Dr. Peter Domma, Villeroy & Boch: "Innovation aus Tradition – Online Marketing@Villeroy & Boch"

Thank you very much. As just mentioned, we might be a bit of a contrast program today — a classic company. We have something that other companies don't yet have: a very long tradition. We were also once a startup. In 1748 we were a startup and have grown successfully for over 260 years, precisely because for us innovation is not in contradiction with our tradition. That's why the topic of online is nothing new to us — it's not a case of saying 'something's happening, we have to jump in.' The fact that I'm standing here today as head of an Online Unit, and that we have an Online Unit in such a company, shows that we didn't just discover this yesterday, but have been working on it for several years already.

The brand Villeroy & Boch — I think here in our core European markets, most of you will know it. You may have had contact with us, and perhaps you know some of our prominent examples. You can see here, for instance, the Titanic — the tiles in the Titanic, which still lies sunk somewhere in the Atlantic, were from Villeroy & Boch. We once made the Pope's dinnerware. We supplied dinnerware for Lady Di's wedding. So we have a very rich history and have accomplished many things. If you go into Cologne Cathedral, you'll also find tiles from Villeroy & Boch. That's also from us.

Who are we? As mentioned, we were founded in 1748 in France. Today we're based in the beautiful tri-border area of Germany, France, and Luxembourg, which is very attractive for expanding into all regions. Our business areas include Table Culture — everything around the table topic, meaning dinnerware, porcelain, but also cutlery, glasses, and other items. On the other side, we have a second business area, which is Bath and Wellness — everything around sanitary. Historically, we also had the tiles topic, though Villeroy & Boch today holds only a minority stake in that. We generated revenue of 800 million euros in 2015 and have, as said, a very long history.

I picked out an example from 1836, also very, very long ago. Today you'd say there was a merger to become a global player. That's something Villeroy & Boch already did in 1836 — uniting the Boch family and the Villeroy family into one company, combining strengths, and growing internationally together.

But we are not just tradition — we are also innovation. That's the reason we've survived 260 years and remain successful in the market. Many people here are already working with technology. I'll come back later to the topic of online and online marketing, but we've been working with Virtual Reality for several years now. We've developed things where you can experience your bathroom in a three-dimensional virtual reality — not just using an online tool to look at pictures, but really having the possibility to feel what you want to buy. Another topic that you might not expect from us regarding innovation is social media. It's not a case of suddenly Facebook appears and we have to do something — we've been very active there for several years, have deliberately built our communities, and as you can see, on Facebook we now have almost 400,000 followers, so we've built a large community to communicate with using our brand.

We are very internationally positioned, also when it comes to innovation. We're currently working in the Asian market with other social media platforms. There are local markets that aren't dominated by Facebook and Google, so we take a local approach and work with platforms like WeChat to communicate our brand and reach our target groups there.

What do we do in online marketing? As mentioned, we have an Online Unit. All forces focused on online and online marketing are bundled within this unit. We cover all classic online marketing disciplines — the complete range. Starting with Search: naturally, Google is a very important channel for us, both from a generic perspective. Search engine optimization is important, as is efficient management of Google AdWords. In the Table Culture area, we also have our own online sales structure. We have e-shops in many countries, and we need to manage the Google channel accordingly to generate our e-shop revenues.

I already mentioned social media at the beginning of the customer journey. We're present and active on all major platforms. To be very specific, we're currently looking for a new Head of Social Media — it's one of the positions we have open. So for us, this remains a very important topic where we want to continue growing.

Once we've acquired the customers, whether through social media or Google AdWords, we face another layer of complexity. As a company that both sells directly and through external e-commerce platforms — and especially in the Bath and Wellness area through a more complex, multi-tiered distribution — we always have to ask ourselves: how can we use these online marketing channels strategically so that we reach customers optimally at every point along the customer journey? It is indeed a bit more complex and challenging to understand how the customer moves, and there we have the challenge of setting up new steering instruments through these channels so we can guide them optimally.

For example, a customer in the Bath and Wellness area will typically look at the product, but then they also need contact with a dealer. That's where topics like lead management come in — I need to figure out how to use online channels to guide customers to the product, and then in the next step, make it as convenient and optimal as possible for them to find a dealer and take the next steps. We work a lot with tools we create for the customer, such as a bathroom planner or a bathroom inspirator. These are things we present on our website so customers can find the right product for themselves.

Similarly, in the Table Culture area, with omni-channel retailing, we always aim to connect online and offline. We also have physical stores, our Villeroy & Boch houses, where customers can buy products in person. A big challenge there is converting or guiding customers that we win online, or those already in the store, through the other channel. Innovation and technology play a major role there too. In our stores, customers can view products online via a PSA, and in the future we want to find much stronger integration between the physical and online worlds.

Then we have another acquisition channel: Display and Affiliate Marketing. This is also an area we manage, where in Performance Marketing we steer our campaigns based on metrics and try across different country markets to reach customers in the most efficient way using these online marketing tools.

Once we've won the customers, we move to newsletter marketing and e-mail marketing. We run very many campaigns there and have recently invested in new technology — to more specifically reach our customers throughout the ongoing customer lifecycle, showing them new products and products that match what they already own. This is also an important point for us to capture the entire customer journey's efficiency, since online marketing is very performance-driven.

Who does all of this? This is just a representation of our pure Online Unit. As mentioned, we're very internationally positioned. In total, our Online Unit has 28 employees across six different countries. The interesting thing in such a large corporation is always: how do you manage it all? From our headquarters, we have the ability to centrally manage many, particularly European, markets. But then, due to local requirements — especially the USA, which is a very important e-commerce market for us, as is the entire APAC region — we also have local organizations that work very closely with us. That means we always have the opportunity to exchange ideas, learn from local colleagues about what's happening on social media and platforms, and from the headquarters side, roll out certain strategies and provide guidance.

We are present in 31 countries with local websites. This carries a certain complexity — not just language, but also everything on the IT side must run smoothly and function across all country markets. We have our own e-shop in 17 countries for direct sales. You can check out the German one. The other 17 look similar. We're also trying to manage this more from headquarters and communicate the brand consistently across all markets. With our own e-shops, we generated 14 million euros in revenue last year, and we plan to grow strongly again this year.

External e-commerce platforms are also a future growth potential for us as a brand, and we want to continue growing there. For this, we want to be, from the Online Unit, a bit of the core of the company that brings in digital thinking and shows what potential can be achieved. That's what we fight for every day. The numbers are very positive — we're growing at rates of 31% and 39% in France, plus 22% in the USA. So we're on a very good path, and I believe we have great potential to continue growing at these rates over the next years.

What's also very interesting regarding internationality is the opportunity to discover new platforms in e-commerce. As mentioned, in Asian markets there are local markets not dominated by Google and Facebook, and they have entirely different e-commerce structures. Amazon isn't dominant there — instead there are local players. You've heard of Alibaba. Tmall in China is a huge market, and there are different online marketing techniques you need to use to reach your numbers. So I think it's a great opportunity to learn internationally across many different platforms and see how things develop. In the USA, we've been working with Macy's for some time, promoting and selling our Table Culture products through that platform. I believe it's a very promising growth market where you can enter with a certain online focus.

That was a quick overview of what we do. Now, what opportunities are there to join a company like Villeroy & Boch in the online area? I think the most interesting option, especially for graduates, is our Junior Program. It's a three-year training program, or partially shortened for the online track, where you really learn on the job across different stations how the company works and how all these channels function. After three years, you'll have built up online marketing knowledge that will serve you for the future. And I believe starting in a large corporation where you operate across many country markets, with budgets to work with, you can make a really good start and will likely benefit from having gone so deep right from the beginning for a long time to come.

We also naturally offer opportunities for bachelor's and master's students, practitioners, dual study programs, thesis work, and more. We've already had many conversations today. I'd gladly invite you to come talk to us again. We're open to many solutions — we look at what your background is, what you've done so far, and find the optimal entry point.

The topic of what's especially important came up multiple times today. For us, it's particularly important to find people who bring that digital spirit into the company. We need people who've at least done an internship, or perhaps run their own internet business on the side, or maybe already have first experience in search engine optimization — bringing that into the company so we can build together. The second important point is, of course, language skills, but ideally an intercultural background. Time abroad is a plus if you want to apply with us.

We currently have several positions available in the Young Professionals area — for people who've already been active in the online space for a while and gathered experience. One, as mentioned, is the Head of Social Media, which offers the opportunity to step into a leadership role and drive the online agenda. Similarly, a Senior Manager for the entire e-commerce area. These are positions where you can get started if you've gathered a certain amount of experience in the online field. That's a brief overview of what Villeroy & Boch is and what we do in the online space. I'd gladly invite you — if after lunch you're still hungry for more information, feel free to send your questions to me now or later at our booth.

Thank you very much.