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Insights From CMO Award Winners | 1

Insights Interviews with CMO Award Winners


Introduction 3

17 No-Brainers for 2014 from 17 Award-Winning Marketers 4

INTERVIEWS

Stephanie Anderson, Time Warner Cable, on Leadership 7

Jonathan Becher, SAP, on Innovation 9

Chris Brull, Kawasaki, on Building a Lifestyle Brand 11

Louise Camuto, Vince Camuto, on Fashion Marketing 13

Phil Clement, Aon, on Content Marketing 15

Beth Comstock, GE, on Innovative Marketing 17

John Costello, Dunkin Donuts, on Consumer Engagement 19

Geoff Cottrill, Converse, on Community-Centered Marketing 21

John DeVincent, eMoney Advisors, on Prioritizing the Customer Experience 23

Julia Garlikov, Torani, on Building Brand Loyalty 25

Rose Hamilton, Pet360, on Marketing Online Challenger Brands 27

John Hayes, American Express, on Marketing as Service 30

Michael Lacorazza, Wells Fargo, on Digital Marketing 33

Antonio Lucio, Visa, on Digital Communications 35

Raj Rao, 3M on Digital and Social Optimization 37

Kyle Schlegel, Louisville Slugger, on Relaunching Brands 39

Marty St. George, JetBlue, on Innovation 41


Introduction

If you could talk to 17 award-winning marketers, imagine all the insights you could gain. Well that’s exactly what we did, and these insights are now compiled for your reading pleasure. Admittedly it’s a lot to absorb, so feel free to zero in on the marketers or topics that are of urgent interest.


1 Rally around your purpose, not your tools

One of the biggest challenges marketers face is aligning internal and external activities unless, of course, they are all informed by a clearly articulated brand purpose. Kyle Schlegel, CMO of Hillerich & Bradsby, the makers of Louisville Slugger baseball bats, hit upon the brand purpose, “we exist to make players great,” to launch the first fully integrated marketing plan in its 129-year history.

2 Rehab your target definition

Having a target is a no-brainer. Finding a tight descriptor that can drive all your marketing activities, however, is pure genius. Rose Hamilton, EVP & CMO at Pet360, could have used the term “pet owner,” but instead, she defines her target as “pet parents” with all the challenges and needs of human parents. This profoundly simple target redefinition means Hamilton can focus on “solving un-met pet parent needs.”

MARKETING MAY NOT BE BRAIN SURGERY, but talk to enough leading marketers and you’ll find an increasingly complex matrix of considerations that might give even the neurologists at Johns Hopkins a daily migraine. From strategy to metrics, targets to media channels, culture to managing up, down and sideways, the options are many and success is a moving target.

So when the CMO Club invited me to interview 17 recent winners of the CMO Awards, I had visions of a Vulcan mind-meld, an unprecedented transfer of marketing wisdom from those who have it to those who seek it. And while wisdom alone does not a surgeon make, having a checklist like the one below from some of the best in the business is probably not a bad place to start.

17No-brainers for 2014 from 17 award-winning marketers


3 Know the pain points

Henry Ford and Steve Jobs notwithstanding, most marketers profit more by listening to their customers than ignoring them. John Costello, president of Global Marketing & Innovation at Dunkin’ Brands, has customer input at the top of Dunkin’s five key principles that drive marketing investments. As he explains, “there’s really no substitute for truly understanding your customer pain points and how you can address them.”

4 Turn patients into promoters

Most brands will never have 37 million fans on Facebook or get tagged in hundreds of thousands of Instagram photos like Converse. But perhaps if they shared Converse CMO Geoff Cottrill’s, belief that the “brand belongs to the people who wear it,” they’d have a good place to start. “Real success,” adds Cottrill, “is defined by our ability to build meaningful relationships.”

5 Make no bones about consistency

Henry Thoreau may have given the thumbs-down to consistency but accomplished marketers, not so much. Louise Camuto, CMO of the Camuto Group, believes that crafting a singular global experience across all channels is essential for a successful luxury brand. “I have spent a lot of time over the past year ensuring that the brand voices are consistent with the brand DNA,” she adds.

6 Transplant customer service into marketing

More and more marketers are recognizing service as the linchpin of their brand reputation, especially since a single “bad” experience amplified on social can undo years of “good” marketing. Accordingly, Julie Garlikov, CMO of Torani, moved customer service into her marketing department this year, noting, “we’re now able to have one seamless approach to the [customer] experience.”

7 Rearrange your operating room

When it comes to marketing departments, organization often defines output. Divide staffing by discipline and inevitably you’ll have silos. In response to this problem, Stephanie Anderson, CMO at Time Warner Cable Business Class, recently implemented what she calls an “outside-in” structure that puts their customers and the segments they serve at the core, while realigning staff accordingly

8 Prescribe a does of experimentation

Ask any marketer and they’ll tell you that budgets are tight and there’s rarely margin for error. Nonetheless, innovative marketers like Beth Comstock, CMO of GE, see experimentation as a necessity to find new ways to connect and engage their audiences. Explains Comstock, “I’m a big believer in carving out a percentage of your budget to develop new models.”

9 Cultivate a culture of innovation

Small companies innovate out of necessity, while bigger ones often find it tough to take the risks required to try new things. Jonathan Becher, CMO at SAP, saw this problem and declared, “we need to innovate the discipline of marketing.” Initially, Becher thought an elite Innovation Group would be the cure, but later disbanded that idea in favor of a department-wide culture shift that “pushed boundaries and embraced changes, even ones that are not completely successful.”

10 Heal thyself through optimization

In the absence of a silver bullet, which most practitioners agree simply doesn’t exist, marketers need to optimize the ongoing process of finding what works and building upon that foundation. Reports John DeVincent, CMO of eMoney Advisor, who has 12-15 moving parts in his communications plan, “we put something out there, monitor, test, and adjust (or not adjust) accordingly.”


11 Move social to the heart

Though social media is top-of-mind for most marketers these days, it is often handled as a secondary channel through which ad-like content is pushed. Acknowledging a deepening focus on all things digital that lead to its new #GoInSix campaign, Antonio Lucio, VISA’s Chief Brand Officer, explains, “we are incorporating social in the very heart of our marketing, not merely during the execution phase.”

12 Bring outsiders into the operating room

Self-reliance is not a bad thing—unless you run a marketing department that is trying to stay on top of the latest digital developments. Marty St. George, SVP, Marketing and Commercial Strategy at JetBlue, combats such insularity with an annual “digital day.” Explains an enlightened St. George, “we have found several exciting new technologies and channels just through an open “casting call.”

13 Place lifetime value (not CPA) under the microscope

Marketers who focus mainly on cost-per-acquisition often find themselves on an endless treadmill of replacing expired customers with new ones. Michael Lacorazza, SVP Brand & Advertising at Wells Fargo, offers a different vision for marketers “building lifelong relationships, one customer at a time.” In Lacorazza’s model, service becomes an integral part of marketing, leading to greater customer satisfaction and higher retention rates.

14 Put on a clinic with content

Content marketing is all the rage BUT please don’t mistake that attention as a trendy fad. Creating content that your customers and prospects find useful is an unquestionably strong way of driving site traffic and engagement. As Raj Rao, VP of Global eTransformation at 3M concurs, “we do believe that content marketing holds the key to success with our top two digital priorities.”

15 Make your mark early

While top marketers agree that just about “everything is marketing and marketing is everything,” few CMOs earn the organizational clout needed to orchestrate a fully integrated brand experience. Chris Brull, CMO at Kawasaki, credited his ability to pull off the company’s first global product launch with some early successes. Recalls Brull, “We were heretics within the company at the time but ultimately, we were prophets and the strategy proved itself to be wildly successful.” Brull thus gained the credibility required to sell an encompassing brand experience later in his career.

16 Infuse your marketing with service

Just as actions have always spoken louder than words, marketers who focus on what they do versus what they say simply make more powerful connections with their customers. American Express’s Small Business Saturday and OPEN Forum are two great examples of this approach. John Hayes, AmEx’s long-time CMO, says, “if you’re in the service business, every interaction with a prospect or customer should be a service interaction.”

17 Cut through with a cause

Pragmatic marketers think in terms of campaigns and tactics while idealists contemplate causes and movements. Though neither is necessarily wrong, when it comes to motivating an army of salespeople, the idealists often carry the day. Sheryl Adkins-Green, CMO of Mary Kay, united a bevy of independent sales reps behind the powerful mantra “One Women Can,” which was both a tribute to the 50th anniversary of the company’s founding and a charitable program that gave away $5,000 grants on behalf of 50 contest winners.


Q & A on Leadership with Stephanie AndersonOriginally appeared on TheDrewBlog.com

Sorry Kermit the Frog, if you think it’s hard being green—try being a CMO. The demands are relentless, the barriers to success are often as large inside the company pond as they are out of it and the timeframe for delivering meaningful results are a de minimis hop or two away. So finding a CMO who knows how to not just survive but thrive under these conditions is worth celebrating — which is exactly what The CMO Club did when they recognized Stephanie Anderson with its President’s Circle Award late last year.

During her tenure as CMO of Time Warner Cable Business Class, among other accomplishments, Anderson reorganized her group, established a Customer Experience and Knowledge (CEK) team and most recently led the launch of PerkZone, a multi-dimensional customer loyalty program. (Proud disclosure: TWCBC is a Renegade client and we are a part of the team that created and manages PerkZone!) Here is my interview with Anderson conducted around the time of The CMO Awards.

Q: A CMO has a lot of choices in terms of where they invest their time. What have been your top priorities in the last 12 months?

A: I think when you are in any leadership role you need to spend the right proportion of time with key stakeholders and constituents to get the job done in a collaborative way, without being too far into the details or overshadowing your people. I use my boss’s rule: 1/3, 1/3, 1/3. A third of my time is spent with my peer group and up, making sure they all understand the strategy, focus, and priorities for Marketing, Advertising and Offers and 1/3 is spent with my direct reports (3 GVPs and 2 VPs) helping them with priorities and any people/budget issues, and 1/3 out in the market, with customers, suppliers, vendors, events, continuing education, etc.

Q: Have there been any big surprises in terms of what’s worked really well and what hasn’t?

A: Not any big surprises about what has worked. But, one that continues to baffle me is that I have had challenges drawing a straight line conclusion that direct mail influences the web or overall leads, even though we have used purls, phone numbers, vanity urls – but over time, without the DM, in our industry you start to see a reduction in overall sales-related calls.

Q: Big data is a big part of the CMO conversation these days. How are you tackling big data?

A: This is a tough one. We are revamping

“When you are in any leadership role you need to

spend the right proportion of time with key stakeholders and

constituents to get the job done in a collaborative way, without

being too far into the details or overshadowing your people.”

Stephanie Anderson

CMO, Time Warner Cable Business Class

CMO Marketing Innovation Award

winner


our database as we speak to not just be more encompassing, but really more searchable and friendly. The data is useless without the ability to pull together the storyline and make decisions based on what you find out. That is the challenge.

Q: Innovation is a sexy word but not as sexy to a CEO as ROI. Have you been able to link your innovative marketing activities to the kinds of business metrics favored by CEOs?

A: Yes, and more importantly in my case our CFO (who has the office next to mine!). I, myself, actually drive us harder than the CFO because I want us to always be spending on relevant, revenue impacting marketing initiatives. I think the easiest and most enjoyable is SEM. The toughest is loyalty and brand – but we do prove the link to revenue or reduced churn or improved consideration in everything we do.

Q: Marketing seems to be getting increasingly complex in terms of ways to spend and ways to monitor. Has it gotten more complex for you and if so, how are you dealing with that complexity?

A: More sophisticated, not necessarily more complex. The depth of knowledge you can glean from online activity to inform offline is sophisticated, and extremely useful. We have one marketing team that has all digital and mass for that reason – because of the relationship between on and off line. Also, while the analytics can seem daunting, the end results generally help you make better decisions overall, so now you may spend a bit more of your budget tracking, learning and understanding and less on the actual tactics because you’ve mastered and fine-tuned them.

Q: How do you stay close to your customers when you operate in so many markets and have so many different types of business customers?

A: Not so well on the low end, but we are changing that. We serve very small, small, medium and large enterprises. It’s easy when you are dealing with a national customer to be responsive, available, etc., but in the mass world of transactional, very small and small, it becomes harder and pretty soon your relationship is boiled down to email and a monthly bill. We do have newsletters, are building a value–added benefits program for small businesses and try to send them information that can help their business grow and/or stay healthy. It’s getting better as we use campaign and life cycle management tools, but there’s always room for improvement. Our job is collecting and keeping customers.

Q: One of the big challenges a CMO faces is organizational, given all the different marketing channels. How are you addressing these organizational challenges?

A: I am going for Best in Class in this area. I recently implemented what I call an “outside in” structure that takes the customers and competitors in the segments we serve into consideration. So I have a lead GVP of Small, a lead GVP of mid-market and Channels, and a GVP of Enterprise and Carrier business. They run the marketing end-to-end for their segment including offers, competitive, life cycle strategy and then I have two functional teams that are shared resources – one is mass & digital and the other is customer experience and knowledge for all of the database and research/retention, etc.

It’s a new design, but I believe any structure that puts the customers/prospects at the core of it should work out!

Q: Content marketing is a hot topic at the moment. Are you increasing your investment

in this area?

A: Content marketing is hot – but not new. Being in technology, that is the way we work – be relevant, educate and then solve. I would say yes, we are increasing our investment here; not because we are following a content trend, but because our own thought leadership and

solutions have advanced and we need to be able to tell our stories quickly and with

the prospect or customer in mind.

Q: As CMO, have you been able to address the entire customer experience?

A: Yes, I actually have a Customer Experience and Knowledge (CEK) team. We work very closely to survey and research what customers/prospects want, pilot the findings in market and then implement across the company, working especially close with our care organization and field operations. We all own the interactions as employees of TWC, but my team has the ultimate accountability to make sure we capture and harness the best experience possible and deploy that across our business.

My team has the ultimate accountability

to make sure we capture and harness the best experience possible and deploy

that across our business.


Q & A on Innovation with Jonathan BecherOriginally appeared on TheDrewBlog.com

Jonathan Becher, CMO of SAP, sees innovation as absolutely mandatory, to be approached by organizations in leaps and bounds rather than baby steps. In his world, ROI means “return on innovation,” and the culture of innovation at SAP is an essential foundation for providing an innovative, meaningful customer experience. It’s little wonder that Jonathan won The CMO Award for Innovation from The CMO Club. Here’s our interview:

Q: In your presentation at The CMO Club Summit in April, you mentioned that innovation isn’t a buzz word, it’s an imperative for marketers. Can you explain why innovation is so important, particularly for CMOs?

A: For all good business leaders, there comes a day when you realize: “what got us here, won’t get us where we need to go.” We all know that the way customers consume information, products, and services has completely changed. It follows that the way we need to engage with customers must also change. However, incremental changes will not be sufficient; we need to innovate the discipline of marketing.

Q: Real innovation requires organizational change. Can you talk about the changes you made to your marketing organization to institutionalize innovation?

A: A few years ago, I created a group called “Innovation Marketing.” The charter of that group was to try new things,

break rules, make people uncomfortable, and change the status quo. The team generated tons of ideas, many of which were very interesting and impactful. However, it didn’t accomplish what I expected, as we were essentially segregating innovation to one small group. In fact, it created some resistance to change and innovation. We disbanded the group and focused on creating a culture of innovation instead. Now, we highlight efforts throughout marketing that push boundaries and embrace change, even ones that are not completely successful. In some sense, we’re reinforcing our corporate motto of “Run Better” – the quest for relentless improvement.

Jonathan Becher

Chief Marketing Officer, SAP

CMO Marketing Innovation Award Winner

“We highlight efforts throughout marketing that push boundaries and embrace change, even ones that are not completely successful.”


Q: Marketing seems to be getting increasingly complex in terms of ways to spend and ways to monitor. Has it gotten more complex for you and, if so, how are you dealing with that complexity?

A: Luckily for me, I run marketing for a company that specializes in using technology to solve complex business challenges. For example, I have a mobile dashboard where my leadership team and I have real-time visibility into all parts of our marketing business. We can see what’s working and what isn’t, then redeploy resources and budget as necessary.

Q: Have you been able to link your innovative marketing activities to the kinds of business metrics favored by CEOs?

A: Innovation is an investment, so you need ROI for it as well. Return on innovation.

We try to run marketing like a business, which means that we need to be able to prioritize among all of our initiatives. From an analytics point of view, we distinguish between the macro view (crunching data on a scale unheard of a few years ago) and the micro view (data equivalent of a focus group).

At the macro level, we apply market-ing-mix modeling to get a holistic un-derstanding of marketing performance across channels. We can then tie mar-keting investments directly to corporate objectives, and reallocate the mix ac-cordingly. Based on this type of analysis, we have shifted unproductive spend to tactics where we have seen higher ROIs.

At the micro level, we’re constantly trying to optimize each interaction with our customers. Whether it’s an outbound marketing campaign, a customer event, or an inquiry on our Website, we apply statistical analysis to the wealth of information we have about our customers to predict what’s relevant to them and to personalize the engagement. This level of customer-centric targeting, along with a test-learn culture, allows us to measure the effectiveness of everything we do and maximize ROI at the micro level.

Q: SAP seems to be in the midst of a brand transformation. Can you describe that transformation?

A: I’m not sure whether you should call it a transformation or a brand expansion. For many years, our approach was talking about how big, successful companies run SAP. You didn’t know what exactly we did for the companies, but you knew we were somehow linked with their success.

Now, we’re taking a much more human approach that’s closely linked to our company mission to “help the world run better

and improve people’s lives.” We’re telling stories of how we create value, not only for our customers, but for our customers’ customers. For example, rather than talking about how a big bank benefits from an SAP deployment, we talk about how a man in a very rural area who can’t physically get to a bank is now able to bank on his mobile phone. This access to banking opens up entirely new economic possibilities that weren’t previously an option to this man and improves his life. SAP makes that possible.

It’s not just “business runs SAP”; it’s also “life runs SAP.” You can sum up the change as moving from B2B to P2P – people to people.

Q: As CMO, have you been able to address the entire customer experience? Were there any organizational challenges you needed to overcome?

A: In my view, the customer experience is the responsibility of every single employee at SAP. That said, marketing must be

the champion of the overall customer experience across all channels.

While marketing doesn’t own all the customer experience channels, it can help make the experience consistent. For example, we know that, if we invite a group of executives to one of our briefing centers for a day of meetings, we’re obligated to deliver a consistent experience – from the messaging on the invitation to the car ride from the airport, and everything else until our guests are back in the airport to go home.

Marketing doesn’t manage the briefing centers, but we provide counsel to the facilities managers

and the sales teams that run the meetings to help them understand the story they want to tell and provide them with the right assets to help them tell that story.

We’re telling stories of how we create value, not only for our customers, but for our customers’ customers.


Q & A on Building a Lifestyle Brand with Chris BrullOriginally appeared on TheDrewBlog.com

Every once in a while I meet someone whose job sounds like a lot more fun than mine. After interviewing Chris Brull, Head of Marketing at Kawasaki Motors, I definitely had pangs of jealously. I mean who wouldn’t want to ride bikes, ATVs and Jet Skis all in the name of customer and product research? And then there’s the fact that his marketing mission is to reinforce the “wild, unrestrained, amazing fun” that his customers have using Kawasaki products. Sounds like a winning formula to me and as it turns out, it also resonated with the folks at The CMO Club, who recognized Chris with their Rising Star Award late last year.

As you will see, Brull brings tremendous passion to his job at Kawasaki and is not afraid to take risks. This sense of adventure made Brull an early proponent of digital, social and mobile, all of which helped build enduring connections with its fan base and drive new fans to Kawasaki dealers. Read on to learn what Brull means when he refers to marketing Kawasaki not as a brand, but as a “lifestyle.”

Q: Kawasaki Motors has a famously fanatical customer following. What are the things you are doing to maintain and improve loyalty among your customers?

A: I think you hit it straight on in terms of the fanatical following. We’re one brand (Kawasaki) and we have 14 different sub-brands, and 84 different models. You have to speak to these targets extremely authentically because these enthusiasts can spot a fake. To connect with them, we really have to know what we’re talking about. There can be no one-size fits all campaigns. You have to be very, very targeted and direct. Not every industry is as hyper connected with their customers as you have to be in power sports. You have to understand how people act, react, and think. We’re becoming real and authentic to the point where we’re almost a family member.

Q: You said yourself that you have 14 different sub-brands and 84 different models. How do you stay close to your customers when you have so many different segments and so many hyper-focused initiatives?

A: Our company name is Kawasaki Heavy Industries. We’ve been around since 1870. We build products that are all about bettering people’s lives. Our company actually builds the Shinkansen bullet train. We build the fuselage of the Dreamliner. We build the factories where our products are made. It’s a crazy experience.

This is idea of Kawasaki Strong – the company that builds all of these things is actually the same company that builds these power sport products. If you look at Harley, they just build cruisers. Our engineering comes from something bigger and it’s very compelling for the customer. There’s a new campaign kicking off that will celebrate this engineering prowess.

Q: Would you call this new campaign a re-launch?

A: It’s not a re-launch, it’s just re-telling the corporate story. We’re formalizing what the dealers have been doing for the past 15-20 years. There is a lot of story to tell, a lot of sex appeal that separates us from the competition. We call our appeal “intelligent rebel”. We’re not for everyone nor do we want to be. We’re about going further, faster. We’ve always been known for wild high-end performance. No one builds engines like Kawasaki. It’s just this rider feeling that we have created. Almost like you’re one with the product. This is wild, unrestrained, amazing fun.

Q: In terms of marketing, have there been any big surprises in terms of what’s really worked well?

A: We started testing our tools on customers via trial and error. Much of this stuff started to work. We were hooking these guys online long before the online bandwith was widely available. But it worked! We were giving fanatic customers their Kawasaki fix. They wanted to see the next big thing in Kawasaki and we were giving it to them. Our idea was to just give them a little bit. We were taking our content down to bite-sized pieces and giving our customers reasons to buy Kawasaki. The videos were shot in an elegant way that engaged, educated, and excited our customers. Our content strategy was ahead of the curve at that time. And there were skeptics within the company at the time

Chris BrullHead of Marketing,

Kawasaki Motors CMO Leadership

Award Winner


but we were ultimately prophets and the strategy proved itself to be wildly successful.

Q: As everyone moved online, experiential marketing was somewhat lost. Would you consider going back to experiential to be an innovation?

A: Personal interaction (especially in our industry) is still so critical. We might have a customer sitting on the website at 2am getting hooked. But at the end of the day, you can’t buy our product online. You still need to get the person to the dealership.

Demo rides are not often offered at dealerships because the dealerships have liability. That’s a strike against us. So, we create opportunities where we can show people the inside of our bikes and compare it to our competitor’s bikes. Tell the customer the Kawasaki story. People are hungry for knowledge. We get them fired up to ride. Now that I’ve told you what features we have inside of the bike, once I’ve shown them to you, then we go ride. I talk through what you’re feeling once we’re riding. It’s very experiential. Then you’re hooked. That’s the Kawasaki experience. We go to where our customers live and create our own experiential events.

Q: How do you evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing?

A: The sale of units is our top goal. But we’re not necessarily holding marketing solely accountable to the sale of the unit. Local sales guys are tasked with the selling. Flat out awareness of the brand is one goal for my team. We are also looking at engagement levels in the digital space and floor traffic into the local dealerships. We also evaluate marks such as the strength of the brand, likelihood to recommend, and likelihood of missing the brand if it were gone. This is all very top line.

Q: What are a couple things that you’re most proud of as the head of marketing at Kawasaki?

A: The first thing that comes to mind is our online integration into social and mobile because we were the first to do it in the industry. Another thing that I’m very proud of is the global launch of our products. One of the sexier ones we did was a Times Square launch for Ninja. We had a live broadcast globally and had 1.5 million people show up to the event. No one else in our space had done something on that scale. It was a big risk with a big reward.

One of my biggest accomplishments was actually internal at the company. When I started, trust needed to be built between the factory team and the U.S.-based marketing team. I was able to build an internal coalition within Kawasaki that proved that the U.S. marketing team was able to work with and add value to the home office in Japan. The Times Square experiential launch was the turning point for us. It was the first time that the Kawasaki message was the same globally and the content was the same globally for a product launch. To be able to pull that off and get people to work together and trust each other as part of a global coalition – that was an accomplishment. Now I get to be a team leader of that global coalition.

Q: Have you been able to use the voice of the customer to affect not just marketing but product development?

A: When I started at Kawasaki, marketing didn’t find out about a product until 6 months before launch. There was an inherent distrust. Now through the trust that we’ve built, our company has realized that it’s critical to listen to the voice of our customers. We also realized that product marketing was critical to separate ourselves in the market. We needed to understand the real reasons why certain products weren’t selling. One of the things we realized was that certain products sell better in certain places. For instance, 4 wheel products sell great in the US and not in Japan. How could a customer tell you about advancement? They can’t. But they’re giving clues all the time as long as you’re listening.

Q: It would be remiss of me not to ask about social media. You have 800,000 fans on Facebook, a fair amount of activity on Twitter. Let’s talk about it from a customer service standpoint. Are you set up to deal with customer issues on social?

A: We were the first in our industry to have a social presence. So that’s something to be proud of. For me, it wasn’t enough to post a bunch of cool shots of cool bikes. It was really about the voice of our customers. We have our social team set up to respond almost 24/7. It’s critically important that we are sensitive to what’s going on with our customers. These hyper enthusiasts are our “friends”. They expect that Kawasaki the brand respond in real time. Our communities will often police itself and many times they take care of their own before we have to. We’re looking at it as social business more than social media. It’s almost a lead tool. The conversations actually go pretty deep. We’re sharing riding tips, riding locations, history of the brand, dealership locations. Another nice thing is that we’ve never bought a single fan on social. Our 800,000 fans are hard earned.

Q: You talked about the interest in all of this related content. How far have you gone with product related content to keep customers interested and engaged?

A: We think that content related to “how the product works” is critical to our audience. Then there’s the “what it is” content. This is the physical product, how it’s supposed to perform, etc. Then you get to the most important piece: why. Why do you ride? Is it the wind in the face? Is it the escape? Leaving friends and family behind? Or is it riding with a big pack? It’s the inspirational part of riding. It’s a very mature market and being able to tap into that with our 26 different targets. When you get into our content, we’re hitting the why, the how, and the what, when we’re trying to excite these people. We tap into the lifestyle. We show people what goes on at Daytona Bike Week. Let me show you what’s going on with our Ninja ZX14 when they’re actually drag racing it. Let me show you what happens in Europe at the Isle of Man TT. People are hanging on every morsel that comes out of the Kawasaki Corporation. They want to connect. They want to belong. So the product itself is almost a ticket to the Kawasaki party. The all-access content is a hook. This type of marketing is hard to pull off. The deeper we go, the more rewarded we are. After all, I’m selling a lifestyle.


Q & A on Fashion Marketing with Louise CamutoOriginally appeared on TheDrewBlog.com

For The Camuto Group brand family, one thing is certain: luxury runs in their blood. But with such a diverse portfolio, including brands like Vince Camuto, Jessica Simpson, BCBG Max Azria and Arturo Chiang, how does the company know where to focus its marketing efforts?

In my recent conversation with Louise Camuto, CMO of The Camuto Group and recipient of a Marketing Innovation Award at this year’s CMO Club Awards, she explained how her company provides a consistent luxe experience for women around the world, no matter which designer they prefer. Having never taken on the challenge of fashion marketing, it’s always been a bit of a mystery to me but talking with Louise, it’s clear that there are those who’s success in this stylistic milieu is no accident. Read on to find out why.

Q: The Camuto Group is a family of 11 very different brands. How do you infuse The Camuto Group values and maintain consistent messaging across all of your brands?

A: At Camuto Group, We spend a lot of time thinking about how we can interpret product – from footwear to apparel – in the most on-brand manner. We have been able to lead a brand-building effort with the development of footwear as well as develop product into an existing apparel collection that not just extends a brand into new territory but enhances the presence at retail. In addition, I emphasize the importance of IMAGE and brand consistency daily with my team. We work closely with our international partners to ensure that the way a brand is represented at every consumer and trade touch point not only reflects the DNA but also reinforces the message and aesthetic which allows for the brand experience to omnichannel.

Q: How does new product development work at The Camuto Group? Does it report in to you?

A: Yes, the design teams report in to me for the 18 women’s categories. Our design process is extensive. We have a team of people who shop all over the world for inspiration and they bring ideas, concepts and materials to the table for review. We sit as a team and determine what items are appropriate for each of our brands and we spend a lot of time analyzing the marketplace for trend direction as well as what’s happening

at the consumer level. What I have found to be paramount is listening to customers. When I am in any of our stores, I watch how the customer shops, how she selects product, as well as her purchasing process. When we work on our campaign looks we collaborate with Vince, our marketing team and with PR to ensure we are on trend and delivering something exciting to the customer.


A: My focus recently has been building the Vince Camuto lifestyle. I have spent a lot of time working on our retail store rollout globally. It is so important to have a strong store image that supports the brand direction and it has been my goal to create a luxe consumer experience for women around the world at this price point. I am proud of the 30 stores that we have opened including the luxury flagship, VC Signature by Vince Camuto on Madison Avenue in New York. I spend a lot of time working on the creative presentation of all of our brands. We live in a world where the ways in which a customer can be reached are online, in-store, in print and of course through social media. I have invested a lot of time over the past year ensuring that the brand voices are consistent with the brand DNA.


A: We have been so fortunate lately with our initiatives. We haven’t experienced too many hiccups, nor have we had any product launches not succeed. I think our biggest challenge is constantly innovating and being ahead of the curve in terms of

“Social media continues to be a significant portion of our business. We have really invested in a team to build the brand voice cross-channel.”

Louise CamutoChief Marketing Officer,

The Camuto Group CMO Marketing

Innovation Award Winner


our product offerings, assortments and design direction.

Q: How are you using social media as a marketing tactic? (Awareness, customer service, etc.)

A: Social media continues to be a significant portion of our business. We have really invested in a team to build the brand voice cross-channel. Today, customers spend a lot of time online looking at fashion. The internet has really democratized the business which is exciting. The influence of bloggers in today’s world is a breath of fresh air to me. You really see how the customer actually wears and styles your product. Delving into the online space has really helped with the design process as I continually think about the end user of a skirt, top, pants, or dress and what she would be looking for coming up in the next season.

It’s also a great way to share new products and immediately test the response. Louise Loves on our site has also reached a following. It has a selection of great items to make a look and we can follow how many hits we get and how it drives her to buy.

Q: How do you evaluate/measure the success of your marketing? Are there some channels that work a better for you than others?

A: I read all the selling reports and market recaps reports daily. I am very engrained in the business as it is not about what I think works, it is about how the consumer responds to your brand and your product. I also look at how our advertised styles perform versus the items that are not included in our campaign. I love market research as I think it helps establish a framework for understanding who your customer is and what she is looking for when she shops. I love analyzing our online business as well because it is the purest form of analysis in the marketplace today. You are able to understand how your direct mail, email blasts, print campaigns, celebrity support and editorial credits impact sell-through and in turn leverage the knowledge to further reach your customer and meet her needs. Online has been very successful for us but we are also seeing a lot of positive results from our brick and mortar stores as well.

Q: Content marketing is a hot topic at the moment. What’s your perspective on content in terms of its effectiveness? Are you increasing your investment in this area?

A: We are investing in content and product marketing extensively as we find it highly effective in engaging with our customers. It also allows us to be able to extend our brand message to a wider audience. We utilize content marketing online to relate to the woman that is looking for fashion tips, advice and information. It is another way for us to be helpful to our customers while not pushing product. I think the balance between creating interesting content and achieving sales goals is important as content marketing is truly an extension of our commitment to customer service.

Q: How do you see the retail design industry evolving over the next 10 years? What steps are you taking at The Camuto Group to stay ahead of the curve?

A: I think we are in a period of true innovation. I think stores are creating experiential programs that allow for engagement with the customer at point of sale. We have adopted several tactics in order to engage with our customers at retail. When we build out a store, we have created a shoppable wall as the store barricade so that customers can shop the line and engage with the brand while the store is being built out. Once the store opens, we utilize video to bring the brand to life. We just launched men’s so this year we are able to have the woman interact with the man in order to tell the full brand story. We also have iPads in store so that people can look at the total Collection, even if an item is not carried, they can style what they are purchasing with the total collection in order to create a complete look that is their own!

What’s the biggest marketing risk you’ve taken at The Camuto Group? How did it play out?

A: Several years ago, we relaunched Vince Camuto footwear and invested in a broad-based marketing campaign that crossed all channels. It was important for us to get the message out and we immediately saw success through exponential growth in brand awareness as well as sales. The marketing investment also allowed us to expand the multicategory licensing program rather quickly as we became a more significant brand for our retail partners almost overnight.

Q: Do you agree with the notion that marketing is everything and everything is marketing and if so how have you extended the boundaries of your job beyond the normal purview of the CMO?

A: I absolutely believe everything is marketing and marketing is everything. You truly live marketing every day. Marketing occurs across every channel and touch point and I think the total experience is what drives a customer to love a brand and become a loyal enthusiast. I think we constantly need to push the envelope in marketing to be ahead of the curve and innovate so we are always an intriguing brand for our woman. I believe in always trying to lead and not follow and I work closely with the team to always be at the forefront of what’s happening with the consumer so we reach her every day, in every way.

We are investing in content

and product marketing extensively as we find it highly effective in engaging with our

customers.


Q & A on Content Marketing with Phil ClementOriginally appeared on TheDrewBlog.com

Ask any brand manager of a global company, and they’ll tell you that no two geographic regions are alike. Now, imagine coordinating marketing efforts across not a few, but 120 countries! This is Phil Clement’s reality as the Global CMO of insurance and risk advisor Aon. The company has a presence in nearly half the world’s territories, but has managed to uphold a consistent brand image thanks to a sponsorship of Manchester United, thoughtful content creation and some key employee surveys. After winning the prestigious President’s Circle Award at this year’s CMO Club Awards, Phil graciously agreed to elaborate on these efforts and more. This is part 1 of our extensive (and fabulously instructive) interview.

Q: Can you provide a quick overview of AON in terms of your role in the insurance industry?

A: We’re predominantly in the B2B space. If you’re a hospital and you want to build a new hospital in New York, you would hire us to advise you on maximizing the health and benefit plans of your employees. We help people access what they need to address risk and help their people.

Q: Besides Aon’s sponsorship of Manchester United, tell me about some of your other marketing initiatives.

A: One of my favorites is our best employer survey. What we do in about 100 countries is identify who are the best employers. It’s a two-part process. The first is to identify what the local economy believes are the best qualities of an employer and then rank the companies against that criteria. The process of doing the survey, doing the ranking, emailing the report and having a media partner distribute it is very affordable. It’s difficult for us to move the needle if we do one good idea in one geography. When you’re sifting through $11 billion in revenue in 120 countries, one percent improvement in one country can get lost. Getting something like the best employers program to work globally has been wonderful for us.

Similarly, rather than producing 100 reports on benchmarking and data, which we may have done in the past, we pick a few that cut through the noise. One would be our risk map, where we publish a map that is color-coded based on equivocal risk.

What’s the likelihood of a change in regime? If you’re doing business around the world, this map becomes an important tool, and it also suggests that we’re experts in understanding risk. Those are two of my favorite ideas.

Q: Both of those would go in the bucket of content marketing. If we zero in on the risk map, have you looked at it from a global SEO point of view? Are you doing other things around risk and trying to own that word?

A: The nice thing about the word “risk” or “HR” is that we’re already number one in most of those spaces. What I started working on eight years ago was defining our spaces and making sure we had the presence to be number one. Our SEO strategy is consistent; we want to make sure people can find us.

Also, the best employers and the risk map live up to an acronym that I created called CUTT. When it comes to content, we want it to be Compelling, Useful, Timely and Transactional, meaning it captures people’s attention, it’s something that people feel they can use and reference, and it directly correlates to our business. A lot of marketers are good at hitting one of the four. It’s a constant challenge to get teams to think about hitting all four.

Q: What does it take to hit all four?

A: Just consistency, and asking yourself, as a team, is this compelling? Is this useful? Is this something that they can put in their box to be read during Christmas vacation and it’s July, or is this something that they need to react to? That last piece requires a deep understanding of what your services are and why you market them, so you can give clients an in-road to want to work with you.

Q: If you don’t have employees only focused on content, do you not see Aon as a publisher of content, in a sense? It sounds like you have two big tent poles and content between.

A: That’s fair. I’m certainly not looking to solve the world’s problems in publishing. If you were a risk manager for a restaurant chain, our newsletters on food contamination and food safety—what’s being done preventively and what’s being

Phil ClementGlobal Chief Marketing Officer,

Aon CMO Leadership

Award winner


filed as problems and claims—might be your most valuable reading. That’s all we aspire to.

As a CMO with 120 countries and 32 industries, how do you stay on top of what might be of interest to the risk manager at the restaurant in Rome?

First and foremost, you realize that you can’t. We just try to educate and share ways to solve problems, ways to look for the information, and try to create as much enjoyment of the challenge as possible. A lot of stuff, like the Manchester United sponsorship, came out of the center. We distribute assets that people can use, but there is always local jazz, where people improvise or do neat, creative things.

That being said, we have metrics, reports and a weekly dashboard that help me understand if something is going right or wrong. The thing that drives performance over a long period of time tends to be somewhere in the middle. We spend a lot of time working together. My favorite thing is to roll up my sleeves and work in geography on a project with a team. I prefer that to studying a report because we learn more from the perspective of what’s going on in other places.

Q: You’ve been the CMO at Aon for eight years and must have been part of / witnessed some major changes, right?

A: We were around $19 a share when I joined, and we’re well over $80 now. We’ve been one of the highest performing stocks in the financials services through some pretty rough times. We sold about a third of the company and bought a new third. We went from number 2 to number 1 in every space. I’ve got a group of colleagues on the executive management team that I really believe in and my CEO brings out the best in everyone.

Q: It seems that Aon’s sponsorship of Manchester United is a big part of your marketing program. How does that fit into your go-to market strategy?

A: We’re in 120 countries, and in every country we have additional stakeholders, vendors, governments, regulators, and we have community groups that we interface with. Having a globally established brand is important. The Manchester United sponsorship has been a big part of that because we can use the same team, same language, same sponsorship material, same explanation for what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, and why we’re doing it across the world, because Manchester United is understood in every country.

Q: In light of that, how do you measure the success of your programs?

A: Manchester United merits its own type of point system. We focused on three objectives. Because we are a company that

has grown via 435 acquisitions, we called the first one Aon United, and we measured that by employee survey. Do [our employees] believe we have an important and engaging brand? Are they proud to work at the firm? We did extraordinarily well. Pride and whether Aon has a strong brand were the two highest responses in the survey. Prior to the sponsorship, the brand one was the lowest, and pride was not nearly as high. We know from our research that positive brands automatically have higher engagement.

The second way that we measured it was in marketing equivalency. We took some of the sponsorship fee and applied it against that. Then we used third party, almost public domaintype measures on the value of the advertising on television and in media, PR, online and in chat rooms. The third measure was client engagement. We looked at renewal rates, new business and crossover efforts. We counted the margin

on that business, divided it by half, and did a calculation on whether or not it was a better investment than stock buyback. Everything else—like the fact that our recruiting lines in India went from 25 to 1,000, wrapping around the block—didn’t go into the calculations. The fact that employees were wearing jerseys to work, you can’t count that.

Q: It’s interesting that this program had such a powerful effect on your employees, and ultimately they are your greatest brand ambassadors. Were you conscious of that going into this sponsorship?

A: It was very conscious. There’s always a gravitational pull that takes apart companies that have grown through acquisition. So, it’s extraordinarily important to provide additional substance to why you work together, and also excitement and symbolism to gather around. Manchester United has certainly done that for us.

Q: Does social play a role in your business?

A: Our core client base does not use social media to get information, because there’s an aversion to talking about your health and benefits policies on social media. They look for things like articles on what it means to have an aspiring manager. It’s a mix of having the right content in the right places and realizing that the decisions of our clients are not driven by social media.

Our colleagues have found that the most effective way of connecting a 22-year-old colleague in India with someone in the U.S. is to provide a forum on Facebook or our internal platforms. We did a program a couple years ago called Pass it On, which focused on getting our colleagues to pass on their knowledge. We had three teams; one flew to Australia, one to Africa and one to South America and we handed off footballs through three routes back to England. Every time a ball came to your city, you did things to celebrate the culture with clients, colleagues and the community.

“We just try to educate and share ways to solve problems, ways to look for the information, and try to create as much enjoyment of the challenge as possible.”


Q & A on Innovative Marketing with Beth ComstockOriginally appeared on TheDrewBlog.com and PSFK.com

Small brands innovate out of necessity. Their very survival depends on finding not just a fresh solution to a customer problem but also a distinctive means of getting their story out there. Fewer naysayers correlates to fewer entrenched ways of doing things equals faster pivots and a natural openness to experimentation. For big brands, however, innovation is a triumph of determination over institutional inertia. Or think of it this way, organizations are like planets–the bigger they get, the stronger the pull towards the center.

In this scenario, as one of the largest corporations in the world, GE should have the gravitational pull of Jupiter, crushing innovators before they can take a single step. But guess again, big bias breath! From a marketing perspective, GE has been on the forefront of digital innovations for the last decade putting many smaller companies to shame. Curious about how this was possible and thanks to an introduction by The CMO Club, I was delighted to be able to catch up with Beth Comstock, GE‘s CMO (who won The CMO Award for Leadership). There is nothing more I could say that would be as nearly as insightful as the counsel Beth provides below.

Q: For several years now, GE has been ahead of the curve when it comes to experimenting with new channels. What is the strategy behind all of this experimentation? Is the medium essentially the message?

A: GE’s a leading technology company so we believe it important to be aligned with leading edge technology channels. The other thing to consider is that our audiences expect GE to be where they are – they aren’t going to always come looking for us. We like to experiment as a way of learning, but our efforts have to align to our goal of connecting with our target audiences, which are largely industrial technologists and enthusiasts. And we’ve adapted our strategy around being micro-relevant – meaning

targeting the right audience in the right way. It doesn’t have to be a big audience, just the right one.

Q: As the CMO, is it a mandate of yours that GE explore all the newest coolest channels and if so, how are you finding them?

A: We have an awesome media team that identifies themselves as digital explorers. We also take risks with new ideas and small companies as a way to learn and as a way to augment more traditional plays. I’m a big believer in carving out a percentage

of your budget to develop new models.

Q: Naysayers struggle to understand how a photo contest on Instagram or a promotion on Pinterest can help you sell GE products like aircraft engines. What do you say to those folks?

A: Selling a jet engine is a complicated sale. Many people influence the purchase decision. And since GE is a company that traverses multiple industries, pretty quickly you’re targeting decision makers across a wide range of the economy and

functional roles of business, which is why we believe in the importance of building a vibrant umbrella brand. In addition to those who buy our products, we target enthusiasts, recruits and GE retail shareowners who want to experience GE in various dimensions. Industrial technology is exciting, yes, even fun... and some of these outlets allow us the opportunity to open up and express ourselves in new ways. People want to see that you are approachable.

Q: How has your role as CMO evolved over that past decade? With the advent of “big data,” are you spending more time on analytics that you used to?

A: The role of CMO has evolved from defining what marketing can do to delivering it. I’m a big believer in marketing’s role as developing markets, and new models. We like to think our

“The role of CMO has evolved from defining what marketing can do to delivering it.”

Beth ComstockChief Marketing Officer,

General Electric CMO Leadership Award

winner


contributions are in mindshare, marketshare and margin. We’ve tried to make marketing a driver of commercial innovation that sits alongside our technical innovators to deliver a range of value to GE customers. Big data is a perfect space for marketing. A customer wants to run their business better not just have lots data – those insights help focus the data scientists on analytics that matter most.

Q: GE is primarily a B2B company yet you seem to act a lot more like a B2C company in terms of creating emotionally rich consumer-friendly communications. Any thoughts on why that is?

A: Since when does B2B have to be boring? Business people are people too. We are emotional beings, we don’t just rely on logic when it comes to business decisions. Good marketing is about making a connection and delivering perceived value. Period. In some ways, business marketers have an advantage in that they are closer to their customers and in theory should be more responsive and intuitive.

Q: Content marketing is suddenly a hot buzzword in the industry. Are you investing more resources in content development?

A: We’ve been on a path as a content producer for several years now. We’ve widened our definition of content to include data, experiences and yes, emotional connection and even humor. Content has to be useful and relevant to be effective. We’ve invested in a range of skills like data visualization and user interaction design as a way to drive content that is engaging and relevant. The marvels of science, engineering and manufacturing offer good fodder for content, and we’re constantly seeking out storytellers who get as excited about this as we do.

Q: Marketing seems to be getting increasingly complex in terms of ways to spend and ways to monitor. Has it gotten more complex for you and if so, how are you dealing with that complexity? Yes, it is more complex – we have a multitude of outlets and a range of content types to consider. You need good partners, room for experimentation and a good dose of curiosity. Trust me, it’s not about the size of your budget, it’s about the ability to use complexity to amplify your efforts, not stifle them.


A: Innovation can’t just be about fun ideas or wonky theories. Innovation means new methods that yield results. The chal-lenge is often that time, trial and error are required to get to scale. I’m a big believer in pilot projects to create proof points and staged development to make sure you get results. Inno-vation without process is chaos. Trendspotting without trans-lation leaves you empty.

Q: Besides your efforts on Pinterest and Instagram can you speak about another recent innovative program that you are particularly proud of?

A: I’m especially proud of the work we are doing to help define what the industrial internet can mean to business productivity. It’s a new category for business, not just GE. We’ve put a lot of science and analysis into connecting with our customers and new tech partners in this area. We’re doing much more in open innovation – meaning using digital communities to drive new methods at GE. A recent example is a data science challenge with Kaggle that is shaving off minutes and fuel from flight landings – something thought unattainable. And we’re having fun with Vine, having had a successful #SixSecondScience effort this summer that shows how science can be fun and connects with tech enthusiasts.

Q: How do you stay close to your customers with so many different types of customers in so many countries?

A: You have to live with them, analyze them, listen and empathize with them. This means putting good marketing people on the ground in markets around the world and more importantly, helping engineers and other business teams understand that marketing skills can be added to their jobs too.

Q: Finally, I’ve heard it said that marketing is everything and everything is marketing especially when it comes to the customer experience. Do you agree with that notion and if so how have you extended the boundaries of your job beyond the normal purview of the CMO?

A: I’m a big believer in Peter Drucker’s view that without a customer there is no business. That is a rallying cry for marketing if I’ve ever heard one. And I think business leaders who believe that marketing is just about advertising and go-to-market communications miss out on all the market-making skills we have to offer. I do believe the new frontier for marketers is holistic customer experience. We haven’t cracked it yet but I’m looking forward to seeing how we can – and I think digital technology is taking us there very fast.

“Innovation can’t just be about fun ideas or wonky theories.

Innovation means new methods that yield results.”


Q & A on Consumer Engagement with John CostelloOriginally appeared on TheDrewBlog.com

After defecting to the client side, former Renegade planner Tad Kittredge told me what he loved about being on that side of the fence: “I finally feel like I have all the marketing levers at my fingertips and now, its just a matter of pulling the right ones at the right time.” I haven’t spoken to Tad in a while so I can’t be sure if he has found the right formula but one gentleman who has, without a doubt, is John Costello. Currently President, Global Marketing & Innovation at Dunkin Brands, Costello has a long track record as a successful marketer with stints at Home Depot, Sears and PepsiCo among others.

Not surprisingly, Costello recently received the Officers Award from The CMO Club for his outstanding work at Dunkin and I had the pleasure of interviewing him before The CMO Awards event. In this highly substantive discussion, Costello provides a clear blueprint for any student of the business, offering insights on strategy, TV advertising, measurement, mobile, building loyalty and much, much more. It’s a bit longer than many of my interviews so grab a large cup of America’s Favorite Coffee and have at it.

Q: Marketing seems to be getting increasingly complex in terms of ways to spend and ways to monitor. Has it gotten more complex for you (for Dunkin’) and if so, how are you dealing with that complexity?

A: Marketing has become more complex as technology and consumer engagement continues to evolve rapidly. A key factor in Dunkin Brands’ success has been the close partnership between our franchisees and the company. This has enabled us to stay close to our customers and respond to the changing marketplace better than ever before. Our team has done a good

job of balancing what has worked in the past with innovation. We conduct very sophisticated ROI analysis on our marketing plans, but we also encourage our teams to try new things, such as our digital billboard in Times Square for Dunkin’ Donuts or our viral soft-serve video on Facebook with Baskin-Robbins. On the product side, we’ve implemented a strategy called “Familiar with a Twist” that has combined old favorites like Dunkin’ Donuts’ original blend coffee and our breakfast wraps, along with innovative and fun new products like our turkey sausage breakfast sandwich and the glazed donut breakfast sandwich.

Q: Pundits like to say that TV ads are dead yet every retail/fast food exec I talk to swears that TV is still the most cost effective way to drive store traffic. Are you still finding TV to be effective at driving traffic for Dunkin’ Donuts?

A: Through the great work of our team and advertising agencies, traditional marketing tools like TV, out-of-home and in point-of-purchase displays still work very effectively for Dunkin’. However, consumer engagement is changing as consumers spend more time with their computers, tablets and smart phones and are using these multiple devices at the same time. Thus, while traditional marketing remains very important for Dunkin’, our investments in digital, social, mobile and loyalty marketing are increasing even more

rapidly.

All of these investments are driven by five key principles: First, most great ideas flow from the consumer. Whether it’s B2B or B2C, there’s really no substitute for truly understanding your customers’ pain points and how you can address them. Second, building brand differentiation is the most important thing a marketer can focus on because it answers the fundamental question: why should consumers choose your brand over all their other choices? Third, building a strong team both inside

John CostelloPresident,

Global Marketing & Innovation at Dunkin Brands CMO Officers Award Winner

“With consumers increasingly reliant on

their mobile devices for information, it’s important

that our website, online advertising, e-mails, social

media communications and more, all be optimized for

the mobile audience.”


and outside your organization is imperative. It’s not just about the people who report to you, but also about your peers within the organization and the key agencies and technology partners with whom you work. Fourth, tactics matter. While developing the right strategy is important, executing that strategy to the highest standards can really make a difference. And fifth, agility. The environment in which we compete is changing more rapidly than ever before, so it’s important to be agile and adapt your plans as needed. The bottom line is that, while the way consumers learn about brands, consume information, and decide where to buy brands has changed over years, they are still looking for better solutions to their everyday challenges. All five of these principles flow from the core principle of understanding your consumers’ unmet needs and meeting them better than anybody else.

Q: How important is mobile marketing to Dunkin’ in your overall marketing mix?

A: For a company like Dunkin’ Donuts, mobile and marketing go hand-in-hand. The surge in mobile usage, coupled with the busy, on-the-go Dunkin’ guest, creates a very compelling business case for us. By launching the Dunkin’ App and offering mobile payments, we created an entirely new level of speed and convenience that further distinguishes our brand to current and new customers throughout the country.

While the majority of our mobile efforts are focused on adding value for our consumers through the Dunkin’ App, we do believe that it’s critical to optimize for mobile across all of our digital touch points. With consumers increasingly reliant on their mobile devices for information, it’s important that our website, online advertising, e-mails, social media communications and more, all be optimized for the mobile audience. Each month, we also host a number of fun promotions and programs for our consumers on mobile-friendly social media platforms. You may have seen our recent integration with ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown, where Dunkin’ Donuts has a billboard ad during the program that was created with Vine. The billboard ad promotes a #DunkinReplay Vine, which re-creates a marquee play from the first half of each week’s Monday Night Football game with Dunkin’ food and beverages. The goal of creating the content and sharing it across Twitter and Vine allows Dunkin’ Donuts to engage with users who enjoy watching Monday Night Football while leveraging a mobile device to connect with others about the game.

Dunkin’ Donuts also recently partnered with Zynga’s Running With Friends for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, where we are providing players with in-game tips for perfecting their game, plus Dunkin’ coffee boosts to help keep them running past their friends and up the leaderboards. Guests can also earn 500 free gems to use during game play for checking in to a local Dunkin’ Donuts, further emphasizing how Dunkin’ keeps them running both in their everyday lives and during game play.

Overall, we are very pleased with the response to our mobile initiatives. The success of these programs supports the importance of taking a 360 degree approach and thinking thoughtfully about the best platforms that will help us to engage with Dunkin’ Donuts guests. The future of mobile for us is to continue putting Dunkin’ in everyone’s hands. We see a lot of potential for mobile to be an extension of the Dunkin’ Donuts experience.

Q: How do you stay close to your customers with so many points of distribution (17,000 including Baskin-Robbins)

in so many countries?

A: Because brand-building tactics and cultures may differ from country to country, people sometimes believe the principles may also differ. We operate in many different countries, in many different cultures, but we find the principle of understanding what our consumers want remains a constant around the world. We really try to adopt a global

mindset that searches for the best ideas. It’s important to understand both

the differences and the commonalities of countries around the world in order to remain

close to our customers. For example, we sell a shredded pork donut in China right alongside a

Boston Kreme donut, both of which are very popular. Green tea ice cream is popular in China, but so is French Vanilla ice cream.

We conduct extensive market research on key trends and get great feedback from our local teams and franchisees and business partners. It’s also very important to visit local markets. I was in Europe earlier this year and will be returning to India and Indonesia next month. Social media is another great way to stay in touch with customers. We understand that our guests like to use social media to interact with us, whether it be complimenting their favorite local shop’s crew members or telling us about their excitement for our pumpkin menu to return. We try to engage with our loyal fans as much as possible through these constantly growing channels in an effort to humanize our brand.

Q: Consumers have lots of choices when it comes to coffee and donuts. What kinds of things are you trying to do to build loyalty?

A: The passion for Dunkin’ Donuts is unmatched and we be-lieve the key to our continued success has been listening to our customers and evolving to meet their changing needs. Providing great food and beverages at a good value, in a fast, friendly and convenient environment is the best way to build loyalty.

We’re also planning to expand our enhanced DD Perks national loyalty program later this year. We believe that a customer-centric approach and ongoing commitment to evolving with our guests is why people have been coming to Dunkin’ Donuts for more than 60 years.

“We operate in many different

countries, in many different cultures, but we find the

principle of understanding what our consumers want

remains a constant around the world.”


Q & A on Community-Centered Marketing with Geoff CottrillOriginally appeared on TheDrewBlog.com

Converse is the creative world’s favorite party guest, which may be why it has so many friends—over 37 million on Facebook, to be exact. Just how did the sneaker brand get so popular? Not by being the life of the party, but by practicing good people skills and good social etiquette, says CMO Geoff Cottrill. Rather than stepping on toes and dominating the social conversation, Converse lets its audience guide the dialog, knowing that the brand belongs to those who wear it. Geoff shared these insights and more with me during this year’s CMO Club Awards, where he won honors for innovation in marketing—and after you read our conversation, you’ll understand why.


A: We are fortunate to have a massive and loyal following who is willing to post content on our behalf. To know that we have millions of friends on Facebook and hundreds of thousands of photos tagged #Converse on Instagram is humbling. But for us, real success is defined by our ability to build meaningful relationships that are true to our core values, spark creativity and inspire advocacy.

Q: The Converse page currently has more than 37 million likes – one of the top 10 most popular pages on Facebook. How did you build such an active following on social media?

A: As a global brand that speaks to personal style and expression, social media presents itself as a natural forum for us to communicate with our consumers. It’s absolutely a focused part of our overall communication efforts, but at the same time, we understand that we are not leading that communication, nor do we want to. We are a welcomed party guest. We keep it simple. Be interesting, think creatively, think globally, believe in what we are saying, and take a step back to listen and watch.

Social media is a tremendous vehicle to learn about your consumers, what they like (or don’t like) about you, what they are interested in hearing from us, what they’re doing in their lives, and what they are saying to each other. This brand belongs to the people who wear it.

Q: We love your campaign to support up and coming musicians by giving them free recording time and promoting them via social media. How did you decide to get involved in the music industry?

One of our goals as a brand is to give back and help inspire a new generation of musicians. We talked to a lot of musicians and it became apparent that studio time was costly and unaffordable for many emerging artists who had turned to home studios and their bedrooms to record. By opening Converse Rubber Tracks, it’s a way for us to say thank you to musicians all over

“Musicians and creative people are our core

audience, and we need to do everything possible to

foster this community.“

Geoff CottrillCMO, Converse

CMO Marketing Innovation Award winner


who have helped us become the brand we are and to provide a place for new artists to have access to resources they may not be able to afford. It is Converse’s way to invest in the future of music.


A: We don’t see it as being complex because our philosophy hasn’t changed. We strongly believe in building goodwill in communities and creating long-lasting brand ambassadors for the brand. It’s not just about selling sneakers.


A: In the next few seasons, Converse sees a huge potential of opportunities within avenues such as our wholesale accounts and securing key leadership positions with these important retailers through exclusive partnerships and product offerings. Another category with tremendous opportunity is young men and to truly get after the young male consumer from a head-to-toe perspective, encompassing footwear to apparel to accessories. The plan to reach them will be through the relaunch of the CONS segment, targeted specifically to their street culture, sport-inspired lifestyle.


A: Our consumers are always surprising us! But we see these surprises in a truly positive way because we can always do better and are constantly seeking improvements.

Q: What’s your perspective on content marketing?

A: Our philosophy on content marketing is built on driving meaningful relationships that are true to our core values, spark creativity and inspire advocacy.

Whether it’s about showcasing a musician that has just recorded at Converse Rubber Tracks in Brooklyn, a showcase we put on at SXSW, a street art exhibit in Beijing or a Three Artists One Song collaboration – we focus on developing stories that are compelling for our consumers.

Q: Converse has been in business since 1908. How do you balance respecting the tradition of the Converse brand with innovative marketing?

A: Converse has a long history in music. It has been worn on stage by legendary punk bands in the 1970s and adopted by kings of hip-hop, new wave, rockabilly, grunge and others throughout the decades. Musicians and creative people are our core audience, and we need to do everything possible to foster this community. We want to be useful to the community and never take advantage of it or overstep our place. We want to bring cultures together and celebrate music. In other words, we want to be in it, without getting in the way.

Q: How do you evaluate/measure the success of your marketing?

A: We believe that success is not measured in the traditional sense (i.e. ROI). The number of deep relationships we can foster with the creative community—not media impressions, and content views, measures success for the brand.

Q: Do you agree with the notion that marketing is everything and everything is marketing? How do you as a marketer impact the entire customer experience?

A: Marketing is not everything and everything [is not marketing] to Converse. It’s has always been the brand’s intention that our products and consumers drive the marketing, not the marketing driving our product. Our approach to the consumer experience is to invest and grow our connections to consumers. As a brand, Converse is on a mission to own “sneakers” and this will be communicated across all our messaging. We want the word “sneakers” to become synonymous with unleashing the creative spirit.

“As a brand, Converse is on a mission to own

“sneakers” and this will be communicated across all our messaging. We want

the word “sneakers” to become synonymous with

unleashing the creative spirit.”


Q & A on Prioritizing the Customer Experience with John DeVincentOriginally appeared on TheDrewBlog.com

Faced with big-budget competitors boasting award winning advertising, John DeVincent, CMO of eMoney Advisor, needed to find a fresh way to cut through. For DeVincent, this meant focusing his attention on eMoney Advisor’s rare personal approach in a business that is increasingly self-service. But providing his customers with as many face-to-face meetings as possible isn’t the only strategy championed by DeVincent. Read on as DeVincent explains how a marketing approach that revolves around excellent customer service, openness to changes in marketing trends, and clients building relationships with trusted advisors allows his business to contend with much larger competitors.

Note: DeVincent won the CMO Club President’s Circle Award late last year. According to The CMO Club founder Pete Krain-ik, this award is based on “a marketing executive’s demon-strated delivery in supporting the DNA of The CMO Club for building relationships with peers in the club, sharing and help-ing others, and referring other CMOs to join the world’s best CMO conversations.” Congrats John!

Q: A CMO has a lot of choices in terms of where they invest their time. What have been your top priorities in the last couple of years?

A: My priorities have really been with product innovation – the messaging and positioning of new products. eMoney Advisor operates within the B2B space. Our focus has been on presenting software products to financial advisors that are looking for innovative new delivery solutions for their end clients. We’re looking to position ourselves as advocates for financial advisors in the marketplace.


A: There haven’t been any huge surprises. We’ve been focusing on new 90-second video elements that have been working very well for us. Online advertising doesn’t work as well for us (though we don’t spend as much here as on other channels). Shifts are always occurring within marketing and you must create content to accommodate those changes.

Q: You have some noisy competitors like eTrade and Fidelity. How have you been able to get your message across without being drowned out by talking babies and endless green lines?

A: This goes back to where I mentioned shifting top priorities. eMoney is a smaller firm. We can’t compete with the advertising

budgets of our big competitors like eTrade and Fidelity. Instead, we’ve been focusing on positioning our advisor user base as trusted advisors. We’re working with their advisor-client relationship strengths. It can be difficult because [eTrade and Fidelity’s] advertising is award winning but when clients get down to needing financial advice, they’re looking for a trusted

John DeVincentChief Marketing Officer,

eMoney Advisors CMO Leadership

Award Winner

“In the marketplace right now, there is no silver bullet. As a marketer, you need to do everything: develop a blog, create video vignettes, have a presence on social – plus traditional advertising.”


advisor, not a 1-800 number. We advocate for that type of advisor.


A: In the marketplace right now, there is no silver bullet. As a marketer, you need to do everything: develop a blog, create video vignettes, have a presence on social – plus traditional advertising. The way that you shift that spend is dictated by the market itself. I’ve worked very hard to properly align my team to work on the 12-15 things they need to do at any given time to get the message out. We then put something out there, monitor, test and adjust (or not adjust) accordingly.


A: Again, there is no silver bullet. There are numbers and reports coming back from these 12-15 things you’re doing on any given day. If you’re in the trenches, you’re looking at everything and trying to figure out what it means. What I try to do is take one key metric from each outreach and tie it to an ROI for our CEO. That way, he has a snapshot to look at so he can say ok this is working or something needs to change. We look at email opens, referrals, etc. Our CEO, of course, also has metrics that he likes to review and focus on when we report.

Q: How do you stay close to your customers when the relationship is primarily online?

A: What we’ve done is realign ourselves to become regional. Our sales team attempts to get as many face-to-face meetings with prospective clients as possible. We also have an advisory board that we meet with twice a year. Our retention team monitors whether or not our clients (advisors and their staff) are actually logging in and using the software. If we find out that they are not, we reach out and offer educational resources, software training, etc.

We can also provide classroom training sessions. We are really focused on getting in front of customers to facilitate the natural interactions that we have as human beings. Online interactions are also important but can be rather stale.

Q: A lot of financial services firms have tip-toed into social. Do you see social as viable channel for your business and if so, in what capacity?

A: The financial services industry has been very slow to adopt social. The main reason is because of the regulation and compliance associated with it. FINRA has been very slow in defining how social should be handled. There is a fine line between what is considered advice and what isn’t. Having said that, LinkedIn is currently our biggest social platform. We are using it heavily as a recruiting platform. Highly educated, high revenue prospective clients are on LinkedIn and that’s

whom we see our advisors going after. We’ve also embraced Twitter and Facebook but our focus is on LinkedIn where we participate in groups, connect with thought leaders, and add content to the mix.

Q: What are you doing in the content marketing area?

A: We have a corporate blog and a user-focused knowledge community blog called Ask eMoney. On this blog, we’ve included eMoney-focused content as well as general industry best practices. The content is incredibly rich to the point that

I’ve hired people whose sole responsibility is managing the blog. We’re also increasing spend to identify people who are knowledgeable in the industry to contribute content. We’ve found that good content is incredibly sticky. People become more interested in your site and therefore your product.

Q: Do you agree with the notion that “marketing is every-thing and everything is marketing” and if so how have you extended the boundaries of your job beyond the normal purview of the CMO?

A: I do agree with the notion that the CMO’s job extends to supporting the entire customer experience. In my mind, during every customer interaction, you either win or lose share. It’s either positive or negative. That includes everything from a phone call and training to customer support and interacting with sales people. You want to make the process easy for your customers. You want to be the company that people want to do business with. It’s important to stay relevant and stir emotion. Make people feel good. If you fail, you have to make sure you recover with style and go above and beyond to fix it. Being a small company, this has been a relatively easy philosophy to adopt. The customer experience is a big priority for our CEO. We focus heavily on best practices and proper training for our team — embracing that philosophy as a company. You have to consistently go above and beyond to create an excellent customer experience.

We are really focused on getting in front of customers to facilitate the natural interactions that we have as human beings.


Q & A on Building Brand Loyalty with Julie GarlikovOriginally appeared on TheDrewBlog.com

“For such simple products, we have a very complex

business with many channels and differing needs.

When you add all the new ways to market, it is

complicated, and that’s what makes it interesting.”

Following the year of “content marketing” that was 2013, we can only hope that 2014 is destined to be as rewarding a year for consumers on social media. Many brands are figuring out that earning customer loyalty via great content is on par with nurturing a real, face-to-face relationship, in that being a supportive, useful and interesting friend will almost always earn you an invite to the birthday party.

Some, like Torani, are well ahead of this curve. For a product like Torani, which relies on retailers to establish the first relationship with customers, it pays to keep tabs on the rolodex by not just touching base over social media, but also adding to their daily lives in a fun, relevant way. CMO Julie Garlikov, who won

a President’s Circle Award at the recent CMO Club Awards, explains the ways Torani grows and manages its loyal fan base on a modest budget.


A: Our business continues to grow like crazy. I am most focused on growing our consumer business and improving household penetration. This includes some significant product innovation, as well as educating and engaging our consumer in new ways.

Julie GarlikovChief Marketing Officer, Torani

CMO Leadership Award winner



A: We’ve launched a lot of new products this year. What’s surprising is how long it has taken to get some of them off the ground, especially when you’re educating a market on a new behavior. The other big surprise to me this year is the explosive growth in mobile, which now accounts for almost 30% of our online traffic. We’re rapidly adapting our ecommerce platform to be better optimized for mobile.

Q: Has the fact that Torani does not have a huge multimillion budget forced you to be more innovative?

A: We have to find the right partners to work with us who believe in our brand and who want to work with a great, local, family-owned business. And, we need to focus more on things like PR and creating social buzz to get the word out. We can’t do a lot of mass tactics, so we look to build really high loyalty with our business and consumer users, turning them into uber fans.


A: I use a lot of test/invest methodology, trying things out small scale, proving that they deliver and then expanding. It’s the only way to make ensure the best ROI on limited budgets.


A: For such simple products, we have a very complex business with many channels and differing needs. When you add all the new ways to market, it is complicated, and that’s what makes it interesting. We’ve really focused the team on specific channels and segments and that helps them market the most successfully.

Q: How do you stay close to your end users when the relationship with these folks is mainly owned by your retailer partners?

A: We get a great sense from social media and listening to what’s important to our user. We’ve also been doing a lot of event marketing and mobile tours the past two years so we can hear more directly what our users like. Between

our retail partners and our foodservice distributors, we can be one step removed. So, we have to create opportunities to engage regularly and we do a lot of research like ethnographies to really understand what our consumer wants and needs.

Q: Has social media played much of a role in the driving your brand? If so, how has it helped or how do you see it helping in the future?

A: We have a very active, loyal fan base that we engage with daily on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, etc. We also have done a lot of blogger outreach and engage with various bloggers on a regular basis, sending them new products, etc. This helps get the word out on a small brand and is a big part of our acquisition strategies.

Q: Content marketing is a hot topic at the moment. Are you increasing your investment in this area?

A: Yes, this is a huge area for us. We’ve developed videos and will be producing even more as the year wraps up. Everything from how-to videos to funny content. We also continue to create enticing inspirational photos and editorial, almost like what you see in a food magazine. We’ve found that inspiring people with seasonal recipes and super on-trend ideas generates significant sales lift, so content is key for us.

Q: Do you agree with that notion that marketing is everything and everything is marketing and if so how have you extended the boundaries of your job beyond the normal purview of the CMO?

A: This is so true. We’ve actually created a social media/buzz marketer position within our department and moved consumer service into marketing. That way, if someone engages on Facebook or Twitter or the old school phone, we’re able to have one seamless approach to dealing with their experience. And, we’ve got a team who does the same thing for our commercial user too.


Q & A on Marketing Online Challenger Brands with Rose HamiltonOriginally appeared on TheDrewBlog.com

Want to know why I truly love this whole blogging thing? And no, its not because it affords me an infinite opportunity to pun around. Nor is about a compunction to see my name in virtual ink although that is kind of cool. The truth is I love blogging because it gives me license to interview really smart people and perhaps by osmosis, their insights and experiences make me a tad smarter or at least a better advisor to Renegade clients.

And thanks to our partners over at The CMO Club, I have had the good fortune to interview a lot of talented people of late including Rose Hamilton, the EVP and CMO of Pet360. I met Rose a couple of years ago through The CMO Club and was not at all surprised that she recently won The CMO Award as a Rising Star. It is with great pleasure that I share our Q&A cover-ing a wide range of topics, including Pet360’s overall marketing approach, their focus on engagement over reach in their social channels and their success metrics. As you may have seen in my recent FastCompany.com post, I am a big fan of Rose’s de-scriptor for their target audience, “pet parent,” and believe that insights like these are well worth barking about. So go ahead and woof this one down...


A: As with any business, customer acquisition, retention and loyalty are critical measures that require a strong and differentiated brand. To set ourselves apart from our competition, our focus has been on creating valuable and relevant experiences

“By offering relevant solutions, we build trust, engagement and frequency. As trust and emotional connection build, so will lifetime value and advocacy!”

Rose HamiltonEVP and CMO of Pet360

CMO Officers Award winner


for pet parents. We know firsthand that pet parenting can be challenging and even a bit overwhelming at times. New obstacles can arise at every stage of a pet’s life, and pet parents are in constant need of support. Most will say their vet provides answers to their pet parenting challenges; however, a vet visit takes place on average once per year and only lasts around 15 minutes. As a result, pet parents are looking to friends, family and various online resources for answers to their questions. The problem is that not every pet has the same needs – a Golden Retriever puppy, for example, has very different needs than a senior Yorkshire Terrier. What works for some pets will not work for all.

Our goal at Pet360 is to take the thousands of products, millions of pieces of educational content and countless discussions in online forums and provide each pet parent a relevant experience tailored to their individual pet.

Q: Pet360 is a relatively young brand. Do you find you are more nimble than your larger competition?

A: Absolutely. As a digital brand, we don’t have the distraction of brick and mortar operations. We leverage technology and data every day to make quick enhancements that are in the best interest of our customers.

Q: How are you gaining competitive advantage?

A: We knew we would never win on price. Over the past two years, we have evolved from a pure play E-Commerce business to a lifestyle brand focused on making pet parenting easier. Today, Pet360.com is the only experience (digital or offline) that truly improves pet parents’ lives by offering expert information, an active community of pet parents and a vast assortment of products all in a highly personalized manner. By bringing all three elements (community, content and commerce) together with a layer of personalization, we’re able to deliver a truly differentiated brand experience that builds engagement, trust and ultimately advocacy, resulting in higher lifetime value and lower acquisition costs.

Q: Pet lovers are famously passionate about their animals. How do you balance building emotional relationships with your customers and the need to drive transactions?

A: Emotional relationships come first and eventually lead to advocacy and trust longer term. Pet supplies can be a commodity, but the expert advice and connection to other pet parents set us apart. The Pet360 platform inspires engagement and emotional connection at every touch point along the pet parenting journey. By offering relevant solutions, we build trust, engagement and frequency. As trust and emotional connection build, so will lifetime value and advocacy!

Q: Has growing your popularity on social media channels been a priority?

A: When it comes to social media, we are more focused on building engagement than we are on growing our popularity.

Q: What role does social media play?

A: Social media enables us to engage with pet parents every day by answering questions, stimulating conversations, providing entertainment, gathering feedback and connecting them to the people and resources they need most. Most importantly, social media is a way for us to connect 1:1 with pet parents in a very authentic way. It’s an opportunity for us to continue to

build and strengthen relationships with pet parents.

Q: How does content marketing fit into your mix?

A: Content is at the core of our brand. We invest heavily in creating valuable content for pet parents that is delivered on our site, in social media, across traditional media, through our email communications and by our various partners.

Q: Is content marketing an increasing part of your marketing budget?

A: Content marketing has been and will continue to be an area of investment and focus for Pet360. From a business model perspective, the efficiency and effectiveness of content marketing reduces the cost to acquire a customer and enables

“The digital space makes it easy for us to stay close

to our customers. Every action they take online is

measurable.“


us to leverage paid channels in unique ways.

Q: Since your customer relationship is primarily online, is it a challenge for you as CMO to stay close to your customers? If not, how are you doing it?

A: The digital space makes it easy for us to stay close to our customers. Every action they take online is measurable. We also monitor a variety of channels to keep a pulse on what our customers are saying, including our branded community, site behavior, surveys, call center reports, ratings and reviews, and social media. As a customer-centric brand, our customers guide our decisions at every turn. We are constantly reacting to consumer feedback and trends as we work to solve unmet pet parent needs.

Q: How do you evaluate/measure the success of your marketing? Are there some channels that work a lot better for you than others?

A: Of course, there are countless digital metrics that can be measured and every business seeks profitable growth. In the end, marketing is measured by the cost to acquire a customer and lifetime value. When managing and optimizing your portfolio, it’s important to be moving the needle on both measures. Additionally, net promoter score is extremely important as it helps us understand how well we’re delivering on our value proposition.

In my experience, a diversified marketing portfolio that allows for constant testing yields the best results. Engaging with pet parents at every stage of their pet’s life requires a focus on creating a relevant presence across many channels. Each channel plays a different role and complements the others.


A: Yes, attribution is a big topic of conversation. Along with the dynamic nature of social media and online advertising platforms. Now more than ever, it’s important to have a team in place that’s focused on monitoring, optimizing and growing your marketing programs. With complexity comes opportunity, and opportunity can be turned into innovation if you have a team that embraces technology, data, customer centricity and is not afraid to try new things. Building a team of marketers who not only understand data but also technology will become increasingly important to stay ahead of the changes in the industry.

Q: As CMO, have you been able to address the entire customer experience? Were there any organizational challenges you needed to overcome?

A: As an organization, we have a well-defined vision and clarity around how each of our roles supports that vision. We have a fairly flat organizational structure that allows us to move quickly. I’ve always been a fan of “being the change you seek” and getting involved across the organization. In order to address the entire customer experience, it requires collaborating with everyone and taking the time to truly understand the potential risks and challenges. By co-creating the pet parent journey with key leaders across the organization, silos break down and everyone’s strengths can be harnessed in service of our mission. In my experience, building strong relationships is the key to accomplishing a customer-centric organization and having influence outside of your area of expertise. It takes time to build trust and relationships and create “win-win” moments, but it’s critical to take the time and separate the “important” from the “urgent” to truly maximize your influence and impact as a leader.


“If you become focused on the issues that present themselves inside the company instead of looking outside at the customers, you’re sacrificing innovation.”

Q & A on Marketing as Service with John HayesOriginally appeared on TheDrewBlog.com

A common phrase in the service industry is “the customer knows best.” While waiters and retail associates will roll their eyes at this, especially when it’s delivered by a manager following an unpleasant customer interaction, there’s definitely some credence to it. American Express is one company that takes “customer knows best” to heart, and has used the adage to help inform its marketing strategy for decades.

AmEx CMO John Hayes and I caught up around the time of the CMO Club Awards, and he gave me a glimpse into the intensely service-focused world that runs American Express from the inside out. From creating an Open Forum that lets

small businesses help each other out, to starting a publishing arm way before “content marketing” was a buzzword in—wait for it—1971, to offering live streamed concerts to its music fans, Hayes and his team are not just believers in “marketing as service,” they are the poster children for this approach.

Q: One of the big issues that big companies have is how to keep their marketing fresh and nimble and not get stuck in a rut. Over the years, you have been incredibly innovative in terms of your marketing. Have you been able to institutionalize this innovation?

John HayesChief Marketing Officer,

American Express CMO Leadership Award winner


We are investing in content

and product marketing extensively as we find it highly effective in engaging with our

customers.

A: There are a couple of answers to that question. The most fundamental is that you have to continue to focus on the customer. If you become focused on the issues that present themselves inside the company instead of looking outside at the customers, you’re sacrificing innovation. If we’re going to be a great service company, we need to be serving them, we need to be communicating with them, we need to be marketing in the places where our customers or our prospects spend their time.

Being customer-focused is the first part of innovating because what you’re trying to do is anticipate the needs that those customers have and looking for an advantage over your competition, which usually comes from serving your customers in a unique way. The second part is to generate a level of curiosity about what’s happening in the world, both in terms of the talent you bring into the company as well as the culture that you build and maintain over time. We have been able to build a culture of curiosity where people are curious about how to make things work better.

Q: You’re a great service company, yet one might argue that you also sell a lot of products. Has a service mentality always been front-and-center at American Express? How does being a great service company affect your marketing?

A: American Express has been around since 1850, and when we first started, we were a freight forwarding company, not a payment company. Then we slowly moved into the traveler business and the travelers check business. The company was 108 years old before the first American Express card appeared. Since the beginning, there has been a focus on being a great service company, whether that service was freight forwarding, opening up markets for people to travel and experience, offering people a safer way to carry their money with travelers checks or offering them something like the American Express card to simplify their lives and make it more rewarding. All of those things come from a service culture, a company focused on service.

This brand has been about 3 things from its very origin: Trust, security, service. So the iteration we experience today happens to be mostly in the form of plastic payments, whether that’s corporate, small business, consumer or for our merchants, but that’s just the way we’ve taken service to market today. It starts with understanding what business you are in and understanding that this is a company that believes it’s noble to serve. From that comes the way we go to market.

Q: I saw the case history on Small Business Saturday, and there’s a lot of evidence that it drove a tremendous amount of traffic. That was probably among your more measurably

effective initiatives, at least from a small business standpoint. But my understanding of Open Forum is that you can’t find a direct link to revenue, yet you’ve been investing in Open programs for years.

A: I think there are some general trends that are very positive but you’re right. When you get to a granular level, it’s difficult to say this program generated this many cards and this much spending for American Express.

We have a belief that if you serve people well, they will become your customers, because people find it rare to be served extremely well. We don’t require people to be a cardholder to use Open Forum. We created the site because we knew that part of enabling the success of small businesses was helping them understand what other small businesses had already learned to help them be successful. That’s why we created it, and that’s why we made it an “open” network – so people could find the people that would be of most value to them.

When you’ve contributed in a meaningful way to a small business’s success and then say,

“Hey, I’ve got some other services for you. I’ve got a card that could help you

manage inventory better,” they are quite open to it because they’ll say, “Well, you guys have already been enabling my business, enabling my success,” and that’s the philosophy. Some programs we can measure on a granular level, and some we can’t, but we’re careful not to overvalue the

things we can measure or undervalue the things we can’t.

Q: You’ve been developing content, one way or another, for small businesses for years.

Given that everybody is creating content, and other companies are targeting small businesses

like you are, what are you doing to stay ahead?

A: My role has evolved a lot. First, it’s evolved from the standpoint of understanding what is happening in the world related to media. How are people consuming media? How are they absorbing new messages? Those things have changed fairly remarkably in the last decade. Part of my job is to make sure I understand how the world works today from a media standpoint, whether that’s social media, digital, or traditional, and how it’s changing. How are brands being established in the landscape today?

My role is also about identifying which elements of American Express will not change from 1850, and which elements absolutely will in terms of how we go to market. Trust, security, and service will not change. This company has existed for 163 years because it’s reinvented itself, but always around the ideas of trust, security, and service.


Q: What role is Big Data playing in your job today?

A: Data is a fundamental part of what we do today, and it’s a great opportunity, because data can allow us to optimize on a much shorter cycle. We also see it as an opportunity to serve customers better. I can anticipate your needs, I can help you with the things you want, I can begin to understand what you might need in the future based on data and that data can be very useful in service and marketing standpoint. I won’t talk about marketing without mentioning service because I think there’s a lot of marketing out there that is of no service to anyone and frankly doesn’t have much impact. The things that are sustainable are the marketing elements that serve people well. So data becomes an enormous opportunity not only to find prospects, but to also understand them and to offer things that are a real service to them, so that you can begin the relationship on a service level and not just a sales level.

Q: If you had to justify the creation of Open Forum today based on data that you didn’t have because you hadn’t yet introduced it, how would you do it? I believe there’s a risk today that marketers might not take the giant leaps of faith in an untested program because it’s impact is not going to be linear.

A: I think your assumption is entirely correct which is that the data allows you to find the opportunity, execute the opportunity, and prove that it was a success, all on shorter cycles than ever before. You’re not waiting 6 months to say “did it work?”; you’re saying “let me show you the week after Small Business Saturday.” Let’s take a look at the behavioral shifts we saw. You’re able, because data is as robust today, to see insights to what might have cause and affected certain positive outcomes.

You cannot be a great marketer without experimentation. Experimentation requires great accountability. You have to be experimenting with a purpose and you have to have the data and the metrics that will allow you to demonstrate what worked and what didn’t. It’s okay to fail as long as you don’t fail twice on the same thing. That’s the way we try to operate here, we experiment a lot we have some things that work phenomenally well which the world gets to see on a broad scale basis and

we have some things that don’t work at all and we say that didn’t work fold it up let’s not do that again, let’s try some other things. That to me is a big part of how the job has changed because 20 years ago, it was not as experimental as it is today because the data wasn’t as robust, the metrics weren’t easy to access, the cycles took longer and there weren’t as many new permutations to try.

Q: Let’s talk about the Link Like Love and Card Sync programs. Are they both social? They have transactional elements, which is very different than some of the other things you’ve done. How would you evaluate those two programs, and do they have futures?

A: They definitely have futures. They come from a very clear observation of many digital channels, which are unlike many traditional media channels, which tend to be really focused on communications. These new channels are distribution channels, they’re service channels; they operate on so many different dimensions that it allows you to create products specifically for these platforms.

I believe it’s a missed opportunity if you’re working in the digital space and all you’re trying to do is create a communication. You’re going to disappoint people, because people who consume these channels don’t see them as just communications channels.

If you start to build products and services that exist within these very robust platforms then you start to create more interesting things that people can spend time with on the platform. You’re building something that mirrors the behaviors you’ve already seen customers take in those categories and on those platforms. Our philosophy has always been to build things that compliment the platforms that we’re building them on. We are able to distribute products, services, and communicate with our customers because the channel is so robust it allows us to do that.



Q & A on Digital Marketing with Michael LacorazzaOriginally appeared on TheDrewBlog.com

Before taking the job as SVP, Head of Integrated Marketing at Wells Fargo, Michael Lacorazza was cautioned that it might take a while to get things done at this huge bank. Much to his delight, he was able to push through a number of new initiatives in his first year that had a profound impact on the business. Though he credits his strong team for making it all happen, The CMO Club acknowledged his accomplishments in the area of digital marketing with their Programmatic Marketing Award last fall. Here is my interview with Michael including some timeless insights on the power of customer-centricity:

Q: Wells Fargo is considered an integrated marketing leader in the banking industry. What is your approach to seamlessly pro-moting the Wells Fargo brand across multiple channels?

A: We start with the customer—identifying the needs and in-sights to define the customer journey. The customer journey determines the channel strategy, so that we integrate in the right places. To bring the work to life, our large-scale cam-paigns are headed by a marketing integration lead, who as-

Michael LacorazzaHead of Integrated Marketing

at Wells Fargo CMO Leadership Award

winner

“Our focus is on serving our customers and our

communities at the local level. We have a strong

culture of putting the customer first and strive to

live it every day.”


sembles the physical and virtual teams (both Wells Fargo team members and outside resources) needed to develop and launch the assignments – and is ultimately accountable for the project.

Q: With the purchase of Wachovia in 2008, Wells Fargo became a nationwide presence. How do you stay close to your customers when you operate in so many markets and have so many different types of customers?

A: While we are a coast-to-coast company now, our focus is on serving our customers and our communities at the local level. We have a strong culture of putting the customer first and strive to live it every day. And, that customer-centric culture is guided by our company’s vision to satisfy all our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially.

Q: You operate in a relationship-based business. How do you improve loyalty among your customers?

A: It’s about living our vision and values and doing what’s right for the customer. It’s about building lifelong relationships one customer at a time. Our team members are the competitive advantage that enables us to achieve greater loyalty through that relationship building.


A: Measuring the impact of the marketing investment is critical in a data-driven company like Wells Fargo. We create scorecards with KPIs for all of our large initiatives and leverage tools like media mix modeling to help us quantify the economic value of our investment and make optimization decisions. Further, we share the results transparently with business lines and senior management.

Q: A lot of financial services firms have tiptoed into social. Do you see social as a viable channel for your business and if so, in what capacity?

A: Absolutely. Our customers live digital, mobile and social lives. We are continuously investing in social infrastructure to enable us to serve our customers and connect with them where they are.


A: My first priority has been to enable Wells Fargo to design and execute fully integrated marketing campaigns that engage the customer and drive measurable business success outcomes. We’re very proud of that work. We have made a lot of progress and have more opportunities going forward.


A: I joined Wells Fargo just over a year ago. While preparing for the assignment, I received a lot of guidance to expect both change and projects to take a long time to matriculate in a matrixed, regulated company. The magnitude, quality and impact of the work that the team has produced during my rookie season have been very impressive and much faster than anticipated.


A: We view all of our communications as content – even our paid advertising. And, more than ever, there needs to be a value exchange with the customer. Marketers can no longer “message” at the customer at scaled weight levels. The customer expects much more and looks to us to deliver relevant content on their terms.

Q: Big data as a big part of the CMO conversation these days. How are you tackling big data?

A: It’s top secret, so I could tell you, but… All kidding aside, what’s fundamentally important for us is to protect our customer’s data and operate in a spirit of transparency. And we need to do this in a tightly regulated industry with substantial uncertainty on where the privacy dialog will lead us. At the end of the day, we want to use data to improve our customer experience and deliver more relevance—that’s our focus.

Q: Do you agree with that notion that “marketing is everything and everything is marketing” and if so, how have you extended the boundaries of your job beyond the normal purview of the CMO?

A: Yes, the key marketing leaders in the organization are deeply involved in helping to shape our future customer experience initiatives. Because we are often so close to the customer and have unique insights to share, marketers can add a lot of value. In my opinion, it’s not the sole domain of lines of business or product teams.


Q & A on Digital Communications with Antonio LucioOriginally appeared on TheDrewBlog.com

A marketer’s work is never done. This is especially true at Visa, a company that’s not new, by any means, but has a full agenda ahead of it, especially when it comes to engaging with its customers. I recently spoke to the company’s Global Chief Brand Officer, Antonio Lucio, who walked me through Visa’s innovative marketing strategies, how it measures ROI and the future of its social communications.


A: Given the increasingly complex media landscape, deepening Visa’s focus and commitment to digital and social communications is a constant priority for my leadership team and me. The imperative has never been greater for us to better communicate the strengths, values and mission of Visa to our full range of stakeholders in an integrated way. This meant that some structural changes needed to be made to set us up for success. We have made significant progress on this front, but it is a constantly evolving ecosystem so our work is never done.


A: It’s not really a surprise, but what I’ve learned is that showing vs. telling is the way to go. Whether it’s addressing a question from our management by showing results and data, or teaching the organization how to do social by putting a team in place to show them what a best-in-class social effort looks like (i.e., our recent #goinsix social media campaign). Showing has a much bigger impact than just teaching alone.

Q: How do you stay close to your customers when you operate in so many markets and have so many different types of customers?

A: Social media is a great equalizer in so many ways. It enables global brands like Visa – and myself personally – to stay close to customers in markets around the world, understand what is important to them, what they are talking about and what they care about, all while providing the ability to engage them directly.

Antonio LucioGlobal Chief Brand Officer,

Visa CMO Officers Award

winner

“We want to ensure we are delivering unique and relevant experiences across all these screens by using the unique capabilities of the technology or platform the consumer is engaged with and delivering them a message that will interest them!”



A: At Visa the ultimate measure of success for our marketing is ROI – our ability to drive the business. We break that down to three components: 1) reach (how many people can recall our campaigns), 2) short-term impact (the short-term usage lift of consumers), and 3) long-term impact (lift in our brand equity and our ability to influence consumer behavior longer-term).


A: While the media ecosystem is definitely becoming more complex, our approach of putting the consumers at the center has not changed. We strive to understand how our consumers are using different devices, where they are spending their time and what they want to hear from us. And then we adjust our media mix and messaging accordingly. We want to ensure we are delivering unique and relevant experiences across all these screens by using the unique capabilities of the technology or platform the consumer is engaged with and delivering them a message that will interest them. Through technology we are better able to measure engagement with our brand and understand the impact of the experiences we are delivering to our customers.

Q: How does new product development work at Visa? Does it report in to you? If not, how do you make sure you have the right “news” to market?

A: While product development is led by our global product teams, our marketing and communications teams have strong partnerships with these teams – often sitting on their leadership teams. A collaborative work environment is essential to product development that registers as being innovative and relevant among clients and customers. As a team, we bring our respective areas of expertise across product, marketing and communications to ensure that we are bringing new products to market that will truly resonate with consumers.

Q: Your “Go World” cheer campaign during the 2012 Olympics was one of the most successful examples of traditional and online marketing integration to date. What strategy did you use to integrate the various channels and what were some of the biggest lessons learned from that campaign?

A: We used our “Audience First” approach to develop a global campaign framework that directly engaged consum-ers through a global social platform that allowed fans to con-nect with the Go World marketing campaign by “cheering” on athletes.

London 2012 was heralded as the most social games ever and our Olympic Games marketing campaign was the most

successful in our history – a true “game changer” in the way we drove engagement. We’re still applying the lessons learned from London, such as the benefits derived from engaging in social with concise, snackable content which inspired our #goinsix campaign.


A: Our key performance metrics evolve to address changing dynamics in the industry. For example, we recently added metrics to address social marketing, which enable brands to build direct relationships with consumers. We added social KPI goals that are part of a select few KPIs known to drive the business. We closely track our progress, and have timely and transparent accountability across leadership towards delivering against these business driving KPIs.

Q: Visa has made a big push to integrate social media into their overall marketing efforts over the past few years. Can you comment on your current strategy and where you plan on taking the program in the future?

A: Visa believes we are in a social era that extends beyond any platform or community; social is a mindset that empowers consumers and connects communities. We are incorporating social in the very heart of our marketing, not merely during the execution phase. We strive to develop social-at-the-core campaigns by designing for share-ability and planning for conversations. We invite consumers to drive the conversation while structuring our ecosystem to make sharing frictionless.

Q: Do you agree with that notion that “marketing is everything and everything is marketing” and if so how have you extended the boundaries of your job beyond the normal purview of the CMO?

A: Everything is marketing when it comes to the customer experience because whether you are designing a product or a marketing campaign it is about designing it to be a more consumer centric, intelligent and seamless experience.

“Visa believes we are in a social era that extends beyond any platform or community; social is a mindset that empowers consumers and connects communities. We are incorporating social in the very heart of our marketing, not merely during the execution phase!”


“We strive to create extended product experiences through digital channels!”

Q & A on Digital & Social Optimization with Raj RaoOriginally appeared on TheDrewBlog.com

Look around your home, and you’ll find that you own at least one product made by 3M. Chances are you own many. And the brand isn’t only an American staple, it’s made its way into marketplaces across the globe. From Post-It Notes and reflective traffic signs to your dentist’s favorite cleaning tools, 3M prides itself on providing useful products to customers around the world.

Part of what keeps 3M so successful is its ability to innovate and adapt to consumers’ changing needs in the digital space. Heading up this effort is Raj Rao, who chatted with me during the CMO Club Awards, where he took home a much-deserved Programmatic Marketing Award. And with a title like VP for Global eTransformation, it’s no wonder—Rao lives and breathes marketing innovation on a day-to-day basis. Enjoy, as he gives us a glimpse into the eCommerce operations behind 3M.

Q: I love that your title suggests forward movement and

innovation. What are your responsibilities?

A: As a marketer, my responsibility is to drive digital excellence through the adoption of world-class cloud and on-premise services that enable our marketers to get to real-time engagement and strengthen the competitiveness of 3M brands in industrial, professional, government and retail channels. A second key responsibility is to foster new skills and capabilities at all levels of our marketing and sales teams so that they can embrace new tools and insights that accelerate our commercialization programs.

Q: A CMO has a lot of choices in terms of where he/she invests their time. What have been your top priorities in the

last 12 months?

A: The top 4 priorities for my team have been a) content excellence programs that improve our social and online brand engagement programs, b) ROI and marketing analytics that focus our investments on the right portfolio of programs, c) eCommerce webstore functionality and SEO/organic search optimization to lead to higher sales conversion, and d) migration and upgrade of 3M marketing platforms to responsive design capabilities, leading to optimized desktop, tablet and mobile experiences.


A: The big wins have been the real-time personalization using heuristics and our self-solve tool box. We have seen a significant increase in eCommerce conversion and lower costs of sales lead management as a result of these programs. I was also surprised at the rapid rise of marketplaces in China (like TMall), which eclipses all other 3M eCommerce channels in the APAC region. What has not delivered for 3M is apps. We have not been successful at driving branded engagement in the markets where we have invested. I am not sure that there is a real opportunity for branded apps.

Q: Many people don’t realize that a huge part of the 3M business model is dedicated to developing new technologies. What roles do technology and innovation play in your marketing strategies?

A: We strive to create extended product experiences through digital channels. This has been evident in the cloud library service that we have successfully launched, in the custom car wrap business and in our health care brands. The digital channels play a key part in providing a differentiated user experience in all these businesses. Recently we unveiled an innovative partnership between our Post It brand and Evernote. We have an exciting pipeline of innovative solutions that exemplify the inherent technology strengths in diverse 3M markets and channels. Our marketing strategies are to promote user engagement and strengthen our insights so that we can drive focused commercialization programs.

Raj RaoVP Global eTransformation,

3M CMO Marketing Innovation

Award winner



A: Yes, we do believe that content marketing holds the key to success with our top two digital priorities. Through our work in the healthcare (dental) industry, where we’ve invested in several content marketing programs, we have seen strong progress with eCommerce sales and actionable insights based on customer engagement. In the social media programs, content marketing is driving much stronger brand engagement, fueling the growth of advocates and influential followers on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. In China, our content programs in TMall and Weibo are leading to remarkable improvements in both B2B and B2C sales.


A: We measure 3 ways: the adoption of world-class tools and processes by brand teams and product marketers, the impact of the programs by audience and stage of engagement, and the competitive benchmark performance. It is clear to us that our brand URLs are particularly effective for conversion tactics, while YouTube and social channels are well-suited to drive contextual engagement. The call center and webchat are very useful for issue resolution and responding to user issues. I am very impressed by the role that Amazon is playing in delivering high quality eCommerce programs for our consumer portfolio, and increasingly with our long tail B2B markets where we can increase market coverage and deliver new product applications.

Q: 3M is the parent company of nearly a dozen different brands and operates within nearly every market segment. How do you stay close to your customers when you operate in so many markets and have so many different types of customers?

A: 3M has over 25 strategic global brands in consumer, industrial, professional and electronic markets. We also have a large portfolio of local brands that are organized by regional or local market. The key to success is the sustained investment in technology platforms that enable these brands to deliver compelling customer experiences. The $1.5 billion R&D budget provides a continuous supply of new formulations, advanced packaging formats, improved sustainability and differentiated benefits that are continuous and aligned to mega trends. We like to keep the customer insights separate yet connected with the technology roadmaps. This enables us to deliver a concurrent stream of “new to market Class V” innovations like the 3M Cloud Library, with “adjacent innovation Class III” products like Scotch Brite brand dish wands. In fact, the diversity of brands, customer touch points and technology platforms is a tremendous source of strength for 3M. It drives our competitiveness and provides an endless stream of innovation outcomes.

Q: Innovation is a sexy word but not as sexy to a CEO as ROI. Have you been able to link your innovative marketing activities

to the kinds of business metrics favored by CEOs?

A: Our marketing activities enable the commercialization of 3M Innovation. Our CEO has challenged the teams to achieve a 40% NPVI metric by 2016. This means that new products and services need to account for 40% of 3M’s revenue in 2016. We are not far from that metric, but it is challenging to meet that goal while continuing to delivering 8-10% EPS growth each year. Sometimes this causes a paradox of choice. Should I optimize the current portfolio to drive margins, or should I create new products and invest in telling a new story to my customers? I think it’s a fine balance. Marketing activities like social media programs and YouTube video enable us to remain connected with influencers, while eCommerce initiatives allow us to test price points and packaging configurations ahead of finely-tuned broad market execution. Our CEO also wants our brands to exemplify the innovation positions in their markets in a manner that supports higher prices and premium margins. This can only be achieved when marketing activities are closely aligned to these objectives and allow us control over the conversations we need to have with the customers, versus relinquishing that to the channels.

Q: How are you integrating social media into marketing efforts at 3M? Have social platforms proved to be a valuable channel for your brands?

A: Yes, social media has been a significant driver of value to our brands and corporate reputation. Recently, Interbrand called out our social media efforts as a key contributor to our position on the Global 100 Power Brands list. It provides the means for engagement with investors, employees, customers and media. Each of them is a voice for our brand and our global programs. Social media has also become a source for inspired ideas that translate to new products. For example, in China we developed a new line of pedestrian safety solutions, based in large part on social media listening programs that identified unmet needs and a groundswell of interest in new solutions. We also have used social media as a means to drive new product reviews that enable us to have stronger engagement with trade channels. By knowing how customers use our products in daily situations, we are better positioned to place the products in the right store aisle, optimize search results on digital eCommerce platform and train the instore sales personnel on what to recommend. In Latin America, some of the brands are using social media channels like Facebook to launch new products. This is a really interesting proposition for 3M since it allows us to rapidly assess buyer sentiment.


“Anywhere and everywhere someone comes in contact with

the brand should reinforce the brand purpose, the identity

and should help get someone closer to demonstrating

their allegiance!”

Q & A on Relaunching Brands with Kyle Schlegel Originally appeared on TheDrewBlog.com

Relaunching an old and established brand is tricky business. There’s always the risk that you will alienate your long-time customers as you try to appeal to appeal to a new generation of potential buyers. Knowing this, the marketing team at Hillerich & Bradsby Co. (the parent of Louisville Slugger) decided that rather than steer away from the brand’s illustrious past, they would embrace it while finding fresh ways to engage a new generation of consumers. Coming from Procter & Gamble, H&B’s new CMO Kyle Schlegel had to figure out how to put this plan into effect despite working with a modest budget (by P&G standards) and an entirely different corporate structure.

In the interview below, you will learn how Schlegel and the H&B team revitalized the Louisville Slugger brand by taking a “grass roots” approach, listening to their customers and engaging consistently in social media. You will also quickly understand why Schlegel was voted a Rising Star at last year’s CMO Awards.

Q: You face a similar challenge with the Louisville Slugger brand that you faced with Old Spice: younger, “hipper” brands are infringing on your market share. What do you think Old Spice did in terms of marketing that made its resurgence so successful and how do you plan to apply those same lessons to Louisville Slugger?

A: On Old Spice, the team realized three critical dynamics to the future success of the brand. The future of the brand had to be rooted in its past in some way, it wasn’t going to happen overnight. We also had to be comfortable with a generation of consumers that may have been lost and focus instead on the entry point consumer that would be the lifeblood of the brand for decades to come. In restaging the brand around 2000, we explored the full history of the brand and worked closely with consumers on which, if any, of those elements were relevant moving forward. We next laid out a multi-year plan that would help get us get ever closer to the goal of the #1 brand in the market and, more specifically, the #1 brand with young men.

Finally, we identified a couple of programs that helped expose and sample the brand to the next generation of consumers, including a sampling program in middle schools, where more than 90% of 5th and 6th grade boys received a sample. These choices set in motion the changes over the next decade and the global success that followed.

On Louisville Slugger, we are taking a very similar approach. Our team explored the history of the brand and the sport to understand exactly which elements of the foundation would stay

in place and where evolution – or even revolution – was necessary. Next, we looked at a plan over

a 3-5 year window where relevance could be regained, consumer by consumer.

Finally, the team had to make changes to the brand and focus in ways

that wouldn’t allow us to attempt to regain the “lost generation”, a necessary but difficult choice to instead focus on the next generation of players.

Q: You just updated the Louisville Slugger logo for the first time since 1979. How do you balance modernization with

respecting the traditions and history of the brand?

A: We did not take the change and steps to get there lightly. Throughout

the journey, we engaged with every key stakeholder, from pros to amateurs, from retailers to employees and from ages 8 to

80. Each of these people are “players” when we think about our brand purpose…”we exist to make players great”. We quickly learned which elements of the brand were sacred (i.e. the oval within the logo) and which elements could cease to be used (i.e. TPX & TPS sub-brands) in service to the ultimate goal of rebuilding relevance with today’s players.


A: I joined a company and team that had not placed a significant focus and investment on marketing in past years. My first 18

Kyle SchlegelCMO, Louisville Slugger

CMO Leadership Award winner


months in the role have really focused on building marketing fundamentals, clarifying strategies and helping to narrow these strategies on the most impactful activities. The brand restage was job #1 and took energy from everyone in the organization, leading into market in April 2013. Last fall, the full impact of capability building and the restage took center stage as the brand launched the first fully integrated marketing plan across retailers, grassroots, media and PR, supporting the 2014 product line launch.


A: Going from Procter & Gamble to Hillerich & Bradsby, Co. has come with a learning curve for sure. Overnight, the structure, funding, scale and capability of P&G went away. In its place, a new set of circumstances took its place. While the reduced scale and funding are certainly challenges, the autonomy, flexibility and focus are refreshing. This biggest positive surprise was in the restage. We were able to pull off the biggest change in the history of a 129 year old brand, supported fully by a new campaign, and do so in less than 12 months; an incredible achievement by the full organization. On the flip side, we have made a choice or two that I anticipated would work better. One example was email marketing with top young players. Through our grassroots relationships, we thought access to databases of thousands of young players would allow great scalability in communication but we learned quickly that this generation of player was not receptive to email marketing campaigns and we had to quickly shift to more one-on-one communication.

Q: You operate in a relationship-based business. How do you improve loyalty among your customers?

A: Quite simply…show them you’re listening. We are working more and more with young athletes and reaching them in more channels. Each time, this gives us an opportunity to cede some control for where the brand is going and give them a say. When we show them we’ve heard them by baking their ideas into our brand, loyalty comes with it. This will be a bigger focus for us going forward.

Q: One of the big challenges a CMO faces is organizational given all the different marketing channels. How are you addressing these organizational challenges?

A: We’ve taken a long look at our marketing organization and how the roles are split, leading to an evolution in the team and the responsibilities. We increased our staffing by nearly 40%, better clarified tasks (especially things like social media) and worked to provide the right training and the right time to help folks succeed. Our industry has some natural segmentation and we’ve addressed that within the organization but then, on top, gotten people into new roles that allow for future focus areas, like social media, graphic design and retailer marketing.


A: The other big surprise, going from CPG to sporting goods, is the relative lack of timely, in-market data. At P&G, ROI could be broken down to every element of the marketing plan and was available within 2-3 months of execution. In my new life, shares cover only a portion of the market and often trail my more than 12 months. We’ve sought to offset some of these challenges by trying to triangulate around some of our biggest spending areas, including working closely with our field sales reps to help provide insight into what is happening at the store level and how that is being influenced by our marketing efforts. We have also shifted dollars into more digital programs (SEO, social) that allow us to better connect those activities with conversion data to aid judgment and future planning. Transparently, we’re not there yet, but we’re attempting to add new tools each quarter.

Q: How are you integrating social media into marketing efforts at Hillerich & Bradsby? Have social platforms proved to be a valuable channel for your brands?

A: Social media was not part of the marketing focus 18 months ago but has become one of our top two marketing priorities, including our #1 media investment. In that period of time, we have increased our social following by more than 30X to nearly 500,000 fans across channels. With our limited media budget, we’ve used the majority of that spending in SEO and in driving increased engagement in social media. We now have an incredible audience and, in a sport where something newsworthy happens every day, we have a treasure chest of content and the highest engagement rate of any brand in the industry.

Q: Do you agree with that notion “that marketing is everything and everything is marketing” if so how have you extended the boundaries of your job beyond the normal purview of the CMO? Asked differently, as CMO, have you been able to address the entire customer experience?

A: I completely agree with the sentiment. Anywhere and everywhere someone comes in contact with the brand should reinforce the brand purpose, the identity and should help get someone closer to demonstrating their allegiance. Beyond the marketing department, we’ve worked very closely with all other functions. The two where the most energy has been spent are with Sales and the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory. With Sales, we now have strategic marketing discussions with each retailer and have increased our priority here by creating the new position of Director of Retail Marketing. In the Museum & Factory, we have a built-in competitive advantage. With over 270,000 guests per year, this provides us with an opportunity to tell the history of the brand and provide a sense of the sport and where the brand is going next. With consumers from 8 to 80 “in house” every day, we’ve worked closely with the Museum staff to ensure the customer experience is complementary and additive to everything else we do.


Q & A on Innovation with Marty St. GeorgeOriginally appeared on TheDrewBlog.com

Marty St. GeorgeSVP Marketing & Commercial

Strategy, JetBlue CMO Leadership Award

winner

“We highlight efforts throughout marketing that push boundaries and embrace change, even ones that are not completely successful.”

Think of customer service in today’s airline industry, and “human” may not be the first phrase that comes to mind. Jet-Blue, on the other hand, has been putting faces to names for quite some time. Marty St. George, SVP of Marketing and Commercial Strategy, caught up with me during this year’s CMO Club Awards and clued me in to the strategy behind JetBlue’s marketing operations. For starters, the airline keeps it personal by shunning a corporate persona and getting the whole crew

involved—literally—by treating the planes’ staff as an extension of the marketing team. After all, the flight is the most important customer touch point of all. Not surprisingly, Marty is a very bright guy and has a lot of good advice for anyone who is smart enough to ask for it. So I asked and you’re the beneficiary assuming you read on...

Q: CEO David Barger famously posed the question ‘How do we stay small as we get big?’ to the JetBlue team. As CMO, how do you take on this challenge?

A: Every leader at JetBlue takes full ownership of that challenge. There are elements of the JetBlue experience that naturally lend themselves to helping us stay small. We don’t ask our people to do anything that we wouldn’t do. (For example, when we are flying on a trip and we arrive at the gate, we ALL clean it, not just the flight attendants....on the holidays, many of us work at the airport helping customers during the busiest days.) But specifically as CMO, I am focused on making sure that our mission and values come through in every communication we do, both internal and


external. When we start looking like a faceless conglomerate to our people, we will have lost the battle.

Q: JetBlue operates within a notoriously difficult industry. Much of your success has come from effectively connecting with your customers. What steps do you take to better understand and communicate with your customers?

A: I am very lucky, in that our founders gave us a mission and a set of values that are core to our DNA. Our mission is to inspire humanity, and part of what we try to accomplish is that personal connection between the brand and our customers. Our customers feel personal ownership of the brand, and they are very vocal about the things they love, and the things they want us to change.


A: Luckily we have a CEO who recognizes that innovation is part of the brand personality of JetBlue. We report brand metrics to our board, just like we report financial metrics and the board expects us to push the envelope.

Q: What is the biggest marketing risk you’ve taken at Jet-Blue? How did it play out?

A: There have been a lot of them, but I think the biggest risk was the “Election Protection” promo we ran in New York during Fall 2012. The simple idea: if you’re one of those folks who says, if my candidate loses I’m moving to XX? We will give away 2,012 free tickets out of the country. It was risky because election promos are inherently risky; voting is a sacred duty, and there are many examples of brands commercializing the election to their detriment. Luckily, we played it perfectly and got more buzz than we ever imagined, and zero blowback. (http://www.mullen.com/election-protection-from-jetblue-make-sure-to-vote/ )


A: Two key methods; first, on a macro level we look at brand metrics for us and our competitors. On a micro level, we measure every dollar we spend digitally and translate it into a cost-per-booking. We share our metrics with our media partners and expect them to help improve campaigns and targets to get our CPB lower.

Q: Has marketing become more complex for you and if so, how are you dealing with that complexity?

A: We deal with it by keeping up with technology, and by finding partners in that space who can help keep us current. In fact,

every year we have a “digital day”, where we invite current and potential marketing partners in to pitch our entire team. We’ve found several exciting new technologies and channels that way, just through an open “casting call”.

Q: Content marketing is hot topic at the moment. What’s your perspective on content in terms of its effectiveness? Are you increasing your investment in this area?

A: I think “content” is a concept that’s going to become obsolete very soon – rather than focusing on content as a means, we focus on engagement as the end. Content is one of many ways to create engagement,but certainly not the only way.

We have done some innovative programs (like Get Away With It – http://www.google.com/think/campaigns/jetblue-getaways-get-away-with-it.html ) but we do it with the goal of engagement.

Q: What have been your top priorities in the last 12 months?

A: My top 3 priorities are talent, talent and talent. We are always looking for brand evangelists. It’s easy to find people who can do the work, but it’s much tougher to find people who treat the brand like it’s their baby.


A: We did a promotion called “Carmageddon” – when the 405 Freeway was closed in LA, we flew for a day back and forth between Burbank and Long Beach. When the team brought the idea to me, I said “I can’t imagine this getting buzz but feel free to do it, if you can do it cheaply.” For about $10,000 in spend, we generated almost $10mm in impressions. We had captured the moment in a fun, creative way.

Q: Do you agree with the notion that marketing is everything and everything is marketing and if so, how have you extended the boundaries of your job beyond the normal purview of the CMO?

A: Absolutely agree; and luckily at JetBlue we all recognize that the experience is the ultimate manifestation of the brand, and our people learn this on day 1. How? Every month we hold an orientation for new Crewmembers at our training center, and many senior leaders attend. When I speak at Orientation, my first line is to welcome everyone to the Marketing team – since everyone who touches a customer owns a piece of the brand.

http://www.mullen.com/election-protection-from-jetblue-make-sure-to-vote/



http://www.google.com/think/campaigns/jetblue-getaways-get-away-with-it.html

http://www.google.com/think/campaigns/jetblue-getaways-get-away-with-it.html


The Author

Drew Neisser is the CEO and founder of Renegade, the NYC-based social media and marketing agency that helps inspired CMOs cut through. He is the champion of Marketing as Service, a philosophy he espouses in his writings on FastCompany.com, PSFK, TheDrewBlog and The Cut, a much-appreciated monthly newsletter. If you have a CMO success story to tell, let Drew know at [email protected].

The CMO Club

The CMO Club is a membership organization exclusively for senior marketing executives who want to meet, share, and learn from each other. Fueled by inspiring local dinners, regional events and the Digital “Members Only” Clubhouse, marketers provide and receive valuable insights from each other, in a “non vendor selling” environment. Working with the over 800 club members and best-in-class strategic partners, The CMO Club also addresses the top CMO challenges each month with thoughtfully curated content.

For membership information, email [email protected] or call 323-388-8204. CMOs can request membership at www.thecmoclub.com.

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Insights - Home - The CMO Club · 2020-04-13 · Insights From CMO Award Winners | 2 Introduction 3...

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