Day 2 at Shoptalk Coresight Research Insights: Hearing from Levi’s On Personalization; and Using AI to Deepen Connections with Customers

Coresight Research is in Las Vegas this week, attending and participating in the Shoptalk 2019 conference held March 3-6. In this report we share our insights from the second day of the conference.

Personalization is growing in importance to create authentic consumer to brand relationships. Fashion is a means of self-expression, and the more personalized the product, the more consumers can express themselves through fashion. Levi’s is putting more power of self-expression into consumers’ hands. Starting this fall, consumers will be able to design their own jeans on Levis.com and have them delivered within days. The company has taken the seven most popular fits and will let customers customize fit, wash, wear pattern and more to generate over 1,000 possible combinations of personalized jeans. At 165 years old, this move will help keep the brand relevant.

Importantly, it also offers the company the opportunity to learn far more about its customers. By studying what consumers produce for themselves, Levi’s can create products that better map to consumer desires. Levi’s has 3,000 stores in 110 countries that generate about a third of revenues: These outlets can become collaboration studios, transitioning from locations that promote and clear to destinations that inspire consumers and help them create, building a stronger consumer relationship in the process.

Brands and retailers going global need to localize in other markets. The power of a brand may be global, but to really reap the benefits of brand equity, the brand experience must be localized. Gone are the days when one brand could be simply marketed as-is in other countries: Now, brands need to think like retailers and have fully developed shops with custom fixtures. For Cherokee, a global marketer and manager of a portfolio of fashion and lifestyle brands in about 80 countries, a local approach to instore signage, photography, merchandising and wardrobing delivered 30-40% sales lifts in overseas shops.

Cutting-edge AI technology is able to elicit and gauge human emotion – and brands can use that to deepen the customer connection. Words have meaning, and AI can detect the words that have the most impact, measuring with mathematical accuracy the impact of every word and phrase. By unlocking the power of descriptive words, marketers can change a word and better describe an offer to drive a sale, not just deepen a promotion. AI can be used to understand what consumer respond to, individually, from achievement to exclusivity. Brands can leverage that knowledge to deepen consumer engagement.

According to Keren Zimmerman, Cofounder and President of Personali, 80% of our purchase decisions are emotional and only 20% are logic-based. So, if you want to impact customers, impact their emotions. At Personali, the company is deciphering emotions in real time, allowing for the right experience and incentive for an individual. The company claims it can surgically choose the promotion that will resonate and convert, reducing unnecessary and brand-destructive promotions.