Imagine a brand as a story told through the many channels that we, as marketing leaders, weave together to make a marketing strategy. Just like a novel from a best-selling author, your story needs to be cohesive. The arc needs to span the chapters, and the characters need to be fully fleshed out. Many marketers attempt to be captivating, relatable storytellers, but it too often feels as if they skipped something important from print to screen, or from store to tablet. Today’s consumers, no matter where, when, or how they connect with your product, expect stories to be personalized and consistent. Strategizing a marketing approach can be as simple as reconsidering the journey of your main character—the consumer.

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A New Chapter in
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Insight into what “omni-channel” really means
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The story begins…
Imagine a brand as a story told through the
many channels that we, as marketing
leaders, weave together to make a
marketing strategy. Just like a novel from a
best-selling author, your story needs to be
cohesive. The arc needs to span the
chapters, and the characters need to be
fully fleshed out. Many marketers attempt
to be captivating, relatable storytellers, but
it too often feels as if they skipped
something important from print to screen,
or from store to tablet.
Today’s consumers, no matter where,
when, or how they connect with your
product, expect stories to be personalized
and consistent. Strategizing a marketing
approach can be as simple as
reconsidering the journey of your main
character—the consumer.

3. www.remodista.com
As the steep technology curve
continues to produce unexpected plot
twists in the marketing technology
narrative, we feel compelled to label
these changes so as to better
understand them. In this case, the
market has dubbed the merging of the
online and the offline as an “omni-
channel.”
Founder and Chief Networking Officer
of Remodista, Kelly Stickel, thinks it’s
too simplistic to define this as omni-
channel. “After talking to over 300
brand leaders, it is clear the points of
entry are quickly expanding; we need
to be looking at how people are getting
to us, coming in”.
It’s time to look at the customer and
her behavior, not the marketer and her
behavior.
And although we use the term
omni-channel in this paper,
you’ll see it being used
interchangeably with customer
experience. As the dust settles
on the technology changes, we
think you’ll agree that they are
one and the same.
“
”
“She [the customer] taught us
a lot about who we are too…
She wants to be able to move
with ease through those
different touch points.”
-Lauren Croke, EILEEN FISHER

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Customers today dictate the route they
take with a product or a brand experience
across channels (much like a Choose
Your Own Adventure book). Thus,
marketers’ thought processes should shift
so that customers are at the center of the
strategy. As Lauren Croke, Director of
Web and E-commerce at EILEEN
FISHER, explains, “She [the customer]
taught us a lot about who we are too, in
terms of the service that we provide, the
type of culture that we want to cultivate,
and where we want to be on the edge of
customer experience…She wants to be
able to move with ease through those
different touch points.”
they will not be able to maintain their company
culture.
But true harmony lies in merging all the channels.
As Lauren posits, “How do you take the aspects
of the culture that are aligned with the design
principles…and then layer that into the customer
experience?”
Another significant hurdle is that omni-channel
marketing can create needless competition within
a company, which compartmentalizes the
processes rather than embraces the fluidity of
working together toward a shared goal. As a
result, companies may allocate funds and
resources to the channel that appears most
successful at any given moment, without
anticipating future developments. These isolated
departments are referred to as silos, and they
should be dismantled to focus on profit as a whole
enterprise. When we move toward the customer
experience, it’s going to create all net new
business processes. They aren’t defined until we
do that.
Now is the time to shift our thinking and
reorganize internally; we need to connect to
groups that influence the brand because they will
ultimately influence a largely self-guided customer
experience.
Barriers to integrating online
and offline experiences
A successful customer experience merges
the storylines of innovation and technology;
this forces companies to reassess their
approaches and take risks for rewards that
aren’t easily quantifiable. For these
reasons, many companies are falling behind
and failing to meet the consumer’s growing
expectations.
Integrating technology can be a risky
investment, especially when the results are
relatively slow to realize. Many fear that if
they embrace the digital approach,

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key ways customers
have changed
Customer Change #1:
Sophisticated Buyers
Today’s consumer is more
sophisticated and is accustomed
to a flow of technology.
TAKE ACTION: Involve a
designer in any and all initiatives
within the business - technology,
operations, and process - so
that the customer perspective is
at the core of the experience.
Customer Change #2:
Expectations
Delight will become expectation
—innovation will always become
the norm.
TAKE ACTION: Leverage shifts
in technology to seek and
implement ways to surprise the
consumer.
3How have customer expectations changed?
How should businesses take action to meet
these new expectations?

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Contact us: kelly@remodista.com
key ways customers
have changed (cont.)
Customer Change #3:
Personalization
The customer seeks a more
personal retail experience.
TAKE ACTION: Focus on
customer service in all aspects
of the business, from e-
commerce virtual support to
retail store teams that are
equipped with the necessary
tools and knowledge to deliver a
cohesive and seamless
customer experience.
3

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“
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our COMMUNITY SANDBOX:
As any good writer will tell you, the details of
the plot are difficult to see until you start trying
to piece the story together. This is particularly
true for marketers who work with the theme of
shifting technology. We still compartmentalize
changes in technology, in our customers and
in the way we deliver messages.
Reworking our vision for the future to start
with the customer and work backward will be
the key to success. We know it’s not a new
concept. But, when consumer technology
plateaus (even for a moment) and we have a
chance to catch our breath, what will emerge
is a better understanding of how the
organization can deliver a cohesive customer
experience.
Again, as a reminder, “When we move toward
the customer experience, it’s going to create
all net new business processes...”
One customer, one brand,
many points of entry.
-Kelly Stickel, Remodista

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
This focus area looks at how we work together and shape our
business channels that weave all touch points together through
technology. Women leaders were largely missing in the first wave
of online technology development in the 90's and early 2000's,
and it seems like a gift, for both men and women, to hear how
female executives are thinking about innovation and digital
transformation.
REMODISTA FOCUS AREA
Women Executive Insights
Remodista
RETAIL & MOBILITY DISTILLED
www.remodista.com
Remodista is a social think tank examining disruption in global retail.
Our mission is to provide insight, education and innovation to global
brands through collaborative research and analysis.
• Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, CEO, GLAMSQUAD
• Chau Banks, EVP, CIO & Channel Integration, NY&CO
• Heather Harris, President, CycleBar
• Jessica Karle, Lead Product Manager, Paperless Post
• Kelly Stickel, Chief Networking Officer, Remodista
• Kyla Robinson, Mobile Products, OppenheimerFunds
• Lauren Croke, Director of eCommerce, EILEEN FISHER
• Lalena Luba, VP PR, Aritzia
• Lois Herzeca, Partner, Gibson Dunn
• Maureen Jann, Director of Marketing, Point It
• Rosalie Sutherland, Mobile Strategist
• Rose Hamilton, EVP, CMO, & GM, Pet360
• Shawna Hausman, VP of eCommerce and DM, giggle
• Valerie Keast, Merchandising + Direct Marketing, Sears
• Veronika Sonsev, CEO, inSparq
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