Samsung UK appoints first chief customer officer

Samsung UK has appointed Deborah Honig as its first-ever chief customer officer. She will be tasked with innovating the tech giant’s customer experience and improving its business offering. 

She will be responsible for developing a “more customer-centric culture, alongside building long-term loyal customers through more tailored and personalised relationships”, according to Samsung UK & Ireland president Inha Cho. She has also been tasked with driving “transformational change” across the company’s brand communications, partner engagement and cross-divisional collaboration.

Honig started her career with stints at McKinsey and Starbucks before joining drinks giant Diageo as a strategy director in 2010, where she later became general manager for its European reserve business. 

She also spent five years at Amazon across its physical retail store proposition. Honig joined Nike in 2019 as its direct retail senior director for UK and Ireland before rising to omnichannel leader for the EMEA region. She left in 2022 for an eight month stint at Marks & Spencer as group strategy and transformation director. 

In the intervening months since leaving the retailer, she has been consulting. 

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“Throughout my career I’ve always put myself in the shoes of our customers to fully appreciate what they want and expect from a brand,” says Honig. “I look forward to working with the fantastic team here at Samsung to deepen our connection with our customers, and help them get the most out of their technology and their relationship with us.”

Honig will work alongside European CMO Benjamin Braun, one of Marketing Week’s 2023 Top 100 most effective marketers. 

News of her appointment comes following Samsung’s profit warning earlier today (9 January). The business says it is likely to see profits fall by more than a third for the last three months of 2023.