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How can retailers navigate economic headwinds, shifting consumer behaviours and rapid advances in AI technology to stay relevant and profitable? Vogue Business hosted the Power to the Marketer Festival 2023 in partnership with Emarsys to explore how brand leaders can combine art and science to deliver hyper-relevant experiences, win customers in a volatile market and turn a new generation of shoppers into fans.
This year’s global festival kicked off at Famtain private members club in Munich on 13 June before travelling to The Standard in New York on 4 October. “Marketers are walking a tightrope,” said Joanna Milliken, CEO of Emarsys. “On one side, their customers; on the other side, their business. They have to answer to both and keep both happy. It’s a balancing act.”
In the opening fireside chat, Carolyn Dawkins, CMO of luxury jewellery retailer David Yurman, said the role of the marketer has become increasingly complex. “We try to focus on ‘fewer, bigger’,” she said. “What are the key things that will have the biggest impact? Who are the critical consumers we need to win? How do we acquire them, and how do we retain them? Then we have to galvanise the magic of the entire team around those big moments.”
The jeweller tapped Sofia Richie Grainge to be its newest global ambassador and the face of its Sculpted Cable bracelet collection campaign. “We knew we needed to attract the next generation — and there’s no one who dominates style on Instagram and TikTok more than Sofia Richie Grange,” said Dawkins. “The campaign delivered four of our top-performing marketing assets of all time and took us just three months to launch. Brands have to find that balance between agility and long-term planning.”
In a panel session on how to future-proof loyalty, Saks CMO Emily Essner pointed to a rebound in luxury spending. According to the latest Saks Luxury Pulse, a periodic online survey of luxury consumers’ attitudes towards shopping, spending and fashion trends, 58 per cent of luxury consumers planned to spend the same or more on luxury in the next three months, representing the first increase in luxury spending plans since the survey began tracking this in May 2022.
“Personalisation is really core to our strategy. We want to demonstrate to our customers that we know who they are and what they're looking for,” said Essner. “That’s centred around what we call our customer DNA, which is about 250 observed and predicted attributes. That allows us to serve customers with highly relevant content and recommendations while driving retention.”
Ana Andjelic, chief brand officer at Esprit, also touched on the importance of a brand’s DNA. Amid a new wave of nostalgia for 1980s and 1990s fashion, the retailer has relaunched in North America and revived its positions in existing markets such as Europe and the Middle East. “We have to go back and look at what made the brand successful in the first place: what is the Esprit DNA?” she said. “It’s about drawing on our history of playfulness and breaking the rules — and then doing a sequel.”
Footwear retailer Foot Locker is in the midst of a brand revamp with a ‘Lace Up’ plan in place to help boost market share and grow sales to $9.5 billion by 2026. “A big part of that was identifying the right athletes to make the right content; going back to our roots in sports and bringing back the Foot Locker brand that people know and love and want to follow,” said Amondo Redmond, Foot Locker’s former CMO.
The next panel session unpacked how brands can blend data with creativity. Chris Worthington, head of marketing and e-commerce at Urban Outfitters, said the brand uses first-party data to inform its product assortment and draws on qualitative insights from its UO Insiders’ Programme to understand consumer mindsets: “Urban Outfitters has been the curator of cool for many generations. Whether you’re into skateboarding or surfing, we play to really creative, niche pools of customers.”
Lisa Pillette, SVP and CMO at Fossil Group, said that while data is critical, the important thing is how you use it. “There has to be a willingness to learn something; an innate curiosity to validate or invalidate a hypothesis, fail fast and then move forward.”
“Most CMOs will tell you that the best ideas actually come from customers,” added Heather Kaminetsky, president of North America at luxury retailer Mytheresa. “The idea for our new Life category came from a client who said to us: ‘I want you to continue to decorate me, but I want you to also decorate my home.’”
“I’ve learned in my career that there’s only one boss, and that boss is the customer,” said Sandeep Seth, global CMO and North America president of Coach.
In the final keynote interview, Seth explained how Coach is resonating with younger shoppers. “Luxury has shifted from being about status and exclusivity to being about self-expression and inclusivity. Our role isn’t to sell another handbag; it’s to give people confidence to express themselves.”
This mission is captured in Coach’s Courage To Be Real campaign and new Coach Play stores, where customers are encouraged to play and explore. “That’s the big shift: we’ve gone from talking about our products to talking about our purpose,” said Seth.
On 11 October, the Power to the Marketer Festival travelled to London, with more than 150 brand leaders from across the fashion, luxury and lifestyle sectors gathering at 180 Strand.
Manju Malhotra, the boss of luxury department store Harvey Nichols, talked about the “potent cocktail of pressures” that business leaders have faced over the past few years, from the pandemic and supply chain issues to labour shortages, inflation and geopolitical risk.
To bolster customer loyalty, the retailer launched a new rewards programme last year, with a range of personalised benefits and an elevated cash-back offer available for members. “There’s a generous points system, tangible benefits and flexibility around when customers can redeem their points,” said Malhotra. “We’ve seen that for every pound a customer redeems, they’ll spend about another £14, so the programme has been really successful.”
In the current climate, businesses are being challenged to cut costs while finding new ways to attract and retain customers.
“The beauty of being a startup is you don’t always have lots of money, so you have to be creative in what you do,” said Shira Feuer, CMO of premium beauty and skincare brand Trinny London.
She talked about using “impactful entertainment” to target a demographic of women aged 35+. “The beauty industry is, in general, quite ageist so there's a real opportunity to talk to women who are ignored and overlooked,” she said. “I’m lucky that our founder Trinny [Woodall] comes from a TV background and is willing to do a lot of crazy things, like recreating Hugh Grant’s dance scene from Love, Actually. We also have the Trinny Tribe — a group of around 100,000 like-minded beauty lovers — and they are the best brand advocates you could wish for.”
Heritage brand Mulberry is combining tradition and innovation in its marketing strategies. It recently launched its circularity programme, The Mulberry Exchange, in China with a series of pop-ups in four cities across the country, exhibiting a curated selection of pre-loved pieces. The launch was supported by a campaign featuring Chinese actress Zhu Zhu and a partnership with Little Red Book. “Mulberry has always had a made-to-last philosophy. Our products genuinely have longevity built into them,” said Simon Gresham Jones, CMO at Mulberry. “It’s rare to see a famous model or actress proudly holding a pre-loved bag. A lot of this is about thinking differently in how we might punch above our weight in certain markets.”
At British lifestyle label Orlebar Brown, the focus is on creating content and campaigns that have “stopping power”. “Our content platform, OB shorts, is rooted in short stories and short films,” explained Orlebar Brown CMO Trevor Hardy. “We work with director Marie Schuller to create film trailers; it’s an interesting and unexpected way to bring customers into the brand and get them to spend a bit more time with us.”
Data is one of the most valuable assets brands have. But leaders from Farfetch, Bombay Sapphire and Hurr cautioned against becoming too dependent on it.
“There are times when marketers lean too much on data and they start to lose their gut feeling on things,” commented Nick Tran, CMO at Farfetch and former head of global marketing of TikTok. “Data should be an enabler, not the thing that you're reliant on.”
Natasha Curtin, VP of Global Marketing at Bombay Sapphire, agreed: “Barbie is really hot and exciting right now – but that doesn’t mean we should launch a pink gin. Data should inform you but it’s dangerous if it then takes away the skill of the marketer or the role of the brand. You need to understand the trends and ask: ‘Could we do it, and should we do it?’ ‘Will this be around in 10 years or just 10 days?’”
At fashion rental site Hurr, data plays a powerful role in expanding into new specialist categories such as skiwear and bucket hats — but direct interactions with customers are crucial. “When you become a top lender at Hurr, you get invited to the VIP WhatsApp chat,” said founder Victoria Prew. “Our ‘power users’ are incredibly valuable to us in terms of percentage of revenues so the insights we get from them are critical. We have regular breakfasts with them and the C-suite team spends at least half a day every quarter calling customers. At Hurr, we’re trying to change behaviours, so the closer we can be to our customers, the better.”
In the final keynote interview, Nobody’s Child CEO Jody Plows shared insights on how she’s building an eco-conscious fashion brand which has sustainability woven into its fabric. “We’re looking to capture a more considered customer and we want to take market share from unethical brands,” she said.
That starts with fabric choice. “Fabrics account for up to 80 per cent of the footprint of a garment. We’re working with industry experts at The Right Project to be pioneers in this space. I’m really proud that 95 per cent of the fabrics that we use are certified sustainable — and we’re working hard on the other 5 per cent.”
This year, the fashion brand took a step towards greater transparency with the launch of digital product passports to empower customers to make more conscious and informed choices. Each item in the Autumn/Winter Nobody’s Child x Happy Place Collection features a unique QR code on the care label that customers can scan with their smartphones to see a detailed journey of that product’s creation. “By 2024, the QR code will be on all of our garments,” added Plows. “Quite simply, sustainability is the future of fashion. The decisions we’re making now will impact future generations.”
The Power to the Market Festivals in New York and London were moderated by Kate Bassett, contributing editor at Vogue Business. All sessions will be available to watch on-demand here soon.
Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com.
