Reimagining Category Marketing: Collaboration, Retail Media & the Shopper with Melissa Polglase, General Manager - Marketing & Retail Media, David Jones

Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to unpacking the digital shelf APAC edition where we explore the unique challenges and opportunities shaping digital commerce across Asia Pacific. With insights from the region's top experts.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome back to unpacking the Digital Shelf, the APAC edition. On today's episode, I'm joined by someone who is not known for mediocrity. Melissa Poll Glaze is a bold force in category and retail marketing in Australia, known for big thinking, fearless execution, and a sharp eye for what moves the shopper's dial. Melissa is the general manager of marketing and retail media for one of Australia's leading department stores, David Jones. She's operating at the intersection of category marketing, customer experience, and retail media and brings a wealth of knowledge and insights, which I can't wait to unpack today. So welcome Melissa.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
So great to have you on the show. I'm really, really excited about what we are going to unpack. So first up, I'm keen to explore how you believe category marketing has shifted over the past five years and what that means for category marketing within a retailer context. In today's very dynamic digital market,
Speaker 1 (01:26):
It is shifting constantly. I mean, day-to-day, the different channels, the different trends, the different ways customers are engaging in commerce and shopping across the board is a shifting feast. So I think over the last five years we've been through a lot where five years now from sort of the COVID times people all shifted online. I think that had a really big impact in how people learn to use the internet from shopping. In Australia, the romance of shopping is not dead and for most retailers, e-commerce for multi-channel retailers, e-commerce is a part of their business, but it's not the main part of their business. People do love bricks and mortar, but the role of online and the role of e-comm has really accelerated in that customer trend of research, online purchase offline. So whilst you might not be seeing all of those transactions in the online space, what you're doing in that online space is certainly having a huge influence on when customers and how customers are turning up in your physical stores, how they're comparing you against the competitive set.
(02:21):
I talk a lot about, particularly the post COVID world, I feel like we went full steam ahead in terms of, oh my god, we get all our lives back, we get our time back. And even pre that, I've always been about you can always make more money, you can never make more time, and people therefore choose how they spend their time wisely because once it's gone you can't get it back. So I think research, online, purchase offline is a really key part of that. When you've got the time to wander through them all and have that increased experience, great and retail needs to be there to meet you and inspire you in that space. But when it's more functional or when you're a busy person in a busy career or running a busy family, you really want to be able to use those tools to either transact online or make your shortlist or make your journey easier.
(03:01):
So I think in terms of what that means for category marketing over that time and how we've had to shift and adapt is that you do have to have in a business like ours, that real omnichannel sense because it is very easy in a digital marketing world to get caught in the ivory tower and just think about digital inspiration and digital experience and then transacting online. But actually it doesn't stop there. The digital shelf, the digital platforms, they're all influencing an offline experience. Then once the customer gets to the shop, what is that experience for them and how can you deliver a marketing program that helps a brand or helps our business to deliver that experience really in a very seamless way because customers don't no longer differentiate between online and offline, it's all part of their shopping journey. So it does have to be more seamless in that way.
(03:44):
So partnering with our brands and going in that direction and aligning with them on that thinking has been a really key part of it. And then the influence of category marketing I think has also really had to shift because you do have to have that generalist knowledge but able to influence other teams because you're not controlling the delivery of everything. So having that sort of holistic view of thinking of what marketing is and what the role of influence plays with the customer and then what other teams you sort of have to work with. And I think that to me over the last five years has really broadened. We used to be quite singular in comms and content and now we really have to think about every single touch point.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah, that's interesting. And a lot of the retailers that we are working with, we talk about this horizontal role that category marketing needs to now play within organizations. Thinking about that end-to-end experience for the category and for the shopper. So thinking about the fact that category marketing has changed, what are some of the skill sets that you've needed to build internally from a team perspective and some of the capabilities that you've needed to embed in order to grapple with this change that's upon the category marketing team and discipline within David Jones?
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah, I think capability uplift across the board. I think marketers in many organizations, you do the pretty pictures and it's actually very much science and art is marketing. And I think broadly making that understood across the business to help my team build their capability has been really important. And category marketing are always going to be marketing generalists, so you need to know a little bit about every channel. There's just more channels to know about now. So I think that speaks to that capability build and the broader understanding of digital channels. So as that seamless journey starts at the very beginning, how do you get someone off their couch into our store or onto our site knowing a bit more about affiliate SEM performance marketing to confidently participate in planning and really build credibility across teams I think is important. That's the science of marketing, that real performance, those performance channels.
(05:45):
And you may be I think in the past didn't have to be so knowledgeable about that as a generalist or that it wasn't such an important part of the marketing mix. So that's huge. I've talked about that cross-functional influence. So how can you collaborate not just across departments, but within the marketing team and leverage the expertise and ask the right questions. So be comfortable. I think the capability of a marketer that is in a category role to be like, I'm not the expert on that, and say to someone, oh, this is what my recommendation, let me come back to you with a bit more information. That is really a mature building and maturity in a team member that wants to have all the answers and look like they're doing a good job. But sometimes as a category marker, the best thing to do is say, I'm going to consult in with online trader. I'm going to consult in with merchant store ops on that and deliver that outcome.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Absolutely. That need to be that specialist generalist in a way across the digital discipline is becoming critically important. I think for category marketers, like you say, to ask the right questions to know when to lean into specialists in order to bring that experience to life. And really the role of influence can be underestimated for category marketers. They don't control many of the channels they need to influence towards the right outcome. And I think if you've come from a more traditional marketing role where you've got more control, that can be quite confronting and challenging to move into a role where you've got lots of responsibility, but really to get there and deliver that outcome for the shopper, it's about influence.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
About influence and those sort of soft and hard skills. So influencing without authority, translating between the translator, knowing as a communications professional, you might have to frame and reframe something, make sure that your understanding is correct. And if you really are confident in that skill and someone else isn't quite landing where you are, how do you come back with a different comm style? And I think that's a real skill to build in a marketer. It should be what we are great at. But sometimes, particularly because so heavily reliant on email and other channels that are non verbal, you get a bit stuck and how do you express it differently? So I think it's different communications methods and styles to have that influence and to lead other divisions in the direction that you feel that is going to confidently deliver the outcome. And then one thing I talk about a lot is that method marketing.
(07:59):
So knowing what's going on with the store and the customer experience and David Jones definitely supports us in our business and encourages us to spend at least a couple of days every team member from support center into our store network. But I would love my team to be out there more. I'd love to be out there more. Certainly in my past before David Jones, I was working for some big landlords like center group, west Village, GPT, et cetera. And one of the key benefits that I learned from there was that you are based in the center that you're marketing. So you are with your customers every day. You're going to that center, you are parking at it or catching the train in, you are walking them mall, you're doing your own shopping there. So your inherent understanding of how that offer works really helps you, helped me to be a much sharper marketer into delivering something really, really particular.
(08:43):
So I think it is easy to get stuck in the ivory tower sometimes, but getting into the stores you'll have more insight and learn more in a day around how you can really influence an outcome, be that at a store level or something that could be a bit bigger is so important. And I think that that should influence all the conversations that category marketers have in our business and with our brand partners is to have that understanding because it is such a significant component of how we deliver sales and where the customer sees us. And knowing that in our world, not all stores are the same either in terms of how they look or feel or their offer and having a really inherent understanding of that. So is that a capability build or is that just a shift in culture for our business in terms of how we want to operate? I think it's a little bit of both to be that true connector for all the divisions, which I think is always the ask of category marketing, you do need to use the tools that you have and spending a bit of time in store is actually one of the greatest tools that's available to everybody, whether it's formal or just making sure you try and get to a different store every few weeks of your own accord. That's certainly something I think is a marketer that's really important.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
So I'm really interested to understand, Melissa, given the role that category marketing needs to play and the shifting shopper behavior, how does a team like yours take the merchandise team on a journey given that so much is changing around them and the way that obviously shoppers are buying and engaging is changing across different categories and the maturity from a digital perspective is different by category as well. So what role is your team playing to educate the merchandise team and how are they actually going about it?
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yeah, I think one of the most interesting things that we've done here in the last few years has been obviously the launch of our retail media business. And I won't go too much into that, but in terms of the process to get there and the change management that lines up really well I guess with some of the pace of change in the general consumer behavior and the marketing mix that we'd be recommending to brands or using ourselves as a department store. So it's a little bit of definitely education and I'm so passionate about marketing and all the platforms and things we do. I can talk about them at length. So having the right forums in place to speak with our merch colleagues and bring them on the journey, but also reset I guess a bit of trust and understanding. I mentioned earlier on that marketing isn't just about shooting the pretty pictures, it's definitely art and science and buying is a bit of art and science.
(11:05):
So really finding that mutual ground and having the understanding that they're absolutely not going to not be able to get a little mini marketing degree in 20 years of experience by a couple of conversations. But then it's that sort of trust and empowerment to take them on the journey and demonstrate the wins and being in partnership with them where it's still matters. So as I said, I think our change management journey to deliver the David Jones Amplify business really expedited and facilitated some of the change that had to happen probably with category marketing and merch, even if we weren't going to do retail media. But I think that's one of the benefits of retail media is you want to do something for the business and then retail media becomes the catalyst to drive it and then you end up in this really great spot where you do have that beautiful partnership between the two and that increased trust and that partnership, because I don't think that merchant marketing should be completely separate. There is definitely an intersection, but being able to have marketers do the marketing and buyers do the buying and have a mutual respect and understanding of where those two things meet and where there might be some robots conversation is certainly something that we wanted to deliver over the last few years and something that still continues to need to be worked on where a business is 187 years old, so sometimes old habits die hard.
(12:18):
But being really able to have a culture where we can have those conversations, hang on, here's the why, you just need to trust me on this and let me go do the thing that I need to do. And having that support at every level from our CMO to our CEO to our egms in merch to our chief commercial officer really bringing everybody on board.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
And so was that a more formalized approach, informal approach, a combination of both? What were some of the things that you put in place to be able to drive that knowledge uplift within functions like merch?
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Yeah, because we were launching the retail media business, we did have some structure around it and we had a formal change management program, but to be honest, we had two years of formal change management and then really all good capability builds and training. 70% of it happened once we were live and people were like, oh, hang on, I need to know the answer to this, or why are we doing this differently now? And really learning as we were going and then making adjustments on how we thought things would work or how things would feel, and having that agility to go, oh, this isn't quite what we thought that process would look like, or actually this process doesn't work at all. How do we go about that? Or where are there some pain points where is there clearly some lack of understanding that's causing a bit of friction or let's pull out some examples of what's going really well. And that's sort of happening more informally on the fly to help everybody continue to learn.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, great. Okay. I'm going to switch gears a little bit. So obviously David Jones has a very diverse portfolio. You sell fashion, you sell beauty products, you sell homewares, traditional kind of department store array of goods, and obviously we see across different categories, digital behaviors can vary quite demonstrably by category. There are some categories that are more mature, some categories that are less mature. So I'm keen to understand what are some of the big differences that you see between more mature categories and less mature categories from a digital point of view? And how does some of that shape the nuances in your go-to-market approach at a category level?
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Yeah, I think that's a bit of influence of what has historically been done, and some of our brands have had great success in our more traditional channels and traditional offering, and they're happy to stay there. But it is also then our job to test and learn with them and demonstrate to them what's possible. I think beauty is one of our key categories that operates more at the pace and scientific rigor of an FMCG style business versus maybe the fashion category that's maybe not quite as technical in the use of some the key performance channels and really finding the middle ground and what the brands value. So yeah, I think the beauty brands coming from that sort of more FMCG lens, definitely charging ahead on the more scientific approach for marketing and performance in particular, and certainly some big fashion guys operating well in that space.
(15:11):
And then for some of the smaller brands that maybe don't have the skills or the capability in fashion runs quite lean. Sometimes home brands run quite lean. Sometimes we've been the partner to test and learn with, so we're really helping to build that skill for them or demonstrate with a bit of safety around a business that does have skill in that area and experience in that area to help them see what the opportunities are and go with them in that direction. So it's a real mix and even within categories, there's a bit of a mix. It's not sort of a broad brush approach.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Absolutely. So you've talked a lot about test and learn, so I'd like to pause and go a little bit deeper on test and learn in some of those categories where they might be more mature or you've got brands and suppliers who are more interested in adopting a test and learn approach. What are some of the innovations that you're bringing to market, some of the experimentation that you're deploying at a category level? And again, how are you taking some of the learnings from that and applying it to other categories that exist within your portfolio?
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Yeah, it is definitely for us instead of playing a bit with the channel mix, I think and working with brands on, we've always invested in out of home media and actually what could we do that brings you down the funnel a little bit like that. But then there's also great examples from global brands who want to test and learn with us in spaces like dynamic performance on site or even more broadly than that where they can skirt around maybe some of their global guidelines. And we want to test and learn in the social space where it's okay for a retailer to produce content for a brand and it doesn't have the same rigor of approval around it that if they produced it themselves. And then being able to learn from that. And I think you see that probably reflected the most in our retail media rate card, which is where we'll often do an off rate card, bit of a test and learn say in that sort of social production space with a bit of amplification, understand what the metrics are and then sort of set that in as a formal offer.
(17:03):
That is a tool that we can use to have a conversation with our brand. But certainly we start sort of behind the scenes testing things out. We have a new loyalty program launching next week, an iteration of David Jones rewards, which is really exciting. And we have a number of brands very hungry to partner with us on some of the new tools that'll be part of that program. And again, we're doing that very much by invitation, working with the brands in a piloted way, and then you will see that more overtly available for brand partners to work with us in six to 12 months time in that space. So I think Royalty's probably the one to watch that's about to supercharge everything we have going here at David Jones.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Super interesting. And is all of your partnering and experimentation delivered via retail media or are there some things that you are doing kind of more in the broader digital shelf space where you're partnering with brands to bring a category based story to life or to bring a category based experience to life that doesn't sit within your core retail media offering?
Speaker 1 (18:00):
No, it doesn't and sometimes it never makes it to the core retail media offering. I think as I mentioned, because we have our category marketing team operating the endemic part of our retail media business, it's that sort of adage that's coming in retail media now where it's like, oh, we want to test and learn this for the business of David Jones and we can see that in future this could be part of our inventory. So it accelerates the opportunity to be able to do that. But no, it's not always pay to play. And there's certainly lots of opportunities for co-funding and co-branded activity well and truly that sit as department store marketing. So I mean in reality, we've only got about maybe 30% of our marketing mix being retail media and 70% is very much department store tone of voice share of voice and activity. So we do work with brands in other ways and I think great, there's great examples experientially around bringing things to life for launches and our store network as well that's then driven by some experimentation in how we go to market digitally.
(18:50):
Again, that sort of online to offline experience. But it is certainly accelerating some of our thinking of what might be possible or what might be great to add to rate card for our retail media business or some things that will always stay by invitation or by opportunity. And brands are bringing these to us as well. It's not always us driving the innovation. A brand will be looking for a partner with the scale of David Jones to sort of say, we've got this idea, we've got maybe only an online store and no direct, we are not direct to consumer, and what can we do to scale that digitally and physically? So it's a mix.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Great. And I think that probably lends itself nicely to another question that I want to talk to you about, which is the theme of collaboration and collaborating with brands and suppliers. What I'm hearing from you is that sometimes it's not retailer out, it's actually brand driven in to David Jones from an innovation point of view and an experimentation point of view. So how can brands best partner with not just DJs, but retailers more holistically in order to achieve some of the outcomes that they're looking to achieve from a digital and shopper perspective?
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Yeah, I think it's just about putting the opportunity forward. I think sometimes there might be a little bit of hesitation with some brands thinking, oh, DJ's a big business and they're not going to want to hear about X, Y, Z, but everyone's got such different perspectives in retail. We love to talk to brands about what's possible and what they're seeing in their world to then bring it forward. So I think just the proposal of it in the first place is sort of step one. So we probably haven't, we may not have thought of it and it might be something new and exciting to us that we really want to jump onto. So we are always very open to taking retail brand ideas from anywhere really, from brands, from out our teams in store to any part of the business and being able to figure out if that's something that we think is going to deliver a great outcome for David Jones will certainly run with it.
(20:44):
And looking beyond, as we talked about, it's not all retail media, it's not all about that investment. Sometimes it's sort of just use of the things that we already have to be able to evolve how we're going to market, and that's just coming from an idea and not necessarily requiring incremental investment. And then I've mentioned global initiatives and how we localize them. So there's a number of reasons, but I think it all starts with a brand having confidence to pitch to us and say, Hey, we've got this idea. Do you guys want to get on board with that? Because a lot of the times the answer is actually yes, or maybe sometimes it's yes, but not right now. But some opportunities are always going to be immediate and some might have to go into a bit of a roadmap, but certainly we're all in this retail industry, so where you're getting insights or having ideas, we have them too. Let's have, how do we make sure that it's not always one way, that we're not always sitting in a room talking to you about what we are doing, we want to understand what you're doing too and what your ideas are. So it is just that conversation and that relationship piece.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
So to go a little bit deeper on that, because I think you've touched on some really good points. You've talked about the piece around insights and having the confidence to come and chat to the retailer about the opportunity. How do they get cut through? What is your recommendation in terms of the brands that get the cut through with yourselves and potentially other retailers? What are they doing differently?
Speaker 1 (21:59):
I mean, think for us, I feel confident that my team is structured appropriately that the right things sort of bubble up. If they're big things, they'll bubble up to me, but my team are really empowered to be able to deliver some of those things themselves. And I think that's the other thing, being aware of the bottlenecks and removing them in most parts because sometimes it doesn't need the head of the department or the GM or the CMO to sign off, wanted it something innovative and cool that we can do. And we've done that with a number of brands in women's wear lately for launches. And these are great things that are happening that we've seen that are getting great engagement from customers. And actually it's just been the marketing specialist working with that brand that's been able to work with them and bring it to life with the tools that they have.
(22:35):
So I think within the retailer organization like ours, it is about the capability build and then the empowerment of teams at every level to be able to just say yes, because if everything has to come to me, there's going to be a huge bottleneck. So that's sort of the big one. And then I think my team are quite good at pitching when they're quite passionate about something. So ignite the spirit of the marketer and they'll push on the inside to get the airtime and make it happen. But yeah, hopefully there's enough empowerment in our business that my team are delivering great things for brands every day without needing that high level approval. And I do see lots of examples of that happening.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
So part of it is how the retailer is structured, giving the space for the team to be empowered to bring those ideas to life. What about on the brand side? How do they get the cut through? How do they know what to bring to the retailer and when they do what supports their case or rationale why, what are some of the things you like to see that makes you go, yes, that's a great idea, or they've been able to articulate it in a way that connects with your strategy and the direction that you are heading? What are some things they can do?
Speaker 1 (23:43):
I think it's twofold. I think first of all, if you can come with something proven and say, oh, we've done this in other markets, or this is a great idea that's happened this, that's one thing. Then the other is first to market opportunities. Obviously everyone wants to drive that great earned media outcome that we all crave. So it is that we've not really seen this done before and this is something new and exciting. And then also sometimes it is a no or it's a, oh, that's great, let's build on that, or let's adjust that slightly with some of the lens that we have in here. So having an openness to collaborate in that way. If you are a brand that doesn't have a lot of access to data and customer insights, you can ask us like, oh, we think this is great. We think this will help with why.
(24:26):
We are very proactively sharing with our brand partners. A lot of our customer insights very regularly around the cohorts that are shopping their products in the different environments. And that is often the reason why these ideas come to light. They're doing the due diligence and moving ahead. So it doesn't always have to be super data driven. Sometimes it can just be exciting and you can sort of build that momentum and deliver a great outcome. And I think the earned media space is the place to play with a lot of that first to market or something really interesting. So
Speaker 2 (24:55):
If you don't have the data and insights to back it, sell the sizzle in terms of the opportunity and giving some thought to if it is, is this something that's an Australian first or a department store first, it's more likely to potentially get the attention of you and your team. Yeah,
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
It's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Absolutely. Even internally, if I'm selling my own idea and I don't have all the data, it's a gut feel. That's a great example of being a method marketer, that view of art versus art and science being part of marketing. Sometimes as a marketing you have a gut feel, you're like, this is a really, really great idea, I need to go with it. I don't have all the right data points to prove this, but I need to get someone else to fall in love with it and sort of start that domino effect. And if you've got enough runs on the board and you've got enough experience, usually you can get that up. So it might even be just making sure for a brand they're talking to the right person. Or for a marketer who's your next elevator pitch with, if you are a marketing coordinator in my team and you're like, I'm not sure about this, but just if Melissa hears about this, you might be really excited. Ignite the team. I think as marketers, our job internally is also to drive excitement, so I think that's a good way to do it as well. Always have your little elevator pitch ready for when the CEO gets in the lift with you and you want to have a quick chat about something. I think that's sometimes delivered some really interesting outcomes.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Yeah, that's great. So we've just talked about collaboration and the opportunities that exist when we put ourselves out there as brands. I want to take that a step further and just touch on one of the key challenges that I see occurring within the local market, which is as we've seen the rise of retail media teams forming within retailers, many brands are wondering, how do I best engage with the retailer? There's an e-com team. There's often, well, not often, there is a merchandise team, and equally there is a retail media team. And sometimes it can be very challenging for brands to know who do I engage with on what and how do I find the right people to engage to effectively talk about our business ambitions and the directions that we want to head in order to get the right integration from a planning and execution point of view. So Melissa, you guys have been at this for a little while now at David Jones building your retail media offering, and I'm sure that you've had to work through some of these challenges, but any advice that you would give brands in terms of how to best navigate the retailer in this?
Speaker 1 (27:23):
I think it depends on the size of the brand as well and the resource they have on their end. Because I think what happens is you've got a brand and they've got a small team and they're working with a number of partners for distribution and they've got maybe their own specialty business. So the resource is important. I think we've got lots of examples in our business. We're able to come together and it doesn't have to be a separate meeting with merchant marketing and online trade. We can come together and work with brands and have the right people in the room and on the brand side, sometimes that might be the same person. So I think also in the role of being translator, category, marketing can help play a role in that. If you've got mainly a marketing team and therefore they're having marketing to marketing conversations with a category marketer who is looking after the category from a marketing perspective, but then also booking the retail media for that brand.
(28:11):
And there is concern then in my world, they would raise that and that then we'd be able to connect them with the right people or we'd go and have the right conversation and come back to them with an outcome. But I think there's, for retailers, sorry for brands in working with retailers, no shame in saying, Hey, can we all just get in a room together? Can you please help me find the right people and can we have a conversation and take it from there as opposed to having the separate convos. And I love to find out when we are having those separate convos that are causing confusion and to be able to bring that together. And I think with the rise of retail media as well, the other player here is the agency. The agency that says working sometimes with these broker. And there's so many, and that's still as the industry, no one's there yet.
(28:53):
But I think I went to a presentation a few weeks ago and one of the catchphrases was the customer shouldn't fill your org chart. I think for us, the customer is b2b, the customer's also the shopper. So if we have that vision of going on that Jenny together, we're not there yet. And I think that it's the bravery of a brand to say, Hey, retailer, I don't really know how to navigate this. Can you help me with the person you've got the best relationship with? But also for the retailers like us to be more proactive and say, Hey, this brand could really benefit from a cross-functional meeting where we talk about X, Y, Z. And we're certainly seeing more of that now. And then the next evolution, as I said of that is the agency. But yeah, let's make sure the customer doesn't feel our org chart. That's definitely a goal. I love that the customer, B2B or b2c,
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Definitely going to coin that as well. And I think
Speaker 1 (29:40):
It's not mine stolen it from somewhere else and I can't remember where
Speaker 2 (29:44):
We all recycle. We just take it with us and then pretend that it's our own. But no, I think that's a really good saying, and I think what you've just touched on is a really good reinforcement as to why the category marketing team is becoming increasingly important as a function within the retailer that not only that ability to connect that shopper experience, but the ability to connect the customer's experience being the supplier or the brand, they play such a fundamental and critical role in that space. If the organization has embraced an evolution in the role that category is to play, category marketing is to play within the business. And I think I would dare say within Australia at a retail level, there's probably different levels of maturity around category marketing. Some retailers probably aren't as mature as maybe a brand like David Jones because they're still on that journey.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
And I agree, I think in speaking with people in the industry that have those sort of category marketing functions, and especially with us delivering our retail media business, it is quite different. But my vision of category marketing should always be that they're the connector, as you said. So there is definitely some work to be done there and to help everyone. We have a key value at David Jones, which is customer obsessed. And if every division in our business works on that, every customer at every level, so anyone that's interacting with us, and I think that that will help us to deliver that feeling and brands will be delivering better outcomes for themselves and with us, which is the ultimate goal.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Yeah, definitely. So thank you so much, Melissa, for your time. I think there's lots of really great and lots of great insights that you shared through this conversation. We really appreciate you joining us on the Unpacking the Digital Shelf podcast, the APAC edition.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Thank you. It's been a great chat. I think lots of great things happening in our industry and still lots of great vision to deliver to, so have really enjoyed discussing.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
And thanks as always to our listeners for tuning into unpacking the digital shelf, the APAC edition with me, Theresa Spurty.