What’s Old is New Again
How SCOUT is Leaning Into Old-School Methods to Harness the Power of Authenticity and Connection
Knowing your customer is the obvious first step to creating and selling products. But there are still companies that lose sight of who they should be targeting, where, and with what kind of content.
SCOUT is not one of those brands.
“We’ve really delved heavily into who is our customer,” Deb Waterman Johns, the Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at SCOUT, said. “We’ve done the due diligence of understanding who she is, what her lifestyle is, where she shops, how she shops, and all of that has given us much more fuel to create a product that is directly speaking to her. But we also know that some customers really that aren’t familiar with our brand are going to want to see it. They’re going to want to touch it. They’re going to want to access it in a way that the internet might not [allow]. And so, we really feel that there are going to be some tactics that are almost old school mixed with new school, because as much as we see retail shifting and customer outreach shifting, because the internet is so critical to that support, it’s not enough.”
With this knowledge, Johns and her team at SCOUT have developed a brand and a marketing strategy that is built on authentic partnerships and marketing that get to the heart of what customers want. Part of those partnerships, as Johns mentioned, include bringing retail and ecommerce together to great the best, most exciting experiences.
“A lot of ecommerce businesses went to brick and mortar pop-ups,” Johns said. “That also generates excitement. And within our store, we will feature not only SCOUT, but we will feature a periodic variety of products that women might be excited about. It might be great jewelry. It might be gently-worn fabulous fashion, that kind of thing. So that will be exciting. We already do pop-ups in stores, or do evenings where we meet and greet customers. We haven’t been able to do that as much during COVID, but we really want to go back to that, because meeting the actual customer, working in a store that has been so loyal and supportive and excited about the product, all of that is critically important to the dynamic that needs to be maintained.”
The other relationship that needs to be maintained is the one-to-one relationship between SCOUT and its customers. To keep that bond strong, Johns said she likes to get as personal as possible with the people who live her brand.
“We love getting different types of customers in, a wide array of ages, backgrounds, to come in and interface with the product and really tell us what they think,” she said. “What we’ve learned over the years is that customers love to be asked. Loyal customers want to be asked for their opinion, and they get really excited if you act on some of that great information.”
The result has been a marketing strategy that includes throwbacks, content that exposes the real lives of SCOUT employees, and products that are designed with customers in mind.
To hear more about SCOUT, tune in to Up Next in Commerce.
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