Animating your network with the brand portal - The ARC example

Arc, a global leader in tableware with more than 5 brands, 7500 employees, and 15 distribution sites in B2B and B2C explains how the brand portal of PIM Quable helps them to animate their distribution network with reliable and always up-to-date information.

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In many companies, some tools are not adapted to manage product data or information (description, characteristics, packaging information but also visuals, photos, images, videos, technical data sheets...). Most companies are not equipped with a suitable solution and usually manage Excel files and network directories. Often, these means are impractical and error-prone, which can lead to a lack of reliability and quality of information as well as a poor relationship with customers and/or vendors.

All this also leads to a lack of collaboration between teams (director, marketing, etc.), due in particular to the lack of processes and the large number of time-consuming and repetitive tasks.

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Why deploy a trademark portal?

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In the case of ARC, there were two main reasons for the group to take this decision:

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• The large amount of existing content related to the product. Moreover, this content was located in several departments, departments, teams of the company, and this in an international context.

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• The process of transmitting information was complex, resulting in difficulty in navigating the many existing visuals and their links with the products. This also resulted in a great deal of internal pressure on the teams from customers, partners and others.

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The portal to leverage data

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The brand portal is a tool designed as follows: a space where content creators have contributed and consolidated product information, which is immediately put to good use, disseminated to different types of audience, be it internal collaborators, distributors or sales staff. The portal is also virtuous in simplifying exchanges from a commercial point of view (within the network of retailers and distributors), by quickly disseminating this product information, a winning challenge from a loyalty strategy point of view.

In addition to the animation of its points of sale, this portal is also used for other purposes: for example, exchanging and pushing previews to brand ambassadors, working with press agencies (press release and press kit for events for example).

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A single point of entry

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For ARC's business, the brand portal has met the group's objectives of disseminating information internally and externally for all brands and products.

The advantage of being able to address from a single portal, accessible from the outside (for communication agencies, clients, distributors, etc.), is that it is possible to choose which products are addressed and which are not among the more than 20,000 references in the group.

Also, it is interesting for the group to choose the population that can access this portal, choosing more selective rights to decide who has access to what information. The portal allows them to choose the information that ARC wishes to disseminate, thus targeting the brands, product categories, products and product information that they wish to communicate subsequently to the 2600 users of the portal (sales teams, customers, press).

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Content adapted to its brand, its business, its product

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Depending on the categories of users to whom ARC gives access to the portal, not all information is necessarily relevant. The group chooses what information it pushes and to whom. This information can be diverse: general (size, weight, materials, colours), logistical (EAN, packaging, packing), visual (product image, product photo, visuals, packshots, ambient visuals). This portal offers a brand and product experience that facilitates data retrieval. The adaptation is also done through the customisation of the portal and notably its design, to offer a clean and branded experience to the end-users, who will come to connect to the portal.

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Getting the gate adopted

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From a business point of view, one should not neglect and omit the working habits and synergy that were already in place before the arrival of the PIM and its portal.

Hence the importance of setting up workflows that are as close as possible to pre-existing work habits to facilitate the adoption of the tool, increase motivation and enable teams to be more efficient. The realities on the ground must be taken into account upstream to ensure that business expertise is matched with the tool.

It is vital to involve the business in this kind of project, to identify what people need in their daily lives to match their needs with what the product can offer. A short training course will be necessary to explain, accompany and involve the teams concerned. However, this is the secret of good adoption and the guarantee of systematically up-to-date, quality and reliable information.

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Conclusion

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It is essential to offer a simplified version of your product catalog, by transforming your product repository upstream to share this information in a fast, qualitative and reliable way. The brand portal of PIM will not only save you precious time thanks to the automated process, but will alsoensure cohesion and better collaboration between your internal teams and with your entire business ecosystem.