Dixons Carphone appoints joint CMOs as it looks for marketing synergies
Dixons Carphone has restructured its marketing department and appointed joint CMOs in Gary Booker and Julian Diment as it finds synergies across the business a little more than a year after the merger of Dixons and Carphone Warehouse.
By Sarah Vizard
Diment was previously marketing director for Carphone Warehouse. His new role will see him retain sole responsibility for marketing the Carphone Warehouse brand while also overseeing CRM and customer experience across the whole business.
Booker, formerly marketing director at Dixons Retail, will continue to be responsible for the Dixons brand – which includes retailers Currys and PC World – while also taking on insight and PR across the business.
Speaking to Marketing Week, Diment said: “We have looked to areas where it made sense to bring our skillsets together across the two teams.”
Despite concerns that the merger would lead to job losses in the marketing department, Diment said Dixons Carphone is investing in its marketing at the moment, both in terms of spend and the team itself. Carphone Warehouse has “significantly increased the size of its team over recent months” he said and it still has a number of roles to fill.
That investment comes as Carphone Warehouse shifts more of its marketing spend to digital. Its latest campaign talks up its customer experience by promoting PinPoint, a tool that helps customers choose the right mobile phone and tariff for them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1R6_Ifp4qU
The TV ad features comedian Keith Lemon explaining PinPoint to consumers in Japan. It is supported by a series of online films that give a behind the scenes look at Lemon offering his “unique view” on Japanese culture.
However rather than focusing on TV, Diment said this campaign is all about content and entertaining consumers. Rather than creating a “standout piece of TV film that has to last for six months” he said this campaign allows Carphone Warehouse to be personal, relevant and current and to update it much more often.
“Like most retailers we’ve relied heavily on traditional media. There is still a role there but we have invested a lot in the digital space to ensure we are delivering our message in the right spaces in the right way. This is not just a question of trying to deliver above the line in new media, this is a new way of talking to customers,” said Diment.
“We need to create noise online. There is loads of great entertaining stuff customers can do online so we felt we had to be even more entertaining and fun to stand out, hence our desire to create not just a new TV ad but an entertainment franchise.”
