When Niall O’Keeffe joined PC World as marketing director in June, one of his key objectives was to spread the gospel about the breadth of the retailer’s offer beyond its core Middle England brethren of customers aged between 30 and 50.
“We now have 1 million customers coming into our stores each week and we have to target them in a typically FMCG way, because our range is starting to talk to different audiences,” he says. In short, PC World is going after a broader cross-section of the population, from children to students and twenty-somethings.
While most marketing directors can talk the talk, O’Keeffe has shown in a short space of time that he can walk the walk when it comes to broadening appeal. For instance, last month, PC World kicked off its first TV sponsorship for a drama slot on Virgin 1, which runs until January. The campaign, which carries the strapline “PC World: there for all your dramas”, features several real-life problems that the retailer can help solve. For example, one shopper will collect a pre-ordered product from a store and DSGi’s Tech Guys will fix a technical problem. The ad targets men aged between 20 and 35 in the AB socio-economic group.
This week, PC World kick-started an outdoor poster campaign touting its premium credentials on billboards. The posters display seven of PC World’s upscale products, including Apple Mac Books, 48-inch Samsung TVs and Olympus digital SLR cameras.
Similarly, with its stores, PC World wants to shout louder about the diversity of its offer, which includes Apple products. “A lot of people are not aware that we sell Apple. It is about communicating the breadth and depth of the PC World range,” says O’Keeffe. PC World has 20 Apple shop-in-shops, but it has sections for the iconic products in all of its stores and is refreshing its Apple gondolas.
Alongside these changes, PC World is continuing to roll out its next-generation store format. “It is an ongoing evaluation,” says O’Keeffe. At present, PC World has upgraded about 10 stores to its new format, which includes an experience zone, where customers can sample products such as games consoles, and its Connected Home feature. O’Keeffe says the experience zone in its Enfield store, for instance, is much more inviting than in some earlier new-format stores. “We have changed the experience zone so that it is much more obvious rather than something that is ‘do not touch’.”
Leader of the pack
O’Keeffe says that PC World’s future store initiative, which started before he joined the chain, has gone through many iterations, but the store in Chesterfield is the most up-to-date. Ironically, it was semi-submerged under 6ft of water three months ago, when Derbyshire experienced probably its worst floods in living memory.
On product strategy, O’Keeffe says that lines such as laptops and devices associated with wireless networking will be growth areas for Christmas and next year. Such technology will continue to be backed by DSGi’s support business, The Tech Guys. “One of the big things this year and into next will be wireless networking for your home,” says O’Keeffe. For example, today’s wireless networking products have the connectivity power to send data, such as digital photos, from laptops in the garden or bedroom to any room in the house.
Another key battleground for PC World this Christmas will be laptops, particularly as falling prices have made them much more affordable. “Christmas will be about laptops. Last year, laptops got into the gift range,” says O’Keeffe. This year, it will sell laptops from about£200 up to£2,000.
Alongside these products, PC World is DSGi’s biggest channel for selling its Tech Guys services. That the Tech Guys has started offering services as a gift, Tech Friend, illustrates how such support services have entered the mainstream. For£9.99, customers can buy friends an annual subscription to the support service to help solve their technology headaches.
While O’Keeffe appears to have already made his mark by changing the tack of PC World’s marketing, he and every other DSGi employee will need to be on their toes when former Tesco operations director John Browett starts as group chief executive in December. However, O’Keeffe is looking forward to the change. “I am sure he will bring lots of great experience from Tesco. He is a young guy with lots of ideas and we are very much looking forward to having him on board.”
Browett is widely expected to mount a comprehensive review of DSGi’s strategy and operations. If O’Keeffe can continue to widen PC World’s appeal, he should fit in well under the new regime.
Career connections
Age: 43
Lives: St Albans
Family: married with two children
Interests: plays squash in a local league in Hertfordshire; watching Tottenham at White Hart Lane
1999-2007: various roles, rising from director of consumer marketing to vice-president of global brand, Orange
1994-99: joined Carlsberg Tetley as marketing manager; later promoted to brand director
1989-94: marketing manager, Benson & Hedges
1987-89: management trainee, tobacco manufacturer Gallaher
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