The document discusses automation for brands. It defines automation as applying to processes, channel messaging, measurement, operations, and products. It provides examples of how brands like Ford and Safelite have automated parts of their business. The document also discusses how to structure an automation discipline with tools and case studies. It stresses enabling teams with training and inspiration, as well as knowing customers through research. The overall message is that automation can happen anywhere and brands should define what is applicable to their specific needs.

1. KEYNOTE Do It Once....You're
A Tester. Do It Twice...
You're An Automator!!
DETROIT, MI ~ JUNE 6 - 7, 2022
DIGIMARCONGREATLAKES.COM | #DigiMarConGreatLakes
Aaron Smith
CO-FOUNDER
COMBUSTION

2. Do It Once....You're A Tester.
Do It Twice….Become An Automator!!
Aaron Smith, President

3. 2
ABOUT COMBUSTION
Combustion is a consulting and development agency that specializes in new
technology, data and psychology to a brand’s communications, product
development and operations.
We’re the “new tech” arm of your company.
We leverage Human Centered Design Thinking and Lean Startup principles through
practice to get to the BEST SOLUTION.
We cut through the red tape, don’t get influenced by internal politics and execute plans
with results that you can measure.

4. 3
DEFINING AUTOMATION - Don’t Limit Yourself
PROCESS
- How the team functions
- Communication, data gathering and making decisions
CHANNEL MESSAGING
- If / then methods to tailor communication to prospects
or customers
- If they don’t take action, then what’s the next step
- Establish “Principles Of Persuasion” as nomenclature
within your Brand Guidelines
MEASUREMENT
- Identify thresholds and flag when not performing
- Every data point can be automated
- Don’t force AI when its not needed
OPERATIONS
- Employee retention is so important now so help them
out with the right tools
- The more sophisticated your marketing, the higher
chance of human error
PRODUCT
- Every product has the opportunity to advance to be
more Human Centered Design…..even Amazon!

5. 4
DEFINING YOUR BRAND’S AUTOMATION
Marketing & advertising has shifted from reach and frequency to a seamless brand experience, whether its pre
purchase or post purchase. What is your product? Widgets or aircraft carriers….commonality is that you have to find
buyers and there is a customer that will be using it.
Your most valuable asset of a brand is your customer and treat every touchpoint as your next customer.
Ford CEO Wants to Abolish the Dealership
Experience As We Know It & Spun Off EV
Business Separate From ICE Business
March, 2022
CEO, Jim Farley
“We’ve got to go to non-negotiated price. We’ve got to
go to 100% online. There’s no inventory ... 100% remote
pickup and delivery.”
Ford spends more than $3 billion a year on ads. But Ford
didn’t buy any ads for its two new electric vehicles, the
Mustang Mach-E and the F-150 Lightning, and both of those
are sold out. When it comes to EVs, “I’m not convinced we
need public advertising,”

6. 5
DEFINING YOUR BRAND’S AUTOMATION
Tom Feeney, President and CEO of Safelite AutoGlass
“We recognize that we are still on a journey to delight every customer and earn their recommendation” in their
Transformation Journey in their negative services industry.

7. 6
Structured discipline drives structured inputs that
drive structured outputs
- Disciplined brand discoveries to identify “the real”
opportunities
- Customer / Operations research is underrated
- Establish a process and enforce it
Old Process Of Manual PDFs.
Digitizing the
interface &
automating the
data.
STRUCTURE YOUR AUTOMATION DISCIPLINE
Content
Database
Publishing
Requirements
Published
URL
Content Health
Tracker
CASE STUDY:
A “large OEM with multiple brands” client of ours had
Journey Maps in PDFs and we went to digitize them
- Started to isolate that customizing
communications to their customer was difficult
- So focussed on tailoring to the consumer that the
back end was unmanageable
- Ended up building a content health tool to marry
up the publishing requirements, content database
and the publishing destinations (URLs)
- The tool checks that all are met every 5 minutes
and flags content that is out of spec
RESULT: Quote from lead IT Manager when
implemented “This is going to save us hundreds of
resource hours a month” (close to $.5MM/year).

8. 7
AUTOMATION TOOLS
Automation tools out there are plentiful and
effective
Marketers criticisms that use these automation
tools:
- Too complicated
- Too big for what the brand needs it for
- Too much work (not automated)
- Too expensive
Don’t be fooled by marketing collateral (conduct a
DETAILED cost / benefit analysis)
CASE STUDY:
Hygieia hired us to design and build a website. We
launched and as leads came in, the manual
process was overwhelming to the staff
- Considered all medical ERPs, CRMs and
ESPs
- Nothing was affordable that fit Hygieia’s
PERFECT need
RESULT: 5 Year savings of $2.1MM

9. 8
ENABLE YOUR TEAM
Provoke your team to know service design
- Go to conferences (and report out to the team)
- Deploy educational tools (training & rewards)
- Establish Design Thinking & Innovation
workshops
SMS Integrated w/
Microsoft 360
Lead Status & Direct Dial
CASE STUDY:
We have a client, Faucet, where we built their platform
for FINRA compliant websites, lead magnets, lead
intake and lead management. Faucet’s clients were
getting great volume of quality leads in, but constant
feedback from their customers was that they don’t know
where the sales reps were doing and no way of tracking.
- We added a “lead health tracking” tool to track
and trigger a sales person to make a call, supply
feedback and even record the call.
RESULT: Lead follow up closing improved by an
average of 32% when deploying an automated lead
health and nurturing tool.

10. 9
INSPIRE YOUR TEAM
CASE STUDY:
Hamtramck Recycling is one of Michigan’s largest recyclers and
they hired us to design and build them a website but through
discovery sessions, one of our strategists identified that they
don’t need a new website but rather process flow improvement
- They needed data points to build an algorithm to be able to
share wait times with existing customers to optimize their
workflow
- Hamtramck Recycling’s growth outpaced their facility and
couldn’t move trucks through fast enough so we are
automating mobile payments
RESULT: That strategist got a promotion.
Get strategists (technical & marketing) involved in more than
marketing.
- What happens when the lead comes in?
- Identify who, what, when and where the process falls off
or conversion rates are low or why the product might not
be taking off
- Establish a CX discipline (focussed on automation)

11. 10
KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER (practice what you preach)
CASE STUDY:
Combustion has a bunch of brewery / spirits / restaurant clients and they consistently said “my loyalty system doesn’t help
with promotions”....so we built them one (called Loop). No designers, no media specialists, no IT departments or fancy POS
Systems. Loop is an automated marketing tool to build a social promotions, gather leads and then send timely texts and
emails to get people to take action.
RESULT: Most brands that use Loop see a 15 - 25% direct lift in sales and increases loyalty by 140%
Social Campaign Promotion Sign-up Promotion Nurturing Automated Redemption
Do anything to get customer feedback because any opinion can drive an insight
- Conduct research
- Get into stores and see interaction
- Talk to team members that will be managing campaigns, leads, sales, operations, etc.

12. 11
RECAP
1. Automation can happen anywhere from process to product
2. Define your brand’s automation
3. Conduct a true cost / benefit analysis
4. Structure your discipline
5. Enable your team
6. Inspire your team
7. Know your customer
If you don’t know where to start, hire Combustion!

13. Thank You!
Questions?
Aaron Smith, President
aaron@thecombustionway.com