DAM plus PIM = Product Experience?

In the ever-changing world of marketing, a new term has been used for some time: Product Experience Management, and of course the appropriate abbreviation "PXM". So what does this have to do with us as marketers or us as customers?

What is product experience from the customer's point of view? 

An example from the fashion industry. Product Experience, that is all interactions and impressions a customer has with a product, from discovery to purchase and beyond. The goal is to design a smooth, engaging and satisfying experience that appeals to the customer at every stage.

In a store, this is easy to replicate. Let's say you come across a fashionable dress from a well-known fashion brand in a store. You look closely at the color, material, workmanship, care instructions, and probably the price tag.

The next step is to go to the dressing room.

Now let's say you come across a fashionable dress online. In this scenario, you expect not only to be able to view the product from all angles and in all colors, but also to have all the information immediately available so that you can form a realistic idea of the garment. The Product Experience starts with the way the dress is presented on the website. High quality images, videos showing the dress in motion, detailed descriptions, size charts and styling tips help you better understand the product.

Hopefully, when you order the dress, it arrives on time, beautifully packaged with a personalized thank you note and care instructions. There may even be an app that suggests how to pair the dress with other garments, or your supplier may give you access to an exclusive fashion magazine. After purchase, you'll receive emails with more styling tips and exclusive offers.

All these elements - the online experience, the packaging, the additional information, and the further communication - all together form the product experience.

In the fashion industry, where style and appearance are crucial, the Product Experience is becoming a key issue in delighting customers and, if possible, turning them into repeat customers. It's not just the product, but all the trappings that turn shopping from an everyday transaction into a memorable moment.

And how do marketers see it?

With today's consumers placing more and more emphasis on a seamless and engaging product experience, marketing is quite challenged. The challenges are many: photos, product information of all kinds, accurate information about the clientele, packaging, thank you letters, follow-ups, it's a lot of work. To handle it all, Digital Asset Management (DAM) and Product Information Management (PIM) come into play.

Digital Asset Management (DAM): what was that again?

DAM is a system that facilitates the storage, organization and retrieval of digital assets such as images, videos, documents and more. A DAM system makes it possible to centrally access and efficiently use a variety of media resources.

Example:
Imagine a global enterprise that needs to store thousands of product images in various formats and sizes. A DAM system helps to easily organize and share this content so that teams around the world can access it.

Product Information Management (PIM): The key to product information.

PIM systems are systems for managing all product-related information: Pricing, technical details, descriptions, instructions, safety information, recommendations, datasheets, and more, to deliver a consistent and accurate product picture across all sales channels.

Example:
An e-commerce company that carries multiple product lines can use a PIM system to ensure that customers receive the same up-to-date and consistent information across all platforms (website, app, etc.).

And what is "cDAM?"

"cDAM" is a new term, and we plead guilty to coining it. We're talking about "connected digital asset management" here; the idea is to store other information alongside these files, such as addresses, texts, campaigns and - you guessed it: product information, unlike traditional DAM systems, which usually manage media files in a more or less meaningful way. But above all, it's about managing information with its connections to each other - hence "connected" DAM, cDAM. And that brings us to what matters:

The connection between DAM and PIM

People meet: on a website, in web stores, in apps. More precisely, the media to a product, and the data to the product must be brought together at some point.

So the interaction of DAM and PIM is important to create an optimal product experience:

• Increased efficiency: with DAM and PIM working hand-in-hand, marketing teams can create, adapt, and distribute content faster.
• Consistency across all channels: Integrating DAM with PIM can ensure that all images, videos, and text are consistent across all platforms.
• Better collaboration: teams can work together more effectively by accessing, sharing, and editing the same data.
  Personalization for customers: Connecting media and data enables marketers to create tailored, personalized experiences for their customers - the right offer presented well at the right time.

Our conclusion: in a world where customers expect more, DAM and PIM systems can work together to provide the foundation for an excellent product experience. Integrating these system worlds can increase efficiency and ensure consistency and timeliness across all channels, helping to reach customers in a way that is both engaging and informative.

If your organization isn't yet taking advantage of this integration, now might be a good time to think about the opportunities this powerful combination can provide. And of course, we would like to point out that In an increasingly complex and interconnected marketing landscape, a system optimized for linking data, such as eyebase cDAM, is a very good basis for meeting customer expectations while simplifying marketing team workflows.