Unhindered by pandemic related challenges, the Mitre 10 marketing team have consistently rolled out inspirational campaigns, content and customer experiences that hit the nail on the head.
Building on a trusted brand
A key achievement for the team over the last 12 months was transforming the Mitre 10 brand from DIY retailer to a trusted project partner – thanks to a new brand promise ‘With you all the way’.
This new promise has become the standard operating model and defines how the team engages with each other and across the business.
The marketing team are also heavily involved in the cross-functional project teams that drive the business forward and support their store-level marketing colleagues who engage and connect with their local communities.
Over the last year the Mitre 10 Marketing team have used data-led insights to inform content strategy and deliver campaigns that saw results.
These included celebrating culturally significant events such as Matariki, Diwali, Māori Language Week, Chinese New Year and others, using language and creative elements respectfully to engage with customers on the platforms they preferred.
The roll out of a new content series called ‘Weekend Makeovers’ also proved successful, as was the launch of Project Playground – a programme dedicated to creating meaningful play spaces for Kiwi communities – of which 50 percent of primary schools around the country submitted requests for.
During this time, the team delivered one of the most engaging social media strategies in New Zealand as well, featuring in Zavy Social Scoreboard’s Top 5, with YouTube views topping 30 million and influencer campaigns reaching 3.2 million.
On top of all this, the team were heavily involved with Covid Mission Control, a group created to facilitate an effective and efficient response to the pandemic.
The e-commerce and social media marketing team were put to work to update service offerings and communicate with customers within minutes of restrictions changing, meaning stores could still operate even if customers couldn’t shop in-store.
This collaboration between marketing, operations and store teams ensured positive online and Click&Collect customer experiences despite the challenging circumstances.
Throughout this, the team had to be nimble and comfortable with uncertainty, updating trading hours as isolation and illness impacted staffing.
Changing Covid restrictions around outdoor gatherings presented the team with the opportunity to shift outdoor furniture purchasing behaviour online with a new photography approach and creative digital assets that enabled customers to ‘experience’ products virtually.
Despite major pandemic uncertainty, sustainability was still a focus, and the team launched a Pot Recycling sustainability initiative which has diverted 10 tonnes of plastic plant/seedling pots from the landfill in six months. This earnt the team two silver PRINZ Awards for customer-focused sustainability initiatives.
Throughout the year, the marketing team were in close communication with the People team to develop an innovative leadership coaching and learning programme called Make it EPIC. This programme revolved around making sure Mitre 10 was delivering excellent customer service and ensuring everyone was well prepared and equipped to deliver the brand promise of ‘With you all the way’ to all customers.
This hard work resulted in several key success metrics calculated for the year April 1, 2021 to March 31 2022 including being ranked number three overall in the 2022 Reader’s Digest Trusted Brands awards.
This was a move up five places from the businesses’ ranking in 2021 and made it the only retailer in the Top 20.
The ‘With you all the way’ campaign was also named global winner in the 2022 Kantar Creative Effectiveness Awards for the TVC category and the Make it EPIC programme won the 2022 HRNZ Award for Learning and Development Capability.
These achievements were made possible thanks to marketing, merchandise and operations collectively delivering crucial trading updates. This combined with strong promotional planning, while remaining flexible, meant they were able to reduce overall disruptions caused by supply chain issues and stock availability.
In the face of the pandemic and considerable business challenges, the Mitre 10 marketing team found innovative solutions, remaining laser-focused on their customers, while bringing insights and expertise to the strategic initiatives that ultimately transformed the business.
Category
Marketing Team of the Year
Winner
Mitre 10 Marketing
Company
Mitre 10 New Zealand Ltd
Judges’ Comments
“This entry answered the brief well. They showed how the team had built their culture and working practices to live the development of the brand promise across the whole organisation. Marketing helped all parts of a co-operative organisation to build the brand themselves, by enabling everyone to feel ownership of their role in the brand promise. The team demonstrated real passion for supporting the owner-operators and showed responsiveness to the business needs and input of all parts of the business. They also showed how marketing achieved alignment of all customer experience touchpoints with the brand promise.”
Finalists
2degrees; Burger King New Zealand; NZ Post; Pizza Hut – Restaurant Brands; SRW Laboratories Ltd; Turners Group NZ Ltd
Enter the 2023 TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards
Got a marketing team that’s worthy of this award? Enter the 2023 TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards, Marketing Team of the Year. Entries close at 5pm on April 28, 2023.
Marketing Team of the Year sponsored by Stuff
This award recognises the marketing team that has been instrumental to the success of their organisation. Reinforced by measurable results, demonstrate how your team’s collaborative and strategic approach to marketing has helped transform the performance of your business, within the past 12 months.
This article was originally published in the September/October 2022 issue of NZ Marketing. Click here to subscribe.
