Morrisons bolsters expertise as Sainsbury’s loses another marketer
Morrisons has poached top Sainsbury’s marketer Rebecca Singleton as its marketing director and created its first customer experience role as part of its ongoing efforts to strengthen its marketing strategy.
Singleton will take on day-to-day responsibility for marketing, corporate branding, advertising, and in-store from March, and report to corporate marketing and commercial director Richard Lancaster. She replaces James Condon who joined from Asda in September.
At Sainsbury’s, Singleton was responsible for non-food marketing and the recent brand partnership between its TU clothing brand and celebrity stylist Gok Wan. She will be replaced at Sainsbury’s by Anna Shirley, currently head of product brand.
The move is another blow for Sainsbury’s following last month’s news that brand director Claire Harrison-Church is stepping down and that marketing director designate Mark Horgan, who was due to join this month, will no longer do so.
Simon Eastwood, currently commercial director at Morrisons has been promoted into the customer experience director role and will take on responsibility for CRM, customer service and managing “long term customer relationships”.
He will report to group commercial director Richard Hodgson and is tasked with providing Morrisons with “a sharper focus on customer experience and customers”.
A Morrisons spokesman says the role has been created to match the customer experience provided by rivals.
Hodgson adds: “Maintaining the momentum of our marketing activity and putting customer experience at the heart of every thing we do are key to delivering Morrisons’ ambitious plans for 2012. These moves ensure we have the right talent in the right places.”
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