How Molton Brown Builds Connected Consumer Journeys
Molton Brown—a manufacturer of luxury personal care, fragrance and cosmetics products—has been investing in a connected consumer experience that uses data-driven, lifecycle marketing to bring automated, hyper-personalization to life.
The company has been working with SAP’s commerce cloud platform to support its efforts in better understanding the consumer point of view. It uses behavior data to build trust and relevance to then convert first-time buyers into large customers, according to Naresh Krisnamurthy, senior manager of the company’s cosmetics business transformation segment, who spoke during a recent SAP virtual event.
It’s a continuous journey that requires orchestrating highly tailored customer journeys that consider purchase history, browsing behavior, email engagement, loyalty insights, influencer data and more.
Keeping consumers at the center
While the company sought out a partner that would help it better understand consumer pain points and expectations, Krisnamurthy said the technology is simply an enabler. The real transformation happens when cross-functional teams speak the same language and operate with the same goals.
“Use technology to have your strategy be successful and then break down silos between commerce, marketing and data,” he said, adding that KPIs must be unified across channels before using automation in journeys to do test and learns and move quickly.
This results in streamlined omnichannel experiences for all consumers, whether they shop online or in-store (or both). For example, Molton Brown uses its data to craft a personalized journey that begins with a welcome email, gets consumers interested with predictive product recommendations and then reactivates them with post-purchase communications.
Diving into the data
The approach is channel- and buyer-specific. Take Gen Z, for example, who never checks their email, said Krisnamurthy. “They go on social media and we want to make sure that they get the content they would like.”
It’s a dynamic strategy that combines data with cultural relevance and meeting consumers at the right moment.
“Businesses need to understand that a customer who abandons their cart online, for example, should receive a specific reminder or incentive to complete that purchase nearby,” he said. “That is the methodology we have used, which will help in terms of increased footfall, stronger channel energy, and better ROI clarity.”
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Every interaction should lead to further questions: How can we use these insights to achieve higher open or click-through rates. How can we increase the average order value? Can we do some cross-sell journeys? How do we reduce churn due to timely re-engagement?
Post-purchase feedback is among the most critical data the company gathers, he said, allowing Molton Brown to shape product recommendations and campaign tones based on consumer sentiment.
Ultimately, the company’s digital team takes all this data and brings segmentation capabilities to scale so the leadership team can make timely and critical decisions about its VIP customers, product categories and more, said Krisnamurthy.
