Engaging consumers with Unicef in Vienna

Blending work and play in Vienna

Hi Friend,

I hope it isn’t too intimate to call you my friend. I think we all benefit from relationships, and I’m feeling inclusive. Welcome.

In this nascent blog, I plan to share my insights and adventures as a global marketer, teacher, and writer. I walk the talk. I live globally, splitting my time between the US West Coast (Portland, where I live, and Berkeley, where I teach) and Nice, France. With real-life anecdotes and practical applications, I will share honest insights from my work in this multi-cultural life—with its glory and its guts. 

Sharing practices and principles at UNICEF

This month I spoke to the global fundraising team at UNICEF, an organization I’ve supported personally and professionally for years. In Vienna, I emphasized customer-centricity—how to improve marketing effectiveness by putting customers and their experiences first. What a joy to use my for-profit experience to benefit not-for-profit solutions. While the industry, audience, and benefits are vastly different, the marketing principles remain the same. (Part of the podcast is on my new website!)

I explained a three-pronged approach: target, understand, engage. 

Step 1: Target

Segmenting your customers into Existing and New helps you begin to speak to them differently. It’s cheaper to keep a customer than to find a new one, so the goal is to turn New customers into Existing ones. Segment Existing customers by purchase, frequency, and recency to strategically communicate along the customer journey. (We’ll talk about converting them some other time.)

When someone first buys, or converts to a New customer, share information about the product and company to deepen their appreciation while they start using your goods. When, why, and by whom was the company started? How do you design and produce your products? After a few weeks, reach out again and ask how they’re enjoying the experience. 

Step 2: Engage

Continue your customer’s journey by sharing information about how to use the product they purchased, such as cleaning instructions. Several months in, connect again, this time with tempting images about new products or non-commercial brand-related activities to bring them back online, to a store, or to a community forum. And don’t forget holidays and personal anniversaries!

Step 3: Understand

The more you engage your customers, the more you understand them. Then you can leverage insights from your Existing customers to find more New ones, starting the cycle again. This helps you understand who your customers really are, which may shift your perceptions about who you want them to be. Data can answer questions like: How did people find you? What motivated them to click, buy, or subscribe? How are they using your products and services? 

I put these strategies to use throughout my career, managing thousands of international customers for the direct marketing start-up Hanna Andersson and the 20-million person database of Louis Vuitton Japan when I was Vice President of Marketing. I offer insights and stories from my experience at these companies, as well as Nike, Gucci, and more, in my upcoming book, “Brand Global, Adapt Local.” 

Vienna: Old, new and inspiring

Speaking of relationships, my husband came along to Vienna. We had each been there before—just not together, ha! Isn’t that a modern marriage! I had come to Vienna exactly 10 years ago to open Park Hyatt Vienna when I ran Luxury Hotels for Hyatt. I visited twice, once to explore competition—yes, staying in competitive 5-star hotels is a real part of the job ;-) and once to inaugurate the hotel. Ten years ago my daughter took the train down from a summer job in Berlin during college to join the opening festivities at the Spanish stables, so this year, I encouraged my husband to join me. 

Park Hyatt Vienna inhabits an old bank in the center of town. The center atrium now holds the spectacular skylight restaurant and bar, while finely carved mezzanine boardrooms have been transformed into glorious ballrooms and meeting rooms anchored in turn-of-the-century Vienna. Creative cocktails like the Bank Sbagliato or the Yuzu Highball at the aptly-named The Bank Bar lured me back to the bar twice in one day! Most impressive is the pool, “safely” set in the old vault! 

Ten years ago, the hotel was managed by a woman, Monique Dekker, and now, 10 years later, another woman, Barbara Göttling, has stepped into her shoes. The team continues its superlative customer experience, exceeding even my insider expectations. Knowing it was my husband’s birthday and our anniversary, the staff surprised us with a Viennese Sacher Torte on his birthday and champagne in our room.

My husband joined me after work with the UNICEF team at an intimate evening visit to Wieninger Vineyards on the hills overlooking Vienna. Grapes have been grown within the city for hundreds of years, so we tasted authentic terroir wines like the Viennese classic Wiener Gemischter Satz DAC, made of different grape varieties that grow colorfully next to one another before being harvested and vinified together. Sitting at a picnic table amidst the lush, green vines as the sun set, we talked with the teams from Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Colombia, Africa, and Portugal about UNICEF’s efforts to engage their donors all over the world. I was reminded of something I said during my talk: people want to engage with organizations whose products and services they support and whose benefits make them feel good. The emotional benefit the customer or donor gains creates a mutually satisfying relationship.  

Please feel free to share any feedback, questions or topics you wish me to explore.

A bientôt les amis,  

Katherine