Molton Brown: A Masterclass in Go-To-Market Learning Strategy

Ambitious L&D teams still have a lot to learn from the best FMCG marketers. Molton Brown moved 90% of learners onto a phone-first learning experience in under a year, improving eNPS results and delivering a systemic transition, in under one year. Here’s how they did it.?

Insufficient data, globally dispersed leaders, wasteful travel times.?

The team was working within Customer Experience (CX); it was working with a basic LMS. It offered some tracking; but this data-oriented team needed more metrics, so they could monitor, measure and improve business-critical learning programs. Training manuals were pdfs. CX leaders Julie Foley, Global Customer Experience Director, and Jonathan Sheppard CIPD , Customer Experience Manager at Molton Brown , wanted more for the brand, and more for every employee.?

Additionally, Molton Brown was scaling into the fast-growing Middle East. Their existing leadership development team was based in Europe, leading to wasted time and budget spent in disruptive overseas travel for a team of three trainers. ?

Identifying clear goals?

As a Royal Warrant holding global leader in the fast-moving consumer good category, Molton Brown knows that successful launches are tested, planned, measured, and iterated. From retail stores to wholesale, hotels to travel experiences, operating over the UK, EU, APAC, South Africa and the US,? Molton Brown’s success isn’t a result of chance.??

The CX team identified their list of learning needs:?

• Reduce travel costs?
• Remove the need for 2-3 novel workshops/month?
• Ability to update training materials and distribute across global workforce with minimal budget?
• Lower print costs??

• Increase ability to track and monitor progress??

• Understand which pedagogical methods were increasing knowledge transfer?

• Reach every employee across wholesale, inhouse, hotels and travel?

• Allow every employee to access on-demand learning at their convenience?

Securing board-level buy-in??

Every board needs to know if ambitious plans have credentials, capacity, and goals. Together with CrossKnowledge , the CX team shared their due diligence, research, and strategy.?

From almost removing the entire existing physical classroom learning, and how their go-to-market strategy would support and sustain the digital transformation, CX’s plans were robust, and their challenges were in-sight; the leadership bought-in.?

A Go-To-Market Learning strategy?

A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is a step-by-step plan for launching a new product or expanding an existing product into a new market. It allows teams to set out their plan for bringing an offer to market with as little risk as possible.??

It’s often a cross-functional strategy, allowing project leaders to include relevant stakeholders, make intelligent decisions based on sound customer feedback and insights.?

Molton Brown’s strategy is private. But, in our experience, L&D teams can adopt a GTM strategy for new learning initiatives by answering these questions:?

• What unique problem or business challenge does your learning solve??

• Who is your ideal customer/learner? What pain points do they experience???

• Where will you share your learning program???

• What channels and marketing avenues will help you engage learners??

• What does the demand and competition look like in those markets??

• How will you reach your target customer/learners? How will you create demand???

Launching the Digital Learning Academy??

The CX team aligned their launch with a major consumer-product launch: a new line of eau de toilette, and Molton Brown’s first line of eau de parfum. This strategic move may have helped the team to capitalize on a rightful moment of employee enthusiasm, and avoid potential challenges to a new transformation.?

Some of Molton Brown’s tactics included:?

• Holding focus groups?

• Delivering in-person presentations at brand days and conferences?

• Holing in-person roadshows, across the globe?

• Creating intrigue: why should employees bring their phone to work?

• Devising a new ‘bring your device’ to work policy?

• Filming video teasers?

• Locating learning ambassadors.??

From wholesale to consumer-facing roles in retail and hospitality, by working with their global employee base, GTM strategies help gain the buy-in at the board — stakeholders at every level can see a rigorous, evidence-based strategy. It demonstrates how the program will benefit learners across the group.?

Before the launch, the CX team were constantly being asked: “what’s coming?!”, “when do we find out?” . The excitement was building.?

The results?

69 percent of their global learners connected by their mobile device — 25 percent above Molton Brown’s target.?

92 percent of those who connected to the platform went on to complete learning, and eNPS rates were 46 percent.?

The print budget was reduced to almost zero, and the travel budget was radically reduced.?

And, the big outcomes???

Molton Brown and CrossKnowledge won silver in two Brandon Hall Awards, Best Use of Mobile Learning, and Best Advancement in Learning Technology.?

And, the team discovered a 4% increase in perfume sales, which were attributed to CX’s Digital Learning Academy.?

Of course, there were some challenges. Some employees needed more help making the move to digital, and others needed more reasons to make the move. However, the ability to learn on demand, wherever someone lives, no matter how they travel, or how they work, means that the team exceeded everyone’s expectations.?

Useful? Enjoy this? If you want more tips on how to borrow the best from marketing and strategy to improve your L&D impact, follow me, Renan Oliveira , on LinkedIn.