Waitrose has made a trio of appointments to its customer team, as the supermarket continues with the overhaul of its marketing strategy and loyalty programme.
Helen Carroll has been appointed as the supermarket’s head of brand and customer experience. She’ll officially join on 31 October from Co-op, where she currently leads its community engagement team.
Carroll will be joined by former Diageo sales manager Wendy Rumble, who has been appointed to the brand-new role of head of customer planning and events.
Rumble will join from Hipp Organic, where she has spent the past two years as head of sales. Her new role will focus on improving the “entire customer experience” across marketing, in-store messaging, and events.
Alongside the two new appointments, the supermarket has promoted Caroline Kinsman. She will move from her current role as head of digital & marketing, to become its head of customer channels. The new role will bring together all of Waitrose’s customer channel marketing, which includes personalised communication.
“Helen and Wendy both bring substantial retail, grocery and commercial expertise into the customer leadership team and we are thrilled to have them on board,” said Waitrose customer director Nathan Ansell. “I am also delighted that Caroline Kinsman will be taking on the important role of head of customer channels.
“We already enjoy huge brand loyalty, but by joining the brand experience and customer experience under their leadership we aim to take our relationships with customers to the next level – bringing the Waitrose brand alive in a more assertive and consistent way across the customer experience.”
The three will work to aid Waitrose’s marketing efforts, following the relaunch of its brand proposition under the banner of ‘Food to Feel Good About’ in September 2022.
The new proposition has sought to heavily play up Waitrose’s animal welfare and ‘quality’ credentials. Most recently it saw the launch of a new values-led advertising campaign in July, which highlighted the supermarket’s “no compromise” approach to supply chain standards. It’s also launched a new social media channel called Waitrose Farmers, which aims to highlight parts of its wider UK agricultural chain.
The supermarket is also working on a revamp of its loyalty programmes ahead of the launch of a new pan-partnership loyalty scheme in 2024, under pan partnership head of loyalty Emily Wells. It’s understood the latest iteration of the scheme will see the My Waitrose and My John Lewis schemes integrated more closely.
Ansell joined the business in January 2023, replacing Martin George, to lead the supermarket’s marketing and loyalty efforts. He’d previously played a key role in helping to transform M&S’ Sparks loyalty scheme.
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