For the managing partner of communication agency Convergence, which specialises in the construction and housing industry, the future lies in ever stronger relationships with tradespeople.
In the post-Covid-19 world, brands will have to evolve their reflexes towards more connection and meaning with their customers.
Négoce Magazine interview – May 2020
Interview by Franck Guidicelli
Négoce: How can more effective promotional campaigns be built today?
Paul Ricateau: In construction, there is a great deal of inertia in the way these campaigns are run. The same mechanics are often “recycled” from one year to the next: competitions, discounts, games... We have to ask ourselves: is it through “promos” that we will manage to get customers to switch, or to build lasting brand preference? Particularly in the “post-Covid-19” era, brands will need to consider evolving their reflexes towards more connection and meaning with their customers.
Négoce: What do you recommend for moving away from an approach too closely tied to promotion?
P.R: By using promotions, the brand takes a short-termist approach, which remains imperative for hitting its commercial targets. But that model is no longer enough within a long-term vision of growing market share. How do you give value back to a product in an ultra-competitive market? One of the keys could be to break out of the “product/price” pairing and give priority to the relationship the brand builds with its customer. Building bonds to build brand preference: there is an avenue worth exploring to make “promotion” rhyme with “relationship”.
Négoce: In what way?
P.R: By trying to move from “supplier” to “partner”. How can I support my customer on site and make their daily work easier? My product is only part of the answer. To win preference and showcase my solutions, it is the brand as a whole that must be genuinely useful to them!
Négoce: What levers should be used to enable this change of approach?
P.R: The many services (newsletters, webinars, tutorials and e-training) offered during lockdown are good examples of concrete initiatives that enrich the customer relationship. These good practices should be kept up. “Clubs” are also excellent levers for encouraging the exchange of best practice around the brand. In each case, the product takes a back seat: it is the relationship that counts!
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Négoce: How can the point of sale fit into this strategy?
P.R: Builders' merchants stand out through their expertise and their closeness to customers: they should be the local relay for these initiatives. That generally means technical mornings, regulatory briefings and training sessions that build bonds to build business! It is a way of asserting themselves as true everyday partners, beyond a logistics or sales relay.
Négoce: Also an opportunity to stand apart from the pure players?
P.R: Absolutely. While the latter have clearly grasped the need to cultivate online communities around themselves, they lack the major asset of physical contact with tradespeople. As habits evolve, the web now has its rightful place in a quality customer relationship. That is why there is a real challenge for builders' merchants to digitalise on a massive scale and — more than ever — to re-embody themselves locally (club sponsorships and so on). What if the branch became a genuine living space at the service of the pros? Some networks are already working along these lines.
Négoce: That said, should traditional promotional campaigns be abandoned?
P.R: Traditional initiatives are essential for punctuating the year with key moments. But why not enrich them with a relationship dimension? One can imagine, for example, that a “bathroom” promotion would be the opportunity to offer — beyond the right products at the right prices — advice, tips, sales arguments, tutorials and so on. The promo should be a pretext for building the credibility of one's expertise.
Négoce: What role does digital play in supporting this change of marketing strategy?
P.R: Being conversational, it allows content and formats to be varied to enrich traditional set-ups. It is now an essential arena for the customer relationship, one that reinvents itself daily. Recent years have notably seen the growth of tradespeople's communities, fostering a word of mouth that is now digital. Manufacturers and distributors must keep pace with these developments to stay as close as possible to them!