Superdry: ‘Mobile marketing is about enhancing the brand not just commerce’
When pondering your next mobile marketing campaign, don’t just think about what you can sell your customers by promotions, think about what service you can offer, advises Superdry’s mobile and digital experience director Kate Cuthbertson.
The clarion call to advertisers highlights the critical need to overcome the complexities, rules and opportunities for successful proximity marketing. Retailer expectations and mobile tactics need to chime with shoppers’ behaviours and preferences, said Cuthbertson, rather than showering them with unwanted communications.
Speaking to The Drum as one the judges for 2015’s Mobile on Marketing Awards (MOMA), she added: “We know customers love Superdry products and the theatre and personality of our stores; the latest developments on Smartphones and wearables mean that we can now use mobile technology to amplify everything that’s great about Superdry and create memorable, joyous, personalised shopping experiences that enhance the brand rather than just selling clothes.”
Few bricks-and-mortar retailers have capitalised on the opportunity to marry their location-based product inventory with shoppers’ location-based product needs. Beacons could tip the scales in marketers’ favour, predicted Cuthbertson but only once there are more successful examples to learn from.
“[Beacons] the concept is brilliant and has so much potential, but I have yet to see an impactful, widely adopted campaign that has relied on iBeacons for its success,” she added.
The missing ingredient is the customer-centric part of the strategy. The aspect that ensures customers feel valued and not like the advertiser is trying to part them from their cash. It is an approach Superdry has tried to use to good to good effect, emphasising cross channel conversions from media plans with mobile at the core.
Marketing that reflects and exploits the ubiquity of mobile is what will be catching Cuthbertson when judging this year’s MOMAs.
“Entries that have truly understood customer needs and used the unique capabilities of mobile to create an amazing customer experience,” she added.
The MOMA’s, sponsored by Weve and Mapp Media, is now open for entries and looks to celebrate the most effective and innovative work carried out in the mobile industry. More information on The Drum MOMA Awards can be found on the dedicated website.