Premium car manufacturer’s Consumer Director, Nicole Melillo Shaw, breaks through into Marketing Week’s Top 100 2021
Melillo Shaw joined the brand in March 2020 from GlaxoSmithKline plc. and is accelerating Volvo’s continued shift in offering greater personalised consumer experiences online, putting consumers at the heart of everything the brand delivers
Volvo Car UK is transforming the consumer experience with a new focus on shifting traditional automotive sales and consumer interaction to exclusively digital channels
Melillo Shaw oversees a team of 31 people across consumer digital projects, consumer experience, insights, L&D, CRM and analytics, events and sponsorship, marketing communications and PR
Volvo Car UK’s Consumer Director, Nicole Melillo Shaw, has been included in the latest Marketing Week Top 100 2021 list. Melillo Shaw, who only joined Volvo Car UK in March 2020 from GlaxoSmithKline plc., oversees the entire brand and consumer experience in an industry that is seeing huge shifts in terms of consumer buying habits as well as new products with the move towards full electrification.
As Consumer Director, Melillo Shaw heads up a team of 31 across consumer digital projects, consumer experience, insights, L&D, CRM and analytics, events and sponsorship, marketing communications and PR.
Volvo’s move to selling its fully electric products, such as the XC40 Recharge pure electric and forthcoming C40 crossover, exclusively online through volvocars.com has required a new approach to consumer interaction.
Nicole Melillo Shaw said: “On a personal level, I am delighted to be included in Marketing Week’s Top 100 list, and it is humbling to be included alongside so many big names and brands on the latest role of honour.
“My role in this ambitious new commercial strategy is to place the consumer at the heart of everything we do, delivering on our brand values of sustainability and safety. The automotive industry is going through arguably its greatest-ever transformation with the move towards fully electric products, but it’s our consumer interaction and personalisation of those interactions and experiences that must transform, too.
“The past 18 months during the pandemic has accelerated our digital plans, and with all our new and forthcoming fully electric products sold exclusively through volvocars.com, it is going to be fascinating to witness this new consumer buying journey develop now and into the future.”
The foundations of this bold new strategy are evidenced with Care by Volvo, Volvo Cars’ subscription service, which has exceeded all expectations in its first year of business in the UK. Fully launched nationwide on 2 September 2020, it has already delivered more than 2,500 cars to customers keen to embrace the convenient and simple alternative it offers to traditional car ownership.
The level of demand has resulted in the service now claiming almost 15% of all Volvo retail sales, equivalent to 7% of the brand’s total UK new car sales. This is comfortably beyond the initial 5% total targeted for the service at the end of its first year.
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Volvo Car Group in 2020
For the 2020 financial year, Volvo Car Group recorded an operating profit of 8.5 BSEK (14.3 BSEK in 2019). Revenue over the period amounted to 262.8 BSEK (274.1 BSEK). For the full year of 2020, global sales reached 661,713 cars (705,452), a decline of 6.2 per cent compared to 2019.
About Volvo Car Group
Volvo Cars was founded in 1927. Today, it is one of the most well-known and respected car brands in the world, with sales of 661,713 cars in 2020 in about 100 countries. Volvo Cars has been under the ownership of the Zhejiang Geely Holding since 2010.
As of December 2020, Volvo Cars employed approximately 40,000 (41,500) full-time employees. Volvo Cars’ head office, product development, marketing and administration functions are mainly located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Cars’ head office for APAC is located in Shanghai. The company’s main car production plants are located in Gothenburg (Sweden), Ghent (Belgium), South Carolina (US), Chengdu and Daqing (China).
Under its new company purpose, Volvo Cars aims to provide customers with the Freedom to Move in a personal, sustainable and safe way. This purpose is reflected in a number of business ambitions: for example, by the middle of this decade it aims for half of its global sales to be fully electric cars and to establish five million direct consumer relationships. Volvo Cars is also committed to an ongoing reduction of its carbon footprint, with the ambition to be a climate-neutral company by 2040.
