❱ 6
Putting on the
Ritz in Digital
Customer
Experience
❱ 4
How Account-
Based
Marketing
Builds Better
Relationships
PM40050803
VOL. 34 • NO. 3 • MARCH 2021
THE AUTHORITY FOR THE DATA-DRIVEN BUSINESS
RETAIL REIMAGINED
An Interview
with Shawn Stewart
❱ 10
PHOTOS COURTESY CANADIAN TIRE CORPORATION
3
ON THE COVER
Vol. 34 | No. 3 | March 2021
PRESIDENT
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Steve Falk
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SALES
❯❯
4
Nine Ways Account-Based
Marketing Builds Deeper
Relationships with Customers
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
INTERVIEW
❯❯
10
Retail Reimagined
An Interview with
Shawn Stewart,
Senior Vice President,
Customer and
Triangle, Canadian
Tire Corporation
RESEARCH
❯❯
8
Using Customer Feedback
to Beat the Competition
TRANSACTIONAL DATA
❯❯
15
Five Trends Shaping the Future
of Global Payments
PHOTOS COURTESY CANADIAN TIRE CORPORATION
❯❯
6
Putting on the Ritz in Digital
Customer Experience
❯❯
18
Part 1.
The Unravelling
of My World
MY VIEW
COURTESY TOM BEAKBANE
MARCH 2021 DMN.CA ❰
SALES
// 4
Nine Ways Account-Based
Marketing Builds Deeper
Relationships with Customers
BY DEANNA RANSOM
When customers
feel heard,
they begin
to trust, refer a company to
colleagues, friends and family, and
spend more money. One-to-one
customer relationships can build
lifelong loyalty, but unfortunately,
many of these campaigns are
doomed to fail when companies do
not adequately prepare.
One of the most valuable ways
to target and relate to customers
is by implementing account-based
marketing (ABM). ABM is a strategy
involving the use of marketing and
sales to build personalized customer
relationships.
ABM makes one-to-one
relationships more efficient by
targeting only the customers most
likely to buy. By utilizing this
“zero-waste” strategy, companies
won’t use up valuable time or
resources on mere possibilities.
It’s also grounded in personalized
messaging, which is essential for
building brand loyalty.
That’s why ABM is the integral
foundation on which to build a
one-to-one strategy. Here’s what
marketers are saying:
❯❯
87 percent say ABM outperforms
other marketing ventures
❯❯
80 percent say it increases
customer lifetime
❯❯
86 percent say it improves win
rates
❯❯
76 percent say it brings higher
ROI
Additionally, their 20 percent
opportunity rate gives companies a
significant leg-up on competitors.
Creating deeper customer
relationships that will bring higher
ROI, loyalty, and efficiency—but
first, companies need ABM.
How to build customer
relationships with ABM
A one-to-one strategy combined
with inbound marketing will result
in the most rewarding partnership.
Begin with inbound marketing to
acquire a broad target market, use
ABM to select specific customers
within that market, and then
adjust the products and services to
meet the targets’ needs. Without
each of the following steps, an
ABM strategy will not lead to
valuable customer relationships.
1. Define ABM Goals
The first action in any campaign is
to define goals related to an ABM
strategy. Some goals might include:
❯❯
Higher revenue
❯❯
Higher value from existing
customers
❯❯
More engagement
❯❯
New target market segment
❯❯
Successful launch of a new
product or service
To successfully measure goals,
attach KPIs to each one. With goals
in mind throughout the entire
campaign, mold every action
thereafter to achieve the returns
you want.
2. Specify and Prioritize Target
Market
After identifying a target market
from an inbound strategy, narrow
the focus with ABM. Make a list of
individual customers that fit the
broad or “average” target market.
Then select the customers that
provide the most value to the
organization. Those people are
new “accounts” to go after—the
people most worth the marketing
investment.
3. Build a Tech Stack
ABM is built on data analysis.
For any ABM campaign, tools for
identifying accounts, tracking
data, and measuring relationships
are a must.
Companies should get started
with these:
❯❯
Data technology: Identify
broad types of accounts
❯❯
Predictive software: Select and
prioritize accounts
❯❯
CRM platforms: Create, manage,
and track customer relationships
❯❯
Marketing automation and
email platforms: Reach out to
current customers
❯❯
Targeted advertising tools:
Home in on the desired audience
4. Align Sales and Marketing
When sales and marketing don’t
align, a company often will not
achieve its ABM goals.
While sales refers to activities
that facilitate a sale, marketing
refers to actions that create interest
in business. Sales understands
the audience but needs brand
awareness; marketing can bring
brand awareness but needs to
understand the audience. To merge
the expertise of both, encourage
sales and marketing teams to
collaborate on account plans.
5. Talk to Customers
One-to-one ABM campaigns are
built on discovering customer
needs. While there are many
ways to do this, Jodi Harris said
it best: “The best way to figure
out what buyers really need is
to talk to them directly.” Survey
them and conduct A/B tests. Most
importantly, remember to respond
to the needs of a handful of
high-value customers—they will
appreciate the attention.
6. Adjust Business to Customer Needs
With every customer conversation,
you’ll learn how to best serve the
customer’s organizational needs
and the customer’s trust in the
brand will grow as. With each new
piece of knowledge gained, use it
to improve and personalize the
product, service, or the business.
7. Create Personalized, High-value
Content
Combining inbound marketing with
ABM is powerful. On its own, quality
content generates three times more
leads than paid advertising and costs
62 percent less, making it worth the
investment.
High-quality content has:
❯❯
A clear goal, topic, and strategy
❯❯
A powerful headline and hook
❯❯
Keyword optimization
❯❯
Consistent frequency
Beginning with the customer
in mind, create personalized
content. Every blog, sales page,
webinar, or newsletter should be
highly relevant and valuable to the
customer, creating a more positive
experience and greater loyalty.
8. Use Personalized Emails
Email is still a powerful tool. Email
generates 40 times more customers
than social media, and ROI is an
astounding 4,400 percent. The key
to that ROI is writing emails that
customers will want to open.
To leave an impression and
make the connection, personalize
the email to customer. Try the
following:
❯❯
Create powerful subject lines
❯❯
Greet the customer by name
❯❯
Close with a name
❯❯
Include relevant and appealing
offers
❯❯
Be timely—don’t spam!
❯❯
Use images
❯❯
Offer tips for how to use
company products
9. Measure Results
Revisit ABM goals: were revenue
goals reached? How much did
engagement increase? What is the
conversion rate? Did the program
accurately interpret customer
needs, and were you able to
meet them? If goals weren’t met,
re-evaluate strategy.
Solid customer relationships
are built with ABM. Show your
customers their value with a
personalized approach. With
these nine steps in mind, you’ll
be well on your way to forging
deep partnerships and building a
successful ABM strategy.
DEANNA RANSOM is the head of global marketing
and marketing services for Televerde.
❱ DMN.CA MARCH 2021
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CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
// 6
Ritz
Putting on
the
in Digital
Customer
Experience
❱ DMN.CA MARCH 2021
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
// 7
BY STEVE FALK
Your driver pulls up to a beautifully
lit, elegant entryway. The car door
is opened by the doorman. It’s
drizzling, so he opens an umbrella and leads you to the
door motioning for his colleagues to gather your bags.
Once inside a glowing lobby, you get smiles from the
staff around you with hands outstretched guiding you
to the reception desk. They offer to assist with your coat
and bags. You are whisked up to your room. A welcome
note and a small tray of treats awaits, “sniff, are those
cookies still warm?”; the phone rings, and the voice on
the line offers complimentary drinks, to be delivered
along with anything else you might require. Your first
impression could be compared to arriving home after
school as a kid. Your mother asks about your day, a
snack awaits and you are safe and at-home. And that is
no accident. Studies informed the hotel industry that
the comfort of a mother’s home is what, in the end,
many guests desire.
Staying at a great hotel is an amazing experience.
They’ve had centuries to finesse their business model.
The Ritz Carlton brand is synonymous with this
idea of greatness. Its recent success (pandemic era
notwithstanding) can be largely attributed to the datadriven
guidance of Horst Shulze, their former COO
and best selling author of the book Excellence Wins: A
No-Nonsense Guide to Becoming the Best in a World of
Compromise.
The order of the day is loyalty and trust
Have you had an amazing eCommerce experience
lately? Is there an equivalent to the smell of warm
cookies in any eCommerce or digital engagement? Who
is the “Ritz Carlton” of the digital experience business?
Here’s what I’m thinking. That relationships created
by eCommerce transactions these days are a huge
compromise and for various reasons marketers are
going to have to wrestle with how to become the best
in the near future. Leaders who are growing their
online business must define their brand not just
by making it available online, next day, same day,
curbside, no charge shipping, as that’s already a given.
Once everything is online, which is fast approaching,
the order of the day will be loyalty and trust, in order
to secure returning customers. Otherwise, your
customers are just a tap, click, or swipe away from your
competitor’s screen.
Up to this point, the industry’s focus has been
acquiring visitors and shoppers. Unlike great hotels,
less attention is paid to lifetime value and retention.
In my view, it’s partly due to the way investors value
eCommerce business growth in this new sector. They
invest in expansion of market share, user by user,
assigning a value to each new customer, giving a small
nod to the problem of “churn”, which is a cold way of
classifying non-loyal, uninterested customers.
Churn just happens. Investors just pour more money
into acquisition to solve the business model. Since it
can cost hundreds of dollars to acquire a new customer,
what is a brand willing to spend to retain them and
build loyalty? It probably should be more. Maybe a
digital brand has to throw their customers a warm
cookie more often instead of just leaving one in their
browser?
Direct mail can send from online triggers
What can be learned from the hospitality industry?
I’m not sure eCommerce experiences are often
imagined as hospitable, with a few exceptions. Human
chatbot experiences can add a personal touch, a good
supporting call centre certainly improves the trust,
and unboxing impressions are elevated with beautiful
wrapping and hand written notes. Even well trained
and personable curbside and courier staff can help to
elevate the experience.
Printed mail, arriving in-hand and in-home, is even
in the mix as triggered direct mail can send messages
within hours of online triggers, and consistently
improves outcomes. Our order of kitchen spices
arrived recently, and with it an aromatic experience. A
personalized handwritten note and the smell of those
spices as we opened the package left a remarkable and
lasting impression.
As a digital marketer or service provider, the more
often that you provide an actual physical, sensory,
in-person and in-hand experience, the longer your
impact will last. I don’t have to remind you that if
you show that you care, and respect the customer
relationship then you will build that customer loyalty.
Doing that through cold digital tactics alone, by email
or SMS or banner ads, or social media, will only give a
shadow of the impression of your more physical and
“real” gestures. Digital experiences can be boosted and
their performance amplified if they are accompanied
by other physical channels. Ignore them and you’ll
leave money on the table. The marketer who uses them
in concert will build a trusting and loyal customer base.
Horst Shulze says there are three kinds of customers.
Only one is your loyal customer. The others are the
“unhappy customers” that will be “terrorists against
your company” on social media, and the “satisfied
customers” who will simply go next door for their next
purchase on a whim. But “loyal customers” are willing
to pay more, increase their business with you and
recommend you because they know you care for them.
In that case, we all want more loyal customers.
STEVE FALK is President of Prime Data. He is busy helping digital marketers
exploit personalized and physical tactics which support, amplify and
improve their outcomes.
** A Master Class on customer service with Horst Shulze is presented at the Growth
Institute https://www.scaleupu.com/horst-schulze-excellence-wins
MARCH 2021
DMN.CA ❰
RESEARCH
// 8
Using Customer Feedback
to Beat the Competition
BY CHRISTOPHER DANIELS
Whether the
business is in
manufacturing,
telecommunications, or software,
business success relies on customer
delight. When end-users are satisfied
with goods or services and the
support they get as part of the client
experience, customers will come back
again and again. Just as important,
companies can use customer
feedback to beat the competition
and boost the bottom line.
Happy customers are loyal.
Recurring customers save
companies money on new lead
generation. Customers can also
operate as a cost-efficient source of
new leads, serving as inadvertent
brand ambassadors if they share
rave reviews with others in their
network.
Gathering and analyzing
customer feedback to ensure
end-users are content is critical
to business success. Positive
comments can reaffirm a company
is succeeding, while negative
comments can help companies
identify points in need of
improvement.
This data can improve overall
offerings, giving companies a
competitive edge. Here’s how
companies can make the most of it.
Your No. 1 Weapon: Customer
Feedback
Knowledge is power, and this is
especially true when it comes to
meeting customers’ unique needs.
With detailed feedback from realworld
clientele, companies can:
❯❯
Monitor ongoing customer
satisfaction levels.
❯❯
Get insights into customers’
unique needs.
❯❯
Improve product or service
offerings.
❯❯
Show customers care and avoid
alienating them.
All of this can add up to greater
customer satisfaction, to more
easily win over new customers—
possibly even taking them from
the competition. Companies
can also nurture loyalty among
existing clients, as satisfied
consumers won’t be tempted to
look to competitors for products or
services.
Four Ways Customer Feedback
Can Help Beat the Competition
Here’s how companies can use
customer feedback to enhance
a competitive advantage in the
modern business landscape.
1. Understand Customers’ Needs
to Best Meet Them
Keeping clients happy means
understanding their wants and
needs. This requires detailed and
specific data. Leaders don’t simply
want to know whether a customer
is satisfied or not. They want to
know what did and didn’t stand out
in the customer journey.
❱ DMN.CA MARCH 2021
RESEARCH
// 9
For example, consumers might
be perfectly content with a product
but are turned off by a negative
customer service experience.
Important customer success
metrics could include waiting
time to have an issue resolved, or
versatility of support methods (e.g.,
live chat, email, telephone, etc.).
Many businesses are quick
to assume that dissatisfied
consumers mean a problem
with the product or service. The
issue may be a much easier fix,
like tweaking an ad campaign or
updating a chat bot. It’s essential
to understand customers’ needs
better than the competition.
2. Gain Customer Insights into
Employee Performance for
Superior Service
Customer feedback is also valuable
in gaining information about
employees, especially those on the
front lines who deal directly with
clients. For example, when offering
in-house telephone support,
companies should ensure that
workers are dealing with callers
courteously and professionally.
A simple training and feedback
loop for customer-facing teams
can significantly impact business
success. In the case of a call center,
the process might involve recording
calls, reviewing positives and
negatives, and using data to inform
coaching and future training.
With this added step towards
accountability, companies can
improve overall customer service
experience. Many consumers will
switch to a different provider after
a bad service experience, so this is
critical to use customer feedback to
beat the competition.
3. Gather Competitive Intelligence
to Assess Advantage
Companies shouldn’t just look at
customer feedback—also consider
the feedback consumers are leaving
competitors. Scour the internet for
reviews in public forums to see how
products and services compare to
those of the competition.
Further, companies should make
sure they’re meeting the benchmark
set forth by others in the same
field. For example, it might seem
reasonable for 80 percent of clients
to be satisfied, but what if the
industry standard is 95 percent?
There is room for improvement in
this example.
Reading competitor reviews
can also help identify their
weaknesses. Leverage this
information to pinpoint
opportunities to win clients. If
clients complain about a rival’s lack
of telephone support, highlight
this as a value-added proposition if
it can be provided with confidence.
4. Avoid Reputational Damage and
Losing Clients to the Competition
Not all customer feedback is
positive. That’s normal. If a
customer isn’t happy with a
company, be it the product or
the consumer experience, find
out why. There is opportunity
for improvement while avoiding
similar scenarios with future
consumers.
Additionally, targeting negative
customer feedback allows
companies to fix the situation.
Let’s say a person purchases a
product, discovers it’s defective,
and then writes a scathing
complaint. There is an opportunity
to remediate the issue. If they are
satisfied with the response, they
likely will continue to the business
relationship. It’s about turning a
negative into a win.
Elevating the consumer
experience is becoming even more
critical in the wake of the COVID-
19 pandemic. The most successful
companies in the crisis were those
that were able to identify and adapt
to consumer behaviors, needs, and
experiences. That kind of flexibility
requires granular, real-world
data—which is where customer
feedback comes into play.
CHRISTOPHER DANIELS is the Chief Revenue
Officer for Televerde, an integrated sales and
marketing technology organization based
in Phoenix, Arizona. Seven of Televerde’s
10 engagement centers are staffed by
incarcerated women, representing 70 percent
of the company’s 600+ global workforce.
Foundation Magazine is the Canadian bi-monthly
publication and media channel which reaches more than
25,000 individual executives in Canada who represent
the full charity and foundation sector and the major
donor community, as well as the spectrum of companies
which support, supply to, and advise all aspects of the
not-for-profit industry.
To advertise or to get more information and a media kit:
Contact Steve Lloyd for details,
steve.lloyd@lloydmedia.ca
Foundation Magazine is a Lloydmedia, Inc publication.
Lloydmedia also publishes DM Magazine, Total Finance magazine, Payments Business magazine, and Canadian Equipment Finance magazine.
MARCH 2021
DMN.CA ❰
INTERVIEW
// 10
PHOTOS COURTESY CANADIAN TIRE CORPORATION
Retail Reimagined
An Interview with Shawn Stewart,
Senior Vice President, Customer and
Triangle, Canadian Tire Corporation
STEPHEN SHAW is the Chief Strategy Officer
of Kenna, a marketing solutions provider
specializing in delivering a more unified
customer experience. Stephen can be reached
via e-mail at sshaw@kenna.ca
Traditional retailers learned a harsh lesson over
this past year. Slow to make the transition to
omnichannel commerce, they had misread the
slow gradual rise in yearly online spending as a sign
of shopper disinterest. Until the pandemic hit.
The abrupt surge in online shopping left many
retailers scrambling to respond. As foot traffic
dropped off sharply due to restrictions on in-person
shopping, they were forced to close stores. Unable to
make up the difference in eCommerce sales, many
retailers were pushed to the brink of insolvency.
This financial carnage may have been the tipping
point for the reinvention of retail. The industry has
finally woken up to the fact that shopping habits have
radically changed. And as product manufacturers
open up their own digital storefronts, the era of retail
hegemony may finally be over. Retailers will need
to evolve beyond their historical role as the primary
distribution channel of merchandise.
In Canada one retailer has stood out above all others
in transforming its business model — the century-old
Canadian Tire. In the past the company has fended off
incursions by U.S. giants like Walmart and Target eager
to muscle in on its turf. The company’s resiliency is
partly explained by its geographical footprint — most
Canadians live within a 15-minute drive of a store —
Shawn Stewart, Senior Vice President, Customer and Triangle,
Canadian Tire Corporation.
but also by its dealer network which gives the company
a strong tie to each local community. In 2019 Canadian
Tire was recognized as Canada’s most admired brand in
Leger’s annual consumer survey. It rightfully owns the
honorific “Canada’s Store”, a far cry from the days when
it was mocked as “Crappy Tire”.
This past year, despite all of the havoc caused by the
pandemic, Canadian Tire increased comparable yearover-year
store sales by 11 percent across its banners.
Ecommerce sales more than doubled, an impressive
feat considering the company actually backed away
from online selling at one point, until it came to its
senses seven years ago and began to invest heavily in
its digital and eCommerce capabilities.
A big part of the company’s recent success is
attributable to its embrace of digital-first marketing,
thanks to its 10-million-member Triangle Rewards
program. Launched in 2018, Triangle Rewards is the
❱ DMN.CA MARCH 2021
INTERVIEW
// 11
digital version of the famously
popular Canadian Tire Money,
once looked upon affectionately
as Canada’s second national
currency. The Canadian Tire
Corporation (CTC) Executive in
charge of loyalty and insights is
Shawn Stewart who took over the
role six years ago. Amongst his
many accomplishments has been
the stewardship of the Triangle
program and the creation of an
AI-driven recommendation engine
which powers seven million weekly
personalized offers.
Stephen Shaw: Your CTC
stores did amazingly well
this past year in spite of the
pandemic. What explains the
lift in sales?
Shawn Stewart: Customers
came to us as a one-stop shop.
The thing with the Canadian Tire
brand is you can always find things
you never knew you needed.
But we've really developed our
presence in the essentials as well.
The strength of our dealers really
helped because they were very
easily able to launch curbside
pickup and new capabilities that
we didn't have before COVID.
And, in talking to customers
throughout the pandemic, what
we heard, loud and clear, was the
strength of our brand, the love for
our brand, and the appreciation
for all the safety measures we
were taking. Our e-commerce site
was overloaded with volume, but
we quickly got that right. And we
actually acquired new customers,
especially young adults, who joined
the Triangle program for the first
time during this period. We really
focused from a merchandising
standpoint on what we call
"boredom busters." So, people with
kids, spending a lot of time in
their backyards, buying barbecues,
patios, toys. All those core
categories were right in our sweet
spot. And the number of bikes we
sold was just out of this world.
Shaw: Were there merchandise
categories that declined in
sales?
Stewart: The automotive
business. People were staying at
home and not driving as much.
Although on the flipside, we have
a segment that we call the “Auto
Enthusiast” and they loaded up
because they had time on their
hands. They were tinkering around
with their vehicles. So, a lot of DIY
categories in that segment were up.
Shaw: Were there supply
chain issues? Take bikes, for
example. Did you suddenly find
yourself having a tough time
restocking?
Stewart: In that specific case, our
SportChek business was closed,
so we had a bunch of available
bike inventory. And we’ve always
had great relationships with our
vendor base, so that put us in a
good position to be the number
one supplier in all the top-selling
categories.
Shaw: What permanent shifts
in spending habits are you
likely to see coming out of this
pandemic?
Stewart: We've mapped our
categories of business to what
we call internally “jobs and joys”.
These are the everyday things that
make up people’s life in Canada.
And we talk to customers. We
understand their sentiment, their
confidence in the economy, their
job security, their opinion around
saving versus spending. And those
are good indicators. But customers
don’t always know what they’re
going to do. And so, we’ve mapped
out various scenarios. If demand
continues the way it’s going, we’ve
got a plan. If it tails off, we’ve got
a plan. But we found our customer
base is quite resilient. And we’re in
a lot of essential categories, right?
Shaw: We’ve seen massive
consumer adoption of
eCommerce this past year that
caught everyone by surprise.
How does that factor into those
scenarios?
Stewart: We’ve definitely
leaped forward a couple of years
in eCommerce growth. But
overall, we still feel our strength
is the local store — the ability
for shoppers to get what they
want immediately. There’s real
attachment to the brand. We're not
just another retailer in customers’
eyes. They want to support
Canadian brands. Many grew up
with us. We’ve also got the unique
ability through the Triangle data
to understand the channel shift
— and not just what people are
buying, but what they’re searching
for. A huge focus for us is using the
Triangle Rewards grew from the well-known Canadian Tire money system
online channel to support in-store
conversion because we can track
the customer across channels and
store banners. So, now’s the time
for us to engage our customers.
Another thing we’re focused on
is bringing customers into our
“owned audiences”. How do we get
them signed up for our mobile app,
for email channels?
Shaw: Like everyone else, I
go to Canadian Tire for certain
things. Once I was looking for a
power washer and I used your
mobile app to find the nearest
location that carried the item
I was looking for. It guided me
right to the nearest location.
Then I walked into this massive
store and now I’ve got to figure
out where to find it. So, is
MARCH 2021
DMN.CA ❰
INTERVIEW
// 12
there still a gap connecting the
experience end-to-end?
Stewart: There’s definitely room
for improvement. I actually think
we have a best-in-class wayfinding
feature called “Fast Find” in our
Canadian Tire mobile app that
many customers probably don’t
realize we have. It’ll tell you if the
product you want is in-stock and
in which aisle to find it for each
different store.
Shaw: With your mastery
of certain merchandise
categories, there must be an
opportunity to make the instore
experience more engaging
than simply finding and buying
a product.
Stewart: No, absolutely. There’s
a lot of decision support we could
be doing in the pre-purchase and
post-purchase shopping stages:
how to use your barbecue, how
to set up your patio, how to enjoy
the products you buy from us. We
have a lot of great content. We just
need to offer it up in a targeted,
relevant way to enhance shopper
knowledge and confidence.
Shaw: You’ve got 10 million
members of your Triangle
program. Amazon has Prime,
of course, but not the store
footprint you do. Could
Canadian Tire soon rival
Amazon in retail commerce
here in Canada?
Stewart: Yeah. But we want to
play our own game. Certainly, the
data we have is just incredible.
Like I joke with the team, Stats
Can should be calling us every
month to know what’s going on.
We know Canadians. If you know
exactly what you want, Amazon’s
fantastic. You search a SKU [stock
keeping unit] and get what you
want. We’re not going to compete
the same way. We think our local
differentiation, the strength of our
store network, and the interaction
with customers across channels
is key. And we saw it more than
ever during COVID. Customers
wanted immediacy. And so we
saw them coming in droves to the
store. Amazon’s formidable. No
question. But we’ve got to play our
own game.
Shaw: Who do you view as your
main competition these days?
Stewart: Well, it depends on the
Digital apps allow for more sophisticated data collection
line of business. Canadian Tire
has a broad set of competitors.
SportChek and Mark’s would be
different. We’ve got a bank, too.
On the credit side we’re fighting
for top-of-wallet status. I guess you
could say it’s just about everyone.
Shaw: That makes sense. The
“everything store” has everybody
as competition. Now, you’ve been
quoted as saying that if you offer
a killer digital experience, you
may not need a loyalty program
to understand your customers.
As the guy running the loyalty
program, what did you mean by
that exactly?
Stewart: If you look at the
traditional definition of a retail
loyalty program, its highly
reward driven based on purchase
frequency. You issue and redeem
currency. “Canadian Tire Money”
is an important part of our brand
heritage, but the program’s got to
offer much more than that. We’ve
got great profile information on
our customers — so it’s how we
use that data. And it may not be in
the form of loyalty rewards. Maybe
its targeted discounts, or exclusive
access to products. There are many
different ways to create value for
members that go beyond just
having a loyalty currency.
Shaw: Most loyalty programs
are promotional programs in
disguise. Figures I’ve read
suggest that fewer than half
of loyalty members say it
makes them more loyal to the
brand. Should loyalty programs
become a gateway to a more
meaningful experience?
Stewart: Here we’ve stopped
calling Triangle a loyalty program.
We call it a “customer platform”.
And I think words are important
because when people think of
loyalty programs, they think of
the redeemable currency. As I was
just saying, the power of Triangle
doesn’t need to be Canadian Tire
money. I think Canadians love it.
And we've seen, as we launched
Triangle, the halo effect on our
other brands, like SportChek and
Mark’s. Many customers didn’t
realize they were part of the same
family of companies. We should
be thinking of what can we do
in-store? What can do from an
e-com perspective? What might
we do with partners? So, a value
prop that goes beyond traditional
rewards is hugely important for us.
Shaw: With so much customer
profile and purchase data, how do
you even think about segmenting
a base as large as yours? What
kind of segmentation model do
you use?
Stewart: We look at two different
types of segments. One is a valuebased
segmentation: current and
lifetime value. We model potential
value on a five-year time horizon.
And all of this is done at a CTC
level, across our banners and
assets. And the other is simply
behavioral: what are people
buying, their needs states, and the
intersection between them. You
run the models and you can get a
hundred segments. We landed on
thirty-seven.
Shaw: Thirty-seven? Not 35,
or 40, but 37.
Stewart: Yeah. It’s been
incredibly useful for grounding
the business in the customer.
The 37 segments ladder up to
macro segments. Our key target
is a segment we call “the active
family” who have young kids at
home. They really over performed
during the COVID period. So,
we’ve started using segmentation
to understand where our growth is
coming from. How do we actually
move customers across brands?
For example, SportChek attracts
a younger customer, and we want
to grow that segment within the
Canadian Tire brand. We know
the entry point for them is often
the camping business, so then we
can build programs around that
insight. It’s really powerful to
understand the conversion paths
that customers are taking.
Shaw: Do you find it hard
translating customer strategy
into insights merchandisers
can relate to?
Stewart: Yeah, it’s a process.
Since Triangle launched, we’ve
made a lot of progress. On thing
that’s helped is empowering the
merchants to access the data on
their own, using internal BI tools.
So, as they’re reviewing their
annual plans, they’ve got the data.
And then the second is proving the
business value. So, actually creating
some use cases, such as “Let's use
customer data to improve the
pet business.” So, very mindfully
bringing together cross-functional
teams to pilot a program and then
measuring the value. And that’s
gone a long way as well.
Shaw: Part of your personal
background was working at Air
Miles for several years. What
learning did you gain that was
transferable to your current
mandate?
Stewart: The power of the
network effect. Being able to see
customers going from one sponsor
to another. That has very much
influenced our approach here.
The advantage we have is the
ability to use data in an unfettered
way. And then just the power
of the customer data. Finding a
better mix between the mass and
targeted channels — the ability
to prove not just that targeted
marketing works, but it’s scalable.
Shaw: Being able to cluster
members by their affinities
and interests, and then
catering to those preferences,
❱ DMN.CA MARCH 2021
INTERVIEW
// 13
must represent a massive
opportunity.
Stewart: It is a massive
opportunity. Particularly what
we’ve seen in the pandemic. Home
exercise, bicycling, the new hobbies
that people took up. I think it’s
perfect for our brand.
Shaw: Do you have point on
reimagining all of this?
Stewart: Our team is accountable
for everything customer related.
But we need to amplify the retail
value proposition. And so, we work
closely with the banner heads.
And it’s exciting. I think everyone
recognizes that we do need to go
beyond selling products.
Shaw: How do you actually
measure loyalty? Obviously,
in part, behaviorally. But
what about attitudinally?
Emotionally? What are your
composite loyalty measures?
Stewart: We’re very good at
tracking customer sentiment. We
use net promoter score across all
of our channels and endpoints.
We track loyalty by segment. So,
for example, we track a driver
called “Cares About Canadians”,
and that metric was off the charts
during COVID, with the actions
our dealers took, with our relief
fund 1 . And then I would say more
traditional financial metrics:
lifetime value, repeat visit,
retention rates, the number of
active customers, how much each
customer is spending. We’ve also
got a panel of 180,000 Canadians
that we lean on. I think it may
be the largest proprietary retail
panel in the world. And we leaned
on that heavily during COVID.
We also do these events called
“coffee talks” where we’ll get 10 to
12 customers in a room for just
a casual conversation that really
helps to know how customers are
thinking, and to develop empathy
with the customer.
Shaw: You are collecting a lot
of data. You must have created
a “golden record” 2 by now.
Stewart: We’ve done a great
job of building that central view.
We tagged the web so that if
someone writes a review, someone
logs into the website, someone
uses the mobile app three times
a month, we know all of that.
So yeah, it’s a powerful tool,
MARCH 2021
Canadian Tire’s Triangle Rewards program is geared towards managing its portfolio of customers and banners.
particularly understanding the
impact of our digital activity on
in-store behaviour. It’s been really
enlightening to understand how
the online channel helps in-store
conversion.
Shaw: How do take all of
the data analytics you do and
convert it into business language
that other stakeholders, like
merchandisers, can understand?
Stewart: I’ll give you a great
example. We launched a customer
analytics tool — a BI platform
that allows businesspeople to drill
down to the category level, using
the customer data. There was
an end user at Mark’s who used
this tool to develop an incredible,
insightful view of their business.
And we were not involved. So
allowing people to just swim
around in the data — not put
too many controls around it. Just
allowing the learning to happen.
And Greg [Hicks] 3 , on our latest
earnings call, was talking about
the segments. And so, people hear
that. They’re curious and want to
learn about it. We’re providing
the tools to allow them to do that.
We’re in the background. Our
team is doing all the plumbing and
automation.
Shaw: Do you own the
technology budget, or do you
still have to work with IT to
ensure that you have that right
infrastructure in place?
Stewart: It’s evolved. Three
years ago, we would not have had
data engineers on our team. And
today we do. It’s become more of a
symbiotic team working together.
So, we don't get into budget
debates.
Shaw: Boy, over my long career,
I can tell you that marketing
and IT were never copartners
in anything. How does AI fit into
the picture?
Stewart: We issue seven million
one-to-one offers every week to
customers and that’s completely
machine learning driven. But it’s
early days. So, for example, from
a supply chain perspective, we’re
thinking about overlaying highvalue
customer data to say, “This
SKU is paramount to your best
customer.”
Shaw: You talked earlier about
looking across the full span of
the customer relationship with
multiple banners and brands.
Has that changed the way
strategic planning is done?
Stewart: We think about
managing a “portfolio of
customers”, and a “portfolio of
banners”. For example, if the
“active family” is our priority
segment, we need to map their
needs to the “jobs and joys” we
talked about. And we do white
space exercises to identify gaps in
the experience where maybe we
need to extend assortments, for
example. I think we’re actually in
a much better position this year,
particularly with Greg and Susan’s
[O’Brien] 4 leadership, because it
encourages horizontal rather than
vertical thinking.
Shaw: Is there a need to find
new talent, new skillsets, fresh
thinking in order to accelerate
your transformation?
Stewart: Yeah. It’s a great
question. And I’ll go back to what
I said is this horizontal thinking
approach. So, if I’m a merchant,
or in marketing, I need to
understand the customer journey,
using the data we have. So, the
ability to analyze and synthesize
information is important. For
a merchant, it might not be all
about adding new product lines
or brands. For a marketer, it may
not be all about getting an offer in
front of a customer. So, yeah, the
use of information — being able
to empathize with the customer
— there’s no question: it’s all
changed.
1. The COVID-19 Response Fund donated $5 million to
support relief and response efforts.
2. A “golden record” is the most accurate and complete
version of a master data record.
3. Greg Hicks is the President and CEO at Canadian Tire
Corporation
4. Susan O’Brien is the Chief Brand & Customer Officer
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TRANSACTIONAL DATA
// 15
Five Trends
Shaping the Future
of Global Payments
BY BOB DOWD
It is no surprise that
the global payments
industry accelerated
substantially in 2020. As the
pandemic birthed arguably one of
the biggest digital revolutions to
date, more and more businesses
are realizing the importance of
having a global payments partner.
Multiple factors have been the
stimulus driving half a decade’s
change in just a few months.
Acceleration of digital adoption,
preference for real-time payments,
investment in AI and automation,
and M&A’s have been the leading
factors that pushed the industry
to transform. However, the
most prominent change can be
attributed to developing customer
preferences for speed and ease of
use at competitive rates.
In addition, stronger demand
for data security enhancement
and fraud prevention by customers
increased the momentum of
innovation which forced new
players to enter the market.
Advances in technology such as
SWIFT GPI, DLT and others have
also been the key drivers in the
rapid growth of the industry.
Our research shows that
the payments industry’s total
addressable market is $3.6 Trillion
USD in core markets, with $245
Billion addressed by specialist
players. The market has grown at
8 percent p.a. driven by specialists
taking share from banks which
gradually experienced decline
due to COVID-19. However, the
industry is expected to bounce
back and return to pre-COVID
rates between 2021 and 2025,
which means that the next five
years will be crucial for players
in the global payments space. In
order to secure their market share,
specialist players will have to
garner deeper understanding of
market volatility and performance,
primary customer preferences and
the strategies they can implement
to remain competitive.
The top five trends we predict
that will influence the growth of
the global payments industry in
the coming years are as follows:
Evolving customer needs
1 will set the benchmark
The provision for fast, seamless,
and trackable payments will
become table stakes rather than
a differentiator for payments
providers. For example, moneycorp
online offers its customers the
ability to not only make payments
online in multiple currencies, but
also store payment and recipient
details, manage exchange rates,
and track transactions all in one
place. The function of making
payments will become part of a
broader value proposition, linked
through API technology to other
elements of business such as
their ERP, CRM, and Accounting
systems.
Customers will become more
sophisticated in cash flow and
risk management which will in
turn impact how they manage
their finances and choose their
payments partner.
Enhancing technology to
2 drive commoditization and
reduced prices
Our research suggests that half of
businesses have their FX provider’s
system integrated into their ERP
software. This is a clear indication
that technology is adapting to
meet increasing customer needs
as the majority businesses prefer
payments providers whose
technology fits seamlessly into
their existing business model.
Real time payments (RTP) are
also gaining popularity and are
becoming commercially viable in
a number of regions. As per the
latest FIS report, 54 countries now
have active real-time payments
programs, up from 40 in 2018 and
nearly four times as many as in
2014.
Long term technology is likely
to shift to alternative rails such as
Distributed Ledger Technology.
Payments providers will need to be
able to function across alternative
rails to ensure costs are optimized
and service demands fulfilled.
Increased efficiency will continue
to drive down prices and enable
reduction in service costs.
Intensifying competition for
3 every element of the value
chain
The ecosystem addressing cash
flow management has proliferated
in recent years. Today, fullservice
players have a competitive
advantage as they provide SMEs
a ‘one-stop shop’ for all their
business needs. B2B disrupters
are successfully carving out a new
niche for themselves using an
end-to-end value chain model that
satisfies the customer’s need for
customized solutions.
Increasing competition from
fintech players is also making a
significant impact on the industry
as few global payments providers
are now opting to onboard
third-party payments solution
providers as their partners,
thereby further enhancing their
value proposition. The payment
gateway market was valued at
USD 17.2 billion in 2019, and is
expected to reach USD 42.9 billion
by 2025. Convergence will be at the
core of the transformation of the
payments landscape, through 2021
and beyond.
Increasing cooperation
4 between jurisdictions
Customer demands for an
interconnected international
payments landscape will flourish.
However, the political challenges
of doing so globally will make
the ability of a global payments
provider to offer their services
in multiple geographic locations
extremely important. We are
witnessing common standards
of this being implemented in
pockets due to the complexities
of international standards and
regulations. However, we are
seeing a rapid uptick in cooperation
between international businesses
and regulators alike.
Differentiators will become
5 commonplace
Specialist players will maintain a
significant hedge in the short term
as they will continue to serve the
underserved segments, such as
SMEs, a faster, cheaper and secure
payments platform. However,
eventually this will become
the norm and other sources of
differentiation will be needed
like niche corridors, industry
specific integration, and liquidity
management to set your services
apart from the rest.
In a nutshell, the key strategic
areas of focus for optimizing the
value of business for all payments
providers would be a combination
of three vital elements - owning
the customer relationship with
specific client segments (e.g.
SME’s), focusing on efficiency to
drive down costs and constantly
innovating to drive differentiation
around products and services.
To create a new generation of
payments providers, studying
emerging trends is the most
important innovation task. Those
that cling to old ways will be left
behind.
BOB DOWD is Chief Executive Officer of
moneycorp Americas
MARCH 2021
DMN.CA ❰
MY VIEW
// 16
The Unravelling of My World: Part 1
CONTINUED FROM page 18
and the latest marketing research
papers in the University of Toronto
and York University libraries
equally unhelpful. Nothing I read
was relevant to my goal of making
marketing communications
more scientific. I needed to come
at the task from another angle.
When I studied neurophysiology
at university, scientists had been
making progress in deciphering
how brains work. Twenty years
on, I presumed there would be
new discoveries, so I looked at
all recently published books
about the human brain. I enjoyed
reading Steven Pinker’s How the
Mind Works (1997) and other
similar books, but these left me
perplexed. In trying to explain
how the mind works, he wrote:
“Thinking is computation, I claim,
but that does not mean that the
computer is a good metaphor for the
mind. The mind is a set of modules,
but the modules are not encapsulated
boxes or circumscribed swatches on
the surface of the brain.” This is a
literary conundrum rather than a
scientific explanation. If thinking
is computation, which is what a
computer does, but the mind is not
like a computer, then what is the
mind really like?
Pinker muses about another
conundrum: “Once we have
isolated the computational
and neurological correlates of
access-consciousness, there is
nothing left to explain. It’s just
irrational to insist that sentience
remains unexplained after all
the manifestations of sentience
have been accounted for, just
because the computations don’t
have anything sentient in them.”
From this viewpoint, there is
nothing left to explain, except
that it is impossible to nail down
what sentience means or how
consciousness evolved.
Intuition can't be counted on
After reading several books that
describe the brain as a modular
computation device, I retreated
to university libraries to read
papers on brain neurochemistry
in the hope of figuring out the
Tom Beakbane’s new book expands our understanding of marketing and how the human mind connect.
conundrums. The papers by
frontline researchers described
remarkable advances that in
their own right made sense, but
the brain-chemistry discoveries
were strangely disconnected from
what Pinker and other authors
had to say about widely accepted
explanations of human behaviour.
However, I discovered
tantalizing insights in books
by John McCrone and Michael
Gazzaniga, who describe how our
conscious mind could not be relied
upon to report our motivations
accurately. It was clear that the
way we think we think is not
how we think. The implication is
that a manager’s intuition about
human motivations cannot be
relied upon. Books by Joseph
LeDoux and Antonio Damasio
led me to the conclusion that
emotions and reasoning — at the
level of neurochemicals — are
indistinguishable.
Rather than being able to
understand what all this research
was saying, I became progressively
more confused. What had begun as
a three-month project became an
obsession. I spent days, evenings
and weekends looking into
what frontline researchers were
reporting. I learned fascinating
details about how the visceral
nervous system was more
complicated than the spinal cord,
but also that this aspect of the
nervous system had not been
studied much. The gap between
what was in the textbooks, what
I was reading in the scientific
journals and what would be helpful
in running my business widened.
The literature on psychology
was particularly puzzling.
Dozens of jargon-filled journals
with statistical gurgitations
reported results of hundreds of
student surveys, but the research
approaches didn’t fit with the
techniques used by the marketing
research professionals I had
worked with; they also ran counter
to the observations of ethologists,
who study the behaviour of
animals in their natural habitat.
Alternative explanations are valid
That prompted me to study the
history of psychology. I read
several books by Kurt Danziger,
including Naming the Mind: How
Psychology Found Its Language
(1997). This book describes
how the categorizations used
in psychology are not objective,
a realization that first came to
him when he moved to Indonesia
as a professor of psychology.
There, exposed to academics
whose psychology was grounded
in concepts of the mind from
Eastern cultures, he realized that
alternative explanations of the
mind were just as valid and, in
their own way, as scientific as the
psychological explanations he had
been taught in the West. Categories
such as behaviour, stimulus and
response are cultural. Danziger
wrote, “Contrary to common belief,
these categories do not occupy
some rarefied place above culture
but are embedded in a particularly
professional sub-culture.” It is hard
for us to see, but the language we use
to categorize mental events is not the
same as the mental event itself. “The
entire investigative enterprise is so
immersed in language that it is simply
taken for granted and its role becomes
invisible.”
Marketing professionals
are particularly attuned to the
peculiarities of different cultures.
It goes without saying that the tone
and terminology needed to address
an audience of cardiologists
versus an audience of lip gloss
purchasers is completely different.
The brief booklet on Total Quality
Communications that I had
planned to write for my agency
was turning into something much
longer. I was uncovering ideas that
would be useful for every business
manager. Three months stretched
into two years.
The more I read, the more
bewildered I became. It was like
noticing a piece of lint on an old
woollen sweater. When I tried
to pick the lint off, I found it was
securely attached to the sweater;
so when I pulled, out came a length
of wool and another question.
Why are marketing textbooks so
unhelpful? That led to another
length of wool and another
question. Why are there so many
graduates publishing psychology
papers that have zero utility to
managers of organizations? I
pulled at more lint and found this
led to ideas in brain science that
led to mysteries of sentience and
consciousness. This led to me
yanking on the wool leading to
culture and linguistics.
End of part 1.
TOM BEAKBANE is president of Beakbane:
Brand Strategies and Communications, a
company that has delivered over 20,000
projects to Fortune 500 clients since 1986. He
resurrected the concept of consilience after
attempting to account for the gap between
textbook theories of human behaviour
and his experiences creating marketing
communications. He closed the gap by
tapping into his passion for understanding
developments at the frontiers of science.
Beakbane earned an honours degree in
biochemistry and neurophysiology from
Durham University in England. He lives near
Toronto, Canada with his wife. They have two
daughters.
❱ DMN.CA MARCH 2021
Resource Directory // 17
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13-07-04 10:43 AM
MY VIEW
// 18
Part 1
The Unravelling
of My World
Or…how I started on a journey to close
the gap between textbook theories and
my experience in business. The process
of changing my way of thinking took time
and was unsettling.
BY TOM BEAKBANE
In 1998 I wanted to write a
manual for my marketing
communications company;
it would be called Total Quality
Communications. At the time I
thought it would take about three
months and its purpose was
practical. I saw how manufacturing
companies were using a number
of management approaches,
including Kaizen, Lean and Six
Sigma, to improve product quality,
reduce waste and operate more
efficiently.
As the owner of a marketing
agency I figured that we should
implement something similar. The
field of marketing communications
was changing rapidly, with TV
advertising no longer working like
magic and digital technologies
advancing on multiple fronts. We
needed to get ahead of the online
revolution and make sure the
communications we produced
for our clients achieved their
objectives as reliably as possible.
In every case the approach to
quality management begins with
defining and quantifying precisely
what is meant by “quality.” If you
are a steel bolt manufacturer, you
need to specify the dimensions
and the tensile strength. Once
the machine operators know
how quality is defined, they can
monitor their own performance
without the need for management
or the quality control department
to check their work. As I had a
degree in neurophysiology and
biochemistry I hoped to spell
out some general science-like
principles about human perception
that my staff could use to evaluate
their work. By that time I had
also had the privilege of working
with some of the world’s leading
packaged-goods companies and
their advertising practitioners in
London, New York and Toronto.
I thought that if I bundled what
I had learned together with
scientific principles, my agency
would be more successful.
I decided to start by taking a
quick look in the most up-to-date
marketing textbooks to harvest
their best ideas. But nothing,
literally nothing I found had
any relevance to what my team
was doing day to day. Every
entrepreneur knows there’s no
substitute for practical experience;
nonetheless, I found a puzzling,
large gap between textbook theory
A Three-Part Series based on Tom Beakbane’s new book.
and the kind
of information
that is useful for
business people.
The books written
by advertising
and marketing
practitioners,
of which there
are many, do
not overlap
with traditional
marketing theory. It is the same
with leadership.
Lack of formal marketing
credentials never bothered me
Academic accounts of leadership
theory are nothing like the skills
needed to lead a group of people,
nor are they like the approaches
described in the biographies of
great leaders. The gap between
business theory and practice has
been particularly apparent to
me because, by North American
standards, my route into a
marketing communications
career was unusual. I was never
taught business in an academic
institution. When I joined the
marketing department of United
Biscuits in London, I was no
different from the other three
Tom Beakbane
recruits who were graduates
from Oxford and Cambridge
universities with degrees in the
equally un-business disciplines of
geography, chemistry and politics.
My lack of formal marketing
credentials never bothered me,
because even before I graduated
I had a string of marketing wins,
which included promoting a
photo-customization business;
successfully launching the Durham
University Industrial Society;
and being awarded honorary life
membership of the students’ union
for running a student health food
store, increasing its sales by 35
percent and working with staff so
that it made a profit for the first
time in its history.
Although I had never been
taught business and marketing
theory, if I ever came across
anything I didn’t understand
I’d read books and journals
until, at the very least, I’d get a
measure of my ignorance. Plus, I
enjoyed reading about science and
technology.
While preparing to write the
marketing manual, I found
marketing textbooks unhelpful,
CONTINUED ON page 16
PHOTOS COURTESY TOM BEAKBANE
❱ DMN.CA MARCH 2021
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