Builders Wanted

This episode features an interview with Erika Reed, Manager of Data Strategy at General Mills. After serving companies like Best Buy and Life Time in the marketing space, Erika ventured into analytics in 2020. She now uses data and technology to drive insights into action and helps brands deliver meaningful and engaging consumer experiences.

In this episode, Kailey sits down with Erika to discuss providing a value exchange for consumer data, grappling with unknown traffic, and focusing on behavioral data instead of demographics.

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Key Takeaways:

• More than ever, consumers are not willing to readily give up their data. However, they will for the right value exchange. Offering them points, dollars, or convenience opens the door for companies to collect rich purchase data while providing value back to consumers.
• When it comes to building strategies, focus on the insights behavioral data tells you, not just demographics. Behavioral data allows marketers to create profiles and build relationships with consumers based on their purchasing habits.
• It’s critical to ask consumers precise questions when first engaging with them. For example, Pillsbury asks consumers, “Who do you cook for?” when signing up for recipe inspiration. They can then combine this information with other data to create a customized and relevant experience.

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“We have all of this behavioral data, which is the most important type of data in my opinion. We can get to know a lot about you based on what you're buying, and we can use that to go find more of you. [...] Historically, we use demographic data as a proxy to get closer to relevancy, but now we have all of this rich purchase data that can give you signals that demographic data can't.“ – Erika Reed

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Episode Timestamps:

‍*(02:07) - Erika’s career journey

*(08:10) - Industry trends in consumer engagement in CPG

*(11:44) - Changes in consumer behavior in CPG

*(21:40) - Challenges in the consumer engagement journey

*(31:08) - How Erika defines “good data”

‍*(36:06) - An example of another company doing it right with consumer engagement (hint: it’s DSW)

*(39:30) - Changes in consumer engagement in the next 6-12 months

*(42:58) - Erika’s recommendations for upleveling consumer engagement

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Links:

Connect with Erika on LinkedIn

Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn

Learn more about Caspian Studios

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Julie Roy, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at DSW. Julie has devoted 15 years of her career at DSW in the customer analytics, CRM, and loyalty space. Now, she is responsible for leading the development, activation, and continued growth of DSW’s cross-channel campaigns.

In this episode, Kailey and Julie discuss the phy-gital customer experience, building loyalty through content and communities, and balancing brandformance.

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Key Takeaways:

• The best customer experience in retail revolves around convenience, relevance, and value. By bridging the digital and physical experience, customers can conveniently shop across channels. Relevance happens by positioning your brand to align with customer values and their personalization needs. And finally, value is created through content and communities that connect customers.
• In this current economic climate, CMOs are tasked with making every dollar work harder. This requires constant testing and optimization of tactics, channels, and content to better serve customers.
• Customer loyalty should be thought of as a business strategy, not a marketing program. Everyone across the organization is responsible for creating brand stickiness and customer retention.

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“The focus now will be on bridging and integrating the digital and physical retail experience for consumers. I like to call that the ‘phy-gital’ experience. [...] You get the full sensory experience of a brand and the physical experience. [...] Then you couple that with the endless choices of a vast assortment, as well as the expanded content and rich information that you're able to provide with the digital experience.” – Julie Roy

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Episode Timestamps:

‍*(02:51) - Julie’s background

*(06:16) - Industry trends in customer engagement in retail

*(13:37) - Changes in consumer behavior in retail

*(17:04) - Challenges in the customer engagement journey

*(19:13) - How Julie defines “good data”

*(31:52) - Changes in customer engagement in the next 6-12 months

‍*(34:14) - An example of another company doing it right with customer engagement (hint: it’s beauty brands and Apple)

*(35:57) - Julie’s recommendations for upleveling customer engagement

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Links:

Connect with Julie on LinkedIn

Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn

Learn more about Caspian Studios

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Kristin Maa, Senior Vice President of Growth at Saks. At Saks, Kristin leads growth and retention marketing and online category growth. She has held various leadership roles at Saks Fifth Avenue and HBC in marketing and business strategy.

In this episode, Kailey and Kristin discuss customer DNA, uniting online data and in-store experience, and creating VIP customers through predictive analytics.

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Key Takeaways:

• Customers expect their digital profiles to be reflected in their in-store experience. It’s critical for associates to structure in-person conversations around online data to provide a personalized omnichannel experience.
• Through the use of predictive analytics, it’s possible to identify potential high LTV customers based on their behavioral data. This practice gives customers the VIP treatment and leads to higher engagement and retention.
• Customer DNA helps pinpoint which brands, categories, and engagement channels customers prefer. This enables marketers to identify and suggest similar products and channels a shopper might be interested in, effectively moving them along their engagement journey.

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“If we are giving early access to our VIP customers, we're also taking a group of people that haven’t ‘earned’ that status already, but they're indicating that they probably will, and going ahead and giving it to them because we want to make sure that we're retaining them. It gives us a better chance to engage them and wrap our arms around them early and make sure that they fulfill their destiny as that high LTV, VIP customer that we think that they're going to be.” – Kristin Maa

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Episode Timestamps:

‍*(02:08) - Kristin’s background

*(04:23) - Industry trends in customer engagement in luxury retail

*(11:11) - How Saks is building personalized digital experiences

*(18:24) - How Kristin defines “good data”

*(22:10) - How Saks is using good data to build customer engagement

‍*(28:02) - An example of another company doing it right with customer engagement (hint: it’s Delta)

*(31:34) - Changes in customer engagement in the next 6 to 12 months

*(35:14) - Kristin’s recommendations for upleveling customer engagement

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Links:

Connect with Kristin on LinkedIn

Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn

Learn more about Caspian Studios

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Matt Smidebush, RVP of Global Customer Success Programs at Twilio Segment; and Seth Familian, Director of Global Advisory Services at Twilio Segment. Matt has served Twilio Segment for nearly five years, holding various positions in the Customer Success Program. He also specializes in Analytics, Scaled Programs, and Consumer Intent. After 10 years of running his own data strategy consultancy, Seth joined Twilio Segment as a Solutions Architect. He gravitated toward complex strategy-focused projects and founded the company’s Advisory Services practice in 2020.

In this episode, Kailey, Matt, and Seth discuss identity resolution, capturing consent, and the power of iteration.

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Key Takeaways:

• As privacy compliance becomes the new norm, capturing consent is top priority. Gaining a customer’s consent allows us to market and monetize our traffic in a law-abiding way.
• One of the key qualities of driving successful customer engagement is iteration. Understanding how data is useful and methodically improving profiles and driving advanced use cases allows for increased alignment on data sets.
• In order to build an omnichannel view of a customer, it’s important to match identifiers across touchpoints into one profile, while balancing the customer’s demand for privacy and personalization.

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“I feel like the two hardest things when it comes to customer engagement are one, being willing to pace yourself and be iterative instead of trying to boil the ocean. And two, having all the right people in the room at the start to align on what the minimum viable dataset looks like, so everyone can be satisfied. And then continue to align them as you move into more advanced use cases, more sophisticated profiles, et cetera.” – Seth Familian

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Episode Timestamps:

‍*(02:44) - Matt and Seth discuss their roles at Twilio Segment

*(08:45) - Industry trends in customer engagement in tech

*(18:10) - Challenges in the customer engagement journey

*(26:30): How Twilio Segment is using good data to build customer engagement

‍*(35:49) - An example of another company doing it right with customer engagement (hint: it’s bank and insurance call centers)

*(39:58) - Matt and Seth’s recommendations for upleveling customer engagement

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Links:

Connect with Matt on LinkedIn

Connect with Seth on LinkedIn

Read Seth’s book Customer Data Maturity

Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn

Learn more about Caspian Studios

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with David Marine, Chief Marketing Officer at Coldwell Banker. David has been with the company for over 20 years in the marketing group. He created the first PowerPoint listing presentation in brand history, led the company’s exploration into virtual worlds, and helmed the successful real estate rebrand.

In this episode, Kailey sits down with David to discuss digitizing the real estate experience, tools for sellers, and ensuring tactics are adaptable across local markets.

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Key Takeaways:

• Automating your tactics is important for marketers to reach their audiences and save time and resources. Automation will help decide which strategies are most effective and easily adaptable for different segments.
• Data is everywhere, but it’s important to figure out if and how it is actionable so you can build off of it. Actionable data also ensures your teams are unified around growing the customer experience.
• When building out your team, focus on finding people who have similar goals in mind. It’s critical that you’re all on the same path, but also having differing opinions allows you to see all sides of the customer journey.

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“We're knee-deep in data but the key is, is it going to be actionable or not? I can have all this stuff, but if I'm not willing to do something from it, then it's completely worthless. So that's really the key. And that's also a mentality shift of how your organization is set up and how your teams are built around to get people focused on, ‘We need to use this to activate growth.’” – David Marine

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Episode Timestamps:

‍*(01:59) - David’s career journey

*(06:59) - Industry trends in customer engagement in real estate

*(13:08): David explains Coldwell Banker’s Move Meter Tool

*(15:56) - Challenges in the customer engagement journey

*(25:02): How Coldwell Banker is using good data to build customer engagement

*(31:45) - How David defines “good data”

‍*(35:02) - An example of another company doing it right with customer engagement (hint: it’s DoorDash)

*(36:38): David’s favorite data-based marketing campaign

*(40:09) - Changes in the next 6-12 months in marketing

*(42:45) - David’s recommendations for upleveling customer engagement

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Links:

Connect with David on LinkedIn

Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn

Learn more about Caspian Studios

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Chris Koehler, Chief Marketing Officer at Box where he’s responsible for the global marketing strategy. Chris has over 20 years of experience leading product, sales, and marketing teams for companies like Adobe, E*TRADE, and SunTrust Bank. 

In this episode, Kailey and Chris discuss cost effective events, simplifying tools, and test and learn culture.

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Key Takeaways:

• With events starting to pick back up, it’s important to strike a balance between customers who may be experiencing digital fatigue and those not ready to attend in-person events. Marketers have to find ROI of these events quickly and engage with customers in cost effective ways.
• Tech layoffs are not slowing down, so leaders need to look at saving money and getting the most value out of their current investments. Marketers can look to product awareness and simplification of tools and processes to drive customer retention.
• Because of the economic upheaval we’re seeing, it’s important to implement a test and learn culture. Starting small to see what drives the highest impact for customers is effective in creating new strategies.

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“I think there's a massive opportunity, especially in an environment where it's going to be harder to get new customers, focus on existing customers and clearly understanding what are the specific actions, or products, or capabilities that they use that drive stickiness and retention. [...] We basically have programs across marketing, our CS, our sales organization, our product together to figure out how do we unify that.” – Chris Koehler

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Episode Timestamps:

‍*(02:41) - Chris’s career journey

*(10:02) - Industry trends in customer engagement in tech

*(17:48): How the current economic climate is changing Chris’s marketing tactics

*(22:17) - Challenges in the customer engagement journey

*(25:50) - How Chris defines “good data”

*(27:45) - How Box is using good data to build customer engagement

*(37:11): A time Chris was surprised by data

*(39:01) - Changes in the next 6-12 months in marketing

‍*(40:40) - An example of another company doing it right with customer engagement (hint: it’s Slack, Atlassian, Adobe)

*(41:38) - Chris’s recommendations for upleveling customer engagement

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Links:

Connect with Chris on LinkedIn

Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn

Learn more about Caspian Studios

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Umi Patel, Vice President of Consumer Insights and Analytics for North America PepsiCo Beverage Portfolio. Umi began her career as the Brand Manager for Labatt Brands, before joining PepsiCo in 2007. Here, she has held numerous positions including Customer Marketing Manager and Senior Director of Marketing. 

In this episode, Kailey sits down with Umi to discuss permissible enjoyment, macroeconomic trends, and storytelling through data.

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Key Takeaways:

• Pay attention to the macroeconomic conditions of the world and how they may impact your consumer. Some people may be rethinking their spending habits, so marketing to them in a way that offers them a solution during tough financial times is critical.
• When planning processes, it’s important to implement collaboration and debate among your partners in marketing, insights, and business stakeholders. This creates a collective ownership of the strategies that are then put into place to act on that data.
• Developing relationships with consumers hinges on simple storytelling. Gathering data, analyzing it, and then turning it into a conversation with your consumer is key.

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“The real definition of good data is really about making sure that we are simplifying it and being able to tell a simple story that people can act on. [...] We want to develop plans that are hinged in this data or this story that will help us have a conversation with consumers that will help us develop a relationship with consumers.” – Umi Patel

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Episode Timestamps:

‍*(01:49) - Umi’s career journey

*(05:22) - Industry trends in customer engagement in the beverage industry

*(11:09) - Challenges in the consumer engagement journey

*(13:14) - How Umi defines “good data”

*(20:21) - How PepsiCo is using good data to build consumer engagement

‍*(23:52) - An example of another company doing it right with consumer engagement (hint: it’s the entertainment industry)

*(30:43) - Umi’s favorite piece of data

*(33:12) - Changes in the next 6-12 months in marketing

*(34:54) - Umi’s recommendations for upleveling consumer engagement

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Links:

Connect with Umi on LinkedIn

Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn

Learn more about Caspian Studios

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Carolyn Pollock, Chief Marketing Officer of Tailored Brands, owner of companies like Men's Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank. Carolyn has 20 years of marketing and management experience driving growth and building brands. Previously, she served as a marketing leader for eBay and Facebook. At Tailored Brands, Carolyn oversees all consumer marketing efforts and leads the team developing marketing strategies and programs.

In this episode, Kailey and Carolyn discuss the hybridization of retail, leveraging technology to gather data, and showing up for customers in the right channels.

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Key Takeaways:

• Crafting a well-rounded customer experience requires a hybridization of online and in-store knowledge. When customers are researching your products online, you can use that data to help outfit them in-store and provide them exactly what they need.
• From a customer service standpoint, retailers have an opportunity to go above and beyond in providing an experience. For instance, if a customer spills a drink on their shirt at a wedding, a Tailored Brands store manager will hand-deliver them a new shirt. Showing up for your customer goes beyond data, it means they can depend on you throughout the entire experience.
• When trying to uplevel your customer engagement, don’t boil the ocean. It’s critical to be realistic in your expectations and figure out what’s most important and foundational to your process right now, and then act on it.

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“No one walks into our store not knowing something about what we have to offer, [...] the integration of on and offline is a really big part of it. And making sure that you've got the tools and the understanding of where those handshakes of information transfer have to happen, is a really important way to respond to that.” – Carolyn Pollock

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Episode Timestamps:

‍*(01:46) - Carolyn’s career journey

*(04:33) - Industry trends in customer engagement in retail

*(12:16) - Challenges in the customer engagement journey

*(18:26) - How Tailored Brands is leveraging technology to build a sophisticated customer journey

‍*(22:27) - An example of another company doing it right with customer engagement (hint: it’s Sephora)

*(24:57) - Carolyn’s favorite piece of data

*(29:01) - Changes in the next 6-12 months in marketing and retail

*(31:01) - Carolyn’s recommendations for upleveling customer engagement

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Links:

Connect with Carolyn on LinkedIn

Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn

Learn more about Caspian Studios

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Sonia Oblitey, Senior Director of Global Marketing at OkCupid. Sonia is a passionate marketing leader with 20 years of experience launching and positioning brands in markets around the world. 

In this episode, Kailey sits down with Sonia to discuss personalization tactics of online dating, reaching people globally, and being an advocate-focused brand.

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Key Takeaways:

• Cultural relevance is critical when crafting marketing campaigns for online dating. Campaigns in Berlin may not exactly translate to folks in Turkey, for example. Marketers must do their research to find out what singles in different areas of the world are looking for and create campaigns around those values.
• One way to help users find a successful dating match is by continuously optimizing your algorithm and managing your data. This rigorous approach leads to more trust with customers and more impactful results.
• In online dating, it’s critical that people across the globe can understand and use your product. In-app questions need to be accurately translated and culturally relevant to ensure users get the most out of their experience.

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“We're constantly optimizing the algorithm and working on new ways to manage the data. So, it could be through CRM that you have a compatibility rate with someone who's at 95%. [...] And not only do you answer questions on OkCupid but you also get to weight your questions.” – Sonia Oblitey

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Episode Timestamps:

‍*(01:58) - Sonia’s career journey

*(06:31) - Industry trends in customer engagement in online dating

*(12:40) - Challenges in the customer engagement journey

*(16:29) - How Sonia defines “good data”

‍*(24:52) - An example of another company doing it right with customer engagement (hint: it’s Uber, DoorDash, Dove, Nike)

*(29:44) - Sonia’s favorite data-based marketing campaign

*(32:18) - Changes in the next 6-12 months in customer engagement

*(35:06) - Sonia’s recommendations for upleveling marketing strategies

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Links:

Connect with Sonia on LinkedIn

Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn

Learn more about Caspian Studios

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Kendell Timmers, Senior Vice President and Head of Data and Insights at The New York Times. She spearheaded the paper’s cross-functional advertising mission and built their industry-leading first party data program that powers their digital advertising business. Kendell is a data and analytics expert who has served companies like American Express, ZS Associates, and US Airways.

In this episode, Kailey and Kendell discuss NLP, personalizing paywalls, and creating a unified view of the customer in a privacy-forward way.

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Key Takeaways:

• The unsexy side of data, like definitions and processes, allow marketers to make campaign decisions and build audiences in a consistent manner.
• Personalizing paywalls is all about striking a balance between letting your consumer sample your product and understand it’s worth, and then making a conversion or sale.
• Marketers can lean on data to serve as the foundation for emotion. Pairing your product to an emotional ad builds a strong connection with your customer and drives higher conversions for your advertiser.

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“It's about keeping data from getting siloed into different domains where everybody's creating their own definition and having it all in one place where it's discoverable and usable. So that the dashboards that everybody needs to use to make decisions all reflect consistent definitions, for instance.” – Kendell Timmers

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Episode Timestamps:

‍*(02:04) - Kendell’s career journey

*(07:51) - Industry trends in customer experience

*(10:41) - Challenges in the customer engagement journey

*(13:47) - How Kendell defines “good data”

*(16:14) - How The New York Times is using good data

*(24:35) - Changes in the next 6-12 months in customer data

‍*(28:28) - An example of another company doing it right with customer experience (hint: it’s The Disney Bundle)

*(29:27) - Kendell’s recommendations for building your data foundation

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Links:

Connect with Kendell on LinkedIn

Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn

Learn more about Caspian Studios

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.