The HoC's April Chronicles: The Best Brands Awards! #2

Serviceplan and GfK are driven by the same passion: Building Best Brands. On March 21, 2024, at the Best Brands Awards, we proudly revealed the 21 winners of the 2024 edition, determined through a survey on 4,500 Belgian consumers. In our new House of Communication Chronicles, uncover insights from the winners themselves about their exceptional performance! In this edition, explore exclusive interviews featuring Geert Coolman, CEO of Lab9, Geert Van Meel, Regional Business Director Bosch Power Tools, and Michele Laghezza, Marketing Director of MIELE.

#1 Lab9 is Best Momentum Brand 2024!

Delve into an exclusive interview with Geert Coolman, CEO Lab9. Enjoy the insights!

What are the main challenges you have faced in terms of marketing and communication to become one of the favorite brands among Belgians this year?

Looking back on the past few years, Lab9’s growth has been exponential to say the least. We went from 11 to 30 stores in a span of three years and have seen our revenue, the number of employees and national brand recognition skyrocket accordingly. We are extremely proud to be awarded the Best Momentum Brand as an acknowledgment of all the hard work that was needed to get us to this point. In terms of marketing and communication this kind of growth came with its own set of challenges. It required us to shift our mindset and start working on a broader strategy.

Our first and possibly the biggest challenge was to keep reaching the right people with our messages and promotions. With 30 stores and a broad national coverage, that meant we had to start allocating our budget much more efficiently than when we were a local player with stores in just 11 cities.

Our new status as Belgium’s largest Apple Premium Partner also meant our relationship with Apple evolved and they set higher quality standards for us regarding the shopping experience both online and offline. With our communication being so closely monitored by Apple it can sometimes be challenging to remain creative and produce relevant content within the boundaries Apple sets for us. But it keeps us on our toes and forces us to keep thinking out of the box so this really is a challenge our marketing team has embraced eagerly.

As an Apple Premium Partner we mainly represent the Apple brand and Apple products. But our personal brand, Lab9’s brand, is the one that ensures that people keep coming back to our stores. In our campaigns we usually call this ‘Why Lab9’. It is all the services, support, knowledge and experiences we promise to our customers. Our biggest priority has always been to deliver on that promise. That is why we find customer feedback and satisfaction scores tremendously valuable. It is our way to stay connected and make sure we can improve our service every day.

Can you share examples of strategic partnerships or collaborations that have had a positive impact on your brand's perception in Belgium?

For our marketing & communication team one partnerships really stood out last year. We had the pleasure of partnering with Studio Brussel for their program ‘De Wekker’. Every morning Studio Brussel wakes up its listeners with an alarm clock sound sung by a famous person. The sound of the alarm clock is a typical iPhone sound, you don't get the link with Lab9 couldn’t be any more logical.

?The listener who guesses the voice wins the coveted prize pool. We gave away € 500 vouchers for the purchase of Apple products. The amount accumulated every day the sound was not guessed. As it turned out, it was a very popular prize with on average 15,000 messages per day getting sent in the Studio Brussel app.

Campaigns like this are not only authentic and relevant, but also extremely impactful. Our audiences matched and the timing was ideal: in the same period, we rolled out our back-to-school communication with billboards, digital OOH with Glooh and online ads. In any case this campaign is definitely worth repeating.

What are your priorities in marketing and communication to maintain your status as a favorite brand in Belgium in the long term?

We’ve just launched our brand new webshop that has been over a year in the making. A lot of thought went into this new online buyer experience and the integration between the digital store and our physical stores. Throughout the whole journey from product discovery to check-out and even after they’ve purchased, we found it very important for our customers to see the contact details, opening hours and stock availability of the nearest store. At any point in time, they can request additional information, book services, schedule repairs and attend free training courses.

Our ambition has never been to become the biggest Apple reseller in Belgium. We do want to be the Apple reseller closest to them, the one they can rely on, whether that is online or with our stores in over 25 Belgian cities. To make good on this promise we are looking to open two more physical stores in Flanders this year in areas where Apple-users have been waiting for a premium buying and service experience for a long time. Both locations will get an Apple Premium Partner showroom, a new store concept introduced by Apple last year, as well as an in-store repair center and training room.

New product launches are usually also a great way for us the interact with customers and to create new connections. Through unboxings, in-store demonstrations and training we get people excited about cool features and brand new devices. When Apple launched Apple Vision Pro last year and made it available in the US, our heads immediately started buzzing with ideas on how to present this product and create memorable experiences around it. It seems we will have to wait a bit longer for Apple Vision Pro to be available in Belgium, but we look forward to introducing it our customers.

Want to know more about how to become or remain a Best Brand? Then get in touch with the Best Brands team at [email protected]

?#2 Bosch is Best Tools & Machines Brand 2024!

Discover how Bosch Power Tools maintains its status as Belgium's favorite brand for the 6th consecutive year in our interview with Geert Van Meel. Learn about their innovative strategies and commitment to consumer connection, shaping the future of the industry.

What are your priorities in marketing and communication to maintain your status as a favorite brand in Belgium in the long term??

We are proud and grateful to have won the award for the Best Tools & Machines Brand 2024. Winning this award for the sixth time in a row confirms that at Bosch Power Tools, we prioritize the right things in marketing and communication to reach and convince our users of our brand and tools. We continuously conduct user research to stay informed about what drives our users and to be fully aware of their needs. For example, we know that sustainability plays an increasingly important role - not only for our users but also for retailers and our employees. Therefore, we will consistently focus on more sustainability - not only in marketing and communication but throughout the entire production chain. We have also done this with our range of measuring tools for DIY enthusiasts, which was launched in 2023 with a new sustainability concept.

How do you want to continue evolving as a brand while remaining emotionally connected to your consumers?

Further brand development and emotional customer loyalty are directly related. Therefore, we strive for a clear user orientation and a consistently executed brand strategy. We want to place our users at the center of all our activities and monitor whether we succeed in doing so. For example, our UX department is responsible for market research and conducts 'Ad recall tests' to measure the success of our marketing campaigns. Additionally, we involve our users from the beginning in the development of our products and services, and new tools are derived from the needs of our users. An example of this is the new segment of hand tools for DIY enthusiasts, a request from our users to complement our Power Tools.

Which communication channels do you use to reach and engage consumers most effectively?

At Bosch Power Tools, we aim for 360° communication throughout the entire user journey, focusing on digital channels such as social media, our website, newsletters, our e-shop, and our direct customer service. Through these digital channels, we successfully engage with our users, receive immediate feedback, and can quickly respond to questions and effectively share relevant information.

Are there any examples of strategic partnerships or collaborations that have had a positive impact on your brand perception in Belgium?

The best example is our brand-crossing alliance for 18V batteries. With the Power for All Alliance, we offer our DIY enthusiasts maximum flexibility and they can save space and money. Additionally, we protect the environment by using the same battery for more than 100 tools from 11 international brands. By jointly promoting the alliance online and at sales points, all partners increase their visibility and brand experience while providing their customers with clear benefits.

Want to know more about how to become or remain a Best Brand? Then get in touch with the Best Brands team at [email protected]

#3 Miele is Best Major Domestic Appliances Brand 2024!

Explore Miele's journey to maintain its status as one of Belgium's favorite brands with Michele Laghezza, Marketing Director at Miele.

What are the main challenges you have faced in terms of marketing and communication to remain/become one of the favorite brands among Belgians this year?

For a premium Brand like Miele, the main challenge sits in the constant (re)-definition of a signature customer experience, which can always delight a consumer, whose expectations and needs constantly evolve. To be able to personalization and contextuality along the entire consumer journey is for sure the biggest, and the same time, most exciting challenge for us.

?How has your brand approached the issue of differentiation from your competitors in your industry?

Again, the Miele value stays in the promise to offer not only high quality product, rather a personalized experience across the entire journey, constantly delighting the consumer with wherever and whenever gets in contact with the Brand, from our web-site to our call-center to our technical service department to the post-purchase nurturing phase with ? relevant contents, like tips and tricks, based on his/her/their usage of our devices and his/her/their interests

How do you plan to continue evolving as a brand while remaining emotionally connected to your consumers?

Because personalization and contextuality are the key successful factors, the ingredients to make them happen are: Content, Data, Technology and, what I call, HuMarTech which is that customer-centric mindset that the marketing team needs to have to combine more and more data-driven insights with extraordinary creativity, to establish empathic relations with our consumer.

Want to know more about how to become or remain a Best Brand? Then get in touch with the Best Brands team at [email protected]

?