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Uwe Fricke
Uwe Fricke
VP Sales Western Europe

Uwe Fricke leads the CoreMedia Sales Team in Western Europe. His area of responsibility includes customer acquisition and support, the development of partners, and CoreMedia corporate structures in France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands, and the Iberian Peninsula. Uwe and his team are also responsible for selected key accounts in Germany. Together with his team, Uwe has made a significant contribution to the positioning of CoreMedia in the content-commerce space and is our trailblazer for retail, fashion, beauty, and luxury topics.

The Challenges of Branded Content in the All-Digital Era

The Challenges of Branded Content in the All-Digital Era

Customer experience (CX) has taken on an increasingly important role in today’s digital commerce era. CoreMedia's VP Cloud Solutions, Uwe Fricke, provides insights into the current state of CX and branded content.

Uwe Fricke

Uwe Fricke

Playing to Win with Direct-to-Consumer Marketing Strategies

Playing to Win with Direct-to-Consumer Marketing Strategies

The last couple of years have been hard on all brands. But it’s been especially hard on companies that sell to athletes and casual sports fans. Brands that mostly sell via department stores, big-box stores, and other retail channels are facing new challenges and rivals.

Uwe Fricke

Uwe Fricke

The Role of Product-Aligned Storytelling in DTC Marketing

The Role of Product-Aligned Storytelling in DTC Marketing

As I discussed in my last post, Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) sales and marketing strategies are transforming the way that consumer brands interact with their retailers and customers. This is particularly true for direct-to-consumer brands such as Nike, Under Armour, Puma, Lululemon, Peloton, and more. Last time I gave an overview of the trends transforming the industry and highlighted a few tactics that sporting goods brands could pursue to ensure their direct-to-consumer future without alienating their traditional retailers.

Uwe Fricke

Uwe Fricke

Stage 1: Fragmented: Multiple Channels

You’re a digital dinosaur!

You have a beautiful website, but with fragmented digital experiences, you run the risk of extinction.

It’s time to evolve.

Your audiences want a seamless experience, no matter what's happening behind the scenes. When your experience is different or difficult, it’s important to start with the basics, such as cultivating a holistic approach to online digital experiences. Realign your teams, platforms, processes, goals, and metrics around a comprehensive view of the online experience. Focus on the end-to-end customer journey cutting across channels, desktop and mobile.

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Stage 2: Integrated: Multiple channels

You’re a fish!

Signs of exciting life are starting to form. Your DX is responsive and adaptive but it’s not quite personalized yet.

Keep swimming!

The integration of your brand content across every touchpoint (website, online store, social media, emails, apps, point of sale) creates immersive experiences. These flagship sites combine content-rich brand experiences with immediate conversion capabilities. Business teams and marketing are closely aligned. However, while the digital experience is responsive and adaptive, it’s not yet personalized.

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Stage 3: Instant: Global expansion

You’re a crocodile!

You’re taking it global. Speed and scalability are key and just like a crocodile, you’re fast…but you’re clumsy.

Oh snap!

In this stage, the online digital experience becomes completely dynamic. You need content that is global, yet relevant, with plenty of local insights: Who is the user? Are they using a mobile phone? Is it raining where they are? Is it snowing? If it is, maybe they need warm, waterproof boots. All of this contextualized information creates a better user experience. With one global orchestration, you’re able to adapt everything, in whatever country or language you choose – while keeping turnaround times low. So keep evolving.

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Stage 4: Dynamic: Real time personalization

You’re a lion!

You’re reaching more customers in more countries and languages than ever before, and now you’re finally hunting and collecting info with precision.

But you can do more to keep your brand roaring!

As you graduate to the Instant level, you’re able to rapidly update everything - not just in one language and for one country, but in 20 languages and for 100 countries. Speed and scalability are key, driven by the need to roll out global campaigns in all languages and all touchpoints and make updates in minutes or hours, not weeks. But there’s still more to do to reach nirvana.

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Stage 5: Immersive: Elevated experiences

You’re Captain Content!

You’ve done it! You have opposable thumbs AND you’re saving the world with your seamless, elevated customer experiences.

You're a superhero in the digital space.

Your digital world and your physical world are blending together in the most complementary way possible. When shoppers visit your store, they’ll be greeted with their pre-selected products. Language changes dynamically depending on country of origin – it's like the whole store was set up just for your one specific customer.

In this final stage, your customer experience is truly immersive and superior, and your flagship store merges your physical and digital world into one, with a truly personalized individual experience.

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