Ascent360 Blog

How Johnson Outdoors Builds Customer Loyalty Across 8 Brands

Written by Heather Knutson | Sep 9, 2020 2:37:00 PM

Johnson Outdoors, Inc. is a leading outdoor recreation retailer, serving adventure enthusiasts around the world with 24 brick-and-mortar locations and an online store. They provide outdoor products through eight different brands across four verticals: fishing, diving, watercraft and camping. Johnson Outdoors is the parent company of household brand names such as Eureka, Jetboil and Minn Kota just to name a few.

It’s challenging to keep up with today’s new pace but even more important now than ever to engage with your customers in an authentic way. The same holds true for long time outdoor gear company Johnson Outdoors.

Johnson Outdoors strives to manage their customer segments and marketing for multiple brands in a meaningful way. To build and maintain customer loyalty across all of their eight brands, they reached out to Ascent360. Using the Ascent360 platform, they reach their highest-value customers in the right way, at the right time through data-driven, personalized marketing campaigns.

Continue to read this article to learn how Johnson Outdoor achieves some impressive results with the Ascent360 platform. The global retailer is able to boost email opens and clicks by 30%, easily shift their strategy with agile marketing campaigns, and drive rich customer data through event email acquisition.  

CDP Goal Framework

Johnson Outdoors developed a way to test and measure customer loyalty across all their brands by building a CDP goal framework. Their framework that focused on four key areas: 

  1. Grow - new customer acquisition
  2. Know - customer profiles based on needs, wants, desires
  3. Communicate - content and segmentation 
  4. Test - a/b testing and optimization 


Now let's get into the impressive results. 

Personalized messaging drives 30% increase in clicks and opens

Johnson Outdoors used the Ascent360 CDP to test different types of email content, creating targeted messages and subject lines for different customer segments across their eight brands. Sending emails with personalized messages and subject lines increased open and click-through rates by more than 30%, as compared to generic emails.

The marketing team found that the "batch and blast" email strategy doesn't work for today's consumers. Through testing, the team discovered that their customers want recognition. They want to be recognized as an individual with individual needs and preferences. They also prefer to be addressed by their name in email. 

KEY
RESULT:

30%
increase in email open rates

 

Campaign agility allows strategic shifts during tough times

When the pandemic caused retail stores and fulfillment centers to close, Johnson Outdoors had to quickly shift email marketing from an offer-based to a content-based strategy. Through testing the marketing team learned that customers are looking for value-based information. Customers are smart and more literate than ever before in regards to the products they buy. So it's best for brands to offer as much detailed information as possible to increase customer engagement. 

The Ascent360 CDP platform enabled Johnson Outdoors to easily adapt campaigns to focus on lifestyle and product content, such as suggested outdoor outings and “how-tos.” They also created campaigns to keep customers informed about closings and re-openings for their preferred brands and retail locations.

HOT TIP!
Focused email improvements are often the fastest and most cost-efficient way to accelerate online performance. 

 

Building better customer profiles through event email acquisition

Ascent360 helped Johnson Outdoors build a specialized survey app to capture customer information at live events, providing a seamless feed of customer data directly to their database. The app was loaded on iPads positioned throughout events, enabling customers to easily self-report demographic data and answer survey questions through a branded platform. 

By utilizing the rich customer profiles, Johnson Outdoors is able to categorize their customers into two sets of buyers: transactional and relationship. 

  • Transactional Buyers - Only discounting will work. These buyers are looking for the best price and are willing to sacrifice brand, quality, features, and convenience. 
  • Relationship Buyers - Looking for a relationship with a brand. These buyers are looking for a dependable supplier, a friend, and a source of information. 

We are happy to help Johnson Outdoors build customer community across their brands. To learn more about their success story, check out the Johnson Outdoor case study by clicking the button below.