How To Implement Agile Marketing Strategies for Retail Success

Agility isn’t just a strategy; it’s a necessity for a fast-paced world . As many wish to prove that their marketing campaigns are well-executed and instrumental to their revenue growth, agile marketing has never been more critical for us to create bottom-line impact and overcome hurdles during volatile market conditions.

In this blog post, we understand why we need to adopt an experimentative approach – testing out a plethora of campaigns to measure their impact and scaling those that have driven success. In this new era, we need to embrace flexibility, collaboration and data-driven insights!

Hear from Jo Hall, Investor, Advisor NED, former Chief Commercial Officer, Toys 'R' Us, Alexandre Coussy, Founder, Coucou Marketing, and Olya Rudenko, Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director, Cars24 Australia, as they showcase how retail marketers like you can transform your marketing approaches and achieve remarkable results.

Key Driving Factors that Promise Success in Agile Marketing

Don’t Accept the Status Quo & Stay Curious

Alex has a mantra: never accept things at face value, but question everything. "When stakeholders mention that something doesn't work or can't be done, it may just be a misunderstanding. You need to do your own due diligence if you're convinced it's worth pursuing."

He shares a personal experience in rolling out successful marketing campaigns even when the odds seemed to be stack against him. He stated, “when I heard that low stock campaigns couldn't be done because the product data feed was not coming into the ESP, I investigated and unlocked +15% revenue from automation.”

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Alex believes that leveraging customer data analytics and fostering cross-functional collaboration within the organization such as IT and customer support and with tech partners are pivotal. Alex claims that “tech partners need to have more of a consultative approach rather than just selling software as a service; they are becoming almost like consultants.”

Fostering A Culture of Continuous Learning and Experimentation

For Olya, continuous learning and experimentation are non-negotiable. "Always learn, isolate investment for big bets and protect the core spend on things that work."

Jo echoes this sentiment of being open-minded when brainstorming for campaigns yet staying fixated on what they wish to achieve in their marketing roadmaps for increased brand value.

She believes that marketing is driven by the hunger to know ‘why’ and offers a structured approach to agile marketing:

Focus on the 'Why': “Marketing should always be objective based”, where every campaign or promotion must aim to meet specific, customer insight and measured by metrics that reflect the same objectives

Never Compromise on Brand: Too often, companies chase the latest advertising trend or technology hype, even when it has no relevance to the brand. This generally happens when business results are declining or due to the H.I.P.P.O. effect (Highest Paid Person's Opinion). Brand values should never be compromised under the guise of 'Agile Marketing.'"

Embrace Failure: There is a need to promote the test-and-learn approach while pushing creative boundaries. “Perhaps only 10% will work, but from the 90% that failed you will learn what not to do. Always test as much as possible and never take it for granted that an idea, product, or campaign is a 'Slam Dunk.'

She stresses the importance of trials within larger campaigns, especially during non-peak seasons, and never dismissing or underestimating their effectiveness. "After every trial, conduct a deep review to identify why it worked or failed and what changes are needed when scaling”.

Jo Hall believes that the agile marketing approach enables retail marketers to thrive with flexibility, adaptability, and collaboration. She mentions, “with autonomy and real-time feedback, our teams - especially across social - are empowered to test, learn, and adjust swiftly. If something isn’t resonating, we catch it early and pivot fast.” Such an approach empowers the marketing team to keep the customer at the heart of their efforts, ensuring that every message feels personal and relevant.

Navigating Brand Consistency Across Touchpoints

Maintaining brand consistency across various touchpoints can be a significant challenge. Alex highlights issues businesses face when operating across online and offline channels, franchisees, and different business units in various countries. "Inconsistent visual elements or misaligned tone of voice in print messaging can disrupt brand consistency," he explains. His solution? "Clear brand guidelines reviewed every six months, regular staff training, frequent reviews of off-brand assets, and a strict approval process."

Olya underscores the complexity of maintaining consistency in high-touch businesses. "In our business, a customer could interact with up to 10 people through their purchase journey. Human interaction is crucial for five-star reviews, but the more people touch your product, the harder it is to manage consistency. Technology can help with a low human touch approach at a lower cost. Self-navigating websites, transactional CRM, and AI-powered support ensure consistent brand interaction."

She adds, "The main thing to watch in technology-enabled customer experiences is how quickly and accurately you receive feedback. Feedback can be harder to collect and identify flaws compared to human interactions."

Brand Adaptation

Jo sees an emerging problem in brand adaptation when they have retail stores of different sizes, formats or layouts.

She believes we can overcome this by establishing strict brand and store guidelines, clear chain of approvals and constant customer feedback. By prioritizing the customer experience, retailers can receive feedback from them and review layouts, signage and planograms and give a new look to their stores while ensuring brand consistency.

Maintaining Brand Voice

Jo also finds collaterals that require translation challenging. She claims that “it’s very easy for a brand’s tone of voice to be lost when text is translated, especially when the copy is bold or quirky.” She believes that internal vetting and brand styles in multiple languages, including Brand Tone of Voice (ToV) Guides, are important.

Internal Communications

As internal communications are normally managed by Human Resources (HR) or an internal communications team (not the brand team), they are often seen as separate from the rest of the company. Jo believes brand culture and style guides need to be developed across different teams such as the Brand / HR / Sales / Merchandise teams. Furthermore, there must be clear chain of approvals before collateral is released and the team should use “the same agency as far as possible and if budgets allow.”

Conclusion

All in all, Jo claims that “keeping brand consistency across all touchpoints is sometimes a challenge, especially on social, where trends demand quick adaptation.” What she advises us to do is keeping our content “fresh” and “on-brand” while ensuring that every post is distinctly us. When dealing with stakeholders, she thinks that “we should set clear guardrails to keep messaging sharp. As for global markets, “we balance cultural relevance with brand integrity. Strong guidelines, regular check-ins, and a centralised content system keep us aligned.”

Contributors:

Jo Hall, Investor, Advisor NED, former Chief Commercial Officer, Toys 'R' Us

Alexandre Coussy, CRM & Lifecycle Marketing (freelance), Coucou

Olya Rudenko, Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director, Cars24 Australia