My strong belief is that marketingís role in the business is to develop a customer-focused
strategy that the rest of the business willingly falls behind, based on great insights and
great responses from customers.
What I have been talking about today - which is the brand position of Boots ëchampioning
everyoneís right to feel goodí - is based on customer insights and is still the brand
strategy five years after its inception, because the organisation believes it helps them to
lead their parts of the organisation more effectively for customers.
I think the role of customer insight, in truth, is right at the heart of an organisation.
In the Boots organisation customer insights helps us to make better decisions in every
aspect of the business - everything from where we should locate our stores, how we should
range our stores, what products we should put in to our stores, how the communication
should show up for customers.
I donít think there is any part of the organisation that doesnít require customer insight to
make sure they make the best decisions for customers.
I think the important thing about getting any brand strategy and customer strategy or
customer agenda to life is actually Ö we in marketing should put the framework in and
then allow and work with other parts of the organisation or the functions to fill in that
framework.
So actually the customer agenda is driven as much by what other functions - whether
they be stores, whether they be trading teams or commercial colleagues - put into that framework
to bring it to life.
So I think marketing creates the framework and the other functions populate the framework.
I personally am motivated by doing great work and great work on behalf of customers in the
British public particularly.
I want whatever we do to show up in a truthful honest way that when punctured actually the
integrity of the customer proposition plays through.
So I would think integrity of the customer offer, integrity by the way we bring that
to market is massively important to me.
Integrity is important to me in my life and therefore it follows me into my workplace.