Ann Summers chief executive Jacqueline Gold has challenged retailers to stop focusing on austerity in their marketing communications.

Jacqueline Gold, Retail Week Live 2013

While talking about the impact global erotic fiction phenomenon Fifty Shades of Grey had on her business, Gold told delegates at Retail Week Live: “One action to take from Fifty Shades is to review brand communications. We’re bored of austerity, give us something exciting.”

Gold said retailers need to rethink their approach to attracting female shoppers.  “Women have changed. We can sit here and judge Asda for its criticised Christmas ad campaign, but there are many high street brands that just don’t get it,” she said.

Understanding its customer has helped it capitalise on the popularity of Fifty Shades, according to Gold. The retailer rebranded, which included a new shop fit, revamped products and sexier product, two years ago following extensive research into what its customers want.

She also urged retailers to put a greater focus on social media. She said it was a great way to engage with customers and find out what they want, and allowed the retailer to spot the Fifty Shades popularity early.

Ann Summers’ agility and unified business structure helped it make the most of the renewed interest in erotica following the book’s release.

Gold said: “The fact that we could turn it around so quickly was down to the structure and the culture of our business. We don’t have lots of red tape in our business, we have lots of pink bondage tape for our customers.

“We don’t have teams within the business competing with each other. We have one unified buying and marketing team. We also only incentivise on our overall financial success so there are no conflicts of interest if we have to pull something from one product category to take advantage of a bigger opportunity in another.”

Jacqueline Gold, Ann Summers - Retail Week Live 2013

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