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Display Advertising

Key benefits of display advertising software

Papirfly
3 minutes read

The use of display ads as a promotional tool has become common over the last couple of years and is not expected to slow down any time soon. In fact, almost 60% of the worlds population is on internet. It goes without saying; standing out and get market attention requires more than text. You need to visualize yourself.

If you’re putting your money on banner advertising, the chances are that your competitors are as well. And we know all to well that competition is fierce and the market is changing fast. So, how do you secure market relevancy and get in front? 

This is where display advertising software comes in handy, allowing you to be agile and efficient with limited effort. Let’s take a look at how this resource can transform how you manage your display ads without killing your market budget and draining your resources. 

Continue reading “Key benefits of display advertising software”

The use of display ads as a promotional tool has become common over the last couple of years and is not expected to slow down any time soon. In fact, almost 60% of the worlds population is on internet. It goes without saying; standing out and get market attention requires more than text. You need to visualize yourself.

If you’re putting your money on banner advertising, the chances are that your competitors are as well. And we know all to well that competition is fierce and the market is changing fast. So, how do you secure market relevancy and get in front? 

This is where display advertising software comes in handy, allowing you to be agile and efficient with limited effort. Let’s take a look at how this resource can transform how you manage your display ads without killing your market budget and draining your resources. 

Continue reading “Key benefits of display advertising software”

The use of display ads as a promotional tool has become common over the last couple of years and is not expected to slow down any time soon. In fact, almost 60% of the worlds population is on internet. It goes without saying; standing out and get market attention requires more than text. You need to visualize yourself.

If you’re putting your money on banner advertising, the chances are that your competitors are as well. And we know all to well that competition is fierce and the market is changing fast. So, how do you secure market relevancy and get in front? 

This is where display advertising software comes in handy, allowing you to be agile and efficient with limited effort. Let’s take a look at how this resource can transform how you manage your display ads without killing your market budget and draining your resources. 

Continue reading “Key benefits of display advertising software”

Retail Marketing

How to indulge your brand’s superfans

Papirfly
7 minutes read

There are people who trust and prefer your brand and there are people who live and breathe it. The latter are known as superfans. More than just a group of loyal customers, these are people who resonate with your company values, advocate your products and want to know about everything your company has to offer. From Apple to IKEA, superfans are attracted to all kinds of different retailers… and you may not even know you have them.

Once you’ve found your superfans, and taken the time to understand them, you can enrich their experience to build an even stronger connection and leverage their love of your brand to your advantage. It’s a win-win!

When does a customer become a superfan?

Generating loyal customers is the aim of the marketing game, but when those customers become superfans, your ROI can reach the next level. Generating new customers is clearly important for increasing revenue and the overall success of your company. It can be easy to neglect the customers who already feel a strong sense of loyalty towards your brand, and what it stands for, when you’re caught up looking at sales data and analytics, or the results of your latest campaigns.

There are two key reasons to always remember your most loyal customers in your marketing campaigns:

1. They are already aware of the value your brand can bring to their lives

When you already have a point of contact with your customers, know a little about them and their reasons for buying your products, you have more freedom to be creative with your advertising. Without the need to introduce your brand, you can make your messaging more outward facing and focus on your customer’s pain-points, solve their challenges and promote other products that they might be interested in.

2. They are your biggest spenders

Think quality over quantity. By investing in building a stronger connection with your existing higher-spend customers, you can reach a larger ROI than you would trying to reach new customers who typically spend much less. In fact, research has shown that 43% of customers spend more with brands they are loyal to. And not by a little; recent studies have found that a company’s top 10% of customers spend three times more than an average customer, with  the top 1% of customers spending five times more.

Three traits of a superfan

Knowledgeable …

  • about your products and what your brand stands for

Loyal…

  • and ready to jump to your defense when facing criticism

Advocates…

  • will actively recommend your products to friends and family

If you ignore your most loyal customers, you’re likely to be missing out on a significant amount of revenue. The first step to turning them into superfans is knowing how to identify them in the first place. We’ve already mentioned that they are normally the people spending most with your brand, here are some other personality traits to look out for:

#1 Brand loyalty talks

Superfans are passionate about all things involving your brand. They are the people most likely to bring your products and services up in conversation at any opportunity, engage with your social media content regularly and convert their friends and family into customers.

#2 Who’s got your back?

There may be times when, through no fault of their own, a world-leading company finds itself at the centre of a controversial debate or false allegations that can be damaging to revenue. For a brand with an army of loyal superfans, any unfair accusations can be dispelled relatively quickly.

#3 Loyal customers are happy customers

This makes them the ideal referral source as they’ll be more than willing to share their positive experiences of your brand and its products with others.

How do brands earn superfans in the first place?

Whether it’s making a purchase, responding to a tweet or releasing a customer-focused campaign, every time your brand interacts with existing customers, you have the chance to create a superfan.

Create a brand community 


Identify your superfans, find out what connects them to your brand and use that connection to rally them around your brand. Apple has one of the biggest brand communities in the world, with Apple Support Community going a step further than peer-to-peer support and moving towards creating a space for superfans to share their own ideas and experiences.

Facilitate open conversations


Opening up the conversation to loyal customers helps to ensure transparency, promote engagement and humanise your brand. Communicating with customers on social media makes them feel valued and more personally connected to your company’s products and services.

Stay full of surprises


Even your most die-hard superfans can tire of the same content day after day. To keep their super fandom fresh, it’s important to instil the same creativity and originality into your content that made them fall in love with your brand in the first place. Go the extra mile and offer new experiences when customers least expect them.

6 brands that use super fandom to their advantage

#1 Apple

Apple has always been great at understanding how people make their products and services part of their lives. It’s how they proved that cutting-edge technology can be designed in a way that makes everyone’s lives easier.

Apple has nurtured its superfans by committing itself to unrivalled user experience in every product they produce, with customer service to match.

Drawing on their own rise from obscurity to industry leader in the 80s and early 90s, Apple’s Underdogs ads show how its products are designed with features to handle the everyday challenges of the average customer. They also include ‘the round pizza box’, which savvy superfans know is a real idea patented by Apple.

#2 Jeep


With its 80 years of offroad history, Jeep has some incredible stories to tell that have gained their vehicles a cult following. However, it’s their community of drivers that can tell them best and bring a new generation to #JeepFamily across their social media channels.

By using its status as the longest-lasting 4×4 /SUV brand on the road, Jeep has created a platform for loyal fans to share their own experiences of the off-road lifestyle.

#3 The North Face


To give back to their superfans in a way that feels more valuable, tangible and well-suited to their brand, The North Face offers their most loyal customers the chance to win tickets and travel experiences to the world’s most exotic locations.

What makes this reward program so great for superfans is that they have the chance to earn them at every touchpoint — from checking-in at a store, to leaving a review about a product they’ve just purchased.

#4 Harley Davidson


These superfans span official and informal owners’ clubs across hundreds of countries, each united by the same passion for Harley Davidson’s iconic bikes. It’s what helped the brand become one of the world’s most renowned lifestyle brands with a global community centred around its products.

Harley Davidson brings its fans together by giving Owners Club members access to exclusive events, membership of local chapters and additional services such as breakdown assistance and insurance.

#5 Lego


Although LEGO was originally produced as a children’s toy, it has gained superfans of all ages. There are builds for just about anything and even the opportunity to submit ideas for new sets via The LEGO Ideas Community, which has grown to over 1million users. These concepts are voted for by other superfans and the chosen ideas produced and put on sale, with its creator receiving 1% royalties. 

LEGO embraced the creativity of its customers to go from building a community of superfans to building with them and rewarding them for their creativity.

#6 Starbucks

From its early beginnings, Starbucks has called upon its customers for opinions and suggestions for making their products even better. In 2008 they developed a platform called My Starbucks Idea, where their community can submit any suggestions they like. It doesn’t matter whether they’re groundbreaking or glaringly obvious.

After noticing that their customers couldn’t help themselves from doodling on their iconic white coffee cups, Starbucks also created a campaign to celebrate their creativity. The #WhiteCupContest set out to encourage customers to decorate Starbucks coffee cups and share their creations on social media. The winning design was printed on a limited edition reusable cup.

The takeaway lesson from this campaign is the fact that Starbucks took note of how customers were engaging with their brand, listened to their online feedback and created a way for them to share their creativity with the world.

Sometimes superfans can go too far

It’s impossible to have full control of the way your customers engage with your products and services. When it comes to super fandom, love for your brand has the potential to go off the scale. 

While superfans have the power to attract new customers and show your brand in its best light, some super  fandom can get a little out of hand:

#1 Moët bubble baths

After years spent making itself synonymous with the heights of luxury and refinement, renowned champagne producer, Moët, became entangled in the world of Rich Kids of Instagram — an online community dedicated to ‘rich kids’ showing off their wealth through lavish antics.

One demonstration of gross excess was to share photos of themselves relaxing in bathtubs full of Moët’s most expensive champagne… Classy.

#2 Barbie in real life

Barbie has come under fire in the past for the way it portrays women, and the message that this sends out to children.

Despite the brand’s efforts to make a positive change, one Barbie superfan made a huge step backwards by taking the plastic image literally. After already spending thousands of dollars on plastic surgery to make themselves look like a life-sized Barbie doll, they have since gone even further by taking hypnotherapy to ‘dumb themselves down’. As well as making them partly responsible for an unhealthy obsession, this has rekindled the damaging associations that Barbie’s marketing team has been trying so hard to avoid.

#3 The McEverything

McDonald’s has grown to become the world’s most iconic fast food chain, but in doing so, has become immediately associated with junk food. In more recent years, they have been trying to shift this perception, with new recipes, healthier options and grown-up interiors. This was largely prompted by research highlighting the brand’s contribution to childhood obesity and the shock factor of documentaries like Supersize Me — a film showing the damaging effects of eating nothing but McDonald’s for a year.

McDonald’s has made huge progress in changing its perception from unhealthy junk food to family dining. However, this move wasn’t helped when (the appropriately named) food blogger, Nick Chipman, spent $141 on 43 different burgers to create the ‘McEverything’. Managing to eat the entire thing in one sitting, he brought back McDonald’s connection to binge eating and obesity – albeit temporarily. 

Why your teams will become BAM’s number one fans

To build your community of superfans, your brand needs to communicate with authenticity, consistency, speed and creativity. Once you understand what makes your superfans tick, BAM by Papirfly™ can help your teams strengthen their loyalty by:

  • Reacting fast to market demands with PIM and ERP integration.
  • Ensuring marketing materials land with impact in any location.
  • Creating studio-quality assets in minutes, without agency help.

To see these features in action, get in touch with our team to arrange your demo.

Table of contents:

Marketing

Why marketing to millennials has changed more than you think

Papirfly
5 minutes read

For a long time, the word millennial has conjured up images of young people glued to their phones, with a Starbucks cup stuck to their other hand. But even if that was true in the first place, a lot has happened since the term millennial was first coined — most notably, millennials themselves.

Millennials aren’t the same people they were 10 years ago. They are older. They have new responsibilities and priorities. Rigidly sticking to past techniques and outdated, inaccurate personas are only going to succeed in alienating the most lucrative audience worldwide.

Despite the work-shy avocado-eating stereotype, millennials are the generation that so many marketers globally prioritise over all others. They are the young, ambitious, fresh-faced consumers that practically every brand wants to do business with, and have built entire strategies around – some of which have rarely been updated.

So, how has marketing to millennials changed? What can brands do to stand out among this diverse, sizable crowd?

Why marketing to millennials has changed

First, it would be helpful to define who classes as a millennial. Although that’s a little tricky, as nobody seems to know for certain. As a general rule, people place the span of millennials’ births anywhere between 1980 and 1996.

This means the oldest possible “millennial” is now into their 40s, while the youngest has barely entered their 20s. You can see why trying to appeal to this group as a whole could be perceived as problematic, right?

Many of these millennials are no longer the entry-level, job-hopping, upstarts older generations perceived them to be – they hold a lot of power and influence in their organisations.


They have families, mortgages, investments. Their ambitions, responsibilities, and motivations have evolved hugely since the first millennials started entering the workplace.

Not only do marketers need to be conscious of how grown-up older millennials have become, they also need to be wary of what’s happening at the other end of the spectrum. The world that children born post-1990 grew up in is markedly different from the experience for children of the late 70s and 80s.

This means that old-fashioned perspectives on what older millennials want and need has shifted tremendously since the first strategies were devised to reach this generation. Anyone who still clings to past perspectives is likely failing to engage these groups and, at worst, maybe actively offending them.

Why marketing to millennials is essential right now

Offending the millennial audience is a big problem, as they represent such a huge share of the buying audience for companies. In 2020, approximately 1.8 billion people, or 23% of the world’s population, could be considered millennials (Source: MSCI).

This makes the millennial audience extremely valuable for the vast majority of brands. By not connecting with this generation, they are missing out on a significant amount of consumer spending power – power that will only increase as they age and secure better salaries and job opportunities.

So, even though the task of engaging millennials has, in many ways, become a lot tougher, it is something that all brands should be prioritising now and revisiting over time.

Is it wise to paint millennials with the same brush?

To cut a long story short, treating “millennials” as one group is a one-way ticket to an unfocused and unhelpful marketing strategy. Here are three reasons why:

#1 The substantial age range

As noted, the age range for millennials is so vast that trying to find any unity in their motivations, goals and lifestyles will return an extremely vague result. They are at different milestones in their lives, and they are facing unique challenges.

#2 They are an incredibly diverse audience

The overall millennial audience is far more culturally and ethnically diverse than their predecessors. Take for instance the landscape in the USA – over 72% of the “baby boomer” population is white, compared with just 56% of the millennial generation. To a varying degree, this shift to a more diverse audience can be seen worldwide.

#3 They are more untrustworthy of brands than prior generations

Growing up with more commercial scams and misleading information than any other generation, Millennials are naturally sceptical of any branded communication. They look for authenticity, transparency, and independent reviews before buying products they believe in, from companies they have faith in.

How can marketers continue to capture millennials’ interests?

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to capturing the attention of millennials and convincing them that they can benefit from your products or services. But this doesn’t make them impossible to reach or forever disinterested in your brand. 

With thorough and authentic market research, you can break down demographics and better understand them on an individual level. To get started, here are some important points worth exploring:

Keep things simple

Millennials want engaging but digestible information such as blog articles, ebooks, and fun, useful videos. They follow the lives of influencers and appreciate leadership and expertise. Using these simple, but effective marketing techniques, you’ll have a 45% higher chance of engagement than if you communicated your product with just the bare facts.

Champion authenticity

Millennials have become adept at spotting disingenuous marketing tactics. Trying to hide the truth behind a big ad budget is a sure way to lose hard-earned positive brand perception and send millennials shopping elsewhere. Presenting the truth of your brand in a positive way lies at the core of your brand strategy.

Be immediate

Millennials have come to expect pretty much any product and service to be available online, and wherever possible, on-demand. This is evidence of the digital era in which we live and leaves huge potential for innovative new uses of technology and platforms.

Lay-off the avocado

Targeting a whole generation on a stereotype is not only ineffective, it’s counterproductive and sometimes a little insulting. Sure, there are people who are the epitome of the millennial “mold”, but most just want to be treated like normal humans without being expected to adhere to a brand’s outdated projection of them.

Stand for something

If your values align with a customer’s, they’ll be more inclined to support your brand and buy your product. Millennials are more environmentally and socially conscious than any other generation. However, while there are many benefits for brands being onboard with the same values, this strategy can quickly backfire if you don’t practice what you preach.

Communicate

Growing up with the constant emergence of new social media platforms, millennials have access to more means of communication than ever before, so why not join the conversation? Most millennials will be more likely to purchase something if a friend on social media recommends or uses it, and 50% of them trust influencers for brand advice.

Do something to say thanks

According to the Harris Poll, 77% of millennials are happy to join rewards and loyalty programs.

Create a community

Word-of-mouth may sound old-fashioned in this digital age, but it’s still the most trusted source of decision-making. In fact, 68% of millennials say that they won’t make a major decision until they have discussed it with people they trust. An honest review from a credible source will instil more faith in your brand than faceless keyword-targeted ads.

Millennials don’t live (completely) online

While they are the least frequent in-store shoppers – preferring online above anything else – millennials tend to spend larger amounts when they do take to the highstreet.

What’s next for millennials? 

It’s probably worth noting that a very large proportion of marketing professionals are, themselves, millennials. In many ways, they have been responsible for ushering in a new age of digital marketing that has led to new trends, insights and innovations that changed the marketing landscape forever. 

If there is one thing that marketers should take away from this article, it’s that, like everyone, millennials have got older. And with age comes new priorities and interests, career advancement and buying power.

Help your brand grow with confidence

BAM by Papirfly™ is built for your teams to match the pace of change that comes with every generation of consumers. Leave the processes of the past behind you and empower your teams with the freedom to create, store and share from a single location. Book your demo today to find out more. 

Table of contents:

  1. Why marketing to millennials has changed
  2. Why marketing to millennials is essential right now
  3. Is it wise to paint millennials with the same brush?
  4. How can marketers continue to capture millennials’ interests?
  5. What’s next for millennials?
  6. Help your brand grow with confidence
Retail Marketing

6 brands that harness the power of print

Papirfly
5 minutes read

In “The power of print in retail“, we demonstrated why print marketing still has a powerful role to play in today’s increasingly digital landscape, and the science on how it cuts through the noise of online advertising and social media to really capture the imagination of customers worldwide.

To emphasise the importance of print even further, and to offer a real glimpse into how you can make the most of print in your own marketing campaigns, below we have highlighted some inspirational examples from other brands worldwide.

We hope they offer you some food for thought on persisting with printed materials within your marketing, rather than make a wholesale switch to digital platforms.

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Chunky direct mail 

The confectionery giant Nestlé took a direct approach to build awareness for the chunkiness of their Chunky Kit Kats. The cards they sent out to customers mimicked the “Sorry we missed you” style cards that people receive when their deliveries couldn’t be delivered for one reason or another.

Once they opened these, they would find out they can use the card to pick up a free Chunky Kit Kat at selected retail stores. This physical, direct coupon worked a treat, as it was sent straight to the customer’s doorstep and gave them something that they could immediately go out and claim in their local area.

kit-kat-example
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Bringing tactile features to boutique stores

Although primarily an e-commerce retailer, Monsoon saw enough value in the power of print and physical media to open a collection of boutique stores in select locations. These stores included printed brochures and features of how their products are made through their unique artisan techniques.

These physical stores and the vibrant displays and posters within them were designed to help customers develop a deeper appreciation for the brand, how it operates and what it stands for. This would encourage stronger emotional ties and provide a more intimate, tangible experience for the consumer.

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A dual-purpose print ad

As a beer retailer, Glacial understands the importance their customers place on their drinks being at just the right temperature. This was emphasised in a print campaign they ran in several magazines which were to be torn out and soaked in water. You then wrap it around the bottle, put it in the freezer, and the salt particles in the print ad prevented the beer from freezing.

This ingenious piece of marketing delivered consumers with something immediately useful that they could apply to Glacial or any other drink of their choosing. This helped build an affinity between audiences and the brand for providing them something valuable free of charge.

glacial-example
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Helpful advertising

Among Nivea’s wide range of health and beauty products is their sunscreen collection, and they used an extremely clever form of print to highlight this to customers. They created a print advert that incorporated a small solar panel. This meant that, when customers were hanging out in the sunshine (hopefully wearing Nivea’s sunscreen), they could use the ad to charge their phone.

This encouragement by Nivea to their customers to enjoy the sunshine even longer knowing their phone wouldn’t die during their day out was a great way to endear the brand and their sunscreen to the masses.

nivea-example
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Blurring the lines between print and social

C&A found a brilliant blend of print and digital to capture the imagination of their customers. They would deliver personalised magazines to their customers that were linked to their individual Facebook account. Then, while reading the magazine, readers could hit a like button on the pages, and that would in turn like the corresponding Facebook advert.

This gave C&A valuable data on which of their products was garnering the most attention from their customers, while it was a quirky and interactive innovation for their customers to enjoy while they read.

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Harnessing the power of simplicity

Hardly changing since 1961, the McDonald’s ‘golden arches’ have become one of the most recognisable logos in the world. So recognisable in fact, that you don’t even need to see the whole thing. In the recent series of ads below, McDonald’s used the unmistakable power of its logo to highlight their home delivery service.

All three ads in the series are strikingly simple, using one half the iconic ‘M’ to signify delivery from one of their restaurants and illuminate a single room in a house or block of flats at night. Paired-back to bold colours and a single line of copy, they’re a great example of how a creative print ad can say so much with so little.

McDs-example

Stats that prove the power of print 

If the examples above aren’t enough to persuade you that print hasn’t gone anywhere, the insights below should help change your mind:

  • 92% of shoppers say they prefer print marketing when making a purchasing decision (Source Pica 9)
  • Branding is 185% stronger in print advertising than digital advertising (Source Newsworks)
  • 79% of people take action after seeing print ads, compared to only 45% after seeing digital (Source Geomares)
  • 69% of 18-24 year olds prefer print and paper communication in comparison to reading off-screen (Source Pica 9)
  • According to neuroscience research, print ad recall is 70% higher than digital advertising (Source Forbes)

Are you making the most of print in your marketing?

There is still huge potential for retailers and further brands to use print creatively and increase engagement with both new and existing customers. Although there is no slowing the digital revolution, frequent and distinctive uses of print collateral can leave a big impression on audiences, be it:

  • Elaborate signage displays
  • Reactive/interactive magazine ads
  • Physical coupons and tickets
  • Door drops like brochures, leaflets and flyers

But remember, like any form of marketing communication, your print collateral must maintain complete consistency with your brand’s distinct identity. BAM by Papirfly™ helps you keep this in check across all your marketing materials, both print and digital.

  • An easy-to-use platform that enables all members of your team to create an infinite number of printed assets, regardless of design expertise
  • Customisable templates empower you to swiftly produce assets at the size and scale you need, from substantial posters and displays to compact brochures and coupons
  • Locked-down elements give you complete peace of mind over brand consistency across all your channels and markets

Discover the difference BAM can make in how you produce on-brand printed assets on time, every time – get in touch today to arrange your free demo.

Table of contents:

  1. Nestlé
  2. Monsoon
  3. Glacial
  4. Nivea
  5. C&A
  6. McDonald’s
  7. Stats that prove the power of print
  8. Are you making the most of print in your marketing?

Marketing

How to perfect the post-pandemic marketing meeting

Papirfly
5 minutes read

You might have finally got the video call down to a fine art, or maybe you’ve only just stopped hearing “you’re on mute” every time you catch up with your team. Either way, the workplace is likely to change once again as many offices are set to be reopening soon (or already have done in some parts of the world).

Among the many things that marketers will be reacquainting themselves with are in-person and hybrid meetings. Here we share some tips for making them a success in 2021.

Plus, as team members might be hesitant to participate in meetings post-lockdown, we’ve put together a handy checklist for you to determine whether a meeting is necessary, and who absolutely needs to be involved based on its particular requirements.

How to nail the hybrid meeting

1 in 4 meetings in 2020 were hybrid meetings and this is very likely to grow as lockdown restrictions are eased. Hybrid meetings bring together a mixture of in-person and remote attendees and are ideal for companies looking to accommodate the individual needs and preferences of employees post-lockdown.

However, according to research by Barco, there is still the general feeling that in-person meetings are still essential for more formal types of discussion, such as important decision-making, or resolving internal conflicts between colleagues.

With the abundance of remote working tools and software available, companies embracing the hybrid meeting have the potential to combine the best of both worlds. However, the data above makes it clear that there are a few extra things for organisers and hosts to consider in order to make sure they are engaging, professional and productive when it really counts for example:

Balance

One of the major challenges of hybrid meetings is keeping them balanced. Because remote speakers are not physically present, they may have less context and it will be harder for them to make their points land with impact. This makes proper introductions (preferably prior to the meeting happening) especially important.

Technology

The variety of tools and software available for hosting and running professional hybrid meetings can get a little overwhelming. Luckily, many software providers offer expert advice on choosing the perfect setup for your needs as well as training for getting the best from it.

Professionalism

To ensure that hybrid meetings run smoothly, appoint a facilitator as well as someone in charge of setting up and resolving any technical issues that occur. This can make all the difference when it comes to maintaining professionalism and keeping attendees fully engaged. It’s also important to make it clear which participants are attending remotely and who are there in person to help establish an existing level of trust and understanding.

8 meetings we still need in 2021

In a recent survey, 58% reported that they have been more productive while working from home. While being far from ideal, lockdown has taught us a lot about not just productivity, but the workplace in general. Reducing time-wasting meetings was one of the more positive lessons to come out of more than a year spent working from home.

According to research by eShare, in 2018, the average office worker spent 10 hours 42 minutes every week, preparing for and attending 4.4 meetings, with 2.6 of those deemed unnecessary. While cutting down on unnecessary meetings is undoubtedly a good thing, there are some that we just can’t do without:

#1 Status Updates

What’s the purpose?
Communicate the progress or state of a project or the current direction of the business as a whole. It’s also a good chance for teams and departments who might be working separately to get aligned on shared goals, priorities and decision making.

How do you make it work?

  • Keep it as succinct as possible
  • Get input from those directly working on the tasks covered
  • Stick to a consistent structure so that teams understand the expected outcomes
  • Document the goals put forward for the next meeting

#2 Kick-off meetings

What’s the purpose?
When you’re starting any new project, you need to get your team up to speed. As well as covering long and short term goals, kick-off meetings should let individuals know what part they play in the project and build enthusiasm around the job. Starting a product off on the right foot will make a huge difference to its final outcome.

How do you make it work?

  • Agree on the clarity of the project brief
  • Get everyone aligned with the goal and scope of the project
  • Give them a clear understanding of what needs to be achieved
  • Plan how you’ll be working together
  • Establish individual roles and responsibilities
  • Set timelines, deliverables and workflows

#3 Feedback meetings

What’s the purpose?
Building a culture of continuous feedback is important for growing the skills and performance of an individual, but also for highlighting how your organisation can help them do their job better.

How do you make it work?

  • Communicate the purpose of the meeting before you start
  • Make sure you have the relevant information as well as input from other team members
  • Give employees the chance to share their point of view
  • Set actionable goals if necessary 
  • Summarise everything you’ve covered to make sure it’s understood

#4 Budget and finance meetings

What’s the purpose?
Holding budget meetings on a regular basis will help prevent any miscommunication regarding marketing finance and spending that could cost your organisation. As well as ensuring that everyone is aligned with how much is being spent, and what it’s being spent on, this is a chance for people to highlight any concerns without them getting lost in email chains.

How do you make it work?

  • Allocate the amount that needs to be spent
  • Make it clear what the money is to be spent on 
  • Communicate the expected return on investment where possible

#5 Decision-making meetings

What’s the purpose?
There are stages in every project where the team needs to get realigned to before moving forward. This is the time to call a decision-making meeting and make the call on the next steps.

How do you make it work?

  • Agree on a set course of action
  • Gather everything you need to make an informed decision
  • Include subject matter experts to ensure that your decision is accurate and feasible (e.g. designers, developers etc…)
  • Establish who will be responsible for making the final call

#6 Problem-solving meetings

What’s the purpose?
Problem-solving meetings should have a singular goal in mind. They are appropriate when it’s time to figure out the cause of an issue that’s holding up a project and determine the action needed to resolve it. A problem-solving meeting could have a long term or short term focus, depending on whether the issue can be immediately addressed, or whether it needs strategic thinking to get its route cause.

How do you make it work?

  • Establish whether the problem can be immediately addressed or needs further thinking
  • Include key stakeholders
  • Decide on a clear course of action you’ll be taking and explain why
  • Before everyone disperses, assign and notify individuals of their responsibilities in the resolution

#7 Brainstorming meetings

What’s the purpose?
Bring your team together to generate creative ideas for things like advertising campaigns, potential new projects or even in-house initiatives. The key is to create a relatively informal environment where employees can ‘bounce’ ideas off one another and come away with a list of potential directions.

How do you make it work?

  • Create a relaxed environment where people feel free to share their thinking
  • Aim for quantity over quality at this early stage
  • Include thought starters to give some direction at the beginning
  • Don’t expect fully-fledged ideas 
  • Keep it fast-paced so you don’t lose momentum
  • Narrow down your ideas to a shortlist and share them after the meeting

#8 Onboarding meetings

What’s the purpose?
To get new hires up-to-speed while making them feel welcome and enthusiastic about working at your organisation. Onboarding meetings are a chance to start building a positive working relationship, show them where they fit in in the bigger picture and what will be expected of them in their new role.

How do you make it work?

  • Don’t leave it too late — it’s important to schedule onboarding meetings on time to make a good first impression.
  • Introduce them to the wider team and arrange one-on-one meetings with key team members
  • Establish what tools, software and training they’ll need
  • Make sure new starters are familiar with HR operations and building facilities

Embrace any working model with BAM by Papirfly™ 

Whether your whole team is back in the office already, you’re implementing the hybrid approach, or you’ve decided to stay remote, BAM by Papirfly™ can align teams across the globe with a centralised location for localised marketing materials, up-to-date guidelines and more. It’s the only tool you need to help your teams:

  • Store and share assets from an easy to use dashboard
  • Give teams access to the relevant assets they need
  • Streamline your and feedback approval processes 

To find out how, book your demo today.

Table of contents:

  1. How to nail the hybrid meeting
  2. 8 meetings we still need in 2021
  3. Embrace any working model with BAM by Papirfly™
Digital Asset Management / DAM

Guide: how to choose a digital asset management system

Fredrik Davidsson
8 minutes read

Digital assets play an essential part in company operations. Files and documents are created daily by someone for someone. But where are these files stored? And who has access to them? What happens if the file creator leaves the company? Are the files still in the company’s possession, or are they lost? A ton of questions and possible disasters waiting to happen come to the surface when we dig into the asset universe.

Not to worry. In this guide, we’ll take a look at the importance of a proper digital asset management system and what you need to know before making your DAM choice.

Continue reading “Guide: how to choose a digital asset management system”

Digital assets play an essential part in company operations. Files and documents are created daily by someone for someone. But where are these files stored? And who has access to them? What happens if the file creator leaves the company? Are the files still in the company’s possession, or are they lost? A ton of questions and possible disasters waiting to happen come to the surface when we dig into the asset universe.

Not to worry. In this guide, we’ll take a look at the importance of a proper digital asset management system and what you need to know before making your DAM choice.

Continue reading “Guide: how to choose a digital asset management system”

Digital assets play an essential part in company operations. Files and documents are created daily by someone for someone. But where are these files stored? And who has access to them? What happens if the file creator leaves the company? Are the files still in the company’s possession, or are they lost? A ton of questions and possible disasters waiting to happen come to the surface when we dig into the asset universe.

Not to worry. In this guide, we’ll take a look at the importance of a proper digital asset management system and what you need to know before making your DAM choice.

Continue reading “Guide: how to choose a digital asset management system”

Brand Activation Management

How iconic brands have stood the test of time

Papirfly
7 minutes read

There are millions of successful brands and businesses in the world. Thousands dominate their respective markets. But few have the status of the world’s truly iconic brands.

Coca-Cola. Amazon. Apple. Disney. BMW.

These are more than the most popular brands on the planet – these are cultural institutions. They are the organisations that have captured the imaginations of generations of global consumers, commanding a level of brand loyalty and recognition that ensures they continue to stand out from the crowd.

And they set an intimidating benchmark for other brands to try and emulate. Indeed, at a time where the average lifespan of companies has fallen to around 10 years, many wonder if it’s still possible to forge an iconic brand in this environment. 

Yet, the brands mentioned above (and more below) are a testament to the fact that, by adapting to an ever-changing world and overcoming the challenges that come with this, it is possible to reach this status. It certainly isn’t easy, but nothing worth aspiring towards ever is.

What is an iconic brand?

So what makes branding iconic? Is it simply a case of longevity? Well, for brands like Twinings that have been in operation since 1706, that certainly helps. However, Google, the world’s most widely visited website, has been around for just over 20 years, yet is already firmly established as one of the all-time iconic brands.

Is it having a standout name or the best logo of all time then? Of course, the Nike swoosh or the Golden Arches of McDonald’s resonate in the minds of millions worldwide. But the most successful brands are so much more than this.

How about having all the characteristics of Soon Yu’s Iconic Brand Pyramid, or Hofstede and Hofstede’s Brand Onion Model?

While there is sadly no template behind all of the world’s most recognised brands, there are some predominantly shared characteristics to keep in mind:

  • The most iconic brands have strong cultural roots, reflecting the beliefs, values and experiences of their target audience in a powerful, meaningful way. In fact, in some cases they have proven the catalysts for changes in society’s values.
  • The most well-known brands have a clear, consistent and identifiable image, one that fits the character of the company and is instantly recognisable with people across the globe.
  • The most famous brands tell a compelling story about who they are and what they represent, adapting this foundation to the environment they currently find themselves in.

These core factors contribute to making timeless brands; those that connect with audiences today as strongly as they did decades or even centuries ago. Those that leverage brand activation management and use it to set themselves apart in their respective industries.

And, at a time where COVID-19 has understandably left many brands questioning how they will cope with these conditions, it is this perseverance and ingenuity of these iconic brands that others should use as inspiration to continue to engage their market and look for opportunities to make a real difference.

Here are three examples of “top ten brands” in their respective industries that faced similar hardships and returned to prominence stronger than ever.

3 examples of iconic brands in tough times

Coca-Cola

Starting with arguably the most famous brand name of them all, The Coca-Cola Corporation was formed in 1892 and, through the strength of its advertising and celebrity endorsement, had become firmly established in the eyes of American audiences by the 1920s.

The Great Depression that followed in the 1930s was a sustained period of difficulty for brands of all forms. But, if you simply looked at Coca-Cola’s net profit during this decade, you would struggle to believe that there was even depression at all.

This sustained success was in no small part down to adapting to the situation and evolution of the brand’s advertising. In 1931, the now-classic relationship between Coca-Cola and Santa Claus was first introduced, with this partnership shaping the jolly, bearded character we all picture today. 

They also pivoted their sales pitch to ‘one of life’s affordable luxuries’, ensuring they remained a go-to purchase for people during a difficult financial period.

Lesson learned? Adjust your marketing messages to fit the pain points that your target audience is facing, and use this period as an opportunity to explore new advertising messaging and angles that your competitors haven’t yet explored.

IBM

With a legacy stretching back to the 1880s, IBM as we know it formed in February 1924, and entered a sustained period of growth boosted by the post-WW1 boom period in America and its global expansion.

Like Coca-Cola, instead of buckling to the challenge presented by the Great Depression, those at the helm of this iconic branding focused on investment in the company. IBM became one of the first organisations to introduce life insurance, survivor benefits and paid holidays for staff, demonstrating their commitment to their employees as part of their core values. 

A greater shift was to come in the early 1990s where, after losing billions for multiple years and being regarded as a ‘dinosaur’ in its industry, IBM adjusted their focus to cloud-based technology. By leaving hardware behind and adapting to this new landscape, they reaped the benefits, becoming one of the most valuable and recognisable brands in the technology space.

Lesson learned? Pivot with the environment you find yourselves in, whether that is in a crisis scenario or just naturally as the world progresses. Their actions during the Great Depression also illustrate the brand value of supporting your employees and the importance of upholding the core characteristics your company is founded on.

LEGO

Finally, let’s look at one of the world’s most popular toy brands, LEGO. Unlike Coca-Cola and IBM, LEGO didn’t enter the Great Depression as an already established name. As a matter of fact, LEGO was founded in 1934, in the heart of this difficult timeline.

After perfecting their plastic-mould brickwork in the late 1950s, the company entered a sustained period of expansion worldwide, which would last until the early 1990s. However, by this point, the rise of video games and other innovative forms of entertainment, led to a sustained decline and a $174 million loss in 2004, leaving LEGO on the verge of bankruptcy.

Once again, it was a case of adapting to a new world while sticking steadfastly to your values. Listening to feedback from their fans and customers, LEGO branched out into a range of ventures like K-12 educational programmes and their range of popular video games and movies. This investment into their company at a time of real difficulty (especially as the Global Recession was kicking off) helped the brand recover and connect with a new generation.

Lesson learned? Listen to your audience for guidance on the direction of your brand – this response to feedback is what keeps iconic brands engaged with their customers in good and bad times. Also, LEGO’s story shows the importance of investing in new advertising avenues in tough spots and diversifying your product offering, all while remaining true to their brand legacy.

How do iconic brands stay relevant?

Some of the most successful brands in the world have experienced difficulties, often due to factors beyond their control. But, like the examples above, some brands have evolved to stay relevant in the face of these challenges, adapting and persevering through these to become stronger than before.

So, what overarching lessons can brands of the world today take from their examples? How can you stay relevant in the eyes of consumers when the world they’ve become familiar with is changing before their eyes.

1. Look for new opportunities

First of all, consider the changes affecting people and what opportunities they present. If the crisis is located in a particular geographic area, perhaps now is the time to explore new territories? Do you need to alter your offerings for these circumstances, or engage with different audiences? With the world rapidly changing, this is the chance to recalibrate your brand to stay relevant.

2. Provide people with an alternative

A recession will cause consumers to make tough choices about what’s necessary for their lifestyles. The most enduring and popular brands will meet these difficult decisions with solutions, providing cost-effective alternatives that people can turn to in leaner times. This helps them stay at the forefront of consumers’ spending habits, reinforcing their brand for when things take a turn for the better.

3. Keep your promises and values

At times of crisis, it is more important than ever that brands live up to their core values if they want to retain the trust of their audience – something that’s hard to achieve but easy to lose. Timeless brands understand this and remain true to their promises to customers, even when that is more challenging than usual. This retains the loyalty of consumers through difficult periods, allowing them to bounce back stronger later on.

4. Stay consistent with your messaging

Consistency is crucial to any of the best brands in the world, and at the heart of how they stay iconic. Even during hard times, it’s essential that a brand’s messaging and identity doesn’t waver. This provides consumers with much-needed familiarity in periods of significant change around them, and that familiarity evolves into trust, which helps brands achieve iconic status.

5. Support those that are struggling

Finally, brands should focus on how they can specifically support people in this difficult environment. Whether this is lower prices or unique discounts related to the crisis in question, or getting hands-on and supporting the effort in a way that reflects your capabilities and values. By taking a stand to help others, you stand to forge lasting bonds with these individuals and others that appreciate your ethical initiative.

Of course, we recognise that the COVID-19 pandemic is unlike anything we’ve seen in our generation, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunities to reinforce the strength of your brand and connect with consumers. 

The 3 iconic brands discussed earlier are demonstrating that right now in a variety of ways:

  • Coca-Cola is pushing the narrative of how staying apart through social distancing is how we actually stay united in these challenging circumstances
  • IBM is lending its resources to governments, the WHO and CDC to give people access to up-to-date, accurate virus tracking information
  • LEGO has adapted its manufacturing tools towards helping support the creation of protective visors for healthcare workers in their native Denmark

BAM by Papirfly™ and the journey to iconic brand status

Hopefully this has given you some food for thought about how the world’s most famous brands have evolved in the face of an ever-changing landscape, and inspiration to help you manage and reinforce your brand during difficult circumstances, such as those we are dealing with right now.

Papirfly is here to help you achieve this aim and keep you on the path to becoming an iconic brand. BAM by Papirfly™ provides a single online destination for global organisations seeking to preserve, protect and propel their brand by empowering their in-house marketing efforts.

  • Create an infinite number of studio-quality marketing assets through bespoke templates – no specialist support necessary
  • Educate your global teams on everything your brand stands for
  • Manage the delivery of your marketing campaigns with total governance
  • Store & share assets across the globe through a single online location

Some of the world’s most iconic brands like Coca-Cola, IBM, Vodafone and Unilever are harnessing the power of BAM. If you would like to join them on the path to ageless branding, request a demo of our software today.

Employer brand

Your checklist for recruiting and onboarding remote workers

Papirfly
6 minutes read

Ensuring your brand’s unique proposition for employees is maintained and communicated effectively can be difficult at the best of times, let alone amid a worldwide pandemic. In this environment, global organisations are having to evolve and adapt to the prospect of recruiting and onboarding remote workers, while simultaneously preserving their employer brand.

While many businesses are sadly struggling, others are still looking to expand their team during these unusual times. However, traditional methods of successfully finding and onboarding candidates have been put on the back-burner for the time being. As brands look to keep the talent rolling in, they need to explore more unorthodox methods to ensure their brand remains prominent.

We’ve broken down some essential tips to consider when recruiting and onboarding remote workers…

Your recruiting checklist for remote employees

Make the most of video interviews

Though some companies utilised video interviews prior to the crisis, it will never quite live up to the experience of a candidate’s physical presence. As remote employment will be here for the foreseeable future, it’s important to try and normalise the experience for candidates as much as humanly possible.

An in-person interview provides many natural opportunities for small talk and rapport to build. That’s why providing a loose agenda for the interview prior to the video call can help put candidates at ease, and, without revealing too much, give them enough confidence to progress certain parts of the conversation more confidently. Ensuring that you and any other representatives from your company arrive early will prevent the candidate from becoming increasingly nervous while waiting for you to appear. 

They might not be able to see the office, feel the buzz and culture or all of the faces that keep the company running, but the impression given by those on the call will be integral for a potential recruit’s first impression. Your hiring manager may want to consider having someone from your branding team on the call, to answer some of the questions the candidate may have and help weave in the narrative that conveys what the company is about.

Finally, remember that tech issues can’t always be avoided, so make sure you don’t penalise any candidates if they struggle to get connected – it could happen to you, too! 

Choose questions that encompass the essence of your brand

Outside of your regular interviewing process, special emphasis should be placed on ensuring the candidate is a cultural fit for the business during this age of remote employment. Ask them how they would handle certain situations or challenges to determine whether they’re aligned with your company values and ways of thinking.

For example, if part of your EVP is empowering your employees to make decisions, and every answer the candidate gives you doesn’t include them finding a solution for themselves, they may either be unsuitable or require more training. 

While candidates typically ask anything from 2-5 questions at the end of an interview, allow additional time for a video interview. As they have lacked the experience of your brand and company in the physical sense, they may want to probe further on company culture and get a feel for what it’s like to work for you.  

Your onboarding checklist for remote employees

Be flexible but not disorganised

From the moment a job offer is made, the range of steps to getting an employee on board can take up to 6 weeks with notice periods and other considerations. It’s possible that a higher volume of candidates being interviewed may have been let go from their prior jobs as a result of the current climate, or that because of this period of remote employment, onboarding time could be significantly reduced. 

Candidates are going to feel a lot of unease between being offered the job and signing the contract, so ensuring that they’re kept informed at every stage possible is absolutely critical. Particularly when it comes to onboarding remote employees, the challenge of not having face-to-face contact can make the whole experience feel more distant and unwelcoming if not handled correctly.

As a hiring manager or another member of the leadership team, you may be stretched with time and therefore unable to answer every question or support the training of a remote employee. Assigning them a ‘buddy’ could prove beneficial in relieving some of the pressure from your team, and also giving them a chance to virtually socialise with someone they will be working alongside. When teams do return to the office, they will have made a friend, not just have to rely on recognising faces from Zoom calls. 

Whilst new employees work from home, you may want to introduce one-to-ones more regularly than you typically would. This will allow them to ask any questions they have or voice concerns.

Company literature is more important than ever

While many conversations will have taken place during the recruitment phase, it’s important for remote employees during onboarding to have something tangible that really solidifies what it means to be part of your company. 

Digital PDF brochures, toolkits or handbooks are a great way to introduce the company in more detail and, in particular, the departments the individual will be working in or alongside. It may be worth updating documents to include sections such as ‘Meet the team’ or ‘Life at Company’ if these don’t exist already. Anything that can paint an accurate picture of what working life will be like upon the workforce’s return will help new employees feel more embedded. 

An effective way to do this is by setting up your own onboarding portal. With all this critical company literature accessible in one central, online location, the process of welcoming, onboarding and training remote employees can be made significantly simpler, both for recruits and employers.

Likewise, if there are any guidelines, DAM systems, or other resources critical to this person’s role, they should be provided with instructions for these and guided by the hiring manager, department manager or their assigned buddy. 

Training remote employees is a challenge more global companies are waking to in this current environment. Utilise interactive training courses where possible and pre-recorded product demos to engage your new recruits when you can’t work with them face-to-face. And, of course, make sure someone is there to follow up these sessions to answer any questions your new team members may have.

Make sure their technology is set up correctly

For many companies, the process of onboarding remote workers has opened a potential can of worms of ensuring the candidate not only understands your values and culture, but also can access all of the relevant information and tools they need to perform their work. This is a crucial part of your onboarding checklist in the current landscape, as without this in mind your remote workers can be cut adrift from the rest of your organisation.

The last thing you want on their first day is a flurry of back-and-forth messages between them and IT. Not only does this make for an unpleasant experience for a new hire, who may feel the organisation doesn’t care about its staff enough to be prepared for their arrival, but it also hurts the productivity of your IT team as a result of these distractions.

To prevent this, ensure you have delivered all necessary hardware to the person in question well in advance of their start date, and you have arranged any necessary training for the remote employee with your IT department to help them set up their digital workstation. This ensures they feel comfortable with their role and responsibilities early, minimising any awkwardness at the start of their remote employment.

Encourage transparency from leaders

If you’re part of a big firm, it’s easy for news from the top to get filtered down incorrectly if there’s not a watertight communications strategy in place. While decision-makers might not be able to address everyone individually, at the very least you should try to set up bi-monthly calls or email newsletters. 

With regards to onboarding remote employees, they could potentially feel tense about their new environment and the restrictions of not being able to meet their teammates face-to-face or see their workplace first-hand. So, updates and guidance from the top of the organisation will give them reassurance that their company prioritises communication, isn’t interpersonal with employees and will likely be responsive to any ideas and concerns that they may have moving forward.

This is where the value of assigning either a dedicated buddy or mentor again proves effective – they can build on the transparency displayed by the leadership team in order to help them feel welcomed and embedded in company culture, which is especially important at a time where they’re compelled to stay at home.

Teams have their hands full with recruiting and onboarding remote workers

We hope that these tips will be useful in your efforts to overcome the challenges presented by the current landscape and support your recruitment and onboarding of remote workers. These times will prove challenging for many but we’re certain that brands will come out of this stronger and more defined than ever – perhaps even a little different than before. 

In fact, it might be a cloud with a long-term silver lining. As you refine your recruitment and onboarding processes, this not only allows you to be more flexible and contemporary in how you connect with the next generation of employees, but extends your reach in terms of bringing qualified people from around the world into your team and embedding them into your culture.

Whatever circumstances you’re facing – less budget, increased pressure to recruit, team redundancies – we hope this article has helped to shine a light on some remedies to the issues of recruiting and onboarding remote workers.

If you feel like you’re pulling your hair out trying to keep up with demand for branded materials, you might want to consider BAM by Papirfly™. An all-in-one powerful platform for the creation of studio-standard assets without the need for professional help. Pre-defined yet flexible templates ensure your team is always on-brand.

You also get a powerful DAM to store & share assets remotely, an educate section that gives your employees essential guidelines and information, and a whole range of campaign management tools. 

Find out more about BAM by Papirfly™ for employer branding or request a demo today.

Table of contents:

  1. Your recruiting checklist for remote employees
  2. Your onboarding checklist for remote employees
  3. Teams have their hands full with recruiting and onboarding remote workers
Brand management, Marketing Tools

The ultimate guide to digital brand management tools

Papirfly
7 minutes read

If you work with branding and marketing, you have probably heard about brand management and you have a decent overview of what this incorporates. But have you been able to incorporate proper brand management in your daily routines, or is this something you have on the agenda in the near future, but find it hard to find the time to focus on? 

We totally get it. Brand management requires thorough work and it is a jungle to navigate all the different brand management tools that exist in the market. Don’t lose faith, we are here to help you sort out your options and what you need to consider.

In this guide we’ll look at the following brand management tools and it’s capabilities: 

What is brand management?  

Before we get to it, let’s agree on what brand management is. Brand Management is the process of managing your brand’s identity and strategies with the purpose of building a strong, reputable brand that aligns with your company’s growth objectives. This includes how your brand is presented, communicated, and adapted across your company and your markets, and how it is incorporated into your overall marketing initiatives.  

All companies have some form of brand management strategy, but it is not enough just to have a plan. The success of your brand management is also determined by how effective your execution is. And this is where the right brand management tools come in handy. But first, what makes brand management difficult?  

Also read: What is brand management? 

Challenges in brand management 

If we look at brand management with the perspective of handling the processes manually, it is safe to say that trouble quickly follows. Brand management as a process is simply too complex and it requires the entire company’s involvement to be successful. In other words, implementing brand management with the help of emails, company chat channels, intranet and random actions is not a recipe for success.  

  • How do you make sure anyone reads your messages and executes as you request?  
  • How do you make sure everyone understands your brand and use it as you intended?  
  • How do you keep your colleagues from using old brand assets or marketing collateral?  
  • How do you make sure your brand is communicated and presented in alignment with your brand strategies?  

This list is long. What you have to ask yourself is – How can you secure brand control, when all you have to rely on is what you communicate? Brand Management is a company task, and you need to make sure you have the correct tools at hand if you want to succeed.  

Also read: This is internal branding and how you get started

These are the digital brand management tools you need  

Digital brand guidelines 

Every brand needs brand guidelines. With digital brand guidelines however, a world of new possibilities appears.  

Get rid of the traditional PDF document if you have not already done so. But be aware, if you are creating your guidelines using a standard CMS solution, you are missing out on some great brand asset management functionalities. A proper digital brand guideline tool provides capabilities you need to have in place if you want to succeed with your brand management.  

Capabilities 

  • Design your digital brand guidelines to perfectly match the brand’s identity and make it easy for everyone to follow your example.  
  • CMS technology with flexible section and content builders allows you to create, maintain, and always keep your brand alive. Digital brand guidelines will keep your brand valid and up to date 24/7.  
  • CMS widgets created for branding purposes allow you to create brand guidelines quickly and professionally. With widgets for adding color swatches, typography, marketing calendar, digital assets, code library ++, creating brand guidelines becomes seamless.  
  • DAM integration allows you to put your brand into context. By connecting your brand assets with the actual guidelines, anyone can easily apply your brand without any extra effort. Everything is in front of them, either downloadable, as a template or as a purchasable item.  
  • Automated workflows enable operational efficiency which is key for proper brand management. You can’t expect everyone to love branding, and this is where digital brand guidelines are magic. With the correct setup, applying your brand will be bulletproof. Your users can follow workflows from a-z without any extra effort or skills.  

Also read: What to look for when you choose your brand identity system 

Digital asset management 

A key ingredient in branding is having brand assets available and always updated. And most marketers will agree that this is a time-consuming, expensive task where stumbling is easy and brand inconsistency is the result. That is, if you don’t have a DAM tool to help you out.    

Digital asset management is the tool that collects, organizes, and distributes all your company’s assets from one single location. Stop wasting time looking for files and re-creating lost assets. It’s a time thief and a budget killer. And here’s the beauty of it. With a digital asset management tool, you kill two birds with one stone.  

First, you get to standardize how everyone in your company handles assets in a proper manner and streamline operations. Second, you get to connect your digital asset library to the online brand guidelines and establish reliable and seamless brand management.  

Capabilities 

  • Cloud software allows your company to collect all assets in one single place, establishing file transparency across your entire company. Instead of having multiple server locations, VPN connections, inaccessible folders, desktop storage or similar for storing valuable assets that more than one person needs access to, a DAM tool will keep everything safe and secure in one single location.  
  • Category enablement removes the traditional folders and naming conventions. Instead, your assets will be structured based on multi-leveled categories that match company needs and makes files searchable.  
  • Faceted search expands search’n locate by allowing you to add filters and tags to your assets. Additionally, you’ll have filters to narrow down your search based on file type, file format, orientation and more. Finding files has never been easier.  
  • Pre-defined file handling is a powerful capability that will do wonders for your digital asset management. Instead of the painful and time-consuming task, it is to manage and maintain multiple asset outputs, let the system do it for you. Pre-define crops, extension outputs, resolutions and more, and transform your assets for multi purposes. 
  • Share assets with style. No more “your file is too large for this email”. Simply share your files directly from your DAM system. Either as a single file, or perhaps you want to share a collection?  
  • Two-way asset workflow is pure magic. Make sure you don’t end up as the file coordinator. Pre-set your digital asset management tool to handle uploads from creative agencies or colleagues directly to your DAM without breaking your asset structure.  

Also read: This is how you organize digital assets 

Digital design templates 

Digital assets are more than static images. Elevate your brand management with digital design templates. This tool will transform the way you work, and it will keep you on-brand everywhere.  

Eliminate the stress of supporting your colleagues with customized brand assets. Whether it is translations, image changes, format changes and more, digital design templates will do the job for you.  

Simply transform your creative files to digital templates and define what can and can’t be altered and establish a self-service tool where all your colleagues can create their own assets without breaking the brand identity. It’s efficient, time-saving and brand consistency is at ease.  

Capabilities 

  • Multi-platform templates. Whether it is assets for print, social media, video or dynamic banners, a full range template tool will cover whatever template you need. Regardless of what platform you need assets for, your colleagues can easily create their own.  
  • Responsive templates allow you to go easy on yourself. Allow your templates to be flexible and fit to more than one occasion. You reduce the amount of assets you need to maintain, and your colleagues have the flexibility they need.  
  • Content-control secures your brand identity and keeps your content on brand. You decide what can and cannot be changed.  
  • Automated workflows make it easy to be a designer. Add guides and directions to your templates and lead your colleagues to design excellence.  
  • 3rd party connections are a great way of securing asset delivery when time is of the essence. Connect your template tool to printers, video platforms, media agencies and more.  

Also read: Why digital design templates are essential for your business 

Digital marketing planner 

Your brand guidelines are in place, connected to all the right brand assets and you are ready for a smooth brand management execution. However, as stated earlier, you need to include your colleagues to succeed with your brand management.  

By adding a digital marketing planner tool to your brand management, you’ll stay in complete control of the entire branding process and team alignment is at ease. Plan and collect all necessary information in one single place and make planning effortless.  

Capabilities 

  • Central management – Local execution allows you to control your activities with ease. Coordinate and collect necessary information and assets and ensure activities are initiated on time and as intended.  
  • Asset control enables secure planning. Only share relevant assets and make sure everyone can easily understand what is going to happen and secure brand consistency.  
  • Email editor and newsletter capabilities allow you to communicate your initiatives with greater control. Know who reads and engages with your information and act accordingly. No more guessing if your campaigns(?) will go as planned. This tool provides you the insight you need to ensure smooth execution.  

Benefits of brand management tools

With the above digital brand management tools at hand, your branding processes will never be the same. The benefits? Here’s a short list:   

  • Respond to market changes in a heartbeat: With your brand and assets available and updated 24/7, your response time will be impeccable.  
  • Reduce unnecessary expenses: This is a benefit for the entire company, not just the marketing team. By removing the time employees spend on looking for files, the time can be spent on value-added operations that contribute to achieving company growth. You will also remove unnecessary hidden costs that occur because assets are lost, and resources is spent on re-creations.  
  • Increase efficiency: Streamlining workflows doesn’t need further explanation, the easier the tasks are, the quicker you’ll execute and the more you’ll get done.  
  • Protect and grow your brand: Brand consistency is key to brand growth. With the right tools at hand, controlling your brand output is easy and achieving brand recognition is possible. Your one step closer to reaching your brand goals.  

How Papirfly’s digital brand management tools elevate your branding 

We know that branding is a team effort, and it takes an entire company to grow a brand. This is why our brand management platform is packed with time-saving tools and features that will boost your branding processes.  

In addition to brand guidelines, digital asset management, design templates and a marketing planner, our brand management platform has additional tools to complete the bits and pieces of your branding processes.  

With Papirfly you will also have the options for;  

  • Content proofing functionality that allows for seamless team collaboration across your entire company. Our integration with Filestage or Workfront enables powerful and efficient work lifecycles that make online proofing a blast.  
  • Connect your brand management platform to Adobe and Microsoft office for a truly two-way workflow that goes beyond brand and marketing needs. With the CI Hub integration, you’ll secure your brand everywhere.  
  • When in need of print and eager to keep the costs down, this option is a must-have. Our integration with Gelat allows you to keep your printing costs down by printing and distributing locally. 
  • More integrations? Check this out.

This and more powerful digital brand management tools are supported by the Papirfly platform. If you are interested in learning more about how we can help elevate your branding processes, reach out and we’ll show you with a live demo.  

 

Retail Marketing

The power of PIM and ERP integration for retailers

Papirfly
7 minutes read

One of the prevailing problems that face retailers is juggling the vast quantities of data, processes and software that keep their business running day-to-day. Whether it’s tracking product codes and prices or compiling the array of CRM, BI, inventory management and other systems, maintaining all of this information used to be a monumental task.

Now, thanks to the introduction and evolution of PIM (Product Information Management) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) integration, this challenge has become far less daunting. 

These systems are designed to help retailers control and manage their extensive streams of data in one central location, much in the same way BAM by Papirfly™ does for the components behind our clients’ brands. However, both PIM systems and ERP systems (and their many benefits) are still not universally adopted or even known by all retailers. 

So, we wanted to use this article as an opportunity to spread the word about these useful systems, what advantages they lend to both the customer experience and your marketing efforts, and how a PIM, an ERP and BAM combine to make a real difference in the world of retail.

What is PIM?

PIM stands for Product Information Management, and represents systems designed to collect and store all of the data, content and additional materials needed to market and sell products. This includes but is not limited to:

  • Core data such as names, SKUs, UPCs, product descriptions, etc.
  • Product specifications including weights, sizes, ingredients, warranties, etc.
  • Sales information, including prices and customer reviews
  • Digital assets that support the product, such as imagery, videos and documents
  • Marketing information such as SEO elements, keywords, customer personas, etc.

As you can imagine, prior to the rise of the Internet this would be contained in reams of paper files that were difficult to keep in order or sort through. Even when these were transferred onto spreadsheets, managing these thousands upon millions of pieces of data could again prove unwieldy.

Once this data is housed within a PIM system like Akeneo or Plytix, it can then be translated into the various channels and formats required for smooth operation, such as:

  • E-commerce listings
  • Online marketplaces
  • Product sheets and point of sale material
  • Product catalogues and brochures
  • Product labelling

A PIM system therefore acts as a means to centralise all of this information in one place so that those who need access to this data, including sales teams, e-commerce managers, and marketers have it to hand so they can then feed it through to your customers.

What is ERP?

ERP, or Enterprise Resource Planning, captures all of the processes and systems that are essential for a business to run. As such, ERP systems can find a welcome home in any organisation due to the volume of procedures, software and other elements that go into making them tick, especially in today’s landscape.

But they have become increasingly valued in the world of retail as the means to centrally manage all of the moving parts that typically take place within this industry, including:

  • Inventory and order management
  • Product manufacturing or service delivery
  • Accounting
  • Human resources
  • Customer relationship management (CRM)
  • Shipping and payment
  • Campaign planning

At a fundamental level, an ERP houses all of these systems in order to support and streamline the flow of information across an organisation. That helps ensure that everyone understands the structure and processes behind the business, minimising the risk of mistakes and allowing each action to flow seamlessly into one another.

This means:

  • Greater compliance across all necessary regulatory standards
  • Opportunities to automate core business functions
  • A real-time oversight over the data driving your company
  • A single source for billing and relationship tracking, boosting your customer experience

ERP integration isn’t necessarily something a small retailer will immediately consider. But once they expand into multiple locations nationally or internationally, and especially for global retailers, having this central source of truth for the various tools and processes that underline your business can be a huge support in things running smoothly.

How does PIM/ERP integration benefit customer experience and marketing?

In order to most effectively and efficiently demonstrate the advantages offered by PIM and ERP integration, we’ve honed in on two of the most important factors for retailers:

  • Customer experience
  • Marketing

Meeting the ever-changing demands of increasingly tech-savvy and observant customers is a persistent challenge for all retailers. With more and more priority being placed on delivering a united omnichannel experience for customers, retailers need the tools at their disposal to provide this to build customer loyalty and secure a competitive edge.

Both PIM and ERP systems can play a key role in supporting your efforts to nail your customer experience and enhance the quality and consistency of your retail marketing. Starting with PIM integration, having a central repository for all your product-related data is vital to ensuring customers receive all the information they’re searching for across your channels.

Without a PIM, there is a greater margin of error that product data, labels and more become misplaced or disorganised. This can subsequently clutter your customer’s experience on your various platforms, and could cause you to present inaccurate information in marketing or promotional material, which would damage trust if you need to retract anything.

A PIM helps keep all this data in check and up-to-date, to ensure marketers have the resources they need to deliver accurate, rich content, and that customers have all the information they need to make an informed purchase. Furthermore, using a PIM can help with:

  • Providing relevant reviews and testimonials to inspire confidence in your customers towards your products, as well as the data to write more compelling descriptions
  • Guaranteeing uniformity across your product descriptions and layouts so customers do not become confused or overwhelmed across your various channels
  • Immediately adjusting product information on all channels and linking this to automated messages or emails to ensure your audience is always in the loop
  • Optimising time-to-market by giving your product data more structure, giving your marketers access to key info that they can turn around to your audiences

By establishing a single source of truth for everything related to your product, you are able to ensure that your teams always have the freshest and most relevant data. This means customers are never fed incorrect or out-of-date information, you can give them rich, optimised content across multiple channels.

As for ERP integration, because this helps ensure your business operations are never fragmented, it makes the path from a product arriving in your possession to displaying it for your audience clear and digestible. 

While your process might vary from another retailer, the only thing that matters is you know and understand your approach. An ERP achieves this and keeps critical information up-to-date to support the efforts of your marketing and sales teams, who then can work their magic to engage your customers.

ERP integration works to:

  • Track inventory across your business, so your marketers and customers can be immediately informed if an item is out of stock
  • Monitor and utilise your CRM to identify any changes in customer behaviours and nurture journeys across all channels
  • Consolidate all customer information in one central location, which can help ensure compliance over data use and present opportunities to provide personalised marketing
  • Identify bottlenecks relating to billing and payment processes for customers, so they can navigate this process and you know when to offer support when required

If you already employ an ERP and use it for campaign planning, Papirfly can deliver an effective integration point that seamlessly picks up this information and combines it with the data in a PIM. This means more than just a birds-eye view of planned campaigns, but an up-to-date list of all associated products. In other words, our software aggregates data from multiple sources.

This can be further enriched with campaign-specific details, including relevant messaging, colours, graphics and pricing. Plus, this can all be directly accessed from templates, so there is no need to manually transfer any information from the campaign planning process, master data management, pricing or DAM.

Contrast this with retailers without an ERP or similar planning system. They will often have to resort to multiple spreadsheets for campaign planning and, in a worst-case scenario, pricing, master data and digital assets are shared manually. This is not only time-consuming but opens up the potential for human error, meaning more time must be spent on briefing and proofing.

Fundamentally, by bringing your core data, processes and software under one unified roof, both PIM and ERP systems can play a huge factor in supplying your marketing teams with rich, real-time information, and supporting your customers’ interaction with your business. 

When your business and your product/customer-related data are streamlined and centralised, you’ll find your ability to meet customer expectations is enhanced like never before.

BAM by Papirfly™ and PIM/ERP integration

Now that you hopefully have a stronger understanding of the power PIM and ERP systems offer your marketing output and customer experience, let’s ramp this up even further by introducing Brand Activation Management (BAM).

In several ways, BAM software fulfils a similar role as PIM and ERP solutions in that it is about removing inconsistencies, mistakes and bottlenecks, and providing a single source of truth to empower retailers. But, while a PIM’s focus is on products and ERPs cover your business operations, BAM’s priority is unlocking the full potential of your brand.

Due to the strong synergy between these three standout solutions, we have designed our BAM solution to fully integrate with our clients’ PIM and ERP systems. By doing this, it cuts out any need for a middleman to transition the quality data within these systems into your marketing and promotional material – it can now be accessed automatically, leaving no margin for error.

This allows retailers to:

  • Use their PIM data to enrich the content behind every product and promotion, supporting your customers with their enquiries
  • Seamlessly update cost information and stock levels so customers are always provided with the most accurate details
  • Respond swiftly to seasonal and local trends with a wide range of content-rich, precise digital and printed materials

Furthermore, campaigns can also be planned within BAM, with the ability to add products and edit these manually if necessary. Wherever the retailer is on their journey to streamline their operations, Papirfly can help.

If you have already taken strides to optimise and secure your product data and business processes, and would like to do the same to your branding, we’re here to help you unlock its true potential.

BAM empowers your team with the ability to create high-quality assets across all channels without specialist support, while simultaneously providing a central space for all your approved collateral, imagery and brand guidelines. This means everyone in your organisation has access to the materials they need to enhance your brand and keep things consistent.

Get in touch with our friendly team if you’d like to learn more.

Table of contents:

  1. What is PIM?
  2. What is ERP?
  3. How does PIM/ERP integration benefit customer experience and marketing?
  4. BAM by Papirfly™ and PIM/ERP integration