Bill McCoy, senior vice president of operations with Riverstone Logistics, relates the message of his keynote address at the recently concluded, first-ever Global Supply Chain Marketing Summit. For logistics and delivery providers, he says, it's all about brand.

McCoy, the keynote speaker at the Global Supply Chain Marketing Summit on Amelia Island, Florida, talked about how to make the supply chain a key component in the “brand promise.” He says the event highlighted the importance of brand as one of the key “pillars” of supply chain marketing.

“I tell my folks, we’re in the business of delivering experience these days,” McCoy says. “It just happens to be that there’s an appliance or piece of furniture on the truck.”

A logistics provider such as Riverstone is the “last interaction we have with the consumer,” he says. “It will validate or invalidate the brand selection.”

McCoy says B2B marketers can learn something from their counterparts in B2C, especially about the price to be paid by service failures such as late deliveries and product damage at any point during the shipment. “You’ve got to look at the total supply chain, to make sure your infrastructure and technologies are geared to address the entire journey.”

The Global Supply Chain Marketing Summit was also an opportunity for McCoy to connect with marketing executives and hold in-depth discussions about the topic of supply chain and its importance to brand reputation.

“Today more than ever,” he says, “with the increasing pace of e-commerce and the way the culture has been set by Amazon and others, supply chain has to represent the brand. It has to be a tight partner in the overall experience.”