How to Make Data Your Secret Weapon

For our next panel, we're going to be talking about how to make data your secret weapon. Brands have a huge wealth of data at their disposal today, but not everyone is using it efficiently, but it can play a really important role in decision making, And moreover, there are lots of challenges and opportunities that come with better use of data. So for my next panel, I'm really delighted to invite Lena Muellertout, Lena Molllettoit, apologies. The CMO of Acres, And Adam Nate, the worldwide digital engagement manager at Saint Laurent, welcome Lennon and Adam. Please join me up here. Hi, Adam. If you wouldn't mind just going in the middle and Lennon just on the edge, Well, we are really appreciative to have both Lennon and Adam with us today because they both have quite long gunny Adam arrived from Paris this morning. Berlin. Oh, from Berlin this morning. Apologies, and Lena has come all the way from Switzerland as well. So you know, thank you so much for making the journey out here. I just wanted to start by asking each of you to just introduce yourself and your role at your company. So, Adam, why don't you go first? Sure. Hi. Hi. My name is Adam. I've been working at Saint Laurent for three years now, but we've been getting called. For five years and I managed what we call digital engagement. So digital engagement at Sanon is Well, it was a new scope where within the scope, we manage social media, CRM, innovation, so the launch of the apps on our app, for instance, and data. So what we call precision marketing. So anything related to organic, engagement, conversion, etcetera. And that's And hi, Adam. Thanks so much for the introduction. And thank you for organizing the event. It's fantastic. Nice to be here. Yeah. My name is Leonard Melorte. I have been in marketing, our brand management, a digital transformation for almost two decades, and that may me feel very, very old, but the good thing is I experience everything before data, social media, digital as well. I started my career working in different fashion houses, so la cost, Europe, Rife, Lauren in different positions before I moved then to the Middle East where I spent ten years in Dubai. And this is when I joined the automotive industry and I have been working with Mercedes Benz as head of marketing and communications there for five, six years. And the aim was they wanted to bring in a non automotive market here to be able to speak with magazines, you know, from the house of Condinas, etcetera. Because they were always very strong in automotive, but the idea was let's reach out to a new audience and that is more interested in lifestyle and fashion, not just automotive in cars. And then two thousand nineteen, I have been invited to come to the headquarter in Stuttgart to drive the digital transformation in Europe. And together with the team, this is what we have been doing. And last year, I joined An Acres, and I don't blame you if you don't know who Acres is. I read from a journalist one time, it's the best kept luxury fashion secret out there. And I think that's true to a certain extent. We are celebrating hundred years this year, and we are the only Swiss brand who always shows the Paris Paris Fashion Week in Paris, of course, then. So Thank you for having me. Thank you so much. So two very seasoned professionals are mistaken with me. Lena, I wanted to start with you. I'm quite excited talk about this topic. Over the last ten years, the conversation has really evolved from a focus on big data to all of the different manifestations of data. And you you mentioned some of your previous roles with brands like Mercedes Benz, and I think you've done quite a lot in this space, haven't you? Introducing new tools for example like predictive analytics. Can you just show a little bit about some of those changes that you've seen in the data landscape? Yes, with pleasure, So I mean, overall, I I share you enthusiasm when it comes to data. And I remember a decade ago, everything was about big data and I think that was in the advent of the big tech companies, Google, Amazon, Facebook, now matter how they started collecting data and customers were more and more willing to to to give this data freely. And then every brand was talking about data and how we can collect data. And it was not so much about the processing and and the use of data really. So this is what I experienced at that time. When I joined the automotive in and I heard that there's a colleague from BMW here as well in the room. Hello. So maybe you can echo what I'm saying. So two thousand fourteen, I joined the automotive industry, and I must say it was very traditional at that time. So the dealer network was extremely powerful and influential, and dealers tend to buy cars, they know that they can sell. And all of these business decisions were then based on historic information. Historic data, experience sometimes even gut feeling. And this is what we wanted to change. At that time, we did focus groups for example. We invite ten, fifteen customers to a room. We showed them a new car, and we asked them what they think about this. And everybody plays a role in a focus group. So I didn't want to do this anymore. Instead, I wanted to have complete unbiased feedback from our customers and the best way to do this was to use our digital applications that we had, like the car configurator. Everyday, thousands of customers used the car configurator to spec a car exactly how they wanted to be. And that was so interesting because nobody influenced them, no sales associate, no partner may be joining them to come to the Sholm and what they want to impress by and maybe looking at the s class or a g class. So it was complete unfiltered unbiased information we could use. As a second step then, we wanted to harness not only this information but also use it in a better way and maybe some of you were affected two years ago by by semiconductor shortage that was really a big impact for the automotive industry. So what we started doing is using the data that we had on-site So if a customer came maybe by clicking on an ad for the G class for example, but then configuring and maybe booking a test for an A class, a C class, or any other model, we could use this data to build a matrix to basically understand what is the second and third preferred car this customer might be visit in. And there was a great opportunity then for us to use it for upselling and cross selling, if car availability during that crisis was a bit limited, we could direct the focus of the customer towards a different model. So overall, that was the the path that we took. Yes. Thank you. And a new client, I agree with this chief marketing officer just last year. What learnings have you already been able to bring into the business? Yeah. I mean, as I said, the the brand is now celebrating hundredth anniversary, but I was positively surprised how how advanced and forward thinking this brand is. I mean, it's a third generation family business. Apologies for the echo. And but it was very digital. And I think our customers are very cosmopolitan. They live they have multiple residences around the world, and they are more digital than ever before. So whenever you try to set up a new digital operation in an organization, you have a few key task. So the first one could be for example to build the right infrastructure and architecture that you need. So I was working with the IT team to make this happen. Have the right marketing engine, the data, you know, how do you store data, if we still work with the DMP or not. And then the second one is how do we process data? How do we collect it? How do we process it? And the last one is that I think this is something that has overlooked maybe a lot of times is how can we make big data small data? Because big data is just a vast of information So our aim is then continuously to make it small data, meaning, do I find something interesting? Can I draw conclusions from what I see? Do I recognize certain patterns of our customers? Do I see on-site behavior that is interesting? Can I work with this, you know, with distribution modeling, the suppression modeling, all of those terms helped me then to make better decisions, and this is what we have been doing? Thank you so much. A very thorough answer. Adam, let's bring you in because you've worked with Saint Laurent for a few years now, but you've worked in the luxury segment for a number of years. And it is one of those industries that has so many heritage brands that are having to go through quite a quick transformation. And certainly at both business, we've been very impressed by destrides that Saint Laurent has made over the last few years. I'm not going to give you too many spoilers, but you're doing very well in the latest though business index, that's going to be published soon. So can you just show a little bit about how Saint Laurent has progressed with such a rapid and successful digital transformation from what was a heritage luxury label. Sure. I think it's on the wall when I joined at least digital was definitely not. Part of division. It was still very much traditional three sixty but very much into traditional communication. Even client telling in CRM where still I'm sending, you know, like, the look books and sending handwritten notes. Which is great. Don't give me room. However, once you want to address masses, you cannot ask all of your sales associates to spend three hours writing Henry to note to send them to clients or prospect clients. So I guess what changed a lot at San Laurent was really Well, two things I would say, in one hand clearly seeing competition going also faster and digital and as you rightfully serving the previous panel, not necessarily the biggest one that are doing the best. But I guess because Sonoy is in the middle so we're not there with the Chanel and MS, but then we also not close to the Jack News we really like in between, which allows us to be a bit more agile and a bit more digital and savvy. So I so in one hand, it was clearly a competition and saying other brand going a bit more further into the digitalization of their practices. And then on second hand I would say I'm we're very lucky to be part of Keqing as a group and the subpoena has created this digital factory, which basically works for every single houses. So from Bodega Veneta to Saint Laurent going by Breonie. And they have brought in people like I'm thinking about Trego and Prego rebutte, our chief digital officer. Who has regular meeting with Frances Cabillity in ERCO, who has regular meeting with Cedric Chabiya Balenciaga. So there was this clearly like this path thinking that okay we need to to go a bit faster and then lastly I guess also looking in Asia. I had been lucky to live in Asia for eight years between Shanghai and Singapore. And moving back to Europe, this is where you realize how far advanced Asia is versus us from the app to the data to like a usage to even like the the online shopping behavior are completely drastically different from what you can see in Europe. So I guess looking at Asia going faster competition and then having the group behind us helped Sun align all the other brand, but I can always do first and all. Of the group accelerating a bit more on the digital and the data side of things. It's interesting to hear that as well because I guess some of these markets like China are so important growth markets for luxury and for celeron. So you have to keep a pace of the expectations of consumers in those regions as well. Markets are already ahead in the way that they're using data. Lena, where have you seen data having the biggest impact on Acris? Well, I think overall data helps us to make better decisions in any business department of functions that we have. So We all know this quote that in marketing, fifty percent of the budget is wasted, but we never know which half of it. So And I remember at the beginning of my career that our CFO asked us like, why are you doing this? You're a cost center, not a profit center, and I think these times are over. Unfortunately. So data helps us to really be precise in all of our operations. So the first one is customer segmentation, personalization, data allows us to learn more about our customers. So in in larger groups and populations and then in smaller segments, they have, for example, a specific unique identifier with us. Second one is campaign optimization. I don't have to rely on a media kit, that tells me that as many people read it maybe or so, but I have really like in-depth information about the audience that is seeing our campaigns. And third, I think when it comes to investment planning as well, reversing the sales funnel is not new, but this is something that we have now established also at our Chris, is I know exactly what my sales target is for the next month. And together with our agencies, we reverse it based So I can tell I I know our return rate. So I know how many gross sales I have to achieve in this month. I know the average order value. Exactly. So I know exactly how many orders do I need to achieve this point. I know how many returning customers I have, and I know how many new customers I need for our acquisition planning. And then what I can do, of course, brief the agency and say, like, in order to achieve these targets, we need that many clicks, we need that many impressions, and that gives me my marketing budget for at least performance digital media. So I think these are the three components that that has helped us a lot. I think it's got a one zero one in marketing there for me. Thank you so much. Adam, in luxury, that there is such a strong association with craftsmanship and people power, But Leonard started talking about that really interesting example of the data about the way that people can figure their their cars. Has data about what people are talking about or appreciate from cellular on, thrown up any surprises or opportunities that you've been able to capitalize on? Absolutely. I I think that obviously when you work in luxury, our house you have a preconceived idea of who your customers are. Obviously, you wish that they are those quite luxury, very well traveled person, but in not all the case, seventy percent in many of the houses, whether it's getting or and LVMH are first time now. So like seventy percent of your customers that drive them and the the majority of of your revenue actually people that will come just once a year in your store to purchase a bag because they want to purchase that bag. So initially, what I think and that also was a bit of my role with my my boss like the centimeters of of Saint Laurent was to explain to him that I get it and I understand where you want to go and I understand perception that you have of our clients, but the reality is that not every person that will walk through the door will want the full Some people will come just for the back, some people will come just for the shoes and then they will complete the outfit somewhere else. And once we're in just to that from segmentation, client segmentation, from analysis, from websites, website behaviors we understood that maybe the communication need to cater a bit more towards first handbags and which is actually paradoxical because if you watch any of our fashion shows we are the only brand that you don't see any model with handbags. We don't show. On the runway, the model working with the handbags because we're a brand. But thanks to data we understood that actually this is where I think this was the segment that drives the most business opportunity especially in Asia in Middle East for instance it was the shoes. So I guess it just helped a bit more cater communication because at the end of the day I'm part of the communication team so I don't have any decision power when it comes to producing a line, but I can cater the communication angle based on proper data and and consumer behaviors. Thank you. Actually, thanks It's really helpful and clear examples, sir. I guess this is a question for both of you, really. If we can talk a little bit about CRM, because in the panel just before the coffee break, Kirsten Men and that things like social commerce and TikTok becoming one of those next big hurdles for brands. When you're dealing with so many different data streams, you've got your CRM, you've got social data, you've got whatever you're you're holding up all about your customers. How do you unify that in a in a I guess, not necessarily getting a unified vision of the customer, but how do you unify that to get a holistic picture that you can actually act on? Maybe if you wanna answer that first, then and then I'll come to you, Leonard. So this is actually part of my job. This is what I'm paid for. It's too busy build this holistic consumer view, so the three sixty view. So from a technical standpoint basically what I've decided to just to migrate every data into Tableau because that was just easier and software to understand the CRM data, so like the click through rate, the conversion rate, the return rate, So having that into Tableau helped us and my team so the data analyst in my team to get access from social media with empty we use Amplify, so we plugged it into tableau organ analytics for the e commerce CRM, on Tableau, etcetera etcetera. So help us to get a full picture. However, my boss doesn't understand Tableau. Ninety percent of the people in my company do not understand Tableau. So my job is to get access to Tableau basically or any soft honestly, it could be Power BI or anything. And to make that into a simple slide that can understand what is a snapshot of to their customer? What is to the snapshot of the prospect and then if they want to deep dive a bit more from let's say original standpoint you can just click on Asia or China or Korea etcetera. But again, you need to use easy comprehensible data. So for us we made the decision to have two key figures which are engagement. So likes, share, comment, repost. So anything that will create a bit more EMV or engagement rate. And then the second one will obviously be business. So like conversion or or gift trade or things like that. So then you see that sometimes market can be very vocal about your brand but not necessarily purchased right away. And on the contrary you can have market that are a bit more quiet like Korea for instance, but where your brand performs very well. So that helps my boss and my CEO to make decision accordingly. So I basically our job is to try to make things as simple as possible. Thank you. And and Lena, any any key differences in the way that you approached that? No. I had to not inspire the whole time because I know exactly these discussions that Adam is having. No. I mean, the way I explain it to our entire organization is that I think in retail fashion business over the last decade, boutiques have really mastered the art of, you know, looking after their customers. And hospitality might call it guest management in retail boutiques you call it in CRM or PRM for prospect relationship management, but the moment you enter a boutique, the customer, the sales associate knows so much about you as a customer. They might know your age range, they might know your, I don't know, biological gender, they might know your nationality, which passport you hold, if you're local, if you're an expert, if you're a tourist, all of those things that are known to them. And everything else they find out within the first few minutes of the conversation. They're asking you what particular event would you like, you know, look to be worn, etcetera, what are you looking for? They know instantly a lot about you as a customer. So I want to mimic the same operational excellence than in digital. And there's so much information and data we have. So from the larger population of customers, when they come to the website, we know a lot about them. I know they are affinity category. I know the age. I know the browsing behavior. All of course within the rules of GDPR and and to be data compliant. But there's a lot they can tell us and and this is what we want to harness as well. Yeah. Thanks so much. And you you mentioned that point about guest relations and having that view of the customer. I'm unconscious that Stella launched a new digital tool for advisors to, I guess, build that personal relationship. With their customers, but also to empower them a little bit more on the shop floor. Can you tell us a little bit more about that tool and how it manifested? Sure. So he started three years ago when when I joined? We were having what we call a campus day. So once a year, San Laurent organizes a campus digital focus or sustainability depending on the year and basically it's like bunch of workshops and at the end of it, we some ideas get picked up and get to be explored So one of the idea was to launch an app and so a clientelling app for clientelling app which is Luche for our sales associate. But that is nearer for a regular client or prospects so they also have the app and they can interact with this as associate. They can build their own love walls which is like their preferred item and build a sort of wardrobe. So then the sales associate can reach back to them and be like, oh, I said that you've like selected the mayume. If you'd like, you can come over, I can organize a showing, etcetera etcetera. So it came So basically how did that happen and and how we ended up launching this app three years later because obviously a big organization take a longer time. In three years though, I thought it was okay to build something that was data obviously infrastructure wise, sorry, pretty robust. So anything can be plugged into the existing data cloud that we have. And most importantly, we had the two where we realized that especially during COVID because COVID has accelerated everything from a digital standpoint especially for luxury brand we realized that client do enjoy to be in contact with the sales associate. There is even though they're an up top client, even though they are first timer and they came just once in store. They do enjoy all this little attention like the happy birthdays that, oh, you bought it back a year ago, the back anniversary, all these little things. That's why I think they also I mean, same sometimes to to to have this luxury experience. So the app came up to they came up for it that they were like, okay, on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter, you don't get a connection with the brand. It's more like the it's more top down approach like the brand showing you the content that they want to show you. Versus on the app, you you are also like you participating in the conversation. You can write to your sales associate, you can try to book an appointment. So that's how he came up about and and so far the results are pretty good. Thank you so much for sharing that. It's it's actually quite an interesting evolution because I remember just before lockdown, I was doing a study on, I guess, clientelling in China, and one of my researchers went into Gucci. I can't remember what it was, I think it was in Chengdu. And the tailoring expert there was was able to give her all of the information and then sent her every all all of the items that she had looked at via a week chat. And then she was able to go into a store in Italy the following week and get that information. I have no idea how they're moving that kind of information from a get a mammoth app like we but into their CRM, but it was it was just an example of, a, how much work the sales associates are doing to maintain those relationships, but also the importance of and how valuable and impactful that experience was when that information was transmitted through a social app into the CRM as well. Lena, I mean, data isn't always about numbers. There's a lot of other types of information out there that brands are using, and I guess with some of the newer technologies emerging, more sources of visual data or even social listening data, Are there any sort of surprising datasets or data points that actresses using? Well, I mean everything starts for us with Google Analytics and GA4, of course. Social listening is a great tool to learn more about what the audience thinks about us because similar to Saint Laurent. We also like to picture the audience in our target group in a specific way. And here it's interesting to learn retail reality sometimes as well. What, you know, despite anything that is digital and I'm a huge advocate for for the digital world course, but what I found very interesting is direct customer dialogue as well. So the direct feedback loop through the boutiques, we have similar programs, for example, where we have our best customers. They come maybe to the store in ginza or next time in Boston also and and we know these customers. And it could be a customer from Kazakhstan where we don't not even have a boutique. But they come to the store, they are well known to us and then we ship an entire rack of looks and outfits to them, and usually they they keep everything fortunately. So, and this direct dialogue helps us a lot. So we have a close feedback loop then with the boutique manager's wholesale partners as well, especially in the U. S. And what's interesting is also small things like the return rate. I had the pleasure of discussing exactly with with my colleague from Bauchner earlier, the return rates. So when customers send something back, they give us a reason why. So we started analyzing this. What is is it fit is is the color maybe true to the picture that we had on the website. So there's a feedback loop then to our in house graphic department and studio so that we make sure that the accuracy maybe on the color is optimized or to our creative department that the fit may be on knitwear needs to be worked on because something might have changed and suddenly a loyal audience is sending back all the knitwear they kept ordering. So any kind of customer dialogue helps us to to make I think the experience a bit better and yeah. Actually, I think you you mentioned something that was really important there, which was how that information migrates across different teams. Adam, not everyone is a data person. I mean, you already outlined some of the challenges you have about sure that your senior stakeholders actually understand what what that data is representing. But if we take holistic marketing marketing teams as an example, you'll have your analytics teams, but you also have creative marketing teams who might not be using the same resources. How do you get the right information to the right people? And I guess empower people to to collaborate when they're not always relying on the same resources or not they're not always as data savvy as you might be or some of your team members might be. I'm The first thing I've learned at San Laurent, which helped me a lot is that data is here to serve a business purpose, but it's not here to serve a creative purpose for us, Antonio Macarello, or before Edisli Man, or before Pilati. At King, we're lucky to have strong great creative and artist and director. Therefore, my role is not to give them any feedback or opinion about the choice of the photographer or the lighting or because because let's say for instance the post did not perform well on Instagram. The problem must lie somewhere else. Maybe it was the timing. Maybe it was the caption. Maybe it was the hashtag. My goal is to use data to empower my team to find what can they solve. My job is not to help solving creative problems and I think a lot of data people sometimes find a bit there like heading the rules sometimes because when you have data and when you have access to that like for instance the return policy like but now like the fit must be changed because size zero is not size zero, whatever. This is not a wrong. Like, we have to understand that my my role at least in marketing is to do better marketing is not to change the creative vision. So anything that can help from, as I said, caption hashtag timing, I can make recommendation for instance. We know that Instagram algorithm today pushes more real and dynamic content and static content. So for the fashion show that we had yesterday. I asked to have more dynamic content. So this is more of a dialogue to explain that hey, the platform is changing people use it just are changing. So it would be great if we're gonna have that type of content but not coming to the creative team and be like this is what I need like I think it has to be as you said like empowering and the best way to empower people is to let them do their job and to give them the right tool So we've always come to the end of my questions. I've just got one more for the two of you before I throw it out to the audience, which is How do you think brands can get smarter using and you state in the most impactful way? Len, do you wanna go first on that? Sure. Well, I think it's it's I always keep telling my team as well like let's be curious. Let's let's go through the world with open ears and eyes, let's see what's happening. You have to be I mean, digital marketing is equal parts, science, and and art, I believe. So the science part is now much better covered than ever before. With the digital tools that we have, but it requires curiosity as well and asking the right questions so that we know where to dig and explore further. So that usually leads to a case where correlation does not, you know, equal causality for example. So I think think this something that we also have to be aware of. And yeah, overall, curious, he asked the right questions and so the IT team knows what to set up for us. Thanks. And you, Adam, same question? Yeah. I guess for me, that's why I tried to to to to I mean, the team that I have agreed first and and and come from different background from journalism to engineering in electronics. It's what I try to to teach them or to tell them is like try to always ask yourself what is the impact that you have. So for instance if you're a part of the social media we know that your impact will only be about, as I said, social engagement and social listening. However, if you're part of the app team is the revenue So try to always measure what you do and the best way to measure it at least in serum is to put control group because there is no way you can deny that if client a got a serum activity and purchased right after in the client, we didn't get anything it proves that doing sharing actually matters. So I think that's why like I think in data is always to have the mindset of understanding or trying to understand your impact. And also it gives you a bit more like a legitimacy to to then share opinions or or to be part of conversations. I you. Lennon, it looked almost like you have something to add there. No. No. Okay. Don't do it. Thank you. Thank you so much. That brings it to the end of my questions. Does anyone in the audience have any questions Lennor Adam. Hi. You're here. So how do you think I think that for for them before generating new customers. Okay. I think we're talking here about, like, customers that we already know and then you use the data it to to kind of like a run through them like some some information. But new customers, how you bring new people to the brand? How to grow the brand music they Yeah. I I think I touch on this just with a very short sentence. So I I like to look into affinity categories especially for upper funnel management slash awareness. I was looking into this just just recently to see like what are the interest categories that that are important to our customers or future target groups, our prospects. And I was pleased to see that it's not just fashion for example, a lifestyle, but it's art, it's design, it's hospitality, it's fine dining, and travel. So that informs that the media mix modeling and maybe suggest a few other titles from the Condinas family that we can advertise in. Yeah. Thank you. Anyone else? No. Okay. Well, if you if anyone thinks of anything then do grab Adam and Leonard during the networking reception at the end, but thank you so much. It's been a really interesting conversation, and thank you for making a data topic so accessible for somebody like me who's not necessarily the most technical data person I really appreciate it. It's been a great discussion. Thank you so much for both of you. Thank you so much.