Comparison: PXM vs. PIM vs. DAM
How do the disciplines PXM, PIM and DAM differ? We demonstrate the differences between the various data management systems and show how they relate to each other and for which business models they are most suitable.
Customer purchasing behavior has changed in both the B2C and B2B environments. Customers today no longer want to contact sales staff at the beginning of their purchase decision phase. They usually make their information and purchasing decisions online, based on the content provided by the company. If the content is not sufficient to convince a customer of a product or service, it is highly likely the customer will spontaneously and flexibly jump to a competitor’s offer, which better meets his expectations. For this reason, it is more important than ever to provide customers with high-quality content and information that adds real value to the customer journey.
The production of multimedia content is an ongoing and living process. The more products and brands a company maintains, the more target groups and target markets it serves, the more channels and platforms it plays on, the more media data needs to be collected, managed and distributed. To avoid data chaos, successful companies use a digital asset management system (DAM).
Digital asset management is a discipline that helps companies organize their media data (images, graphics, logos, videos, PDFs, audio files, 3D models, etc.) in a central library and distribute it from there to all relevant channels. In this context, a DAM system facilitates collaboration with internal and external stakeholders and makes recurring tasks more efficient through workflow automation.
“DAM stores, manages and renders rich media, including text, graphics, photos, video and audio. DAM can be sold as a software license or hosted service. Typically, DAM systems are intended to support a wide range of actors — from specialized creative to generalist production to more operational and administrative roles — both inside and outside an organization, often including agencies and channel partners.”
Source: Gartner Glossary: Definition of Digital Asset Management, 2021
A DAM system takes into account, among other things
Consistent product communication
A DAM system ensures that all team members and departments (marketing, sales, PR, product management, etc.) have access to all current and approved media of a company. This avoids the risk of inconsistencies and errors in cross-channel product communication due to outdated files. A DAM system thus contributes to consistent brand management in which the corporate design is adhered in all brand touch points and in all target markets.
Improved product experience
Rich media content helps differentiation and increases customer attention and engagement, ultimately leading to higher conversion rates. Correct and high-resolution media improve product presentation and deliver added value to customers in the purchase decision process. The better a product is described and visualized, the more likely a customer is to make a profounded purchase decision and converts to a buyer. At the same time, relevant product information can accelerate the purchase decision process and minimize the rate of returns.
According to a survey on the topic of “Returns in e-commerce”, over 26% of returns are due to incorrect image descriptions.
Source: Statista “Survey on returns in e-commerce in Germany”, 2019
More efficiency and productivity
Digital asset management enables efficient collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders. Media data can be shared quickly and securely with employees, external agencies, suppliers or sales partners. Automated processes in content creation also reduce error rates, shorten approval processes, and save personnel resources. A DAM solution also offers much more comprehensive search and filtering capabilities than standard file hosting services. Users can search for keywords, categories, or specific tags for their products.
“A DAM system reduces email traffic for retail companies to approve and capture media data by up to 100%.”
Source: Data-Talks, „How PIM & MDM Boosts eCommerce KPIs”, 2020
Adherence to compliance rules
With a digital asset management system, your media data is secure, both inside and outside your organization. It provides protected storage through high-level encryption protocols. In addition, a DAM system gives you control over the user groups that can edit the digital assets. It ensures that only selected and authorized user groups have access to certain files, which is especially important when working with external stakeholders such as agencies, partners, suppliers, etc. A DAM system thus ensures the quality and protection of media data throughout the entire product lifecycle and provides the foundation for comprehensive data governance.
While Product Information Management enables the organization of product information such as product attributes, product descriptions or simple visuals, a DAM system is a central repository where logos, videos, 3D models, documents, audio files, etc. are stored and managed. DAM systems are mainly used by brnads and retailers who need to manage a lot of media content for many purposes.
A PIM system, in turn, enables the digital assets from the DAM system to be distributed across all relevant channels with the associated product information. In this case, both systems complement each other and work best together to achieve the best possible product content management.
Learn in a free online demo how you can use both disciplines, PIM and DAM, profitably for your business model with prodexa Cloud. You can also find out in numerous case studies from different industries how prodexa Cloud ma
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