During a digital customer journey, online users have a few possibilities. Firstly an online advertisement can be seen, taken it in into account and other news can be read once scroll down further. Later, if the potential buyer likes it, he or she could pur-chase that product online or in a grocery store. The second option would be that buy-ers proceed directly to the online store and purchase goods. In order to proceed with either of these ways and make sure that the company is going into the right direction, the tone of the comments under Facebook and Instagram posts will be identified. The aim of this examination is to identify, which tone of the emotion is the most frequent. This further will show how consumers perceive their choice and might identify their future actions.
From 2016, smoothie bowls became very popular (True Fruits, 2018). So, True Fruits decided to keep up with this movement. The campaign from April 12th, repre-sents new to-go smoothie bowls with the slogan “you’re my heart, you’re my bowl” (True Fruits, Instagram, 2018). The organization used the popular song performed by Modern Talking in 1985 “You’re my heart, you’re my soul” (Modern Talking, 2018). The product a great success since people had this song stuck in their heads. It can be seen by the opinions “thank you for the earwig” or “I think Dieter Bohlen is great as well” (Instagram, truefruitssmoothies 2018). The publications have overall 14.043 likes and 1.063 comments. After the conducted analysis of all the them, IBM Tone Analyzer identified the general level of joy emotion (Figure 17: IBM Tone Analyzer). Some of the examples are: “very cool,” “I would like to try it, the left bottle look great again,” “we have to find and try,” “like your text again!” (Insta-gram, truefruitssmoothies 2018). Thus, it can be concluded that out of 1.063 comments the majority of emotions is recognised as positive, therefore it can be concluded that people are pleased with the products and would like to further purchase them again (Figure 17: IBM Tone Analyzer).
The other publication from April 30th with two limited eddition bottles for mother’s and father’s day was chosen for the further analysis. The smoothies were available only online and one bottle of 750 ml cost 19.99 EUR (Instagram, truefruitssmoothies 2018). This post would be a part of digital customer journey, who already follows the company on social media and purchases the products. The campaign has 7.345 likes and 205 comments. The analysis by the IBM Tone Analyzer provided the following emotions: joy and sadness (Figure 23: IBM Tone Analyzer). The sadness can be explained that the majority of users considered these drinks to be too expensive: “why is that so expensive,” “40 EUR for two smoothies is already bad,” “fully ex-pensive” (Instagram, truefruitssmoothies 2018). The others think that the products are great: “I have to try, simply because they look cool,” “again so beautiful” (In-stagram, truefruitssmoothies 2018). Thus, both sides of customers opinions can be seen.
On July 5th a publication with new kind of products, which were salads, was posted on Instagram. The post has overall 5.862 likes and 109 comments. This publication suits potential clients, who already follow the company on social media, since this campaign was only advertised online. This picture covers a few steps of customer journey which are reserch, consideration, purchase and after purchase relationship. The IBM Tone Analyzer showed that the publication has joy and analytical kind of emotions (Figure 19: IBM Tone Analyzer). The following coments represent the joy emotion:
“Lunch goals! Good idea,” “True fruits – true love,” “I’m already waiting for that,” or “I love your marketing next year you have my application on the table, that would be so awesome to learn from you” (Instagram, truefruitssmoothies 2018).
The other comments show analytical emotion: “everything completely thought out,” “good to know,” and “good that I always pick up the glasses, perfect idea” (Insta-gram, truefruitssmoothies 2018). These comments show, that the majority of purchasers like the ideas that the company creates and publishes. True Fruits product variety consists only of smoothie, bowls and salads are new. However, the comments show that people like it and would purchase it in the future (Figure 17: IBM Tone Analyzer).
Moreover, the fact that the bottles are made of glass and can be reused afterwards plays an important role for the organisation, since it helps to keep consumers interested in products. The comment of the other post was published on June 20th on True Fruits Facebook page, supports this statement:
“I love your smoothies and not only do they taste great, but also because they are sold in glass bottles that you can reuse for all sorts of things, or dispose as well in a glass container without leaving the environment with even more unnecessary” (True fruits, Facebook, 2018).
This campaign represents a new orange smoothie and an ice cream made of it. There are overall 1.600 likes and 70 comments. The IBM Tone Analyzer represents joy and analytical emotions by the opinions. Example of joyful feelings are the following: “with a little fun in it,” “I’m looking forward to it,” “freezing sounds very good, too” (True fruits, Facebook, 2018). So, the tone of the analyzed comments was overall positive and showed that the majority of followers like the products and ready to buy them (Figure 17: IBM Tone Analyzer).
However, such important aspects as price was discussed. Some observations pointed out that the goods are overpriced. For example a small bottle 250 ml costs 2.49 EUR, the big one 750 ml costs 3.99 EUR and for the limited edditions 750 ml 19.99 EUR (True Fruits, 2018). In comparison, Innocent requires the following prices for its smoothies: 250 ml 2.49 EUR, 750 ml 3.99 EUR and they come in plastic bottles (Innocent, 2018). Moreover, local brands such as REWE introduced smoothies from their retail brand REWE To-Go, which in comparison to others are low priced. One bottle of smoothie 250 ml costs only 0.99 cent (REWE Dein Markt, 2018). This creates a high competition on the shelf. In contrast, True Fruits has a creative marketing campaign and uses glass bottles, which none of their competitors have and this is a good reason to justify higher prices. Although, the amount does not vary that much in comparison to such a brand as Innocent.
It can be concluded, that the posts from Instagram and Facebook accounts have a large number of likes. In terms of comments the numbers vary. However, from the analyzed publications it can be seen that users like what True Fruits does in terms of its merchandise and online content. The crucail point is how well a person is informed about the brand. If a customer is new, product publications are helpful to receive more information about the organisation. However, limited editions and the reusesal of the bottles could be the key issue that helps to raise more interest, because it is such a unique concept. For buyers following the company these campaigns also play an important role, since they already know which products are coming up and what they can buy online or in a grocery store next.
4 Digital Customer Journey
New innovations and technologies change our lives while Internet becoming more powerful. Organizations have an ability to deal with a large amount of data and at-tract awareness of consumers. This is helpful for customer behavior research and the ability to be able to satisfy their needs much faster than in the past (Witcher, 2018). This further gives purchasers more power in terms of available information about various companies, products and prices (Edelman & Singer, 2015).
Social media provides people with an opportunity to connect with thousands of dis-tinctive brands, analyzes and narrows them down to a number of desired options (Edelman, 2010). When consumers choose this route, it represents a traditional fun-nel of customer behavior. It includes the following stages: (1) awareness, (2) famili-arity, (3) consideration, (4) purchase and (5) loyalty (Court, Elzinga, Mulder, & Vetvik, 2009). Nevertheless, the research identified it as outdated, yet it can help to understand basic users’ needs.
Additionally, McKinsey Quarterly (2009) described a brand-new approach called customer decision journey, which includes four phases: (1) initial consideration, (2) active evaluation, (3) moment of purchase and (4) experience. Still these two paths can be classified as similar and can be used to identify a digital customer journey. Moreover, brand-new approach by McKinsey Quarterly (2009) can be used for fur-ther details on individual level (Anderl, Schumann, ; Kunz, 2015, p. 185-203).
Digital customer journey starts when a potential client identifies a list of desired products (Edelman, 2010). They can either be seen from the advertisements, in stores or recommendations by friends and relatives. However, with the existence of social media, the list of purchasers’ wishes is likely to decrease due to the availability of online reviews, ranks and other various supplement goods. The other important rea-son is that 40% of consumers wait until they see a product in a store and only then make a purchase decision (Court et al., 2009). At this point, packaging plays a signif-icant role (Edelman, 2010).
Whenever a user has a contact with a company, it influences the relationship between them. There is a direct consequence on fulfillment of the customer’s needs and its impact on the organizations’ net income (Grocki, 2014). The research by Anderl et al. (2015, pp. 185-203) showed that there are higher chances of positive purchasing decision when a shopper first visits the websites, established by the company and only then secondary websites that are created by users for example live-forums. If consumers do it backwards, then the purchasing tendency is likely to decrease.
Consequently, organizations need to understand their followers’ choices and behav-ior much better in order to sell their goods and services. Customer journey is either finished at this point or continues with an after purchase experience. This is an op-portunity for companies to create an ongoing relationship with already existing con-sumers and further suggest new products (Edelman, 2010). It can also be identified as a starting point when consumers begin their online research and organizations need to be prepared for this. Online business tools help reaching potential clients in the best possible way. This can be a search engine for example Google, or social media, such as Facebook, Instagram as well as email or display marketing (Anderl et al., 2015, pp. 185-203).
In this matter, buyer experience plays an important role. Lemon and Verhoef (2016, p.71) describe it as following:
“a multidimensional construct focusing on a customer’s cognitive, emotional, behav-ioral, sensorial, and social responses to a firm’s offerings during the customer’s en-tire purchase journey.”
So, the overview how purchasers are connected with brands and products can be represented by a digital customer journey. It will further provide a possibility to vis-ualize different stages of online communication from awareness, considerations, pur-chase, first usage, ongoing use and repurchase (Glassbox, 2017).
Customer journey map includes five elements: personas, timeline, emotions, touch-points and communication channels. Firstly, personas identify potential client per-sonality. It specifies “their needs, goals, thoughts, feelings, opinions, expectations, and pain points” (Grocki, 2014). Secondly, timeline describes specific periods of time for example awareness or purchase. Thirdly, emotions describe users’ reactions, which could be positive or negative (Pappas, Kourouthanassis, Guannakos & Chris-sokopoulos, 2017, pp.1-15). Fourthly, touchpoints identify all possible customers’ communication with a company. Lastly, communication channels such as social me-dia or online websites provide an opportunity for a dialog between both parties (Grocki, 2014).
Businesses should signify what the probable online user experience is before they make their final purchase decision. Identification of moments of truth is crucial. It provides an overview of when and how customers get into contact with a company and its merchandises. The main intention is to examine and improve clients experi-ence according to these touchpoints (Rosenbaum, Otalora ; Ramírez, 2017, pp. 143-150).
4.1 Facebook Customer Journey
It is difficult to differentiate brand offers online. According to Mark Longhurst (2017) the “organic visibility” of Facebook varies between seven to thirty percent. Research done by Simon, Brexendorf ; Fassnacht (2013) on 100 brands showed that 58% of the content on Facebook, which generates the most amount of likes and comments, is not connected to a company or its products. The meaningless publica-tions raise additional attention and therefore, boost number of likes and comments, especially for organizations that focus on food and beverages (Brexendorf ; Fassnacht, 2013). Moreover, photos and videos attract more views rather than pure text posts (Hettche, Spiller, ; Kim, 2015, pp.4-30). In regards of True Fruits, the company always uploads a picture of a product or relevant information about it with a short text. However, the photos of merchandise include the slogans on bottles or a creative designs for example ice cream made of smoothies.
If taking a deeper look at the possible digital customer journey, it could be analyzed by the following four steps: (1) awareness, (2) research, (3) consideration and selec-tion, and (4) use and advocacy according to the created persona Marie Funk on Fa-cebook as a communication channel of company with its costumers (Figure 26: Gen-eral Persona). However, with the current Internet possibility to get any desired in-formation online the awareness process moves up the latter, therefore consumers educate themselves about goods and services.
As a first step, awareness about True Fruits comes from grocery shopping, which is a physical touchpoint. According to the taken survey the knowledge about the product does not come from social media, but from real life experience. Marie is a student, who buys lunch in the grocery stores (Figure 26: General Persona). The question-naire showed that potential consumers see True Fruits products on the shelves due to its appealing packaging, content and the color of the smoothies and this is what at-tracts the attention. Big shops such as Edeka, REWE and Metro have True Fruits smoothies in their assortment. Moreover, REWE even has a possibility for delivery through its online service (REWE Dein Markt, 2018). Also, the smoothies are avail-able in some fitness centers and Aral Shop gas stations in Germany too.
The second step is a research phase. This is the time when clients would like to know more about an organization. Thus, digital touchpoints such as social media and home pages play an important role. Customers search for answers, compare a business to its competitors and read online reviews (Mark Longhurst, 2017). The strong online content and active social media presence are the key factors. For example, after Ma-rie found out about the company, she follows it both Facebook and Instagram to know more about the upcoming products and news (Figure 26: General Persona).
From the analysis of True Fruits official website and their Facebook page, it can be seen that the business provides detailed information about its co-founders, history of creation, commodities, ingredients, additional information on what to do with empty bottles and a possibility to order the desired products online (True Fruits, 2018). True Fruits official website is well designed, it is creative and the information is presented clearly. So, when Marie needs any information about the company or its products, she will leave the website with relevant knowledge (Figure 26: General Persona).
The Facebook page includes business information, contact details and a list of mer-chandises with prices. The publications include photos, videos and advertisements with all necessary contexts. When Marie enters the page, the automatic message with suggestion to contact the company pops up (Figure 26: General Persona). This makes it easy to stay in touch with the organization, if any questions arise. The other posi-tive sign is that in the chat-box it says that the company “typically replies within a few hours” (Facebook True Fruits, 2018). The page constantly represents new prod-uct options. In addition, the profile picture is updated by monthly. There are also possibilities to buy supplementary products such as metallic lids for a bottle or lim-ited addition smoothies with a relevant purchase link on the official website. Moreo-ver, from the requests of users, True Fruits team created an additional closed group for those consumers who collect empty bottles or look for a specific one (Facebook True Fruits, 2018).
The third step of digital customer journey would be consideration. It starts already after seeing the smoothie or bowl bottles in the grocery store, on the official website or the Facebook page. This is the moment when True Fruits needs to answer in-quires, for example Marie can ask when new products are going to appear in super-markets. From the Facebook analysis, the company answers questions and also re-plies to the comments in a timely manner (Figure 26: General Persona). Another ad-vantage is that on Facebook everyone can see which of Marie’s friends already liked True Fruits page. This action is a silent promotion for the company. It is very easy to select and purchase smoothies, since there is an online store on the official website and the Facebook page has a link to it with relative publications of drinks.
The official website shows all of the ingredients of foods and beverages with a dou-ble click on the product, therefore Marie drinks True Fruits smoothies as a quick and healthy snack. This provides a customer with a satisfying feeling. Marie cares about her nutrition as well, thus ingredients play an important role (Figure 26: General Per-sona).
The fourth step of consumer journey is the use and advocacy. There are tutorial vid-eos on Facebook on how to use supplementary products such as lids and etc. Moreo-ver, the official website has a page with frequently asked questions as well as other pages with suggestions on what to do with empty bottles. The organization also pro-vides customers with an option to send a picture of how the bottle was used and it will be posted on both, the Facebook and official website with the link on user’s pro-file. The other option would be to post a photo with the following hashtag: #truefruitsupcycling (True Fruits, 2018).
4.2 Instagram Customer Journey
However, in 2018 Instagram takes over Facebook and becomes more popular. One of the major reasons is the recent Facebook scandal, where the institution provided more than 50 million American users’ private data to Cambridge Analytica – consulting company (Wong, 2018). This further influenced companies’ advertising campaigns and resulted in new privacy changes, which make promotions and appearances on Facebok News Feed difficult without expenses (Dyakovskaya, 2018). Since Instagram belongs to Facebook, it can help the website to stay up to date and create a better relationship with younger consumers (Oreskovic, 2016). Instagram also becomes easier and more appealing for business purposes and already 80% of accounts belong to businesses (Instagram Business Team, 2018).
Different to Facebook, the tools available on Instagram make the experience on the website unique and give people a feeling of belonging to something special. These features include stories, feeds, live and IGTV (Instagram Business Team, 2018). It is also possible to create a user generated content (UGC) and personal hashtags. In fact, the use of popular hashtags can open immediately to an array to larger audience. The new shopping feature can also make buying decisions for users even easier, because it provides an opportunity to tag the products on the publications like an immersive storefront, so by one single tap a buyer can proceed to online purchases.
Going back to the created persona, Marie Funk, her digital customer journey on Instgram will start with awareness (Figure 26: General Persona). Since she found out about the products in the grocery store, she buys them there and researches more about the company on Instagram. At this point the process of gathering information starts starts. First posts are checked and in this is moment more knowledge about the brand and companies’ projects are collected. On the companies profile there is a link to the website, so Marie clicks on and explores it (Figure 26: General Persona).
Consideration and selection, this phase starts whenever Marie logs in on Instagram and on her feed she sees new publications and products (Figure 26: General Persona). Automatically, comments from users can be seen. IBM Tone Analyzer showed the overall comments are positive. This can also influence on the process of the purchasing decision. Moreover, True Fruits is using paid advertisement, which means that whenever Marie will scroll down her feed, companies advertisement may pop up as a suggestion (Figure 26: General Persona). Therefore, the organisation will be present in Marie’s mind. In fact, True Fruits Stories on Instagram are very affective. The bowl advertisement with a song from Modern Talking stays in the consumers minds for a long time, since it is simple and simply sticks in the head. The effectiveness of such advertisement is huge since hearing this song reminds Marie instantly on True Ftuits (Figure 26: General Persona).
The next stage in the Integral digital customer journey is the use and advocasy. There are limited additions available online. For example, Marie orders a birthday present for her friends out of this edittion. This purchase is special since the option is only available online (Figure 26: General Persona). At this stage, Marie is not only a customer herself but also makes recommendations for her frienfds by a purchase of this present. In addition to a bottle she also ordered a lid, which means that her friends can use it for other purposes like storing cereals and grains. Even if her intention is not to use True Fruits every week, she still uses bottles and other products by the company regularly and this makes her a loyal customer. Other companies such as Innocent do not provide such possibilities. Instagram has also an easier after sale experience. Marie can text any time the company online via a private message or a public comment. After the analysis, it was concluded that a True Fruits also answers the requests of its clients in a timely manner (Figure 26: General Perso-na).
The conclusion is that benefits in comparison to physical or traditional customer journey are less significant to the digital one. First of all, the Internet and digital touchpoints can be reached by users anytime online. Publications on Facebook and Instagram provide a quick overview of available products and needed information such as prices and contact details. However, not just company can reach a customer quicker but also the other way around. Emails, requests or comments in the Internet can reach the organisation much faster. The comments under publications are seen by a large audience, which should be replied to, to improve relationships with clients.
5 Recommendations
At the beginning of the paper there were three research questions identified about the status of True Fruits in the present and future. The primary and secondary research was conducted in order to provide the answers.
The first question was what is True Fruits current state in the German market. The analysis showed that the business is successful. A total of 74% of consumers come from the local market and the top cities are Munich, Cologne, Stuttgart and Frank-furt. The online marketing is on an outstanding level and the business has 673.810 online fans, out of which 561.600 on Facebook, 110.100 on Instagram and 2.100 on Twitter (Klear, 2018). The company has received 22 awards, which include Deutsche Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft (DLG) Awards in 2010, 2012 and 2014. These are the largest, independent quality test for fruit drinks and smoothies. In 2014, the business wins the Germany Packaging Award, which is one of the most prestigious in Europe, for the best innovative designs (True Fruits, 2018).
The second question was what is the customers’ digital journey in regards to True Fruits. Both Facebook and Instagram journeys were already described in the previous chapters. The last questions focused on possible future improvements: what the com-pany can learn and improve based on the conducted findings.
5.1 New Product Lines Based on Customers’ Feedback
The conducted Google Forms Survey on True Fruits asked the question about addi-tional snacks and beverages that a business could add to their products variety (Figure 32: Online Questionnaire, True Fruits). Online surveys are quick and valua-ble because customer’s feedback can be collected quickly and it provides companies an overview of what current demand in the market is. Further, digital diaries could be created to gather all the ideas and could be realized in the future.
Figure 2: Additional Products True Fruits Could Create (Figure 32: Online Ques-tionnaire, True Fruits)
Figure 2 provides the graph on which it can be seen that majority of participants (75%) would like to see coconut water and muesli to-go as additional option. The other favored alternatives were ice cream and fruits bars, which received 50% of the votes. Water was chosen only by 25%, however Figure 1 shows that water has 100% as the most preferable drink, therefore it still can be considered as one of the success-ful products. According to Herrmann (2016), 74.9% of Germans drink water several times a week as a thirst quencher, after sport actives or in the office. The top five favored water brands in Germany are (1) Gerolsteiner – 11.7%, (2) Volvic – 6.3%, (3) Vittel – 3.6%), (4) Saskia, Lidl – 3.2% and (5) Handelsmarke, Aldi – 2.9% (Herrmann, 2016). So, if True Fruits produces smoothies and healthy snacks, water could be a great addition. Since it regulates water functions and body temperature (Nestlé Waters, 2018).
The results of the online survey showed that the majority of votes were also given for the coconut water, which is a natural drink (Figure 32: Online Questionnaire, True Fruits). The scientific research on it started in the 1940s and the beneficial properties to health were proven (Jean, Yong, Ng & Tan, 2009, pp. 5144-5164). Thus, it is used in many foods and beverages. Rao and Najam (2016, pp. 1165–1170) said that there are “anti-diabetic, anti-hyperlipidemic and beneficial effects on digestive system” of coconut water. It is low in calories, 17-19 per 100 grams and contains a large amount of “sodium, potassium, and other essential electrolytes” which are necessary for human organisms (Research and Markets, 2017, p.1-69). Moreover, the study proves that in the experiment with young coconut water has increased the speed of swim-mer, which further demonstrates its antidepressant properties (Rao & Najam, 2016, pp. 1165–1170).
In 2016, the global market for different types of waters increased by 21% in its value (Zenith, 2017, pp.1-100). Coconut water is on the top of this list. Second and third place were maple and birch water. Also other types exist such as cactus, bamboo or artichoke. The prediction is, these beverages are going to rise in popularity by the year 2020 (Zenith, 2017, pp.1-100). In Europe, coconut water becomes more and more favorable. The forecast from years 2017 to 2021 predicts grow at a CAGR of 25.03% (Research and Markets, 2017, p.69). These changes can be explained by busy lifestyles. People start to diversify their habits and try to eliminate carbonated and sugar-rich drinks, such as juices and nectars.
For True Fruits new drink options could be a possibility to make variations in their beverages. Both, water and alternative waters according to forecasts would be more in demand (Research and Markets, 2017, p. 69). The online survey also showed, that customers would like the company, first of all to produce coconut water (Figure 32: Online Questionnaire, True Fruits). More awareness could be created, if acted ac-cordingly. Especially, since more healthy products will be available, it can help the fight against obesity problems.
The alternative would be to produce coffee drinks. It is considered as one of the pop-ular in Germany, since 76.7% of population drinks it several times a week (Hermann, 2016). The country takes third place in the coffee market after the United States and Brazil (Mordor Intelligence, 2017). Moreover, people are ready to spend more mon-ey on high quality coffee. Consumers between ages 18 and 39 favor one to-go, since the lifestyle is continuously changes and the mobility has increased. However, statis-tics vary within the cities: in Hamburg young adults, 18-29 years old prefer afternoon snacks in the form of a coffee and a cake. Whereas in Berlin, 47.1% of consumers search for new kinds of coffee, for example ice-coffee, different flavors or possible different locations (Mordor Intelligence, 2017).
There are some new trends in Germany such as cold brew -, ready-to-drink – (RTD), high quality -, or various flavors of coffee. Especially, cold brew coffee appeals to the masses and is already served as Starbucks, Costa Coffee and McDonalds. These are options, which True Fruits could consider and sell them also in gas stations, Edeka and REWE shops. Creating such a new line of products would be a great addi-tion to its smoothies’ variety.
One of the German companies, called Karacho, which was established in 2016, has already started the production of cold brew coffee (Karacho, 2018). The organization already has 2.124 followers on Instagram and 1.686 on Facebook. The drink comes in three different flavors: sparking lemon, organic latte, and vegan coconut and rice. They are available in Rossmann, Kaufland, Edeka and REWE to-go and dm (Damm, 2017). Therefore, the final suggestions for new drinks would be coconut water and cold brew coffee. First of all, the questionnaire (Figure 27: Online Questionnaire, True Fruits) showed that consumers already would like to have coconut water and according to statistics and coffee is one of the most favorable drinks in Germany. Thus, there is a high chance that these drinks would be favorable and as Karacho showed the cold brew coffee drinks are also successful in the Germany market.
The other additional products could include muesli to-go, fruit bars and ice cream, since 75% of survey participants are interested in them (Figure 32: Online Question-naire, True Fruits). Moreover, from 2009 to 2016, muesli sector in Germany doubled its revenue and reached 437 million EUR (Statista, 2018). In terms of ice cream, True Fruits Instagram post showed that it could be made from smoothies. Selling ice cream moles with True Fruits logo to make it even more relevant to the firm could be a great addition. Nevertheless, despite of new product lines, True Fruits should al-ways make the digital customer journey relevant to its consumers.
5.2 Improvement of Customer Journey Experience
Nowadays online competition within companies is constantly rising. That means that businesses need to figure out their unique ways to attract buyers’ attention in order to achieve high level of purchasing. In 2017, digital customer journey becomes more and more important, but it is a hard and multi-challenging task to achieve success. It expects a mix of traditional components for example management engagement, cross-functional teamwork and other digital aspects such as the newest technology and knowledge (Ehrlich, Fanderl & Habrich, 2017).
The results of the McKinsey & Company described in the article by Ehrlich et al. (2017) showed that if organizations follow this strategy, there will be a 15% increase in the revenue and at the same time a 20% decrease in costs. Moreover, there are four possible ways of how to improve the digital experience. First of all, a digital custom-er journey should be designed. The customer journeys on Facebook and Instagram were already described, so the first step was already taken care of. However, still the need of constant client feedback analysis in order to apply it to actual work and achieve an improvement.
The next step is to make this journey fast and be able to change it quickly (Ehrlich et al., 2017). This means that True Fruits needs to follow trends and always be up to date, which will help to make right decisions. In order to achieve this, “ways to be agile in generating insights” (Ehrlich et al., 2017) need to be taken. This could result in a form of “flexible and dynamic research approaches, mobile flash surveys and online focus groups” (Ehrlich et al., 2017). It is crucial to know all customer physi-cal and digital touchpoints and to be able to compare them with competitors. The general overview allows a quick understanding of what is missing and additional improvements to users experience. Figure 3 provides an analysis of all True Fruits touchpoints.
Digital touchpoints have a good connection between them. If a customer uses one of the social media profiles, then there is a link to the official webpage of True Fruits. The further contact details such as emails, addresses and phone numbers are also listed on Facebook and Instagram. If clients first enter the homepage of the business, then through click on the icon, they can be redirected to other network profiles: Fa-cebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and email (True Fruits, 2018). So, in both ways it is quickly and easy to visit the web pages, even if a person doesn’t have a social network profile. However, what is missing is personalized experience. The content is generous, users see the same posts and in order to find special or desired information, they need to do their own search on these pages.
Figure 3: True Fruits’ Digital and Physical Touchpoints (True Fruits, 2018)
To improve it, the company should make sure that it comes up in the news feed of topic channel on Instagram and answers to the direct messages with a quick video comment. Photos, videos and information about the company could be additionally divided and connected according to the main consumers’ interests, which are food, travel and fashion both on Instagram and Facebook. On the website, cookies could be used to make the visits more customized, for example for every 10th visit, a bonus given or a small present can be given. This would provide a unique and personalized experience for consumers on each of the digital touchpoints.
The recent research also showed that the use of mobile phones leads to the increase of purchasing behavior (Grewal, Ahlbom, Beitelspacher, Noble, ; Nordfält, 2018, pp. 102-126). True Fruits App could gather all the information and relevant details about the business and its products in one place. The example of Allianz in Turkey provides the overview that this methodology was successful and the usage by shop-pers of such apps has scientifically increased (Ehrlich et al., 2017). Moreover, Firu-zan Iscan, who is “the head of customer and distribution experience at German in-surer Allianz” (Fanderl, 2017), said that the institution has a great word-of-mouth experience since its aim is to become a partner of their clients. Moreover, they are measured by how high is the satisfaction of their buyers is, in order to understand what influences it will have on others if and when they recommend the company (Fanderl, 2017). It would be recommendable to True Fruits use such advertisement features. This will closer nit the company-customer relationship and more insights and customer feedback will be received. Therefore, the more feedback, the more ideas for new outcomes can be generated.
Multiple channels, which are online and offline are significant for the company’ suc-cess. The essentials for customer experience are that a business is an expert across all channels that it has (Kumar, 2018). Meaning, that is it Facebook, Instagram, Snap-chat or YouTube, each of them should be idealized as much as possible. Also it is important to understand why a company is using social media. True Fruits objectives are support healthy lifestyles. Thus, this should be kept in mind when posting on websites new pictures or videos.
Moreover, Google has introduced its mobile-first index (Schwartz, 2016). There is a search-ranking list based on the mobile versions of companies’ websites. Even if a business does not have one, the search engine will use a desktop version of the web-site instead. However, it might end up in the low ranking since not all information can be detected and read by Google service (Schwartz, 2016). This means that it is crucial to have both mobile version of True Fruits website and an app, since users do more and more search from their smartphones.
Yet there is not robots used everywhere, but a lot of artificial intelligence is already in practice and the voice search is raising its importance (Pearson, 2018). There are already Alexa and Siri electronic services that are available in the market (Tipler, 2018). In the nearest future, True Fruits could use “near me” (Pearson, 2018) option as a paid strategy, so individuals do not have to type. In the future, voice search can be used by Google Search Console platform (Pearson, 2018).
Artificial technology is constantly improving. There is a possibility that in the future Internet of things (IoT) and communication technology will replace people in the purchasing processes. IoT market will rise up to $1.7 trillion by 2020 and more than 25% of the households will use virtual assistants (Chung, Park ; Lee, 2017, pp-1-11). All of this influence on marketing strategies as well as customer experience. Thus, Marketing 4.0 starts talking more about a balance between “machine-to- ma-chine (M2M) with human-to-human (H2H)” (Kotler at al., 2018). Through digital and real experiences, IoT can help organizations to implement compelling adver-tisement campaigns across social media networks. Therefore, such strategies enables consumer to pay more attention to certain goods and services (Ismail, 2017).
Chatbots are a connection between companies and their buyers. The forecast for 2020 says services like these will be used by 80% of institutions (Vishnoi, 2018). Large organizations like H;M and American Express have already disclosed the regular use of chatbots for the communication with young generations, since 60% of young adults are working with them daily (Vishnoi, 2018). It can be easily imple-mented with mobile apps, websites, voice technologies or messengers (Ismail, 2017). The greatest benefit is that chatbots are error free, they are not bias and do not get tired. This proves, customers’ requests can be answered any time as well as product details can be provided. Yet personalized experience is crucial, 57% of buyers said that are willing to share their personal information if companies provides personal discounts or rebates (McGinnis, 2016). Moreover, 52% are ready to change a com-pany only if another one will provide more customized experience (McGinnis, 2016).
Markets become more diverse and still cultural differences influence buyers’ prefer-ences. Companies should have in mind and be able to satisfy desires of consumers (Kumar, 2018). Personalization and digital journey analytics is the key of future digi-tal marketing. Individuals desire to be appreciated and companies should be able to differentiate their clients. Moreover, if there are problems arise in regards to the goods or services organization provides, then it should be able to offer solutions and make customer experience positive. If consumers do not see the expected experience from one company, then they can quickly change to another one since there are no switching costs.
By using chatbots, True Fruits will improve sales and buyer experience. It will save labor time, which can be spent on developing other important strategies. In terms of individual personalization, holiday bonuses can be introduced for example for birth-days, during Christmas, Easter, Mother and Father days. Online and offline coupons and rebates for loyal purchasers could be also created. Another possibility would be to provide an opportunity to design a customized bottle on the website or in the app for special occasion. This could raise more interest to the company and make their bottles even more unique and desired. Themed bottles could be also produced in rel-evance to topics in which followers are interested: food, travel, and fashion (Figure 3: Klear, True Fruits).
Moreover, an author Kerry Bodine suggests using a real life experience and talking to customers while they are shopping. The reason is that online interviews and sur-veys may provide the general feedback, however the significant problems or missing touchpoints might not be identified (Drell, 2018). Thus, True Fruits might try to talk directly with their purchasers, for example by having a small stands in Edeka or REWE shops and not only advertise products but also ask people for their opinion, suggestions or any feedback. This is crucial since online and robotic communications cannot be put in place of real life conversations as well as certain emotions cannot be read by analytical tools (Labrecque, 2014, pp.134-148). The combination with online reviews could be helpful to see a full picture of the business. Therefore, digital should not replace traditional marketing. They need to co-exist, but still have differ-ent roles (Kotler, Kartajaya, Setiawan, 2018). Traditional marketing creates aware-ness and attracts attention to products, which can be seen by True Fruits glass bottles. However, digital marketing is needed for creation of trustful relationship with con-sumers and constant communications with them.
The investigation by IBM Tone Analyzer of True Fruits customer comments, gives knowledge about all have different level of satisfaction. The tones of the emotions were joy, analytical and sadness. By the analysis of opinions, the institution could identify what is perceived as negative, can be improved and how other people see the company while reading these online feedbacks. Additionally, True Fruits could share both negative and positive feedback on their web pages and further comment on im-provements, so other people who might have similar issues could see the changes. Alternative could be a promotion of users online for their opinions. They can be tagged directly in the comments or publications. Also, a special thank you smoothie bottle could be send to loyal users and customers.
6 Summary ; Outlook
The conducted analysis on True Fruits showed that it has a leading position in a German market, especially in Munich and Cologne. Additional interviews, question-naires and data analysis could identify specific reasons why company’s products are so successful within these locations. According to the article by Schoenhaar (2016), the top three future cities in Germany are going to be (1) Munich, (2) Ingolstadt and (3) Wolfsburg. Thus, the business could try to approach them in the future in order to expand in the local market.
Not only supermarkets can be reached in these cities for eventual growth, but also other strategies. True Fruits can acquire new ideas from its competitors. For example Mymuesli has stores in several metropolitans including Berlin, Munich and Leipzig. By using this scenario, True Fruits could increase their market footprint. Potential stores could comprise out of assortment of products including smoothies. It could also be a bar where a smoothie bowl is made for clients, which also combined with additional shelves with goods, similar to Bite Delite business strategy. Therefore, a creation of restaurants, bars or small cafe chains by True Fruits would be a further step in its business development. Additional line of products, which institution does not have yet could include coconut water, cold coffee, ice cream, fruit bars and wa-ter.
Organizations’ social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram have thousands of followers. The Keyhole investigation showed that the company has an outstanding level of engagement online. Its competitors are also strong in the market, but the dif-ferentiation strategy in terms of the quality of the products, packaging designs and unique advertisement campaigns give True Fruits its loyal clients. IBM Tone Ana-lyzer provided emotions of users both on Facebook and Instagram, which most of the time were positive and pleasurable.
Refereing back to the paper, the digital customer journeys were analyzed from point view of focused group and social media analysis. A general customer journey for a created persona was identified. It showed that the awareness about True Fruits starts in grocery shops and only later leads online. The market research showed that in the future, social media would take over the informational channels for shoppers. There-fore True Fruits needs to improve their social network websites. Consistency and one line of objectives and goals across all channels should be created. Further personali-zation in terms of packaging of the bottles could be improved. The possible analytical tools that could be used in order to improve digital customer journey and experience include Google Analytics, Salesforce and Adobe Campaign.
The research limitations are, that there was no contact with an institution, therefore some startegies that were described could already be used by True Fruits. Thus, for the future improvement a new reserch could be conducted in cooperation with a company in order to describe more details and use the information that an organisation already has. Another critical point is that the focus group was only four people, which might have ended up in a bias conclusions and statements. However, only potential participants who drink True Fruits smoothies were questioned. The improvement could be to conduct the survey with more poeple.
New possible research questions could be (1) how can businesses make sure that their brands create trust and an attitude and not only promise quality of their prod-ucts, (2) how organizations assure a consistent brand management across social me-dia channels and different countries, and (3) what new online and content strategies could be used in order to keep followers on social media profile and make them ap-pealing and entertaining for users?
These findings could help True Fruits to keep their leading position in the German market and provide a possibility to expand internationally, which could be a new goal for the organization until year 2025.
