regular forms design. With a DAM that’s integrated with your design tools, you can match images to product information and produce multi-page catalogues quickly and easily.
Stringent approval processes can be applied and content can be derived from multiple sources to produce many-layered content that can be output to multiple channels in print or digital formats.

Challenges

As consumers are constantly looking for incredibly personalised shopping experiences that reflect an understanding of their needs, interests and passions, retailers spend a lot of time constantly changing visual content to fulfil this demand. They face a number of challenges in doing so.

Naming and grouping conventions

The grouping of products and the variations of a product such as colour and size present a great challenge to retailers and can be solved with a digital asset management solution that can relate such variations and identify products, items and articles.

Different codes, SKUs, product IDs, UPC codes can all be related to the relevant digital media.

Offers, promotions, availability, and planning

With a DAM in place, promotions and sales offers from retailers can be visually selected and matched to the relevant media. It is easy to manage and limit content to match the availability of stock, on-the-fly.

The availability of suitable content needs to be planned to support marketing initiatives such that managers and promoters can react quickly to requirements.

Peaks and troughs

Peaks and troughs are typically associated with digital marketing. Marketing material and content will necessarily go through variations in activity in response to product lifecycles and promotional periods.

Similarly, consumer activity can vary greatly in response to buying seasons and promotions. Being able to respond swiftly to market changes is assisted by having a centralised DAM.

Summary

A DAM solution enables you to protect your brand and boost revenues by efficiently storing, organise, managing, and distributing all your digital marketing assets. This includes product images, brand graphics including fonts, promotional videos, advertising and promotional layouts, and brand guidelines.

Having a centralised system helps your staff, creative agencies, and partners quickly and easily access the assets they need for their everyday work.

References

This content is drawn from DataBasics webinar on 20 September 2016, entitled DAM for Retail view on DataBasics YouTube channel.