L’Oréal, the world’s largest cosmetic company, has dramatically expanded its customer base after generating thousands of new online sales leads in Switzerland generated by an internal marketing campaign using Konica Minolta’s Markomi software.
The unprecedented L’Oréal Friends and Family Sale became so successful that it has been rolled out internally as part of multi-channel communications to deliver new sales channels. Conversion rates for sales were 96% for an Employees / Family and Friends engagement and 85% for Business Partners.
At the heart is the marketing automation platform Markomi from global technology giant Konica Minolta. Markomi is used for the development and management of cross-media marketing campaigns. The software enables the definition, segmentation, scheduling and tracking of multi-media marketing crusades, which might include printed as well as online elements like emails, landing pages or social media. All are linked to predefined easy-to-handle campaign workflows.
In uncertain times like those engendered by COVID-19, brands such as L’Oréal are looking for more innovative ways of engaging with their customers and finding new ones, especially when travel is restricted and shops are closed. In 2020, L’Oréal wanted to launch a “Family and Friends” flash campaign in the summer. The remit stated it should be open for “non-customers” – therefore must also include double opt-in elements – and enable users the opportunity to download vouchers.
L’Oréal contacted IT and e-commerce specialist OMP Service that used Markomi for the campaign where products were being sold in a special ‘online shop’ at up to 70% reduction. The advantages of Markomi over other marketing tools were ease of use and a fast set-up time. From start to implementation, it took a week to create the campaign. It was also complementary to more complex solutions that involve significant extra time and cost. Personal access codes were provided for users who could then forward the information to up to 20 friends, family and fans of L’Oréal. Business customers were also an important target group.
It can easily take months to create a campaign similar to L’Oréal’s with conventional ways. Using Markomi meant it took just a week to set up. The success prompted a second ‘Family and Friends (Winter) Sale’ shortly before Christmas 2020, with many new customers being actively targeted from the sign-up success of the first campaign. Markomi was also used for a newsletter to a selected group of VIP customers (plus reminder newsletter), a “Go Live” (“Here we go”), mailing with information about shipping tracking and delivery, as well as a customer satisfaction survey. The mechanics of “VIP customers” and “limited offers” led to the high conversion rates.
