Speaking at Ometria’s Lifecycle23 conference in London this morning, Ted Baker’s former chief customer, marketing and digital officer Jason Beckley laid out what he believes to be the common mistakes that retail marketers are making, and how they can be rectified.
Pointing to the rapidly changing retail landscape over the past several years, with increasingly rapid advances in technology rendering the sector virtually unrecognisable from what it was 15 years ago, Beckley reminds marketers not to lose sight of who their customers truly are: “At the end of every digital journey, and every data journey is a human. Someone who’s looking for a positive experience, wanting to feel identified, to be related to, someone who is emotionally driven.”
Although Beckley stresses the importance of brands retaining their humanity, and operating on a human scale – he does however praise the recent advances in technology: “We’re super lucky to exist at this moment and work with the emergence of the most powerful communication tools that the world’s ever seen, every day, right at our fingertips, to make us faster and more efficient at what we do.”
As such, the current climate enables marketers to produce more work, and more efficiently than ever before – and it is this ability to produce campaign after campaign at the most granular of levels that can sometimes lead marketers to lose perspective; “the marketer’s key role is to translate strategy into humanity”, Beckley adds.
Singling out US sportswear giant Nike as an ideal example of retail marketing, Beckley highlights its ability to consistently adapt to changing consumer demographics as a key factor in its cross-generational dominance of the market.
Citing the Colin Kaepernick controversy in 2018 as a flashpoint for the brand, Beckley effusively praises Nike’s understanding of its customers and their values: “They indicated with conviction that they stood for something, they didn’t hide head down at the back of the room, and hope the debate would wash over.
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“They knew the course was right. They knew the course meant everything to their team, their tribe, their consumers, those that they seek any cost to represent. Their people needed that platform and so they used it. They knew their customers and understood them.”
None of this is new of course, but Beckley re-iterates the need for brands to focus more on their customers, to identify with them – instead of blindly chasing the bottom line.
Brands that are able to adapt, that are able to speak with humanity to their consumers and constantly change to respond to their needs and wants, will ultimately always succeed even in the toughest of headwinds.
He adds that marketers should never lose sight of the value of their brand and product. Chasing the quick sale with constant promotions and offers devalues the product. They must let the consumers know that what they sell is valuable, and not disposable.
Essentially, retailers should always be switched on to their consumers and their evolving needs and wants. Successful retail marketing is human-centric, not sales-centric.
