2015 Bronze Retail

RAPP

Mothercare

My Local Mothercare

The Team
Mark Savage, Gary Robbins, Carolyn Stebbings, Edward Ballard, Ryan Davies, Sue Moss

Contributors
BookingBug - Online Booking System

Campaign overview

Having a first child is a time when new parents turn to those they trust most for advice. Mothercare wanted to connected with more new parents, and in turn reach others through word of mouth, to help the brand re-establish itself as a full-price, specialist retailer.

Its My Mothercare parenting club had built an amazing foundation: e-receipt technology had filled the company’s database with millions of new customer records, with baby due dates, child dates of birth and purchasing data patterns to fuel hyper-targeted advice, buyer’s guides and offers.

My Local Mothercare now turned this data into face-to-face relationships, bringing parents in-store with personalised shopping, services, events and communications to re-establish the company as an expert, premium provider and trusted voice of authority.

Strategy

Whilst the data it had gathered underpinned its campaign, Mothercare knew that preparing to become a parent was not something people just did online; and that while they were hungry for information, they often struggled to process all the new information that brands started sending them on a daily basis.

So the brand wanted to increase face-to-face connection. No email, app or website could replicate the feeling a customer got when they had been helped and reassured by one of its experts in-store.

My Local Mothercare turned stores into the company’s biggest customer experience asset. Its strong customer base, CRM platform and BookingBug appointment system were combined to let customers easily consult experts in-store and allow Mothercare to create, manage, target and promote specialist local events and services for each store.

Creativity

Mothercare provided expert advice in-store when parents needed it the most.

Expectant Parent, play and storytelling events offered a trusted voice and allowed stores to showcase relevant products.

In-store and online Personal Shopper services helped in trimester 3, a key purchase time when mums are anxious about choosing the right products.

Data capture allowed stores to be clued-up on customers before they arrived and so assign their best sales advisors and provide consistent experience: a customer buying their first maternity bra at 12 weeks could pick the same assistant for subsequent fittings and develop a true relationship with someone they really trusted.

And being a new mum can be lonely: so stores became a place for the 5,000 customers who give birth every week to meet up, hang out and build friendships.

Results

By bringing care to the forefront of the Mothercare experience, it re-established itself as a premium, expert retailer.

More mums began to attend events not just as shoppers, but as part of a larger, more meaningful local community.

And Mothercare hit an all-time high in commercial success. Expectant Parent event revenue increased from £638,000 to £1.5 million. The average spend for a single Personal Shopper session rose to more than the average yearly spend for a pre-natal customer. And by building trusted face-to-face relationships at the most anxious early stages of product selection, customers became more likely to choose Mothercare for high ticket purchases, be frequent purchasers and recommend it to other parents, with quotes such as “This was by far the best customer service I have ever received from anyone”.