quick overview:
- Deeper understanding of 4.5m Woolies customers;
- improved range differentiation, especially in clothing;
- new "shop-in-shop" concepts such as Twist and Country Road; and
- accurately targeted direct marketing.
2009 focus
understanding customers
Continually improve our understanding of our Woolworths customers and ensure that our store formats and locations and our product offerings are designed to meet their needs.
brand development
Entrench relevant exclusive Woolworths brands, eg. Twist, Country Road, jt one, WCollection, in the hearts and minds of the core target audience and apply range differentiation to general merchandise and food as appropriate.
targeted marketing
Focus marketing efforts on more personalised direct marketing and e-marketing incentives for particular customers, driving better customer understanding of the relevant Woolworths offer.
retail: customers
The Woolworths customer is at the heart of our retail strategy and drives all merchandising and selling decisions.
The focus over the past 18 months has been to develop an even deeper understanding of our customers: the buying patterns of all Woolworths 4.5 million customers are analysed on an ongoing basis; data from nearly 2 million Woolworths card customers is extensively mined providing further information; and 80 000 customers on the Woolworths customer panel participate in regular research focus groups giving us valuable insights and additional qualitative data.
The results from this deep customer research inform detailed segmentation models for the Woolworths customer across clothing and general merchandise and food. Using these clearly defined customer segmentation models, ranges are developed, meeting customers’ exact needs.
In clothing, the range differentiation is best explained as a 9 box grid, mapping customers’ lifestyle profiles to merchandise classifications – classic, modern and contemporary – and price points – good, better and best. The clothing ranges are then developed to provide optimal solutions for each customer profile but with clear differentiation, for example, Country Road womenswear, launched in South Africa in April 2008, offers the modern customer the best quality and value while Twist, launched in August 2008, targets our contemporary customer with fashionable newness at good value.
This more structured approach to buying, merchandising and branding makes customers’ shopping decisions simpler. The brand differentiation provides our customers with clear in-store destinations that meet their requirements, and stores will be optimally stocked to offer the product best suited to their needs.
Work is underway to apply a clear food segmentation model to the food business. Not only will this inform the cataloguing of the store, enabling customers to find more of what they want at their local store, but the further differentiation in the ranges within the food market will help customers make simpler buying decisions based on their lifestyles and immediate needs.
Woolworths continues to develop and sustain loyal customer relationships through segmented and targeted direct communications. World magazine, showcasing the latest product offering in stores in an exciting and accessible format, is distributed monthly to selected high spending customers. Direct mail to selected customer segments, highlighting relevant offers, was a very successful and important focus.
Woolworths has developed a distinctive “shop-in-shop” concept for selected brands. This offers customers a destination within the store with a differentiated point of view and dedicated service such as WCollection, jt one, Country Road and Twist. Trials are also being conducted with homeware as well as cellular and digital products.
In-store communication continues to reinforce the Good business journey and further supports the drive towards responsible retail. The communication inspires and informs customers about new product developments, health and environmental benefits and Woolworths ongoing focus to help our communities, our country and our world.