CMG’s Sally Mueller on content becoming commerce

Since the launch of its app, Clique Media Group, also known as CMG, is doubling down on collecting data to make its customers’ experience personalized and intuitive.

“Data gives every user a customized experience and makes it a personally meaningful platform,” said Sally Mueller, chief brand officer at CMG, on stage during the Digiday Retail Summit last month in Napa, California. “We need to embrace data, turn the numbers into meaningful applications and offer valuable experiences that put product into context and bring back the sense of joy and discovery in shopping.”

Edited highlights appear below:

Social media influences retail
“We know that 72 percent of our shoppers say that fashion sites influence their style, and 70 percent say that they’re more inclined to buy something that’s likely to end up on social media. So we’re in new territory. We wanted to capitalize on the ability to create a great content community to build a consumer lifestyle brand. It’s not just about convenience, but about bringing back the joy in the shopping experience.”

Input points for data help with data fluency
“We have a tremendous amount of data coming: We survey our community; we have them vote on our product; we use Snapchat for getting at our constant loop of information from our community. It’s not just about quantity of data, but the use of data and how you integrate it into all areas of the community. It’s data fluency. The data is brought in and applied to product as well as storytelling.”

Brand development comes through personalization
“Involving the consumer in the product-development process is key. All of this is powerful when a customer feels like a VIP. It’s the way of the future. Purchases aren’t just transactions; they have to be a personal communication with the brand. Understanding that is an important part of content becoming viable commerce.”

The retail industry is the Wild West
“We’re thinking about the passion point of consumers and building product around that. We’re all trying to do that. Figuring this out is the Wild West. To do this, we envision the entire product life cycle. It’s a mix of trend forecasting, editorial insight, proprietary data, fashion expertise, audience co-creation and social marketing.”