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Chicco - Embracing uncertainty
Embracing uncertainty together for a successful 2021
It’s safe to say that over the past 12 months, the nursery market has certainly faced a number of challenges.
Following the closure of Mothercare and Covid-19 impacting operations for many, the nursery market saw double-digit decline.
However, Artsana is incredibly proud to have bucked this trend, achieving 27% growth over the past year in the nursery sector. Much of this can be attributed to the ongoing partnership with retailers and continued investment in product innovation and marketing strategies.
Retail partner support
For Artsana, retailers are not just customers, they are valuable members of its extended family. As part of this ethos, 2020 saw Artsana further enhance this relationship, rewarding those who have played an essential role in the business’ growth and development. Artsana’s famous ‘Play & Pay’ strategy offered to its partners continues to be a success, rewarding those who support its brands with strong product presence and gold standard in-store and online support.
Another important tool for supporting retailers is the number of exclusive bundles developed across the Chicco, Boppy and RECARO ranges, providing consumers with an added incentive to shop with Artsana’s partners.
Amongst these additional campaigns and activities, Artsana has also provided ongoing social media support. As well as providing retailers with tailored assets to use on their own channels, Artsana has also rewarded those retailers who continue to support the business with strong in-store and online activation for Chicco’s range by including retailer tags and links in its own social media content, signposting consumers to relevant points of purchase.
Even more importantly, Artsana has always been and will continue to be a top media spender in the market. In 2021, a substantial holistic and fully integrated digital campaign will support hero products and key launches, presenting another opportunity to work together with its partners to reach expectant parents.
This ongoing support for its partners has had a hugely positive impact. For example, independent nursery retailers grew almost 70% with Chicco, Boppy and RECARO in 2020; a figure that Artsana fully expects to exceed in 2021.
Ongoing innovation
Another huge part of Artsana’s support for retailers is continually providing them with new innovation that not only creates excitement and customer demand, but also brings value and profit to the market.
This plays an important role in enhancing the parental experience and protecting the value of the market. Over the past few years, there have been a number of copy-cat products and cheaper imitations attempting to copy the market’s best-selling side-sleeper, the Chicco Next2Me crib, which have the potential to damage the market.
Therefore, to protect and support the side-sleeping sector in 2021, Chicco as the market-leader will reinforce the Chicco Next2Me message as being the one and only bedside crib for safe side-sleeping. This will be achieved in part via a new high impact digital marketing campaign that will be rolled out in support of the launch of the newest innovation, the Chicco Next2Me Forever, Artsana will be working closely with the retail partners to deliver this message through all in-store and digital activation too.
The new Chicco Next2Me Forever is just one of the exciting innovations launching in 2021 that will also play a huge role in further cementing Chicco’s position as the leader of the sleeptime market. This true innovation has been developed by listening to parental requirements.
The launch of the Chicco Next2Me in 2013 was transformational, providing parents with a crib that they could use to safely side-sleep from birth to six months. This year, with the launch of the Chicco Next2Me Forever, Artsana is set to shake-up the bedside crib market once again. Chicco’s new innovation will provide them with a one-box solution that can be easily used from birth until 4 years. Not only is this a game-changing crib that offers the option to side-sleep for longer, but the Chicco Next2Me Forever also includes a host of new safety features never seen before.
To further strengthen Chicco’s position as the sleeptime experts in the nursery market, Artsana has a number of activities planned throughout 2021, from virtual events helping to position the relevant retailers as ‘Education Centres’ to dedicated social media campaigns. Artsana is also working closely with independent sleep expert Mandy Gurney to provide parents with the kind of valuable advice and guidance they have come to expect and trust from Chicco, the leading sleeptime brand. Mandy has been advising on baby and toddler sleep issues for almost 30 years, having established the Millpond Sleep Clinic in 2000, and has acted as a sleep consultant delivering training workshops for the NHS since 2007.
Mitch Levene, Managing Director
Embracing 2021
The main goal for Artsana in the year ahead is to build upon the excellent levels of growth seen in 2020 and prior years. As well as the launch of the Chicco Next2Me Forever that is set to once again revolutionise the bedside crib market, Chicco will be developing the halo effect across the full range of products, transferring the trust Chicco has amongst parents in the sleeptime sector into other product areas, such as nightlights, weaning and travel.
Artsana is not stopping there, as it also has new innovations in the pipeline for the RECARO range of high-quality premium car seats and outdoor products. As well as a new travel system launching under the brand, Artsana is continuing to develop closer synergies between Chicco and RECARO, with an i-Size car seat project planned for the second half of the year.
Mitch Levene, Managing Director commented: “Most importantly this year, we are excited about bringing our retail partners with us on this journey. By working closely with them on our new product launches, campaigns and events throughout the year, we are in a great position to embrace any uncertainty together to achieve further success and make the most of every opportunity that 2021 presents.”
To learn more about Chicco, visit www.chicco.co.uk
