Page 35 - AdNews Sep-Oct 2021

Jonathan Waecker, chief customer officer at The Warehouse Group, New Zealand’s largest general merchandise retail group and a big advertiser, says the NZ market has an interesting combination of headwinds and tailwinds at the moment.
“Similar to other markets, we’re experiencing supply chain disrup- tions, housing inflation, rising consumer prices, and talent shortages as our economy continues to move forward on the back of relatively strong consumer and business confidence, with notably strong consumer demand across categories connected to living and being comfortable at home and outdoors, in the broadest sense,” he says.
“I think NZ breaks away from the pack when you begin to look at how much of a headstart the NZ economy has had on the rest of the world by being relatively open with very few lockdowns — touch wood — and a clear, well-understood plan to deal with lockdowns should they happen.
“It helped that NZ went hard and fast with an aggressive stimulus program. And although not all sectors have been able to fully benefit, with our international tourism sectors in dire need of international travel to fully return to normal levels, on balance the economy is
showing much more resilience than we all expected one year ago. “It’s also true that brand NZ has never been stronger. Most Kiwi brands and primary industries that are able to benefit from that halo are seeing immediate benefit, while one would have to believe that NZ’s place on the map of ‘must visit’ locations has to have moved
up the list for many.”
When the pandemic hit, there
was a clear shift away from sales and demand activation into either brand building or simply banking the marketing invest- ments as savings for later.
“The Warehouse Group was in the first camp, with a clear desire to continue the work of positioning our brands and services for cus- tomers, but without over-stimulat- ing consumer demand because the demand for certain categories was already heightened, and the extent of potential availability and fulfil- ment challenges was unknown at the time,” says Waecker.
“With a much better under- standing now of our availability and fulfilment capacities, we’ve since returned to building brand and demand generation activities.”
Waecker has observed marketers becoming much more agile in their thinking and ways of working.
Last year demanded agility from everyone, he says.
During the depths of the pan- demic, The Warehouse Group flipped its entire business into an agile way of working.
“It was the first time a mul- ti-brand retail group had taken the entire organisation into this new model, and it’s one of the best things we’ve ever done,” he says.
“In particular, this new operat- ing model has set up our team members to be the real heroes in all of this, and their ability to quickly build their resilience and learning during 2020 has really paid off for them in 2021.
“Their collective ability now to work better as cross-functional teams with conversations rooted in the commercials of the busi- ness is just fantastic.
“They’ve taken empower- ment into their own hands and are now able to drive the busi- ness within the end-to-end
Left: Saatchi & Saatchi’s “Career-Limiting Campaign”. Below: Special Group and
“Do Something New Zeaand”. Opposite: Special Group’s “Good Morning World”.
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