Canadian Retailer - Holiday 2016 - 44

CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

The very nature of retail culture
is to serve, satisfy and delight
the customer in order to create
the 'WOW' consumers expect
and demand. The exchange
of ideas, networking meetings
and discussion of best practices
that took place at Retail Council
of Canada's (RCC) DTLQC 2016
prove that today's retailers are
in hot pursuit of providing that
'WOW' experience.
BY JEAN-LUC BERNARD,
B.A.A., M. SC. & CMD, Lecturer at
Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières,
DBA student, Université de Sherbrooke
THE DTLQC conference, held this past Sep-

tember in Montréal, brought together nearly
400 participants and over a dozen exhibitors
with some 20 speakers, to discuss whether or
not focusing on the consumer experience and
customer-centric branding can help Québec
retailers create the 'WOW' effect and set themselves apart from pure play competitors.
The vibrant and energetic conference highlighted many things, including the fact that
the retail industry is indeed one of the most
dynamic and fast-paced industries in the world.
Speakers shared the ways their companies
are creating the 'WOW' for their customers by
understanding them and the relationship that
they have with the brand, exploring and investing in technology that can be leveraged
to help build that relationship, and creating a
store environment that resonates with their
needs and preferences.
Québec retailers today are operating in an
environment of ever-increasing competition,
44 |

CANADIAN RETAILER | The Loss Prevention Issue

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE,
ECONOMY AND THE
RETAIL BRAND
where the consumer has access to product from all around the
world through multiple channels. Despite the product that's being sought, however, according to a recent KPMG survey titled
'Seeking Customer Centricity', 67 per cent of consumers are
looking for positive consumer experiences. Yet, only 50 per cent
of organizations take this into account.
Understanding the consumer experience

For Anne-Marie Leclerc of lg2, the customer experience is a created between the brand and the consumer when they connect in a
personal and technological way. To connect with consumers, she
explains, retailers need to find the right balance of rational and
emotional interactions, depending on the buying context and the
products to be purchased. She
explains it as a triad involving a They [retailers] have
product and its unique sales pro- to stop thinking mass
posal, customers and their emo- communication and act
tional reception, and the culture on individual interactions.
and social setting of the retailer.
They have to stop buying
Maison Simons is a great example of the cultural connection impressions but create an
that can be created between the impression. And finally
brand and the consumer. For Phi- they have to stop working
lippe Normand, the retailer's Mar- the point-of-sale and
keting Director, it's important to instead create a home.
shift from the concept of consumer to the concept of human, and to draw on values instead of simply
trying to meet needs. To do this, Maison Simons listens a great deal
to its employees, leading them to a much better understanding of its
customer. The result: an elevated experience for its customers that's
rooted in its culture and understanding of the people who make
their business what it is.
Marty Neumeier, Director of Transformation at Liquid Agency,
agrees that the experience is critical to the success of any retailer. However, he suggests that in order for many retailers today to
transform the experience for their customers, an overhaul of their
marketing approach is needed to execute what he calls a "brand

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Canadian Retailer - Holiday 2016