Recently, I purchased a foundation from the Clinique concession in Churchill Square shopping centre.  When making my purchase I was advised by the shop assistant to log my details on their database, so I can receive the latest offers and store the details of products I have purchased for future reference.  Within a few days I had received my first personalised marketing email, which invited me to a complimentary skin care consultation where I would receive a free eye cream sample. This type of house list campaign, has appeared to be periodic, I have received another email from Clinique since with advertisements informing me of a new product line.

Although I do not frequently open every single marketing email I receive, the subject line – which was ‘ We’re treating you with a free eye cream’ – provided an incentive to entice me to into opening the email. Consequently, a subject line attracting attention was one of the key tactics identified by Ellis Chadwick (2012) in the Role of Email Marketing.

  The email was personally addressed to me and specifically invited me to the Brighton store, as this is where I had shopped previously. The template of the email was not particularly over crowded with images and had quite a neutral colour scheme, which mirrors the Clinique website, I feel this reinforces the brand image . The message itself was very concise and not too long, which is all that was necessary to convey the information intended. If the message had been longer and more detailed then consumers may not bother to read through it all and be put off by the length of the email.

Typically, Clinique’s target audience is aimed at an older demographic than myself, which I feel is reflected in the format of this particular email. Firstly, the product itself is a ‘Repairwear Laser Focus Wrinkle Correcting Eye Cream’, this is not a product that would usually be recommended to someone myself at the age twenty-one. When I gave my personal details to the shop assistant I was asked my date of birth; Yet I still received an email for a product which was not that relevant to my age category, which leads me to think that because the majority of Clinique’s client base is usually within a certain age bracket, they do not take age into consideration as a factor when sending marketing emails. Secondly, the actual voucher part of the email implies that you would should print out the email and cut around the voucher to present in store. I personally feel this is quite an outdated style of using a voucher, nowadays most vouchers/codes are shown from a smartphone, so perhaps this is aimed at a slightly older generation due to the fact they may not have smartphones or prefer to have a hard copy of the voucher to use.

 On the other hand, the email does contain interactive features, such as a link to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Youtube, which would imply the person opening the email has more of a technical grasp than initially expected with cutting out the voucher.

Overall, I do think that this is quite an effective piece of email marketing. It contains all tactics mentioned in the Ellis-Chadwick (2012) article including; Length of email, subect headline, illustrations and interactive features, which I have used a template to review the email structure in this blog. Even though the product was not that relevant to me personally, the email managed to attract my attention, maintain my attention throughout the email and if the product had been more relevant to my age category – then it would have effectively persuaded me to go into the store and redeem the voucher.

 Reference –

Ellis-Chadwick, F., & Doherty, N. F. (2012). Web advertising: The role of e-mail marketing. Journal of Business Research, 65(6), 843-848.