Harry Rosen is an iconic Canadian brand in high-end men’s clothing. The proudly Canadian company has 17 stores in eight major Canadian markets and employs more than 1,000 associates.
“If a customer had only one transaction with us, we could never estimate their potential, but with PRIZM we are able to get a sense of what that might be. If we can up our incremental transactions by just a tiny bit, that's a huge win.”
Despite the richness of this dataset, Harry Rosen realized that it did not have a complete view of its customer base or know how to engage more of the valuable customers it wanted to attract—namely millennials.
The challenge was that its top-tier customers represent only 20 percent of total sales; the remaining 80 percent comes from occasional shoppers, which have too few purchases to infer future potential.
Harry Rosen needed to gain a deeper understanding of its occasional shopper to enhance the in-store experience, make informed marketing decisions and ultimately grow sales.
To appeal to all customer tiers, Harry Rosen needed to fill its data gaps to understand all of its patrons and identify new opportunities. To eliminate blind spots and adopt a more customer-centric approach, Harry Rosen linked its robust customer database with a comprehensive segmentation system—PRIZM.
By linking customer records to PRIZM by postal code, Harry Rosen began to recognize distinct patterns across its entire customer base. Each customer segment was profiled to reveal their demographics, wealth, social values and media preferences, as well as which brands and services appealed to a particular type of customer.
For example, instead of being limited to analyzing isolated transactions, they could now see purchase type by customer segment. Armed with these insights, the retailer could make product recommendations and optimize its marketing strategy. Harry Rosen focused on 24 of the 68 PRIZM segments and combined them into six larger segments that it prioritized as its targets for growth.
The six segments varied across age and wealth and urban and suburban environments. While Harry Rosen’s core customers favoured brands such as Canada Goose, its younger audience gravitated towards Boss and Z Zegna. These younger shoppers were also more likely to buy men’s grooming products and accessories.
Using PRIZM, Harry Rosen could identify which neighbourhoods had the highest concentrations of its target customers for direct mail campaigns and out-of-home advertisement opportunities. The insights were also used to adjust messaging and imagery in its outerwear guide.
At Harry Rosen, data and analytics influence every aspect of the business, including store design and product selection, but the early wins came from the marketing side. The segmentation work revealed several surprises, particularly when it came to attracting millennials. In the past, the company would have steered younger clients towards lower price point products, but the data showed that might not be the best course of action. It also learned that its core customers shopped at the company’s outlet stores. Now, when Harry Rosen encounters a customer from one of its target segments, it can immediately identify brands with the greatest appeal to personalize communications and grow lifetime value.
By viewing its customers through the lens of PRIZM, Harry Rosen saw a 16 percent lift in targeting accuracy, which has translated into significantly more sales.
