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ITH THE ONSLAUGHT OF OVERSEAS RETAILERS LIKE H&M AND UNIQLOSTORMING OUR SHORES, WHAT CAN RETAIL BRANDS DO TO GET AND STAYAHEAD OF THE COMPETITION?

WORDS: EMMA MACKENZIE

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For decades, consumers have watched the 'storewars'. Each year Aussie retail giants go head tohead with campaigns across TV, print and onlinedesigned to outdo each other.

But now there are new players in town with majoroverseas brands Zara, Uniqlo, H&M and Sephorasetting up shop Down Under and bringing withthem unique approaches to marketing and clearlyrobust launch budgets. Uniqlo. for example, hasforecast daily sales in the ballpark of $300,000,according to Fairfax Media.

Gave Steel, marketing director for in-storeretail communications specialist Guihenjones,says: "International competition coming loAustralia is healthy. It's actually already herebecause it's been online. Now we're seeing it ina physical presence."

There's been much talk about the damage onlineshopping has done to the bottom lines of majorAussie retailers in recent years, a result that hasno doubt eroded the available marketing budgetsbrands have at their disposal.

"You see various CEOs moaning in the papersabout how their business is suffering from onlineshopping and high exchange rates," says PeterGrenfell, managing director of creative agencyVCCP. The last five years in the retail sector hasbeen. Grenfell says, eventful.

"There's been quite dramatic change. Ultimatelybusinesses that are already here are either set upto be able to handle that change or not," he says."It's no secret that in the retail space there were,and still are, a lot of traditional retailers who Iwould argue have had it good for a long time. Butthat inherently means they can often be quite con-servative in their decision making and thereforewhen radical things happen, like the advent ofonline shopping, those businesses weren't readyfor what came out and hit them."

Now that the big international brands have localbricks and mortar offerings, the impact continuesto be felt. Cindy Parker from boutique marketingagency Four P's says this is both positive and neg-ative. She says: "These retailers have revitalisedCBD shopping districts that were struggling tocompete with mega suburban shopping malls."

Kate Collinson, account manager for digitalagency IE adds: "While it might take awaythe market share from other brands, it's alsoincreasing that foot traffic which can be reallygreat for stores."

The arrival of French cosmetics retailerSephora in Sydney's Pitt Street Mall in earlyDecember is the latest addition to the thrivingstrip which has since been voted the fifth mostexpensive retail strip, by rent per square metre.That's in the world, according to the 2014-15edition of Cushman & Wakefield's Main StreetsAcross the World survey.

At the end of the day, there's one group of peoplebenefitting from all this competition.

"The customer wins," says Steel.

With all this fresh blood in the space, retailers arerelying on a mixed bag of marketing approaches,according to Sean Boiling from e-commerce andretail solutions company Hybris. "Successfulbrands and retailers are those that have the basicsright in terms of product and enhance this withan authentic approach to community, informationand participation. They link all of their consumerfacing channels and messages in a consistent,coherent and relevant manner."

Melbourne and Sydney shoppers have seen thelaunch of Japanese brand Uniqlo and whilethe company declined to share its marketingstrategies with B&T, Steel says this is one towatch with its unique approach known as the'Uniqlo Way'.

Steel explains: "Their staff are advisors, they'renot called sales staff. They've got lines and itsall scripted. Nothing is left unscrutinised. Theyhave systematised success and have realised theimportance of operations and the in-store exper-ience, right lo I he way they fold their jeans to thespeed of their checkout. This is what Australianretailers can learn. Really having customerscoming to you for a reason and as a destination."

Uniqlo follows in the footsteps of another big inter-national brand that's making its mark locally.Zara. Russell Zimmerman, executive director forthe Australian Retailers Association savs Aussie

brands are already being influenced in theirapproaches by Zara.

He says: "Before Zara came it's probably fairto say that a lot, not all, but a lot of Australianretailers worked on four seasons. Then Zaracame. They change their displays every four to sixweeks. It's the first change that we saw and nowall of our retailers in Australia are doing muchshorter runs, quicker seasons."

Prom window displays to communicating withcustomers, Adele Te W'ani, partner at brandparticipation agency 31ST Second, says Aussieretailers can definitely learn a thing or two fromglobal brands.

"Customer service is outstanding in other marketssuch as USA and UK," says Te Wani. "Australiacan learn from this in terms of face-to-face andemail interaction."

Creative agency BWM's Amy Hollier, says Aussieretail brands really need to be unique and have apoint of differentiation.

She says: "As the market gets more populatedwith these new brands, it's important to know whoyou are and be proud of it."

BWM has worked with Kmart since 2011 andwas behind a bold rebrand which saw a series ofcommercials set to up-beat music and colourfulimagery. It was a major departure for the brandand one that BWM said at the time "seeks to com-pletely reposition the discount department storeas a retail game-changer".

lE's Collinson says local retailers need to holdtheir own with the audience they already have."For domestic players, it's not so much about gen-erating brand awareness, it's more about standingtheir ground in the market by increasing regularengagement with consumers," she says. "That'swhere community and interactive channels likeonline stores, email communications and socialplay a big role."

Still, Retailers Association boss Zimmermansays one advantage local brands have overthe international competition is a thoroughunderstanding of the consumer. •

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"AS THE MARKET GETS MORE

POPULATED WITH THESE NEW

BRANDS, IT'S IMPORTANT

TO KNOW WHO YOU ARE

AND BE PROUD OF I T . "

AMY H O L L I E R , BWM.

• • • '

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He says: "For an international retailer coming intoAustralia, they don't actually know the Australianpsyche or the culture. Retailing in Australia is alittle bit different than overseas, so understandingthat is very important."

VCCP's Grenfell says it is crucial brands have aclear differentiator in their awareness and mar-keting. One example coming from the agencythat embraces this approach is work for Appli-ances Online. Few people would have missed thebrand's latest stunt, a 39 metre long blimp. CEOand founder of Appliances Online, John Winning,says the inflatable advert represents the company'soptimism about the future of retail.

Grenfell says aside from being perhaps Wthe only brand in Australia to own ablimp, the other differentiating pointfor Appliances Online is what he calls'legendary service'. N A

"What they're not doing is going out Uand attacking other brands. They'renot going out trying to say 'we're thecheapest'. They're just saying 'this iswhat we are, this is what we do, thisis why we're different and why we're better. We'reconfident in that". And consumers buy into it."

Of course the blimp doesn't hurt either, andGrenfell says the modern advertising agencyneeds to be able to deliver solutions for clientsthat go beyond ads. He says: "We should behelping clients with their products, with namingtheir products, coming up with ideas for productsbecause that's where some of our creativity canhelp in defining that customer experience."

As it stands, Australia is particularly well versedin the more traditional approaches of marketingretail. TVCs and print ads are the norm but othertechniques are starting to get more of a look in.like digital and experiential.

Still, Grenfell says: "Generally most brands arequite linear in terms of choice of media. It's fairlyclear that TV is still a natural home for most retailbrands in Australia. TV gives you the critical massand I don't think that's going to change any timesoon. But when it comes to talking to more nicheaudiences, brands and agencies need to have an

honest conversation about another way. If thereis another way, don't do it as a one-off, actuallycommit to it."

A marketing approach that's gaining tractionabroad is peer-to-peer network marketing. BWM'sHollier describes it as consumers "mobilisingtheir social networks and becoming ambas-sadors for brands, recommending their friendsshop with these brands". China's eBay-like onlineshopping site Taobao is using the tactic which isan extension of existing word of mouth campaignsand social media.

is then able to chat to the customer about whatthey're interested in based on. among other things,their search history.

It's a fine line between helpful and creepy. Boilingsays: "It will work for the customer when its abutler type experience rather than a stalker typeexperience. Consumers who have brand affinitywant their brands to reflect that back to them sothey are ready for that personalisation."

Guihenjones' Steel agrees. She says: "People wantto be treated as individuals. The days of mass mar-keting have gone."

E S H O U L D B E H E L P I N G C L I E N T S

W I T H T H E I R P R O D U C T S , W I T H

M I N G T H E I R P R O D U C T S , C O M I N G

P W I T H I D E A S F O R P R O D U C T S . "

P E T E R G R E N F E L L , VCCP

Operating on an entirely different levelis scent marketing company Scent Aus-tralia. The company's director DanielGreen says: "A lot of retailers just don'tunderstand the effectiveness of scent.With scents, you can change people'sperception and the mood of their exper-ience of the product and the brand. It'smore compelling and arguably moreeffective than any of the other senses."

IN-STORETACTICS

Once retailers have successfully lured people instore, a whole other world of marketing opportun-ities opens up.

Technology such as iBeacons, low energy blue-tooth transmitters, and mobile apps are aidingin-store personalisation. However Australia is alittle behind the rest of the world on this front too.

Simon Bowker from retail tech company Teradatasays: "Businesses haven't quite caught up to theconsumer as well as they could or as well as someof the existing technology would allow them to."

The future of in-store marketing could look a littlesomething like this: Hybris has created a prototypedevice combining Google Glass and iBeacons.Placing iBeacons in-store, it is possible to identifythe customer via their mobile signal, provided theconsumer has the store's app running and hasgranted permission for the brand to use their info.The shop assistant, who is wearing Google glass,

Green says the scent then becomespart of the branding of the store. Still it's anapproach that's yet to take off in a big way DownUnder. "It's a lot bigger in America. Some ofthe car dealerships, like General Motors whichowns Holden, they used to have big scentsystems around their dealerships." he says. Yougotta love that new car smell.

And scents are also being used by out-of-homecompanies like TorchMedia. The company'sgeneral manger Kirsty Dollisson says scentmarketing works a charm for campaigns insideshopping centres and supermarkets.

She says: "The most important thing in the super-market space is trying to get shopper engagement.The challenge when brands are trying to stand outinside a supermarket is they're competing with40,000 different products that are on the shelf."

Ultimately, Guihenjones' Steel says for local andinternational retail brands operating in Australia,it's about staying ahead of the game. She says:"Take technologies and take the advances andadapt them to your own individual store story." •

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