Mc Group goes omni-channel, reaching out to younger buyers

“We have increased our marketing budget by more than Bt20million for branding and expanding our customer base to younger generations. This is on top of more than Bt200 million we have spent on gift-with-purchase promotions each year,” Bundit Praditsuktavorn, Mc Group’s chief financial officer and head of business development, said at a recent press conference on the firm’s vision.
Listed on the Thai stock market, Mc Group is best known for its Mc Jeans. But it has also managed several other brands, including McT, U-P and M&C., Mc Group has nurtured plenty of hardcore fans in Thailand and many overseas markets, with its Mc Club members now numbering over 650,000. Membership records, however, show most fans have now aged to at least their late 20s.
Somchai Soongswang, commercial officer, hopes his firm will be able to attract a new generation of customers aged closer to 18 years.
“We have been communicating with our targets using both offline and online media based on the “my Mc, my best look” concept,” he said.
Expecting Mc Club memberships to reach one million within a year from now, Bundit said the Group had already launched dark-black jeans that would be a fine fit for university students to wear to class.
“We have also conducted various activities at campuses,” he added.
He continued that Mc Group would also launch its mobile application before the end of March, to ensure efficient communication with each target group.
“With the mobile app, communications can happen anywhere, anytime. Communications, moreover, will come at a lower cost,” he noted.
Nopadol Tangdenchai, the chief information technology officer at Mc Group, said the omni-channel strategy had already materialised, as customers now could order products they wanted online and conveniently get deliveries or collect the ordered items from their nearest Mc outlet.
“With the Click and Collect option, customers can enjoy various kinds of services such as hemming. It’s very useful for buyers who don’t have someone at home during daytime to accept parcels, or may need to change ordered items or other services,” he said.
Bundit explained that their online platform, www.mcshop.com, was created to ensure consumers could make purchases whenever they desired.
“But we have also continued to increase our physical outlets so as to complement our reach to our target groups,” he said, adding that the number of Mc Group’s stores has jumped to 927 now from 894 last year. The firm, moreover, expects to expand to at least 1,000 outlets within the next two years. Some stores are even opening inside PTT service stations.
Kaisri Nuengsigkapian, who chairs Mc Group’s executive committee, said her firm had been aware of digital disruption and had been continuously at work developing its business.
“All developments have been made based on our core value of delivering quality products at a fair price,” she said. 
Mc Group’s chief executive, Sunee Seripanu, expected Mc Jeans to lead the game throughout the coming year.
“We now offer selvedge jeans. While pairs are available at more than Bt3,000 in the global market, the ones from the Mc Selvedge collection will cost just about Bt2,000,” she said.
Mc Group has set its sight on boosting its sales by five per cent this year. In 2017, its sales totalled Bt4.2 billion. Between January and June last year, its sales dropped to Bt1.97billion. The firm’s current fiscal year started from last July.