Andry Schol – Velux

Andry Schol is Marketing Coordinator at VELUX, a leading manufacturer of roof windows, skylights, and sun tunnels, headquartered in Hørsholm, Denmark. Andry is responsible for coordinating all marketing activities within the Netherlands, ranging from marketing campaigns to POS materials and sales pitches. The company has two separate divisions: residential, which focuses on houses, and commercial, which targets office buildings and healthcare institutions. Those two divisions also translate to VELUX’s target groups, Andry elaborates: “Our target groups are consumers, assembly companies of small contractors, self-developing contractors who carry out new construction projects, and we have a target group of specifiers, which are architects, social housing companies and developers. Each target group has its own customer journey and value proposition, and we try to utilise every touchpoint.”

Main KPIs for brand growth

When it comes to KPIs, Andry shares that the company runs several trackers throughout the year: “We have a quarterly brand awareness tracker where we measure how the awareness is developing among our target groups. The second measure we look at is the annual ‘Inspiring 40’, which is a list of the 40 most inspiring brands in the Netherlands. We have been on the list for a few years among brands like Ikea, Albert Heijn, and Coolblue. It says something about the strength of our brand, and we are very proud to be listed. The third measure is our questionnaires which are sent after every contact. We measure people’s satisfaction based on their visit to our stores, phone calls or emails, resulting in a Net Promoter Score (NPS). Open answers are always followed up with a phone call, enabling us to continuously work on improving our company. We send out these questionnaires from the Netherlands, but Denmark also conducts an annual customer satisfaction study among assembly companies, construction companies, dealers and our architects. VELUX Netherlands is ahead in its brand tracking approach compared to other EU countries, and we are looking to expand the Dutch tracking approach among consumers and other target groups towards the EU. All those parameters allow us to continuously monitor our brand and developments so we can create tools to further improve.”

According to Andry, the most important KPI is the continuous measurement: “We have monthly meetings on the outcomes and it ensures you are in constant dialogue with your stakeholders on how you can improve your brand. Currently, it is very busy in the construction industry and we are also affected by this. Car brands like Toyota can no longer produce because of the chips shortage, and we have the same problem. Worldwide we grow as never before. It is the combination of unprecedentedly high demand because everyone is working from home and for instance need some fresh air and daylight in their attic, and on the other hand the shortage of chips, that caused us to have some delays. The waiting time is now coming back to normal, but there was a time when it was too long, and you see that reflected in the NPS scores right away.”

“Being data-driven is the combination of knowing how important it is to have data at the base of your decisions, and knowing how data can help you make those decisions.”

data-driven organisation

“Data is crucial within our decision-making”, Andry shares. “Being data-driven is the combination of knowing how important it is to have data at the base of your decisions, and knowing how data can help you make those decisions. When we set up a marketing campaign, we always create a lead funnel, including how much traffic we want to generate, how many marketing- or sales qualified leads, followed by the number of appointments and projects. There are all kinds of different ways to measure that, and we use PowerBI dashboards to make the data insightful. We are now working on the VELUX Moments campaign and we have just finished its evaluation. We focus on different customer target groups, looking at which brands are top of mind per age group, whether they recognise VELUX in the ad, and what their associations are. You try to set up everything in a 360-degree way so that you have full control over the marketing effects.” In an ideal world, Andry wishes he could make more strategic decisions based on data: “Especially with awareness campaigns, it can be difficult to measure the outcome. With leads campaigns, you can track how many projects results from those efforts, but with awareness, it’s a different longer term story. Despite the tracker, it can be difficult to measure those types of campaigns, which we mostly target towards consumers. You can track things like views and click-through rate, but sometimes you would like it to be a bit more insightful and strategic”.

VELUX measures the success of their data-driven efforts by looking at the industry, Andry: “We benchmark ourselves with other construction companies and industries by being active in platform organisations. Next to that, we have award-winning products which show you are on the right path in terms of development and innovation. And finally, success also heavily depends on a team that works well together. Having a good IT structure and a transparent, lean organisation. Trusting each other and allowing for open feedback. VELUX is a family business, and that family culture is embedded in the organisation.”

pitfalls & opportunities

When working as data-driven as VELUX, some challenges and pitfalls arise. Andry believes the integration of systems is crucial: “Having all those different systems and data points connected is very important. We have large number address databases and those need to be up to date. Every disappointed customer because the catalogue was delivered to the wrong address, is one too many. That is a challenge. As I mentioned earlier, we are very data-driven, but there is still some freedom to make decisions without data, but it concerns smaller decisions. Big decisions always require a well-founded plan. The focus on results is crucial.”

When it comes to trends for the future and opportunities, Andry draws inspiration from a few companies: “Albert Heijn is very strong in its shopping experience. Knowing which products you bought previously and providing people with personal offers. Nudging is also often used, ensuring consumers walk past the right products and having the right products in the right spot on the shelf, everything is thought-through. Furthermore, at VELUX, but also in the construction industry, you see that we are moving towards hybrid and more digital working. Also in marketing, employing both offline- and online advertisements in a synchronised manner and measuring both efforts thoroughly is complex. I believe that we are heading in that direction. It’s challenging and exciting at the same time”.