The Lead Summit conference wasn’t the only thing that was lit last week.
NYC was HOT!
Amid the heat was one retail executive dinner, podcast interviews, and an hour spent on stage in conversation with colleagues.
Here is my recap:
First up, our retail executive dinner which was an invite-only affair with leaders from Theory, Signet, Steve Madden, Lacoste, AmeriCo. Group and more. I co-hosted with Rick Horwitch, Chief of Supply Chain & Sustainability Strategy at Bureau Veritas.
The theme of the discussion centered on brands and whether or not they should meet customer demand or set the trend. Also, it turns out that quality and brand image are top priority for brands today. Finally, we also talked about whether the covid pandemic was in fact a missed opportunity for brands to engage in true business transformation.
Everyone walked away having consumed not only delicious food, but also thought-provoking discussion.
Next up, The Lead Summit.
Angie Rieger (Chief Transformation Officer, Lands’ End), Vivian Chang (former Head of DTC, Clorox), and Pooja Chandiramani (VP of Insights, Coach) joined me on stage to showcase how their organizations uses insights to get closer to their customers.
My first guest was Angie. Lands’ End, a brand that started out as a mail order business, is now a multi-channel brand with the catalog still going strong. Angie’s team is determining how to personalize the catalog, its contents, and cadence based on data and insights. The Lands’ End customer has many connection points to the brand. The goal is to customize these connection points through insights to determine the right product at the right time and in the right place.
Next, I sat down with Vivian, who led the DTC strategy for the Clorox Company. With a banner of brands from cleaning to home to wellness, launching a DTC channel opened up access to valuable first-party data. It was an opportunity to find commonalities among customers who bought a cross-section of their products. The customer that uses Clorox wipes may also filter their water or use all-natural wellness products. The strategy was to democratize the data across brands so that teams could use insights to inform R&D, design and marketing.
My last guest was Pooja. Coach has undergone a significant transformation, evolving from “your mother’s handbag” to the top-rated Gen Z handbag brand. The transformation is grounded in being consumer-obsessed across their organization. Before rolling out a new campaign, Coach tests content with Gen Z for relevance. New iterations of best-selling handbags are validated with the consumer before designs are finalized. The target consumer is part of the entire end-to-end process.
Final thoughts: Using insights, customer feedback and data to inform design, merchandising and marketing decisions is not new.
What’s new is the abundance of data, channels, and the many ways a customer can engage with a brand.
Connect with the customer, ask them what they want to see from you and take action.
Previous PostMore Supply Equals More Demand, Right?