Lisa Ronson, now entering her first all-important Christmas period as chief marketing officer at Coles, says emotion is an important part of the season.
“It's particularly important at Christmas to differentiate us and give that sense of inspiring our customers because Christmas is such an emotional time," she says. "They spend it with their family and friends."
Yesterday, Coles launched its Christmas campaign, thanking Australians for allowing the supermarket to be part of their Christmas for more than 100 years.
“It is all about inspiring our customers and demonstrating the 'winning together' pillar of our strategy, which is with our customers, team members and our suppliers all working together to deliver a really magical Christmas," Ronson says.
“This is just the start of it. We've got lots of different stories that will start to roll out between now and Christmas Day. We have lots of new content coming out every week in the lead-up to Christmas."
Ronson has enjoyed the six months since leaving Tourism Australia for the big supermarket chain.
“It's fantastic,” she told AdNews. “I am really, really enjoying it.”
For Christmas, Coles has switched from the highly successful Little Shop giveaways to quality glassware, something Ronson says will help dress the Christmas table.
“The theme of this year’s campaign really aligns to our vision of becoming Australia’s most trusted retailer,” she says.
“Throughout the campaign, we want to pay tribute to the people who have made Christmas truly magical over the years, starting with our millions of customers.”
Ronsion says Christmas is a time of year when everyone is looking for inspiration.
The campaign focuses on three areas.
“The first focuses on the emotion and the nostalgia of Christmas and really thanking our customers and our team members for being part of the Australian Christmas for over a hundred years," she says.
“Then it's all about solutions. It's a busy time of year, a lot of entertaining brings with it a certain amount of anxiety for people in terms of what's going to go on the table and how to put all that together.
“And then it’s about value through giving our customers that bit extra with the glassware, and then some really good sharp pricing on items that are important this time of the year.”
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