T R A V E L R E TA I L
“ William Grant & Sons has the ability to move quickly, working in collaboration with partners, to be creative and innovative in our approach which ultimately, of course, helps to drive our business ” – André de Almeida, Europe Travel Retail Director and for being able to cater to a smorgasbord of international customers, each with different personal tastes, budgets, and brand expectations. Being able to achieve this is not merely a triumph of sales and marketing prowess – it is an art, bringing together a symphony of ideas, underscored by the growing significance of technology. De Almeida explains: “Technology has become more and more important. Airports for example are talking about being able to communicate directly with consumers from the moment they decide to travel on their journey all the way through to their destination. I think personally e-commerce
will have more of an impact we’ve already seen examples of it in travel retail and just have to look at the success of Amazon in the US and UK markets. “I think what technology will also play a role in is the engagement aspect, with increased use of virtual or augmented reality and insights generated from anonymous wi-fi analytics for example. So from our perspective, we want to use technology - whether online or in store - to really convey what the brand stands for and create engagement.” The company has also utilised experiential marketing in order to increase the coverage of its
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