Leveraging Digital & E-commerce to build an Iconic Brand

Woodland is one of the iconic adventure brands of India, that is what I relate to when I hear Woodland. It would be great to know how you have established Woodland as a brand in India.

We have always stood for whatever outdoors means, and we have been making products which are meant to be used outdoors, whether it is our rugged shoes or our waterproof jackets. Mainly it is like a survival kit. We try to incorporate as many technologies as possible in our products, shoes, garments and accessories, and give the customer something which is meant to be used outdoors, since that is the way of life today. People are going outdoors, they are going trekking, they have become adventurous, and from Woodland's side we want to provide them all the kit and accessories required for their outdoor adventure.

Earlier people used to depend on cheap imports, or they could not find the right equipment here in India, but since we came these things are being seen in the market, and the customer is very well aware of the sort of things they want when they go outdoors. Recently we launched slings, sleeping bags and walking sticks, which earlier people were probably not quite sure about, but today we get demand growing. Our strategy has always been very clear, and since we started, we actually came from Canada, which is again known for outdoors. In India of course we had to change the product according to the weather here, but the outdoor spirit remains the same, so we cater to that spirit.

That is great to hear, so you got the concept from Canada and created a market in India. How have you adopted the new age digital media in your business, and how are you implementing technology in your marketing?

Marketing has always been very important for us. Since our product is youth based, we must connect with our customers very well to understand what they need and to showcase what we have got new for them, because today innovation is very important for any brand to sustain in the market. So innovation in the product line, innovation in the marketing base, everything is very important.

Our customers are between the ages of 17 and 35, the youth, and we try to find how we can connect with them: through social media, through events, through whatever ways are possible, going to rock shows where they are, or going trekking and camping with them. We try to connect with them in various ways, and even traditional media like press and electronic media plays a big part.

But what I feel today is that we need to change from the traditional ways and innovate better ways, because this is the way the youth are going and we must follow them. Today we have shifted most of our marketing strategy from the traditional to digital. There are various ways we can connect with them, like social media, to know them as customers and make Woodland their friend, so that they can talk to Woodland and there is a one to one with the customer. Through social media I think that is very much possible.

We have 600 of our own stores, so it gives us the right opportunity and platform to know about our customers. The majority of our retail sales come from our own stores. We have a repository of all our customers and we follow a customer relationship management policy where we relate to them throughout. Once they buy from us, we see to it that they are satisfied and that they come again, and any queries they have they can always ask. Whatever new launches and new products are issued, they are updated as fast as possible.

You mentioned you have a CRM process. Are you using any CRM products?

Yes, we have SAP CRM implemented, and we also use this system for loyalty management. I think it is a very good way of maintaining relationships with your existing customers and keeping them updated on your products. When our customers have any queries, we have our customer care people connected with them via CRM and any query can be sorted out as fast as possible. It is very important to have these systems, especially in today's digital age, where one dissatisfied customer can have a very big impact on the company and the brand.

If I talk about five to ten years back, mostly our stores were the points where we sold our products from and could connect to our customers. But today we sell our products through online platforms like Amazon and Flipkart, and our own website woodlandworldwide.com. And today what we see is that the trend of buying has changed. Customers visit the site, they browse through the products, most of the decisions are made online, and then they buy from our stores or online as per their convenience. CRM has become an important point for us to connect with the customer via these online and offline sales channels and grow our relationship with them.

That is a very important point in terms of keeping the customer at the centre. You are selling via different channels, Amazon, Flipkart, your stores and website. How are you ensuring consistency in messaging across multiple channels?

We have worked on an omni-channel strategy and they are all connected. A customer buying from Flipkart can always go to a store or come to our own site and check out what they have bought. Sometimes they feel they might get a duplicate product from online stores, so they can always come and check at our physical store. Consistency of information on online and offline channels about the product is very important to give that sense of safe purchase. It is very important that this connectivity with the customer is maintained throughout the process, and that we give the same experience across all channels.

What is your observation on customer expectations when Woodland started in 1992 and now?

I see a big difference in customer expectations between when we launched our product and today. We have also gradually evolved, seeing the market changing. When we started there were no company owned stores, we used to sell through multi-brand stores only, and we had no connectivity with our customer at all.

When the stores came in, we came to know our customers better and we started keeping a database of our customers. Today, with ecommerce, things have further changed and now we know the customers much better. We connect with them through social media, through Facebook, through YouTube. Normally at a store you cannot interact with the customer at that length, but once you become a part of their day to day life it changes the whole relationship.

So I think these things have really changed and it has become so easy to sell now compared with when we started. Sometimes, the store being the only channel, it is physically not possible to have all the product range on display. Now when a customer visits a store and likes a product but the size is not available, it can be immediately delivered to them with ecommerce in place. It has become much easier to deal with the customer.

We have a lot of interactive sessions and we have outdoor ambassadors. We also find people who are doing something extraordinary in the field of outdoors, and we try to bring them out. We facilitate them and make the customers talk to them, and they can give tips on how the products can be used. We have some ambassadors who have gone to Everest and Antarctica, and some have done paragliding. These ambassadors also help us in innovating our products, so we kind of learn from them. It is both ways: you learn from your ambassadors, from your customers, and you can incorporate so many things to improve our product.

With the new approach to marketing using technology, has your way of hiring marketing teams also changed?

Initially of course we had in marketing people who were looking after the traditional media, digital media and the press. Today it is very important, because we have a team which is just working on the digital front, which has become so important to us now. We also have agencies that are managing the digital part.

For us, making new content is very important, because if you are in the digital space the whole game is around the content. So what content we can make: as I told you, we have a lot of expeditions, a lot of ambassadors, we work with UNICEF and WWF. We do a lot of treks with them, we do a lot of outdoors, a lot of events, we gather a lot of digital content. I think today getting the right content and then passing it on to your customers has become very important, and this needs marketing teams who are more innovative, people who can think out of the box.

I will wrap up my discussion with a last question. We have more than 6,000 subscribers to this particular research and I think they will greatly benefit from your tips on how you have built an iconic global brand from India.

Today being global is much easier than in earlier days. We have just recently opened our new operations in Russia, and we have opened our operations in China. To be a global leader of course you need to have the right product for that country, but I think today your marketing strategy remains the same. When you are targeting the youth, we see internationally all the countries, whether it is Russia or the Middle East, our strategy remains the same, the ground level remains the same.

With ecommerce it is easier to sell in any country. If I go and start opening stores in those countries, it is not the right way to expand. Ecommerce and digital marketing are the biggest innovations that are helping brands to go global.