Canadian Retailer - The Marketing Issue - 32

PARTNER MESSAGE DAC GROUP

Reaching your customers in meaningful ways.
BY SEAN C. TARRY

IN retailers' perpetual quest to connect with customers, both existing and new, and engage and excite
them in personalized ways at the local level, the path
forward is clear: it's digital. Canadian Retailer sits
down with Mario Lemieux, President at DAC Group-
the largest privately-held digital marketing agency in
Canada with a growing international footprint in the
U.S., the U.K. and Europe-to talk digital, how retailers can leverage it to greatest effect, and where the
medium is heading.

Canadian Retailer: How has the evolution to digital
affected marketing teams and their relationship with
the customer?
Mario Lemieux: We've gone from a very linear and
predictable process to creating micro-moments,
whereby the consumer is telling retailers what they
want and how they want it. In the retail environment,
Mario Lemieux leads Canada's largest digital marketing agency.
they can price shop, compare, read reviews, look at
product availability. Marketing teams today have to
understand and try to predict what the consumer's going to do. CR: How important is consumer data? And how
do you dissect it in a way that's meaningful?
Their behavior doesn't go from a-z anymore.
ML: It's more important than ever because of
CR: How important is the power of digital when it comes to
what you can do with it. But, you have to underlocal marketing?
stand what the business KPI's are. What does
ML: It's the enabling tool. The ability to cross-pollenate locasuccess look like at the business level? When
tion with personalization and amplify the right message at
you have a clear view of how success is measthe right time and place is amazing. Most people are carrying
ured, then you can correlate your data points to
smart devices. And they're almost always signed on, making
those and connect the dots to arrive at the corwhere you are just as important as who you are. Retailers now
rect business outcomes. And, of course, constant
have the ability to know where their customers are at all times,
evaluations and adjustments based on consumer
allowing them to geo-segment the audience. Retailers able to
behaviour at the local level is critical.
leverage local, be it through content scaling or unique messaging at the individual level, locally, will win.
CR: How does social media support and augment
local marketing?
ML: Social is an integral part of it. Consumers are going to
be using it to talk about their local experiences. It's your new
word-of-mouth. It's how customers are expressing themselves,
except it has an amplifier effect. You can reach 10,000 people
with your messaging just by posting a review. The opportunity
for retailers to play and leverage this is immense.

32 |

CANADIAN RETAILER

| THE MARKETING ISSUE

To learn more about DAC Group and how it can
help your business reach more customers, visit
www.dacgroup.com.

http://www.dacgroup.com http://www.dacgroup.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Canadian Retailer - The Marketing Issue