Digital Days: How Weleda is Turning Internal Knowledge Into Great Customer Experiences
Sharing is caring. Last week, Weleda's global team of digital marketers met up at APSIS HQ for their internal learning event: Digital Days. But how does the natural care company use knowledge to create natural relevance? I scheduled a sit-down to get the answer from two representatives from the green pioneer.
“We are one team. We are one brand”
Weleda is the world’s leading manufacturer of certified natural cosmetics and anthroposophic pharmaceuticals. Their products are available in 50 countries around the world and their portfolio consists of over 1,000 pharmaceuticals and 120 natural and organic cosmetics.
For a lot of people, me included, Weleda is a familiar brand with a strong ecological image with sustainability at its core. But how would the man in charge of Weleda’s brand describe their essence? Daniel Kugler, Head of Global Brand & Communications, answers:
“Weleda is the natural pioneer, and we’ve been for almost 100 years. We truly believe that nature is solving the issues in a better way than chemistry can.”
But to uphold a successful brand requires that you’re able to keep your promise and maintain your perception through consistent communications. For a lot of brands, it is a struggle. Yet, it’s a struggle you must overcome to make it on a global scale.
In Weleda’s quest to enable brand consistency across nations and markets, they carry out an annual learning event; Digital Days. This year, their digital marketers from around the world met up at APSIS HQ for some hands-on tips and trend reports from our marketing automation and e-commerce experts. Daniel Kugler explains:
“The digital days is an internal event to bring Weleda’s digital community together. We are one team. We are one brand."
For Weleda, the focus on internal learning is paramount.
“We work on our brand on a global scale with almost 50 countries, so it’s important that we meet, exchange knowledge and collaborate in a better way.”
The Journey: From Email to Automation
Weleda’s come a long way in their digital quest. Tobias Bernard, Online Marketing Specialist, says that they’ve had a crawl-walk-run approach with APSIS during their digital progression. He explains that they began with by putting some simpler emails in place. Four years later, they’ve adopted our tool for marketing automation and is switching their focus towards data.
“In order to be efficient in our digital marketing, we automate many things. One of those things is email marketing, where we try to automate them through flows”, explains Tobias.
He continues by stressing the internal impact on the external:
“Especially since last year, we’ve focused on data-driven marketing. This includes setting the right mindset within the group and to build up some global and local know-how.”
Getting into the Data-Driven Mindset
A personalised customer journey is the holy grail for most companies. However, getting into the data-driven mindset can be quite a struggle.
Daniel explains that even though nature and data may be seen as polar oppositites, the two do work in symbiosis. At least when it comes to realising Weleda’s core. Daniel explains:
“It can be quite challenging to bring a data-driven mindset into the company, but still being true to our values. But it’s not really a conflict, because having data about people helps to serve people in a better way. That’s why I would say that personalisation is actually pretty true to our core."
But how does Weleda use their internal knowledge to create a seamless customer journey driven by data? Tobias concludes the interview with his explanation:
“The biggest change for us, as it is with most brands these days, is not data or technology. It’s more about the know-how. It’s about having the proper use cases and the proper strategy in mind, and then deciding which actions to take.”
Want to be like Weleda and focus on the data-driven approach? Check out this whitepaper!
