Connecting consumers to brands is becoming ever more important to retailers and consumer goods companies. By doing so, brands can offer coupons, videos, contests, more information on the product as well as other related items, and much more.
 
Savvy consumer goods companies are realizing these opportunities and looking for unique ways to stand out. TUKU, a technology software company based out of London, Ontario, is helping brand owners define their products in real time.
 
TUKU’s approach is working: In partnership with Array Marketing, TUKU received the CPES2018 New Product Innovation Award for creating Array Lift to Learn & Tap to Learn retail display units. The products on the interactive displays have NFC tags attached that can either interact with the display or with the customer’s smartphone, providing a variety of information that help shoppers choose product, helps add to basket with companion product recommendations or aids with wayfinding. These particular displays were designed for the cosmetics field.
 
“We won the CPES2018 award with Array Marketing for our point of purchase display,” said Baldwin. “On that particular display, there are five cosmetic products, each of which has an NFC tag on it. The consumer picks up the product, taps it on the reader on the display unit, which then triggers a specific digital experience. They also learn about additional products that go with it in order to create a certain look, and there’s a video that shows how the products can be applied to achieve that look. One of the challenges for a cosmetics brand is to increase sales in the brand family and we address this.”
 
Baldwin explained that TUKU has developed a platform to allow brands to manage content and deliver content through multiple channels through its ARCC (Adaptive Responsive Contextual Control) platform.
 
“A brand manager, through our ARCC portal, can initiate campaigns or change brand information in real time,” Baldwin noted.
 
Providing real time information to brand owners, retailers and customers is the key. ARCC allows content to be changed at the point of sale, throughout the entire campaign or just a single location.
 
“With our ARCC platform, data can be updated in real time, whether it is new products or videos, and can be instantly deployed in one store or in thousands of stores through the Microsoft Azure cloud platform,” Baldwin added. “In the case of our interactive point of purchase display, that content can be changed in real time, either in all locations or right down to a single display at a single retailer. If a campaign or coupon isn’t getting traction, it can be updated in moments. It can be refreshed multiple times remotely. It keeps the experience fresh for the consumers, and you don’t have to send someone to each location.”
 
The ARCC platform can also deliver content to multiple channels before a consumer visits the store, within the store or post-purchase.
 
“Through the whole consumer journey, our platform can deliver content specific to those three stations on the consumer journey, activating channels within an interactive point of purchase displays, static signage or product packaging,” Baldwin observed. “Post-purchase, the package recognizes that it is no longer in the store, and we can deliver content such as online complementary products, e-commerce linkage to reordering the product.”
 
Making shopping at stores a positive experience for customers is a key driver for TUKU.
 
“One of the challenges for brick and mortar retailers is providing experiences within the retail environments for consumers,” Baldwin reported. “By providing that experience, whether it is a video, a coupon, a promotion or a contest, it provides engagement and a reason for the consumer to visit the store. It also allows the brand to stand out from the competitors.”
 
Baldwin said that with its experience in marketing and connections in the cosmetics field, ARRAY Marketing is an ideal partner for the cosmetics space.
 
“Array is a global leader in cosmetic display units and has experience in embedding sophisticated electronics within the display unit which uses NFC tags,” Baldwin added. “Array is very strong with retailers and cosmetic brands. Putting it all together – the electronics, software and hardware – and collecting the real time data is a challenge as there are a lot of moving parts. Brands need the whole ecosystem, a complete end to end solution.”