I’ve just come from a session at the Adobe Summit, where L’Oréal stated that this lack of consumer awareness about its brands is not uncommon. 

Digital Manager Emmanuel Viennot also gleefully mentioned that it’s not in fact a negative.

With global sales of €25.3bn, L’Oreal is a mammoth company. Yet from Garnier to Yves Saint Laurent, it has over 30 brands – and each of them has its own clear identity. 

One of the company’s greatest strengths is that it recognises this fact, and in turn, that each has its own unique kind of customer.

So how does it target them?

As Viennot explained, by focusing on data and delivering a customised and consistent experience across all channels.

For brands looking to emulate this ‘customer-centric’ approach, here are the top three suggestions I came away with from today’s talk.

1. Utilise real-time marketing

The consumer is becoming more and more impatient. This means that alongside the expectation of a faultless service when buying a product, they now expect an instant solution when there is a problem.

A great way for brands to enhance the customer journey at every stage is to implement timely customer care. 

Whether this is via social media, a website chat tool, or a messaging service like Whatsapp, the key is delivering the right message at exactly the right moment.

2. Deliver even greater personalisation

Addressing the customer by name isn’t a new concept, and it’s certainly not the only way to deliver a personalised service.

Both order-based and profile-based personalisation is becoming a fundamental part of email marketing - and it is intrinsic to making the customer feel valued. 

According to L’Oreal, event-driven emails are the most successful.

From focusing on past purchases to even predicting when a product might need to be replenished, recognising the life of the consumer is key.

3. Delve further with data

With an average of 24% of all emails going straight into the trash can, irrelevance is the biggest reason for poor click rates.

Though brands now have access to immense amounts of data, it is still easy to use basic segmentation such as gender or age.

Instead, focusing on more specific details like behaviour and product preferences is likely to lead to greater engagement. 

With geo-locational technology allowing brands to discover where customers are based, there is the potential for that first tip I mentioned, real-time marketing, to be used in bold new ways.