Canadian Retailer - Fall 2014 - 38

2014 kpmg WomEN IN REtAIL EXEcutIvE RouNDtABLE

Extending the brand experience

At Purdys Chocolatier, creating a special
level of engagement is the name of the game
when it comes to social media-a channel in
which, explains Kriston Dean, the company's
Vice President Chocolate Merchandising
& Marketing, Purdys invests a significant
amount of its marketing spend.
"Our focus is on authenticity and transparency," she says. "We provide our consumers
with complete access to our operations, providing them with behind the scenes glimpses
of our facilities and allowing them to see our
chocolatiers at work. We even provide them
with sneak peeks of the new recipes that
we're working on. Because of this deeper experience that we provide, the response from
our customers has been incredible, leading to
impressive engagement with them. We leverage Twitter and YouTube to do this, in addition to promoting events, classes, first tastings, etcetera. Interestingly, food is really not
that different from fashion. Today, everyone
is a foodie. People spend a lot of time thinking about what to pair with their food, and
that includes the chocolates they are serving
at their next dinner party. Social media provides us with a great opportunity to help our
customers and remain connected with them
and top-of-mind, twenty-four hours a day."
Carol Deacon, Senior Vice-President, Digital and Loyalty at Canadian Tire, also recognizes the power of social media, but cautions
other retailers that there is one simple criteria
by which to base the use of social media.

38 |

cANADIAN REtAILER | fall 2014

"It all really has to come down to relevance," she says. "Despite the channel you're communicating on, and the message
that you're conveying to your customer, it has to make sense
for your business. And for it to make sense for your business,
it needs to be relevant to your customer and your brand."
One way Canadian Tire has found relevant use of the
medium is in the testing of their products-an ingenious way
to both connect with its customers and receive valuable feedback from them to help meet their needs.
"We've developed a panel of consumers who help test our
product. We're engaging with them via social media to do
this," she explains. "It's proven to be an amazing tool that
allows us to communicate with them, in near real-time, and
receive instant feedback that we can immediately act on and
implement into our operations. It helps us improve our offering and our service instantly. There aren't too many other
tools that can help you do this so quickly."
pointed messaging

And relevance, Linda Maslechko, CEO of Calgary-based
retailer, Triple Flip, is all about the customer. "At Triple Flip
we have two demographics that we target via social media-
parents and girls, and we engage with them through different social channels," she explains. "Until recently, Facebook
was a great place for us to connect with both generations,
but now the kids have left Facebook and are on Instagram,
which, along with Pinterest, are exploding at a rate not seen
before. What this means is that our communication to both
the girls who wear our clothes and the parents who will ultimately buy them, will vary. We communicate according to
the channel and the audience, and we customize our message for each. It's a wonderful platform to be able to share
the good things happening in our communities, such as girls
becoming change heroes for the world."
Metro is another retailer that leverages social media to great

Canadian Retailer - Fall 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Canadian Retailer - Fall 2014