Jérôme Deligne (ex-CMO of Castorama): “You have to be uncompromising about your brand’s uniqueness.”

For five years, Jérôme Deligne led marketing and communications at Castorama, in a highly competitive retail environment. Balancing short-term performance demands with the need for long-term brand investment, he managed complex organizational, media efficiency, branding, and innovation challenges — notably through the creation of the virtual assistant “Hello Casto.”
He spoke with Spaag about the complexity of the CMO role in retail, the importance of curiosity in marketing, and why staying connected to the field is key to truly understanding your customers.

What were the biggest challenges of this CMO role?

Jérôme Deligne:
Among the main challenges, I’d mention the company’s ability to embrace technology and manage data. In retail, we’ve operated for a long time without it, so there’s sometimes a real debt to make up.
The other major challenge is the ultra-convergence of media and content. For years, you could manage both separately. Today, channels are deeply intertwined. You have to orchestrate the container and the content — and the logic varies drastically between local outdoor campaigns, SEO, or TikTok. It’s like playing a 50-key piano that only seasoned marketing teams can master.

And organizationally — how was your team structured?

J.D.:
I oversaw the marketing and communications perimeter, about forty full-time staff, plus freelancers and interns. This covered media, content, social, and local marketing.
We had a central team and another one dedicated to local operations (store openings, repositioning, commercial performance support).
The challenge was to stay consistent with national actions and the overall plan while remaining reactive to local needs. We worked as a network with a national media agency and another focused on local activation.

How did you integrate AI into your marketing activities?

J.D.:
We started looking into it early — but always pragmatically. For me, AI doesn’t replace marketing; it enhances it, strengthens our capabilities.
The most iconic example is Hello Casto. We designed this virtual assistant from our own educational content — formalized, enriched, and then injected into a closed AI environment.
The result: an augmented digital advisor able to answer all customers’ practical questions, just like an in-store salesperson.
It’s technology in service of customer experience — useful, tangible, and humanized. Above all, it’s an AI that speaks like Castorama — with our tone, expertise, and service mindset.

Many CMOs mention the tension between short-term and long-term goals. Was that true for you?

J.D.:
Absolutely. In retail, you live in real time — every morning, you look at yesterday’s sales and compare them with the same day last year (the famous LFL – Like for Like).

The result: you spend your days putting out fires. But that reflex for hyper-reactivity can block real innovation.
I often quoted Einstein’s line: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
You have to dare to break patterns, invent new paths — and come back to what matters most: the customer.

How did you structure your customer knowledge?

J.D.:
We were lucky to be part of a large group, so we had plenty of insights — IFOP, Kantar, Nielsen panels, our own barometers, CRM and ticketing data.
We crossed that with media usage (especially TGI) and social listening.
For example: by analyzing online conversations, we realized that many customers didn’t know that a garden shed over 10 m² requires a permit. That insight led us to create highly useful educational content, distributed through the right channels (Google, Instagram, TikTok…).

What qualities do you now expect from a good marketer?

J.D.:
The ability to understand customers. It’s as simple — and as hard — as that.
At Castorama, you’d find in one store 200 people with 200 different projects: someone buying screws, a couple renovating their bathroom, a construction pro…
It’s not about pure transactions. You need to inspire, guide, and reassure.
I expected my teams to be curious, empathetic, and passionate about the home universe — to understand who they’re talking to, what message fits, and on which channel.

And your view on the internal vs. external balance?

J.D.:
Agencies are true sparring partners. What they bring isn’t “pretty slides,” but perspective — a view of what’s happening elsewhere.
I worked in agencies myself, so I know that what you can share from another client or sector is valuable.
As for freelancers, we worked with all kinds of profiles — project management, R&D, or to handle workload peaks during multiple store openings.
It’s a fluid, natural setup for a marketing department today. But it’s key to remember: freelancers complement agencies — they don’t replace them.

What was your relationship with the Executive Committee and store teams?

J.D.:
With the Comex, the challenge is to bring rationality into what’s often perceived as a subjective domain.
I’ve heard: “I’m not on TikTok, so it’s not a good channel.”
To overcome that mindset, we invested heavily in marketing mix modeling (MMM) to prove the actual contribution of each lever to traffic and revenue.
With stores, it was all about education: they saw customers coming in with flyers, not TikTok posts. You have to show that it works — without falling into jargon.
Experts aren’t always good teachers. You have to guide them.

If you were CEO, what would you expect from your CMO?

J.D.:
Two things.
First, that they actively build the brand’s visibility, recognition, and perceived value.
I’d even go further: make sure the brand they lead doesn’t become one of the 75% of brands that could disappear without anyone noticing.
You must be uncompromising about the brand’s uniqueness and value proposition.
Second, since I’d entrust them with a significant budget, I’d naturally expect proof that every euro is well used — to build the brand, generate business, and grow the teams around them.

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