Creating Loyal Brands : Themes Of The Week...

So much content flowing, so little time to catch it...

A weekly round-up of the themes and posts I found particularly interesting or useful.

A number of posts caught my eye this week around 3 familiar themes: physical stores in the digital age, the importance of customer experience, and the impact of social media on reputation.

Bricks and clicks...
With the ever increasing impact of digital on shopping behavior, several posts reflected on the continuing relevance of physical stores.

Stores Rule; Social And Mobile Lag highlighted that while there has been an explosion in online research by shoppers, most Americans still prefer to shop in physical stores. Brands should focus on providing relevant and timely information online.
How Showrooming Could Save Brick-And-Mortar Retailers used an interesting Back-To-School example to show how, with a little thought, showrooming can be turned from a negative to a positive.
While One Macy's, in an interesting interview with their CMO, explored how Macy's have used an intense, technology-enabled customer focus to stay relevant, and continue to grow.

Where the rubber hits the road...
Central to the success of any brand today, is the experience it gives its customers. 

Customer Experience Should Be Part Of Your Business offered good, practical advice on creating a business focus around the larger, cross-channel journeys customers experience, which cross organizational boundaries. We are, after all, in an omni-channel world now.
Creating Great Customer Experiences highlighted 3 simple steps that lie behind any great customer experience.
While To Inspire Your Customers, Inspire Your Employees served as a reminder that no matter how well designed, delivering a great customer experience is about your employees, and your culture.

Waking up...
Finally, in spite of (or perhaps because of) the hype that social media has received, some businesses still need to grasp the implications for managing their reputations.

Only 66% Of Companies Agree: Social Media Poses Significant Risk To Brand Reputation illustrated that many companies still don't understand the benefits and risks that social media brings. The likely outcome, many more embarrassing incidents.
While 5 Social Media Blunders, and the PR Responses That Followed at least gave some good advice on how to handle them.
And in case we think it's just for businesses, Like it or not, you must own your social media reputation pointed out that our personal and professional reputations have been blurred by social media, suggesting ways to manage the information we share.

On which note, how useful did you find this post?