Boots UK has strengthened its senior marketing team with the appointment of former John Lewis Partnership executive Manish Bhagat as customer transformation director, leading the retailer’s Advantage Card and CRM efforts.
The move sees Bhagat reunited with former John Lewis colleague chief Charlotte, who joined Boots as senior vice-president of customer and marketing in November last year.
He will also be working with Boots’ chief data and digital officer Paula Bobbett and chief customer and commercial officer Steve Ager, who was appointed in the wake of CMO Peter Markey’s decision to step down in June last year.
Markey has since joined Cancer Research UK as executive director of marketing, fundraising and engagement.
Having started his career as a solutions architect at i2 Technologies in 2000, Bhagat had spells at IBM, Cognizant and Accenture working on global supply chain transformation projects before joining Jon Lewis Partnership in 2016 as business engagement senior manager, working on click and collect among other projects.
In June 2020, he was promoted to head of customer and marketing transformation, working closely with the chief customer officers of John Lewis, Waitrose and John Lewis Financial Services across loyalty, CRM, personalisation and retail media.
Bhagat also led the alignment of operational teams into a unified, customer-centric operating model to drive higher customer lifetime value and efficiency savings as well as the migration of CRM to cloud, developing insight-driven loyalty rewards.
This will no doubt be invaluable experience as Boots ramps up its Advantage Card loyalty scheme. The programme, which has 17 million members, recently introduced more personalised deals based on the products and brands members buy regularly.
Advantage Card members will now also receive targeted Boots own-brand deals every month. This will replace the existing 10% discount on Boots own-brand items for loyalty card holders.
In a LinkedIn post, Bhagat said: “Boots is a brand that holds a special place in the hearts of millions, and the opportunity to lead the next evolution of the Advantage card, our iconic loyalty proposition, is a true honour. We are at a pivotal moment where customer insights, technology, and brand partnerships converge to create relevant, personalised and valued experiences for our customers.
“I am absolutely thrilled to have teamed up once again with the visionary Charlotte Lock in accelerating this transformation and the many other leaders driving enterprise wide transformation across the business.
“The energy within the team is infectious, the scale of ambition is unmatched, and the values are deeply held. I am truly excited to be part of this journey, reinforcing Boots’ commitment to keeping our customers at the very heart of everything we do.”
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