From passive retailing to active consumer marketing

Asked about the democratisation of travel today, and how to keep the attention of a new wave of travellers, Lal said: “It’s a global business, and one way is to say ‘let’s just target those global travellers’. The other way to go is to segment by traveller group and then target them effectively. Just going global and targeting every traveller does not make for good risk and reward when you consider the effort required. We want to identify who is travelling, understand who they are, where are they going, what products engage them and how to target them.

“Moving away from just being focused on retail to being focused on the traveller is the key shift that needs to be made. You need to stay relevant: when people travel they’re in an exploration mindset and so shop in a very different way.

“One key aspect we need to bear in mind when we come to build experiences for the Millennial traveller is that they’re looking for spontaneous gratification. We’ve invested in the organisation to make the transformation from passive retailing to active consumer marketing. We need to change our mindset from putting bottles on shelves to providing an experience that these travellers will then share with the whole world.”

Tamara Lohan added: “What’s important is that we ask customers what they want from us. They want inspiration and discovery and a seamless but also human experience. We are an experiences company. Ours is quite a complex sell, with an opportunity to create friction and disconnection on one hand but also something beautiful on the other hand. The airport itself lends a captive audience with holiday money to spend. There is the opportunity of creating a beautiful space that lends itself to ‘discoverability’ and inspiring shoppers to buy a product that they haven’t considered before.”

She added: “It’s the exchange of value that is critical. You have to question what value you add for the consumer. If you’re there just to sell to them, they’ll tick unsubscribe pretty fast.”

Looking at the way in which data is key to serving up what consumers want, when they want it, Brian McBride asserted: “Data capture is one of your key weapons and we have learned to harness it. Our customers have willingly shared a huge amount of data with us, which gives us the chance to develop strong relationships with them.

“If you can get to the point of them sharing their desires and aspirations directly with you, you can garner a huge amount of valuable information about them – but there has to be something in it for the customer. At ASOS we create a buzz and excitement through rich content that we know they will resonate with them; this gives us the right opportunity to open up a dialogue with them and keep them engaged.”

That means knowing your demographic well. For example, McBride said, “the Millennial wants to know what your impact and purpose is as a brand. They are about not being part of a crowd, they are thoughtful and considerate.

“We are also content creators, we are not just about selling fashion at ASOS. You come to our site and we need to be able to tell you what to wear at a wedding in three months’ time, what is in trend, what is coming. Our average customer is probably a 23-year-old female, who buys four times a year but who comes to our site every week. So there has to be something new for her every time, even if she only buys now and then.”

Crucially, he added, the focus must be on mobile engagement now. “You have to earn the right to be part of the new generation’s everyday interactions with the world via their mobile. So start with the customer and work backwards. What’s in it for the customer? Whatever you’re doing, the business starts and ends with them.”

Lohan agreed: “You’ve really got to question what value you’re adding to the consumer. We are focused on taking care of the detail; when we initially chose hotels for our book we asked ourselves how it felt in the hotel. For example, what’s the lighting like? The music – what can you hear? Is it blaring or does it lull you? When you bring that back to business, it’s the detail that really matters.”

Lal said: “Don’t mistake a shopper and a traveller to be the same thing. Travel retail allows you the chance to provide an experience, tap into their an exploratory mindset. People didn’t spend US$69 billion in the industry in 2017 just because they went on a trip; it’s about capturing people with the right product and experiences, and about capturing each generation in different ways. A travel retail store should not be about retail, but about trial and experimentation. That’s not to say you can treat people the same. Chinese consumers are more about planning, British Millennials are much more impulse-driven. Who buys based on plan, who buys on impulse, that all feeds into how you go to market with products that suit them.

“It is vital that we focus on the exploratory mindset and ultimately in converting a ‘traveller’ into a ‘shopper’ as we continue to innovate and drive growth today and in the future.