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‘PHYGITAL’ DIAMOND MARKETING MEANS PERSONALIZATION, SUGGESTS DE BEERS IN ITS 2020 INSIGHT REPORT

 

The term “phygital” has become the buzzword for the year 2020. Essentially referring to a marriage of both online and offline commercial environments, it involves a multichannel approach to creating a more complete and satisfying customer experience, where the consumer moves seamlessly between the digital and brick and mortar worlds.

The hybrid environment into which the business community is now settling stands at the center of De Beers annual Insight report, which was released in November 2020, ahead of the start of the holiday shopping season.

In the phygital space, there are not separate physical and digital environments, but rather a unified experience, where everything that is happening in the digital scenario influences the physical one and vice-versa. For millennials and Gen Zs, the threshold between physical and digital does not exist.

Earlier this year, the Kendra Scott jewelry brand has introduced a virtual try-on tool using augmented reality, which enables prospective customers to test items remotely. Using their iPhone’s Safari web browser, visitors to Kendra Scott ‘s website can use AR to preview products, consumers are able to see how they look wearing specific jewelry items as they move naturally in a seemingly real world.

The brand began with earrings, which “allows for the most dynamic movement,” but plans on adding necklaces, bracelets, rings and other items in the future.

In a statement Kendra Scott said consumers’ desire for an omnichannel experience and pursuit of convenient shopping experiences influenced its decision to introduce the feature. 

ADVANCE DATA ANALYTICS DELIVER CUSTOMIZED EXPERIENCES

But phygital means more than blurring the distinction between the digital and the physical. With big data tools and artificial intelligence, it empowers the retailer to tailor the brand experience to the whims and preferences of the individual consumer.

In a section of the Insight report report written by Martin Raymond, co-founder of the Future Laboratory, “phygital” realms that are increasingly dependent on advanced data analytics are described as being able deliver personalized services and brand experiences that younger consumers increasingly expect.

“Millennial consumers have normalized products, moments and engagements that were once seen as crafted, curated and cultured, while Gen Z, who live, shop, converse and socialize online, now expect all brands to do the same – but on their terms,” Raymond writes, quoting Kathryn Bishop, editor of The Future Laboratory’s annual Luxury and Hospitality Futures report.

Raymond also quotes customer service expert Leslie O’Flahavan, who explained that “customers want their self-service to feel as seamless as a conversation with friends,” and they also want the data they actively hand over to brands to work for them – or rather, for brands to work their data for them.

 

 

 

“Lab-grown diamond is a high margin category that consumers are reacting to positively,” says Marty Hurwitz, CEO of MVI Marketing, which produced the in-depth report.

Hanging on to one product that sells love may not be a good idea. Present consumers with a choice, present both mined and lab-grown diamonds, and make money with the products they value and see as love. Let them choose.”“So, if you are using their data to calibrate your pricing models, improve delivery cycles, hone designs, reduce manufacturing costs or make your logistics chains more circular and carbon-neutral, they will expect to be informed and rewarded for this,” he wrote. The consumers are aware that they are providing the brands with valuable big data, and they expect to be rewarded for their largess.`

It was the moratorium on rough diamond imports declared by Indian manufacturers that had one of the most dramatic effects on the diamond pipeline is recently memory.

ACTIVATING CONSUMERS WITH VIRTUAL REALITY

The rise of 5G networks, which will increase exponentially the transfer of data, and the increased push towards live interactions and engagements between brands and their consumers is speeding up the ability to design customized products, which customers can experience in immersive entertainment ‘bubbles’.

Raymond describes as a store in Los Angeles that recently used green screen technology to jump between the physical and digital worlds, using augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed virtual reality as a core part of its consumer activation program.

Virtual try-on experiences allows consumers to preview products to scale digitally in their own homes, on their own bodies, and then instantly purchasing the corresponding physical product, as with the application offered by the Kendra Scott jewelry brand.  

“But,” writes Helen Papagiannis, in the October edition of the Harvard Business Review, “what if in addition to physical items, you could buy virtual objects, such as jewelry, apparel, or art, for which there may or may not be a physical counterpart?”

Luxury retailers like Louis Vuitton are already offering virtual merchandise like digital clothing and accessories to dress characters in the esports game League of Legends. Indeed consumer spending on digital luxury is predicted to hit $50 billion by 2022.

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