What is it that empowers the everyday to become innovative? Resources. While the specifics may look different depending on the organization, the fact is that being able to devote more time, money and/or minds to a task or challenge yields more interesting results than if you didn’t have that freedom.
Take Chipotle, for example. They recently crossed 2 billion in digital sales for the year and have 24 million people in their loyalty program. Instead of being complacent about their success they’re actively working to avoid being deemed “boring.” Instead, they’re leveraging influencers, social media and the power of partner brands to find new ways to make themselves relevant to customers.
Can anyone follow in the footsteps of Chipotle and similar successful brands? Potentially. Should your brand immediately commandeer existing resources to establish or build out your own loyalty program? That depends on if you’ve built an infrastructure that helps you optimize all opportunities to engage customers and effectively drive sales–an approach that will ultimately put you several steps ahead of the competition instead of trying to catch up to them.
What we’ve been hearing recently, from QSR brands in particular, is that in the midst of higher consumer demand and expectations they’re feeling the pain of their technology decisions. Not only are some of these prepackaged marketing technology solutions not delivering on their promises, they’re not allowing room for easy adjustment. In short, these solutions are more about what works best for the partner and not what’s needed or desired by the brand.
So how can you keep from growing stagnant or in danger of falling further behind? Here are a few tips:
- Don’t accept that costly after-market customization is the price of doing business your own way.
- Find a consultant or technology partner with the experience and knowledge about where the gaps are in the space.
- Adopt an ecosystem that is robust, flexible and comes with a documented API that can be easily integrated and shared with multiple partners.
If you have the right technology and strategy, you’ve freed up your marketing team to work their magic. Maintaining excitement is critical for both external and internal audiences. Marketers want to get creative and break away not only from what they’ve done in the past, but from what other brands are doing. They just need the right foundation to provide them with that freedom.
The gap between where your organization is today and having an agile, innovative marketing technology stack isn’t as wide as it may seem. Learn more about how laying the right foundation, supported by the right technology, that supports the right partnerships can make the difference in the latest Forbes article by Sparkfly CEO Catherine Tabor.