Shopper Marketing - May 2017 - 22
PROGRAMS with our suppliers because we have a mutual objective. When we add that personalized value component, it's all about driving increased basket size, increased trips and brand dollars." There are multiple fronts for personalizing the quarterly communications, said co-presenter Lisa Zhao, who manages supplier direct marketing for Walgreens and works with CPG manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson to help them reach their best consumers at the chain. The retailer's strategies include: n Relevant offers: 99% of recipients get a different communication. n Tailored messaging and content: telling members about the specific promotional events that they have not yet opted in to, for example. n Preferred channel: Walgreens continues to take advantage of the traditional print route but also employs email, Catalina prints at checkout and the digital programmatic channel. With the goals of incremental sales and higher engagement, Walgreens makes little tweaks to its strategy every quarter. The retailer has experimented with the offer mix, for example, to balance reward and acquisition whenever they reach out to a member. "We want to reward customers for continuing to buy the same thing by giving them an incentive, while our CPG partners want to acquire new customers," Zhao said. The tweaks are executed through a strict due diligence process to see which changes will eventually help drive more sales and a higher response rate, which ideas are repeatable in the future, and which are scalable. On22 y SHOPPER MARKETING MAY 2017 going measurement of the incremental sales response is crucial. In the short term, it's about the incremental trip. For long-term measurement, the retailer maintains a control group that does not receive the Quarterly Thank You communications. "The goal of personalized marketing isn't to drive lift and stop there, it's to optimize over time," Heintskill said, emphasizing that the control group is necessary to show that the program is working and that it's getting better over time. "So the more we learn, the more we can optimize, the more data we collect - the better and better we should be getting." Walgreens also applies learnings from the Quarterly Thank You program to smaller projects. One such effort added a personalized element to complement the retailer's ongoing support for Vitamin Angels. Leading up to Thanksgiving, Walgreens ran a national "Happy Thanks for Giving" campaign with a personalized element that re-engaged the customers who had supported the charity. "We went after vitamins customers with a direct mail piece, email piece, digital programming to really emphasize that 'Thanks for Giving' and hone the message a little bit more around vitamins," Heintskill said. The personalized outreach included relevant vitamin offers targeted for each customer. "We don't have to convince these suppliers to participate," Zhao said. "For CPG companies, it's always about acquiring new customers so from the Quarterly Thank You personalization they actually see the value of doing that, they're not afraid of extending these really high-value offers for those who are already purchasing SM their brands."
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.