“Are we making the most of the digital shopper opportunity? Probably not,” says Diageo’s Charlie Greener
Diageo’s head of shopper marketing, Charlie Greener, has said the alcoholic beverage company isn’t doing enough when it comes to capitalising on the digital shopping revolution.
Speaking at a TMW panel session in London about digital-shopper marketing opportunities, Greener acknowledged that the company had a way to go in terms of its offering to digital shoppers. “We are probably not using all the opportunities, but we are concentrating on the biggest material changes that we can,” he said.
“Our website thebar.com is a portal which has everything you need to know about spirits and will drive consumers through to buy products online and engage in social interaction”.
Launched in October, the site is fully mobile and allows users to construct shopping lists via a variety of different categories. He added that Diageo was “at odds” with e-commerce norms due to the spirits category being a “low frequency, highly emotional” shopper experience, with consumer perception that the outlay involved with buying spirits is higher in contrast to wine and beer.
Touching on other digital offerings from Diageo, Greener described the company’s Guinness app as being “pretty clunky”, but that the drinks company is working to make it more user friendly.
Meanwhile fellow speaker Katrina Dodd, a strategist at Contagious communications agency said Britain needed to do more in the digital shopping market and that retailers should “connect the dots” when it comes to insight and driving traffic.
She referenced Russian supermarket chain Land, which is is using Synqera technology to scan personalised recommendations for shoppers and give out stock level information as they enter the store, and compared it to Sainsbury's 'price match' receipts that are given out as customers leave and often "stick between the microwave and freezer".