Canadian Retailer - Spring 2016 - 35

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INSTILLING
TRANSFORMATION
Marketing experts gather to discuss the ways
brands inspire true change to deliver what the
customer's looking for
BY R ANDY SCOTLAND
HOW do you tell the difference between super-

"I think it's more about changing the
organization versus changing your brand.
If you change the organization correctly
with the customers at the centre of it, in a
few years' time you'll see the results."

ficial retail makeovers that wash off, and truly
authentic transformations that change the
bones of a retail brand?
A panel of marketing all-stars tackled that
thorny question at the recent RAC Annual State
of the Retail Marketing Industry breakfast, hosted by Retail Advertising & Marketing Canada
(RAC) and Retail Council of Canada (RCC) in January.
The short answer? Only time-and positive customer response-will tell whether or not a brand shift is genuine or
mere window dressing.
Taking part in the discussion, moderated by veteran marketing consultant and change management specialist Alan
Kay, were:
* Rob Assimakopoulos, senior VP, chief marketing officer, CIBC
* Laura Baker, VP of marketing, Sleep Country Canada
* Simon Rodrigue, senior VP, ecommerce, Walmart Canada
* Holly Shaw, retail reporter, The Financial Post

Shaw got the ball rolling. "For me," she said, "when I think
of retailers who have executed transformations it's only become apparent how well it's stuck and how authentic it is
several years later. Because I feel that a true transformation
takes years and years, and tenacity on the part of management to follow through with the plans they set out when they
decided to make a shift."
Next up was Baker, who suggested a litmus test for true
change: "Are they growing traffic, are they growing revenue,
and does the customer believe in that transformation?"
She added: "That takes a strong brand platform to build, and
a strong leader to push that through an entire organization and
make people believe it internally, so they can make the customer believe as well. I think in the end the customer decides, and
you see that in the financial performance of the company. "
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- SIMON RODRIGUE, Walmart Canada
A challenge to marketers

For his part, Rodrigue offered a challenge
to the audience, suggesting that perhaps a
real, authentic and lasting brand transformation requires a little more than just a great
marketing team. "I will be a bit controversial
here because I'm talking to a room of marketers. I don't think marketing actually can lead
a brand transformation. I think it has to be
the whole company."
It's not enough for the marketing team to
say "we'll relaunch the brand and hope we
trick customers," he warned. "I think it's
more about changing the organization versus changing your brand. If you change the
organization correctly with the customers at
the centre of it, in a few years' time you'll see
the results."
Assimakopoulos countered that "marketing can lead the transformation, and in many
cases does and will lead the transformation.
It can't own it all, from beginning to end. But
the retail marketing team's marketing's job
is to fill needs and inspire, not just outside for
the purchase, but inside to craft a purpose."

SPRING 2016 | CANADIAN RETAILER

| 35
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