If you read my previous posts, you will be aware that
I looked into Missguided’s promotional mix and how they use it. In this post, I am going to be looking into a
more traditional store to see how their promotional mixes differ. This store is the UK’s biggest department
store, John Lewis. Before I jump right
into their promotional mix, here is a little insight to who John Lewis are – if
you don’t know who they are or what they do.
John Lewis was set up in 1864 by John Spedan Lewis and
was originally based in Oxford Street, London.
In 1928, after the
death of the owner, the department store was left ownership to John
Lewis’ son, Spedan Lewis. With his son
in charge, the partnership was reformed into a public company. As owner, Spedan ensured that his employees
would receive the profits that the company made. This vision is still present today as sales
people are ‘partners’ of the store and receive a percentage of the department
stores annual gross sales, additional to their salary. With over 30 department stores, 11 John Lewis
at home shops, their online website and catalogue, as well as 343 Waitrose
supermarket stores, John Lewis is the UK’s leading department store. As
a department store, John Lewis sell various different products. The products they sell range from home,
fashion and technology – whilst also selling food through their supermarket,
Waitrose.
Advertising
John Lewis’ main form of advertising takes place in
the form of TV advertising. Every year –
since around 2007 – John Lewis have been well-known for their Christmas
adverts. These adverts are usually
released on their social media – Facebook, Twitter and YouTube – a day before
they are aired on any TV channel. Unlike
a lot of companies, John Lewis’ adverts aren’t there to promote a new product. Their adverts are simply there to promote the
brand/remind customers of the brand, and at Christmas time this is increasingly
important to do, so customers buy with them over their customers. Their Christmas adverts more recently have
been teased online before the release with the use of hashtags and Twitter
accounts being made relating to the advert.
The John Lewis Christmas adverts are always eagerly anticipated by
consumers who want to find out the story in their ads. You can watch their previous Christmas ads
from 2007 – 2017 below. (My personal
favourite is Monty the Penguin).
Direct Marketing
John Lewis do not make use of direct marketing as much
as they do with advertising. They use it
to a certain extent but not as much as they could. The form of direct marketing that they use is
emails. They send these emails to
customers who have previously bought products from them online or customers who
have signed up to their newsletter. John
Lewis use this to send news and offers to customers to make them aware of
things that are happening within the business or to inform them of new
products/sales that they have on at that time.
That is the extent of their direct marketing that they use.
Personal Selling
Personal
selling is used by John Lewis every day as the partners of the store try to
ensure that each customer receives a personal experience. Partners will help customers with any queries
they have about a product and ensure that they focus solely on that customer to
try and get them to buy a product. John
Lewis customers have excellent knowledge and expertise in order to gain a sale
from a customer. The
biggest personal selling tool that John Lewis make use of, however, is the use of personal selling in woman’s
wear. In this department, the store
has personal shopper which is used to give customers a unique shopping
experience. With the personal shopper,
the customer tells the employee within the personal styling team what kind of
clothing they are interested in and the personal stylist will try find outfits
based on what they think they will like.
This personal selling technique gives the customer a different
experience that is unique to them.
Public Relations
John Lewis make use of press releases as part of their
public relations strategy. The company
will release these to give information about new products they have on sale,
things that are happening within their stores or if they are planning on
refurbishing/opening a new store. These
press releases are to give the public information as to what the store is doing
to keep them up-to-date on everything that is going on. Journalists will often write reviews or
articles based on the press release provided by John Lewis. They also make use of social media as part of
their PR strategy. Customers can leave
comments and reviews about their experience which allows John Lewis to interact
with their customers and help with any queries.
Social media is also a key tool used alongside their advertising as
consumers will often share their Christmas adverts and get the word out about
it. Another form of PR used is in the
form of reviews on their website.
Customers can leave ratings and comments about products on the website
which can often encourage or put off customers from buying products with John
Lewis. PR allows customers to give their
honest opinions and views about John Lewis.
Sales Promotion
John Lewis make use of sales promotion also. They often have seasonal sales, for example
at Christmas time, to encourage consumers to buy with them instead of their
competitors. Their Christmas sales are
amongst the most popular sales they have in store because consumers are often
drawn to them from their Christmas advertisements. John Lewis also make use of price
matches. This is when one of their
competitors is offering a product at a lower price, John Lewis will try to match their
price to encourage the loyalty of their customers. As well as this, John Lewis have a ‘special
offers’ section on their website which tells customers all the offers that they
have on at that time. This
encourages consumers to buy with them because they can always see what deals
and offers John Lewis have on at that time.
Customers love getting products for a cheaper price/on a deal, so buy
having this function it will encourage sales on the website.
So that is all for this week! Do you think John Lewis promotional mix work for them or should they change it to keep up with the times? Feel free to leave a comment - and let me know your favourite John Lewis Christmas ad!
