The Trinity Forum: Trinity Panel
Putting the consumer at the heart of the conversation
Customer-centricity must lie at the centre of the Trinity and true collaboration can only be achieved with bolder, braver attitudes among the Trinity stakeholders. That was the emphatic message from a engaging panel involving an airport company, travel retailer and brand owner on day two of the event.
Heathrow Airport Retail Director Fraser Brown, Avolta President and Chief Executive Officer Asia Pacific Freda Cheung and Pernod Ricard Global Travel Retail Vice President Marketing Liya Zhang addressed the imperative to focus on consumer demands rather than being held back by the siloed structures within the channel.
Fraser Brown, centre right, hailed the example of a big Patrón tequila campaign last year as the Quaternity (including airport company, retailer Avolta, brand owner Bacardi and advertising partner JCDecaux) in true collaborative action
Brown highlighted the strong return of Heathrow as one of the world’s largest international airports and hubs. “Growth has come back and in the past few months we’ve been trading at pre-pandemic levels. What stands out for me is our connectivity to China and to India.
“50% of all flights that departs Europe to China come from Heathrow, and three in every four of flights to India from Europe are from Heathrow. And we all know how important those flights are for travel retail.”
“We are short spaced at Heathrow but we don’t have any plans for a major expansion in terminals,” he added. “We need to drive more service and money but from the space we already have. The good news is we can do fabulous things together with our partners. Instead of the Trinity, we have embraced a Quaternity approach to include our colleagues in advertising at JCDecaux. We do things with these partners across retail and advertising in smaller formats.”
Brown singled out the example of a big Bacardi-Patrón campaign last year. “They came with a different brief. They wanted to tell a brand story and wanted to use experience to tell that brand story. The KPIs were focused on service and brand building and not ‘how many bottles of tequila can we sell’. That’s what set it apart for me. They came looking to achieve a higher purpose and adopted a longer-term approach. That’s one way we can behave differently.
“Our collective future is about collaboration in the space we have, getting the offer right, delivering fantastic experiences and doing that digitally too, not just physically.
“We’ve got the travelling passengers back, the footfall is there, and now it is our responsibility to drive penetration into stores.”
Zhang exhibited how Pernod Ricard Global Travel Retail is “embracing the magic of human connection”.
She outlined the key pillars of Pernod Ricard’s ‘Connect with Impact’ approach. She said: “We aim to put travellers at the heart of everything we do, allowing them to discover our brands and connecting with them together with our partners to drive the most impact on a global scale.”
Key to this approach is the spirits company’s ‘Demand Spaces’ framework which explores shopper typologies and shopper missions.
Zhang made the point that many travel retail spaces are designed for those that are in the habit of shopping in those spaces but are unfamiliar to new, emerging travellers groups who also have money to spend.
Asked to highlight a recent memorable collaboration or campaigns from Pernod Ricard, Zhang said: “Our Jameson ‘Arrive Like a Local’ campaign, which was amplified by different touchpoints, saw us partner with our colleagues in the domestic market to create more seamless conversion along the journey. We teamed up with TripAdvisor and phase two will see us partner with payment system providers. It’s about elevating campaigns beyond travel retail to the broader travel eco-system.”
Liya Zhang: Elevating campaigns beyond travel retail to the broader travel eco-system, with Jameson ‘Arrive Like a Local’ a powerful example
Freda Cheung: Thinking afresh about the use of retail space at airports
Moving the needle for the consumer was a theme also highlighted by Freda Cheung, who said: “As a retailer we organise ourselves by category and design our stores like that, but is that how consumers shop? If not, then how can we design the store differently and go beyond category thinking? We need to ask ourselves what it really means to see things from the eyes of the traveller.”
On the travellers themselves, Cheung noted that they are getting younger, and have different needs and wants to other generations. “They want convenience, they want digital, they want a sustainable element to shopping.”
Pulling these threads together for the benefit of the industry community should be a spirit of collaboration.
“Together we can do what we can’t do alone,” Cheung added. “That means all of us in the travel eco-system, not just airport or retailer or brand. There is no reason why we can’t partner with hotels and airlines if there is an opportunity to move the industry forward.
“So how do we move from conclusion to action? Let’s test and learn together. The incredible technological advancement in recent years has fundamentally changed the way we learn and interact with each other. The speed and impact of this change is unprecedented.
“Consumer-centricity is really what drives us and having a purpose-driven approach is key,” she added.
The Avolta mind.body.soul concept underlines how purpose-driven ideas can succeed in travel retail, said Cheung
An example of recent innovation with purpose is Avolta’s cross-category mind.body.soul concept, all around wellness and health. “We’ve launched 15 stores now worldwide and we’re launching more soon,” said Cheung. “The concept serves a purpose and was created by looking through the eyes of the traveller.”
Addressing what each Trinity party needs from the other, Zhang said first that data-sharing was paramount, and second, that collaboration can be deepened to include work across categories, not just within categories.
Cheung added: “This is the right time to come together with the evolution of the business post-pandemic to do what we cannot do alone. Let’s be bold to move the needle.”
Brown concluded: “It takes us all to be a bit brave as organisations, and to be prepared to share in ways we haven’t. Taking that first step together is key. We will make mistakes. If we’re brave, we can do great things together. But let’s also focus on the size of the prize, not how we cut the cake.”
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The Moodie Davitt eZine
Issue 329 | 22 November 2023
The Moodie Davitt eZine is published 14 times per year by The Moodie Davitt Report (Moodie International Ltd). © All material is copyright and cannot be reproduced without the permission of the Publisher. To find out more visit www.moodiedavittreport.com and to subscribe, please e-mail kristyn@moodiedavittreport.com