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Why retail marketers should be leading the way

When I joined Tesco (then a struggling U.K. supermarket chain) as a young marketer, retail was at best a marketing outpost.

Simon Uwins, loyalty expert

August 22, 2014

2 Min Read
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When I joined Tesco (then a struggling U.K. supermarket chain) as a young marketer, retail was at best a marketing outpost. For a career in marketing you were supposed to join the likes of Procter & Gamble or Unilever. I remember my family and friends thinking I was crazy to join them.

However, as it turned out, the marketing challenges I encountered in retail are faced by every marketer today.

For a start, I soon learned that a retail brand is not created through advertising, but by the customer experience of shopping the store: from the cleanliness of the parking lot to the demeanor of the employees, customers read the store body language and sense what the brand is really like.

This is now the reality for most brands, as the volume and variety of touchpoints have multiplied through digital technologies.

I also quickly learned that when your brand is defined by customer experience, you better make sure your customers feel appreciated and your employees live and breathe the brand. Even then, word of mouth was the single biggest driver of visits to the store. Today of course, social media has put word of mouth on steroids.

And once Tesco launched its Clubcard loyalty program in 1995, I came to appreciate how data can be used not just to target new customers but also to improve customer experience and strengthen loyalty. In today's world of big data, this should become second nature for every marketer.

These challenges resulted in a very different approach to marketing. Much of the effort was focused internally on improving the customer experience and shaping the culture of the company, rather than just on advertising and promotion. Today, this approach is becoming the new normal for marketing everywhere. With their experience, retail marketers should be leading the way.

Do you see this happening? What other lessons might marketers learn from retail?

Simon Uwins is a former CMO of Fresh & Easy and Tesco UK, and author of "Creating Loyal Brands" (2014). Find him online at www.simonuwins.com.

 

About the Author

Simon Uwins

loyalty expert

www.simonuwins.com

A visionary CMO, educator and loyalty expert, Simon has demonstrated the power of customer loyalty in creating long-term growth.

An ex-CMO of Tesco, he’s a pioneer of Clubcard, its renowned loyalty program, and served as a director of Dunnhumby, the customer science company that underpins it. He also built the retail brand Fresh & Easy from scratch here in the U.S.

A recognized thought leader, Simon has a popular blog, an award-winning Flipboard magazine, and is author of Creating Loyal Brands. He teaches a graduate course on branding at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication, and provides consulting services around loyalty and retail.

With a master's degree from Oxford University, Simon grew up in London. Based now largely in Los Angeles, you’ll normally find Neil Young or Radiohead blaring when he’s behind the wheel.

Find him online at www.simonuwins.com.

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