Catherine Laporte, Vice President of Marketing and eCommerce at DAVIDsTEA, reveals how one-to-one customer experiences are key to building a brand.
 

“To be a Trailblazer, you have to walk the walk. Salesforce helps to make the leap into the unknown easier. I can’t wait to get started on our next project!”

Catherine Laporte loves to lead the pack, from finding the hottest new restaurant to sitting on the Young Associates board at Opéra de Montréal. Now the Vice President of Marketing and eCommerce and her team at DAVIDsTEA are blazing a trail in the workplace to get closer to the customer and keep on delighting them every time they reach for the kettle. We talked to Catherine about how her team is elevating the brand and how in the process, they have learnt that digitalization doesn’t have to be daunting!

What makes DAVIDsTEA special?

At DAVIDsTEA we’ve been making tea fun and accessible for almost 10 years! By expanding the definition of tea with unique flavours and innovative products, consumers can discover our world both online and in person by visiting our fun and friendly retail environment.

We opened our first store in Toronto and instantly became part of the community. Getting to know our biggest fans through a unique customer experience continues to be part of our DNA, whether you’re joining us at one of our 240 stores across North America or at davidstea.com. Our focus now is to become a world leader in the tea market, while retaining that special connection with our customers.

Tell us about your role at DAVIDsTEA.

I’m responsible for marketing and eCommerce, so my role’s pretty broad – my team’s responsibilities range from product packaging and ideation through to PR, brand strategy, customer insights and analytics. Every day is different, and I love it! There’s never a dull moment. It’s also really rewarding – I’m particularly proud of how smooth our website launch went thanks to Commerce Cloud, and how well the teams worked together to make it happen.

How are you building the brand?

We’re all passionate about our customer experience, and we continue push ourselves to become a top tier brand. At the moment, over 80% of our sales are retail, but as the brand has taken off we’ve explored more ways to grow, including in the wholesale channel. This will allow our customers to enjoy DAVIDsTEA in their favourite restaurant or pick it up from their local grocery store, which we’re very excited about. As we expand into new markets, understanding our customers and providing the best experience is going to be crucial. And while it was certainly easier when we only had a few stores, creating a unique customer experience at scale requires the right technology.

To mark our tenth anniversary we will be celebrating the most important piece of our success: our customers! Our initiatives include revamping our loyalty program to make it more accessible across channels, and helping our fans develop a deeper connection with our brand through a journey of discovery. We’re going to be working with Salesforce to make this happen.

What do you like best about working with Salesforce?

Definitely the people! My background is in marketing, brand, and retail, so looking at the technology side of business could have been daunting. I learnt a lot from the Salesforce team; they were insightful and great teachers. With Salesforce behind me, not only was the implementation a breeze, but I can’t wait to do another one!

What does being a Trailblazer mean to you?

I am relentless in pushing myself and my team to think about the customer experience and how we can continue to push the boundaries for our fans across all channels. A trailblazer, for me, means achieving a one-to-one connection with customers across the board. Lots of companies want to do this but are afraid to try, or don’t know where to start. With the Salesforce platform and the counsel of our Salesforce account team, I know we can unlock the benefits of true personalization. Salesforce is helping me lead the way to this goal. I love to speak at conferences to inspire other people to have faith in themselves and to blaze their own trails – if I can do it, you can do it too.

Learn more about Catherine and DAVIDsTEA in their Customer Success Story.