Belvilla’s CMO Homes In On A ‘Continuous Conversation With The Customer’

Customer thinking is cross-departmental so marketing has to be looked at in a holistic way, says the CMO of the Netherlands-based holiday homes rental company.

Complex customer journeys are at the heart of the marketing challenge for the Netherlands-based holiday homes rental company Belvilla. Three years ago, it began working to identify the customer journeys for both its holiday-maker and home-owner customer. “We started … to bring those together because they have to match and be in perfect sync,” chief marketing officer Eylard Wurpel said.

It’s an approach that requires the CMO to be “a leader in the view of the customer,” he added. “Marketing has so many touch points across the company that you have to look at it in a holistic way. The whole company has to care. Customer thinking is not something that’s there automatically within a company. It’s a lot of work, and that’s why it’s cross-departmental.”

Data and reporting are centralised, but, as a business that operates across Europe, Belvilla is committed to localising customer messaging. As such, the campaign calendar remains a crucial part of its marketing organisation.

“Based on the complexity and different types of target audiences and holidays … we need to have a handle on how we take care of that,” Wurpel said. “At the same time, we’re really focusing on content marketing and trying to inspire our customers. We have to show that we’re an authority … we have to do storytelling and have a continuous conversation with the customer.”