Susan Judge - Storio Group

DVJ Research Group

for 3 timer siden

5 min læsning

In a category built around preserving memories, staying relevant means continually finding new ways to help customers capture them. For Susan Judge, VP Marketing at Storio Group, brand growth is therefore less about finding one breakthrough idea and more about consistency in delivery and staying close to the ongoing evolution of customer needs and expectations. Operating multiple brands across Europe, including Photobox and albelli, Storio combines significant brand heritage with a shared approach to technology, innovation and customer experience. Susan explains why sustainable growth depends on using that existing brand equity as a foundation while continually adapting products, experiences and communications to changing customer needs.

Brand Growth Starts with Staying Relevant

For Susan, innovation is fundamental to long-term brand growth because customer needs never stand still. That innovation can take many forms: new products, better designs, smarter technology or a simpler creation experience. "I think the brands that succeed are the ones who really understand that they can't stand still. They have to continually understand how their customers' needs are evolving, how competitors are evolving, and how you stay relevant when the landscape keeps changing."

Storio's established brands have an advantage in the trust, awareness and momentum built over many years. Yet heritage can also create fixed perceptions, leaving opportunities for newer competitors to disrupt the category. She therefore welcomes competitive pressure. "I think any competition is good. We all become very lazy brands if we don't have competition forcing us to be better." Protecting existing equity and continually evolving the customer experience behind it must go hand in hand.

"I think the brands that succeed are the ones who really understand that they can't stand still. They have to continually understand how their customers' needs are evolving, how competitors are evolving, and how to stay relevant when the landscape keeps changing."

Balancing Scale with Local Customer Relevance and Consistent Quality

Managing multiple brands across many markets means finding the right balance between scale and localisation. It's as important to understand what sets customers apart as it is identifying what they have in common- and then delivering against both, consistently. Because consistency isn't just an operational ambition; it's a brand promise. Customers need to trust that every time they create with you, the experience and the end product will meet the same high standard, whether it's their first order or their tenth.

Understanding what matters most to customers in each market - whether that's product preferences, seasonal occasions or cultural nuances - allows each brand to stay genuinely relevant locally while still benefiting from the efficiencies of operating at scale. But localisation only works if the quality underneath it is unwavering. A product that feels right for its market but disappoints on delivery, or varies in quality from one order to the next, will erode the very trust you've worked to build. The principle is therefore threefold: build from shared customer needs, prioritise the most important localisations that make each brand feel at home and remain authentic in its own market, and then deliver - every single time - to a standard that reinforces why customers chose you in the first place.

"If you start with your similarities, you can build a strategy that enables you a bit more of a scalable approach - but it's the consistency of what you deliver that turns customers into loyal ones."

Turning Customer Insight into the Next Growth Opportunity

Staying relevant requires understanding both what customers are doing and why. There is a clear distinction between behavioural data and customer insight: data shows what customers are actually doing, while insight helps explain how they are thinking and how their needs may be evolving. Looking at the two together allows a brand to identify opportunities and diagnose changes more effectively - rather than simply reacting to what the numbers show on the surface.

That approach can help brands respond to emerging trends and develop new occasions - such as encouraging customers to turn the previous year into a physical collection of memories, an idea that originated in one market and expanded successfully across others. The imagery and content customers engage with can also reveal the occasions behind a purchase, such as weddings, travel or the arrival of a child, helping inform future products, designs and communications.

Trust, Experience and the Role of Promotions

Today's customers are increasingly time poor, and that reality sits at the heart of how we think about the creation journey. Technology has a critical role to play in simplifying the experience- removing friction and effort - while ensuring it remains genuinely enjoyable. Because creating the product is as much a part of reliving the memory as holding the finished item in your hands; that process of choosing, curating and crafting is where the emotion starts, and it deserves to feel effortless and delightful, not like a task to get through.

Building more Reasons to Choose the Brand

Because photo products can be lower-frequency purchases, mental availability is particularly important. It’s true to say that brands think about their customers far more often than customers are thinking about them. Storio therefore uses a wide range of channels to maintain a regular "drumbeat", helping ensure its brands come to mind when needed or to plant the seed for a potential new customer for the future.

There is also an opportunity to expand the occasions a brand becomes associated with over time — but that growth has to be earned and purposeful. "You spread yourself too thin and suddenly you're the brand that's famous for nothing." Growth is therefore about finding additional occasions where a brand can play a credible and authentic role, rather than attempting to own everything.

"You spread yourself too thin and suddenly you're the brand that's famous for nothing."

Personalisation Enabled by Technology

Personalisation continues to be one of the biggest opportunities ahead - and technology is what makes it scalable. By better understanding what customers buying behaviours, when and for what purpose, brands are moving away from blanket approaches towards even more relevant recommendations and experiences that feel individually tailored. That shift builds on the customer's sense that "this brand understands me."

Technology also has a critical role in removing one of the biggest barriers to that personalised experience: time and effort.

Consumers have thousands of photographs and countless memories to draw on, but often struggle to turn them into something meaningful without significant investment of both. The opportunity lies in using technology to do more of that heavy lifting - helping customers identify the moments that matter and transforming them into physical stories more easily, while keeping the experience feeling personal and emotionally resonant rather than automated. "We'll be able to bring more people into the market because your barriers of time and effort are reduced significantly."

Ultimately, personalisation enabled by technology serves a deeply human purpose. Customers are preserving stories, revisiting experiences and creating something they can keep or pass on. The future growth opportunity lies in making those meaningful moments easier to capture and celebrate- giving more people more reasons to turn their digital memories into something tangible and lasting- ultimately ‘Making Joy Unforgettable’.