Cover Story: Taking Care of Business

Storytelling To Create Well-Rounded Customers
A vital part of SBD's marketing program revolves around the use of promotional stories.

"Every season our two businesses sit down and talk about what will be meaningful stories for customers during that time of year," Perozek explains. "Then both the stores and SBD get together behind those stories so that we're integrated."

In September, for example, the main "story" of the season was the retailer's "50 Percent Off Case Paper" promotion. So when consumers approached a retail store that month, they saw a window banner promoting the deal. Then, when they picked up a copy of the brand's circular in the store, that deal was reflected again. And to tie it all together, when consumers went to Staples.com, the first promotional banners they saw were ones that spoke to the story. The same held true for company emails.

"We try to be very cohesive, and we achieve that about 60 percent of the time," Perozek says, noting that there are some distinctions between SBD and the stores' business that weigh that percentage down.

"With the delivery business, we can actually turn our stories around much more quickly," she notes. "So, you might find that over the course of six weeks, retail is focused on ink and toner, and we may be focused on that as well, but we may also have several additional substories going on at the same time. That's just because it's very easy for us to swap things in and out. A store environment is much 
more constrained."

Social Strategies
SBD also uses social media for some of its marketing initiatives, but Perozek isn't exactly sure of its effectiveness as a marketing vehicle.

"In general, we're experimenting with social media right now," Perozek says. "We think it's a great channel where you can connect with customers. Let's face it: Anybody tweeting with Staples is a highly engaged customer. But it's still a growing medium in my mind."

Using social media websites as a customer service tool is another story altogether for SBD, according to Perozek.

"We've been working very closely with our customer service team, and have found that Twitter is a really good way to get a pulse on things that are broken," she says.

Last year on Black Friday, for example, one of Staples' coupon codes was broken. The first place the retailer heard complaints about it was on Twitter. After that, it took quick action.

"We tweeted out a message that said, 'Hang on, we know this is a problem and we're working on the fix,'" Perozek recalls. "Then about an hour later we sent out another tweet that said, 'OK, for anybody who had this problem, here's the fix and here are the steps you need to take. If you have any questions, call this number.'"

Twitter, she says, has proven to be "a very quick way to address some customer service issues that could take a really long time to figure out."

SBD also uses Twitter as a forum to get feedback to some of its promotional ideas. "Oftentimes we run some promotional ideas by our followers and ask if they like them," Perozek says. "It helps us get some quick reactions for these ideas. I just think it's a good way to tap into what customers are thinking."

Going Mobile
Staples.com recently became m-commerce enabled, so visitors can transact with the brand from any mobile device. While this was an important development for the retailer, Perozek admits that SBD may have been a little late to the mobile party.

"When we did a survey of our customers prior to launching our mobile initiatives, we learned that something like 27 percent of our customers were already using a smartphone to either research or buy products," Perozek says. "That was very surprising to us because we had a sense it was more of a consumer play."

SBD also recently launched an iPhone app, which, while it doesn't have more functionality than its website, does provide a valuable service to its customers.

"As we see how people are interacting with it, then we'll look to add additional functionality into the iPhone app," Perozek says. Next up for Staples.com when it comes to mobile? Mobile search and mobile display. "Will these initiatives be profitable? Will those ads generate incremental sales? We'll see," Perozek says.