Myer Holdings Limited Annual Review 2010
Myer fashion ambassadors Olivia Newton-John sings to customers

Chief Executive Officer’s Report / Our customers

Connecting with our customers

Myer is a department store for all Australians and we are constantly looking at ways to better connect with and understand our customers. We are excited by the growing range of opportunities afforded by our unique MYER one loyalty program, which represents a competitive advantage with over 3.7 million members and 1.65 million email addresses, and members’ spending accounting for around 68% of sales.

MYER one is about rewarding and inspiring our most loyal customers in a variety of ways, including gift cards, personalised shopping experiences, movie tickets, race days, gift offers and sneak previews of promotional events. MYER one promotional events such as double shopping credits days, secret sales and the quarterly gift card catalogue are valuable tools to drive sales, with MYER one members spending on average 3.3 times the value of gift cards when redeemed. During the year we rewarded customers with over $51 million of gift cards. In addition, we are expanding our Affiliates program to give customers more opportunities to build shopping credits and gain rewards with MYER one. The program, which includes businesses like United Petrol, Travelex, Crowne Plaza and MBF Health Insurance, is yielding good benefits with spending outside Myer now averaging $3 million per month.

Another part of our loyalty strategy is the Myer Visa card, which is among Australia’s most rewarding credit cards, as ranked by Canstar Cannex, and allows customers to earn MYER one shopping credits by using their Myer Visa card in any transaction.

MYER one is also a powerful marketing and promotional tool, and has allowed us to be far more efficient and targeted in our marketing efforts. This year we worked hard to refine our analysis of MYER one customer data to ensure that our marketing and promotional offers were aligned to what customers really want.

Our quality fashion magazine Emporium is read by 250,000 MYER one members four times a year. It enables us to showcase Myer’s fashion credentials and customers love it, spending on average 82% more on brands featured in the magazine than those not featured.

We regularly conduct research of our MYER one customers and the feedback we have received has contributed to our ranging and in-store events.

Looking ahead, we see significant opportunities to further increase our use of MYER one data and our understanding of the customer to continue to improve our targeting, to develop new ways to excite our most loyal customers, and to re‑engage with customers who have not shopped with us for a while.

Our brand ambassadors, Jennifer Hawkins, Rebecca Twigley, Kris Smith and more recently Jessica Hart, enable us to connect with customers through real people who embody something of the Myer brand – friendliness, warmth, and of course great fashionability and style. Myer has a long and proud history of philanthropy and The Myer Stores Community Fund builds on this tradition, enabling us to support community projects aimed at assisting children and women’s health. In 2009, our store-based team members raised money for more than 80 different charities, and their efforts were matched dollar-for-dollar by the Fund for the store nominated charities. Last year the Fund raised almost $1.5 million through initiatives such as the Precious Metal Ball, which enabled us to lend support to the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Appeal and the Myer Spirit of Christmas CD, supporting the Salvation Army. Other initiatives we have supported include Jeans for Genes (supporting the Children’s Medical Research Institute) and Movember (a campaign managed by the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue, a charity supporting sufferers of depression).

Our Local Area Marketing has been a great success story, designed to ensure a genuine connection with communities across Australia at a grassroots level, with stores responsible for their own community marketing activities. This year, $850,000 was allocated to Myer stores to spend on community initiatives, including grants, partnerships, sponsorships and events. During the year we supported over 350 organisations with donations of up to $1,000.