The
Influential
10 CMOs Most
to Watch, 2022
Digital Engagement
Components of Digital Marke ng
Reforming Benchmarks
The Significance of an Effec ve Marke ng Strategy
Eric Marketing Leadership at its Finest VOL-02 | ISSUE-17 | 2022
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Editor’s Desk Maximum Creativity, Enhanced Productivity
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arketing is an inbuilt aspect of an organization wherein maximum creativity can be used to benefit productivity. It aims to reimagine the strategic functions to position the brand so that it can generate demand. Marketers do the job of responding to customer needs meaningfully without making things complex. Marketing strategies are no longer devised on an annual time frame but need to be curated as frequently as 3-6 months so that the sales aren’t affected. The industry is turning dynamic with passing time, which is why it’s a necessity rather than an option. To plan and validate all team members’ work at an organizational level, a CMO is a focal point. A Chief Marketing Officer is the heart and soul of the marketing department. To ensure the smooth working of an organization, a competent CMO is essential. A CMO has the vision from a business, workforce, and technological perspective to meet the marketing needs. A CMO is crucial to the overall betterment of a company to compete in the fast-changing marketing niche. The rapid technological advancement has made it easy for all companies to formulate marketing goals and achieve them quickly. This has opened the field where all competitors need to give their best to achieve desirable results. For leading the race, new-age CMOs are pushing their limits and making their teams competent to face difficulties and overcome obstacles. The company employees often work on the strategies given by CMOs to reach their potential personally and organizationally. Fresh plans are made to build and incorporate new tactics into the marketing dynamics. Creative CMOs guide highly analytical individuals to offer
a mix of technicality and a human touch. An optimal marketing campaign has the likes of all technical and creative aspects blended into a single framework. For this, excellent market insight is needed to gauge the wants of customers or clients and deliver the required results. A CMO is a bridge between the team process and the client expectations, so it is a critical role to fulfill. To steer the wheel of a company into the trajectory of growth, a knowledgeable and accountable CMO is a sheer necessity. This edition, “The 10 Most Influential CMOs to Watch 2022,” covers many such visionary leaders who have helped their company reach heights of success. Do check out the articles written by our in-house editorial team and CxOs written by experts in the field. Turn over for an insightful read.
Raunak Raunak Mhetre
raunak.mhetre@insightssuccess.com
Cover Story
Eric Herzog Marketing Leadership at its Finest
08
Articles 22
38
CxO 26
CONTENTS 16
18
20
30
36
42
Editor-in-Chief Hitesh Dhamani Managing Editor Anish Miller
Executive Editor Sharad Chitalkar
Assistant Editors Jenny Fernandes
Visualizer
Associate Designer
Co - Designer
David King
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Sonia Raizada
Senior Sales Manager
Business Development Manager
Kshitij S
Peter Collins
Marketing Manager
Sales Executives
John Matthew
David, Martin, Irfan
Technical Head
Business Development Executives
Jacob Smile
Steve, Joe, Saurabh
Technical Specialist Aditya
Digital Marketing Manager Marry D'Souza
SME-SMO Executive Amol Wadekar
Research Analyst Frank Adams
Database Management Stella Andrew
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Influential
10 CMOs T h e
Most
to Watch, 2022
Featured Person
Company Name
Description
April Critchfield CMO
Zurixx, LLC zurixx.com
Zurixx’s team members are thoroughly involved in constantly improving educational programs to fit their clients’ needs.
Barry Rabkin CMO
Identified Technologies identifiedtech.com
Identified Technologies' software and services take care of everything from FAA compliance and flight planning, to advanced analytics.
Cinn Tan CMO
Pan Pacific Hotels Group panpacific.com
Pan Pacific Hotels Group is a member of Singapore-listed UOL Group Limited.
Eric Herzog CMO
Infinidat Infinidat.com
Infinidat helps customers drive petabyte-scale competitive advantage while providing faster-than-all-flash performance.
George Hughes CMO
The Star Entertainment Group starentertainmentgroup.com.au
The Star Entertainment Group is an ASX listed company that owns and operates The Star Sydney, The Star Gold Coast and Treasury Brisbane.
Joelle Kaufman CMO
Dynamic Signal dynamicsignal.com/
Jennifer Deutsch CMO
Park Place Technologies parkplacetechnologies.com
Park Place Technologies optimizes data center and networking Uptime and performance worldwide via a comprehensive portfolio of IT services and products.
Peter Neve CMO
ACG World acg-world.com
ACG is the world’s only integrated pharma manufacturing solutions company.
Sharon Cook CMO
Mountain America Credit Union macu.com
Mountain America Credit Union first opened its doors in the 1930s with a commitment to guiding our members to achieve their financial dreams.
Sidra Berman CMO
Tangoe tangoe.com
Tangoe offers the best order, invoice, inventory and expense management solution on the market.
Dynamic Signal is the leading Employee Communication and Engagement Platform.
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Eric Herzog CMO
Y
The 10 Most Influential CMOs to Watch, 2022
Eric Herzog Marketing Leadership at its Finest
Infinidat is devoted to helping our enterprise customers compete more effectively in the era of digital transformation.
The 10 Most Influential CMOs to Watch, 2022
April Critchfield: Voyaging towards Marketing Zeniths
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n efficient marketeer is what an organization needs to cater to the evidently widening outreach of contemporary marketing. A well-learned practitioner of modern marketing methodologies knows, sees and performs actions that throttle the analysis and derivation of a profound marketing strategy. One such marketing specialist working in Zurixx, LLC is its CMO, April Critchfield. Holding a BS in Communication, Organization & Speech and initially an accounting background, April possesses the curiosity and ambition towards marketing. “I have 10+ years of experience in accounting, I love numbers. I love reports: Creating them, analyzing them, presenting them and everything about the numbers. With Accounting, I did it all: payroll, A/R, A/P, Recon, you name it,” states April while narrating her story of how she entered the marketing discipline. Another instance that instigated April’s passion for marketing is her history of stage performances. She asserts, “I did a lot of big band shows in college and earned vocal scholarships to help pay for tuition. Watching a big event from back-stage and also all the parts that make it a ‘well-oiled machine’, made me want to know more about the event, from start to finish.”
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An Innovative and Compassionate Organization Zurixx, LLC is based out of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Dorado, Puerto Rico. Founded in 2012 by James Carlson, the company develops financial education programs and has received several accolades and awards from Inc Magazine, Fortune, Salt Lake Tribune, and many more. By crafting messaging and developing materials, and launching sales programs, Zurixx’s team members are thoroughly involved in constantly improving educational programs to fit their clients’ needs. Zurixx is also a big contributor to community efforts and organizations. It is extensively involved in fund-raising, food banks, sports events, health awareness, etc. In 2017, Zurixx stepped in as the presenting sponsor to the Huntsman Cancer Foundation and helped raise thousands of dollars for the event. April was honored to kick off the race as the spokesperson from Zurixx for the event. The Commencement of Success April has always wanted to own a business and to get involved in a company that was just starting up. “When I had the opportunity to interview at Zurixx, I actually interviewed for the Accounting Assistant Position. My Boss, the CEO,
and I had a really good conversation about my passions which included people and numbers, so he offered me the marketing assistant’s position, right there, on the spot. My accounting experience, combined with a dormant desire for marketing created a new opportunity for me, so I jumped – all in, entire body, mind & soul – into the deep end,” states April about her moment of realization and her subsequent step towards a promising career. Defining Roles According to April, setting an example in the little things like being on time, sticking up for others, accepting blame, praising team members, encouraging ideas, and promoting employees to be self-sufficient and to see their value to the overall company should be influenced by every CMO. She also explains the insistent issues that CMOs face on a regular basis. “CMOs rely on numbers and statistics to make decisions, so when stats change, and we have to re-think the way we’re doing things, sometimes it makes ‘making the change’very hard to implement.” “Campaigns or ideas that may or may not work are a challenge, but just because something doesn’t work or doesn’t translate like we thought it
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ould, doesn’t make it a failure. Being able to see the parts of it that worked, makes every test a success,” April expresses.
Overcoming Imminent Challenges April discovered the abilities of determination and discipline, which is not possessed by many people. She has been honing these skills for a long time and now, applies them to a lot of situations in life, and in and out of her workplace. “I like to really be prepared when I go to meetings or with presentations. I love displaying the element of surprise when my CEO asks me for a report that I’ve anticipated and I can actually show it to him on the spot,” April asserts. Speaking up about situations she feels strongly about, and having her issues addressed, she emphasizes, “A lot of times, I would think that my idea has been brought up before, or it’s been suggested by someone else, but I’ve come to find out that 9 times out of 10, it hasn’t been suggested. So it has encouraged me to speak up and know that I’m heard.”
April Critchfield CMO Zurixx, LLC.
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Keep testing, keep learning, allow mistakes, learn from them, and keep coming back for more.
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Expressing about her ambitions, April says, “I see myself continuing to grow, and encouraging others to grow, not only in Zurixx, but in life. Understanding communication, networking, and relationship marketing has been a huge opportunity for me. Learning what I have at Zurixx, combined with all of my odd-jobs before I became a CMO has shaped me into who I am in this Industry.” Advising the Aspiring Generation “I would definitely say that if you think someone has “been there” or “done that” you’re wrong. The marketing world is getting so creative and just because someone might have done something before you, doesn’t mean you can’t tweak it and make it better. Be prepared for multiple outcomes and be ready to roll with the punches,” is April’s advice to the young marketing aspirants. She also elucidates, “Sometimes you just have to understand what you want to create. Do it yourself if you can, and if you can’t, allow other people to help you. Keep testing, keep learning, allow mistakes, learn from them, and keep coming back for more. Don’t be afraid to collaborate and ask for support. You never know what could come out of a new partnership.”
February 2022 | 17
The 10 Most Influential CMOs to Watch, 2022
Barry Rabkin: A Passion for Problem Solving Products
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branding of the entire portfolio and the most successful new product launch in a decade.
with everything that has come before for a nearly infinite range of world changing possibilities.
Below are highlights from the interview conducted between Barry and Insights Success:
When I first met Dick Zhang, the Founder of Identified Technologies, I knew nothing about drones, enterprise SaaS, or the commercial construction industry, but I was blown away by the innovative autonomous technology the team had developed, and they appreciated my product and marketing experience, and ravenous hunger to learn more.
What are the most daunting challenges for CMOs today? Modern marketers are blessed and cursed with a churning ocean of new marketing tactics, strategies, and tools available to us daily. With so many opportunities for distraction, it has never been more essential to focus on timeless principles, and avoid getting sucked into the churning undercurrent of short-term trends.
Can you brief us on your background? I have always loved technology, creativity, people, and the fusion of the three. I am a computer programmer, turned psychology major, turned breakdancing entrepreneur, turned product and marketing strategist. I’ve always followed my passions, and however random my path may seem, every step has helped prepare me for the challenges that followed.
What are the most critical characteristics that every CMO should possess? To be a successful marketer you need the 3 Cs. You have to be curious, collaborative, and creative. Curious, because in a fast-evolving industry, yesterday’s fact is tomorrow’s fiction. You have to accurately predict what will be true in the months and years ahead and position your products and company accordingly.
I started CypherStyles out of my college dorm room and grew it to be the world’s largest online street dance store. We reached 17 million YouTube views, nearly 2 million in sales, and offered over 1,000 different products, 60 of which I developed, before bringing the company to acquisition.
Collaborative, because anything worth doing is worth doing well and anything worth doing well is worth doing big and scaling up with a team, and also because complex problems require complex solutions. By communicating our centralized vision and goals, our shared perspectives create a better outcome than any one person could create individually.
n an interview with Insights Success, the CMO of Identified Technologies, Barry Rabkin shares the key insights powering his transformative results as the Chief Marketing Officer. Learn the innovative marketing strategies that this recognized industry leader has used to create coast-to-coast demand for his company’s offerings.
After discovering my love of product management and marketing, I took night classes to earn my MBA from the Carnegie Mellon University – Tepper School of Business. After graduating from CMU, I managed new product development for Heinz’s largest brand, Ore-Ida. There, I led my crossfunctional innovation team in creating and implementing the strategic re-
18 | February 2022
Creative, because we live in an age of modern miracles and the interplay between new technology, new competition, and new customer trends mean that amazing new breakthroughs are happening daily. If we have the creativity to ask ‘What if?’ every new invention is an opportunity to combine
Instead of analyzing rapidly changing new solutions, what can you learn about the timeless problem to be solved? Instead of writing about the fast forgotten news of the day, what ‘evergreen’ content can you create that will still be relevant in a year, or better yet, in a decade? How did you arrive at your unique approach to marketing leadership? Playing drums in bands throughout my teens was the perfect training to become a CMO. What happens if the marketer’s customer insights are off or the drummer goes off beat? They drive the whole group in the wrong direction. What happens if the marketer stops generating interest from new prospects or the drummer stops playing? Either the entire group stops, or each member goes off in their own separate direction without a single driving force keeping them together. Drummers and marketers aren’t usually in the spotlight doing solos, but if you take them out of the mix, no one else in the group can do their job. I’m amazed every day by my co-workers’ skills, and it gives me immense
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atisfaction to provide a foundation for their work and bring in new prospects for us to serve.
What advice would you give to aspiring marketers? Strategy is defined by hard choices, prioritization, and laser focus. If you are responsible for scaling a company, ask yourself what few things have the potential to rapidly 10x the business? Decide what is likely to have a transformative impact on your business, and go after it single-mindedly. This approach means that some lower impact work won’t get done. Some blog posts and social media updates won’t get written. That’s okay. There are only so many hours in the day, and the best way you can serve your stakeholders is by focusing all your resources on the top priority opportunities that can help fuel the company’s exponential growth. Where do you see yourself in coming years, and how do you see yourself catalyzing that progress? I proudly specialize in being a generalist. As Leonardo da Vinci said, “Everything connects to everything else.” I love studying fields that may at first seem unrelated. I know that every new insight that I gain can be combined with my other experiences to create something unique.
Barry Rabkin CMO
Identified Technologies
I live at the intersection of people, technology, and creativity. Whether I’m leading product management at Fortune 500 companies or marketing at VC backed startups, you will find me doing what I love to do, solving problems by bringing great people and great products together. About the CMO Barry Rabkin has over a decade of strategic and operational success ranging from Fortune 500 B2C companies to venture-backed B2B startups. He is passionate about identifying, communicating and solving problems, using new technologies such as big data analytics, cloud computing, machine learning, IoT, and robotics.
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Making the world a better place, one product at a time.
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CareerMetis, CMU Today, Going Deep, and the Pittsburgh City Paper have featured Barry’s work leading development on over 100 successful physical and digital products that have sold millions of units . About the Company Industrial leaders use Identified Technologies’ managed drone mapping solutions to improve project tracking and team productivity. Founded in 2013, based out of Pittsburgh, PA, the company’s integrated hardware, software, and services take care of everything from FAA compliance and flight planning to advanced analytics. Identified provides clear insights to make fast, accurate project management decisions at the push of a button.
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The 10 Most Influential CMOs to Watch, 2022
Joelle Kaufman: Reforming the Art of Marketing
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prolific marketing strategy defines an organization’s approach towards its adopted business. The organization’s outreach to the intended audience is profoundly reliant on the proficiency of the marketeer’s vision and determination. Maintaining adequacy and efficiency in devising such a strategy must be a Chief Marketing Officer’s forte. Joelle Gropper Kaufman is the recursive ingenuity of Dynamic Signal’s marketing strategies and processes conceived from her role as the CMO of the company. She began working in the Internet in 1996 when it was just beginning and dial up was still the dominant mode of consumer connection. Her days in Product Management at Firefly Networks, time in Brazil advising multiple US companies and working in product, business development and sales management at start-ups and large companies all combined to give her a broad experience and perspective to lead marketing. She has led marketing and sales development for Reactivity, Adify, BloomReach, Westfield and now Dynamic Signal, the leader in the Employee Communication and Engagement category. Joelle’s primary goal is to create and operate the engine of growth for her companies using the most effective sales and marketing tactics for each market and product.
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An Empowering Workplace Dynamic Signal is the leading Employee Communication and Engagement Platform trusted by over 20% of the Fortune 100 and more than 350 enterprises worldwide. The company solves the challenge of connecting with any organization’s most valuable asset, its people, though modern, streamlined and measurable communication. This platform can deliver targeted broadcasts and content to each employee on any channel or device they prefer. Dynamic Signal closes the loop with robust analytics that illuminate engagement with content and the impact it’s having. Perceiving Success In her second year of business school at Harvard, while taking an Entrepreneurial Marketing class, she was asked to write a business plan for a new business. Joelle recognized an opportunity to leverage technology to increase the volume of books sold by harnessing preferences to make personalized recommendations. This insight to revitalize a slow growth business introduced her to the world of start-ups, enterprise sales and marketing and SaaS product strategy. In 1996, she sourced, closed and implemented a license of Firefly’s
technology with Barnes&Noble for their launch to include personalized recommendations. From that point forward, Joelle focused on the transformational and disruptive power of technology on business. Reconceiving Ideologies While sharing her insights on what qualities should be possessed by an ideal CMO, Joelle states, “Every CMO needs to be focused on growth opportunities and risks that are 6-12 months away, at least, while supporting the activities to drive near term sales and delight existing customers.” “The most pressing challenge that CMOs face is continued creativity. There is no strategy or tactic that works every time or is impossible to be copied. The speed of duplication has accelerated along with Moore’s Law and CMOs must stay on the edge of experimentation while remaining budget conscious,” Joelle adds. Exemplifying Determination “I value clarity, prioritization and authentic interactions,” Joelle expresses. Her ability to identify root causes, organize and align people across the organization behind a strategy and then execute it is prominent among the people who have worked with and around her. In her
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irst leadership role in Marketing at Reactivity, she was one month into her tenure when multiple bake-off reviews were published in her category. Her appliance won rave reviews for its interface and usability, but lost dramatically on throughput. Joelle created both, a rapid response and a long term strategy to focus discussion and buying criteria on usability and integration working with sales, marketing, customers, press and analysts at Gartner and Forrester. This was carried out in order to educate the market, empathize with the application and security architects and ensure that Reactivity was seriously considered for their current XML needs – and that Reactivity’s architecture would allow them to accelerate to meet future envisioned targets. Reactivity survived and three years later was acquired by Cisco at over 20x revenues. Bequeathing the Keys of Excellence “Don’t fall in love with your technology. Fall in love with solving a big problem,” is Joelle’s advice for the aspiring marketeers.
Joelle Kaufman CMO Dynamic Signal
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Live Big. Play all-in, be extremely clear about goals and roles and then unleash people with autonomy to solve problems and get stuff done.
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She adds, “Ideally, your problem should either impact one large industry significantly or many verticals in a meaningful way. Don’t try to create a problem to fit your technology – instead, find the problems and build scalable solutions to address.” “Stay as focused on making your customers successful as you do on acquiring new ones. As a marketer, learn how to tell stories that resonate and build bridges between many audiences. Enterprise B2B technology is not bought by one person, it’s bought by a committee and you have to help each person on that committee in navigating the process,” Joelle expresses while reminiscing about her past experiences and lessons. Foreseeing a Triumphant Tomorrow Joelle envisions ascending growth at Dynamic Signal globally, over the next few years and continuing the journey of building great companies and creating a community of inspired, creative marketers who deliver.
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Digital Engagement
Components
Digital Marketing of
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igital Marketing is marketing done on digital platforms such as search engines, websites, emails and mobile apps. It is an efficiently targeted, conversion oriented and interactive marketing of products and services by optimally utilizing digital platforms to acquire customers. The scope of digital marketing is not limited to advertising. It also includes Acquiring new customers and sustaining the current customers. The reason why digital marketing is a topic of discussion is the statistics behind the same: Ÿ
81% of shoppers conduct online research before making big purchases. (Retailing Today, 2014)
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65% of smartphone users agree that when conducting a search on their smartphones, they look for the most relevant information regardless of the company providing the information. (Google, 2015)
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51% of smartphone users have discovered a new company or product when conducting a search on their smartphone. (Google, 2015)
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61% of marketers say improving SEO and growing their organic presence is their top inbound marketing priority. (HubSpot, 2017)
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Components of Digital marketing Digital Marketing is known to be an umbrella under which all the aspects of online marketing activities are covered. Following are the most common types of marketing activities under digital marketing: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Search engine optimization is a process of utilizing all the available resources in order to optimize the overall performance of a website. Through SEO, a company can improve the quality of the content on its website, increase the reachability, attain higher user engagement, etc. For example, Amazon generating content to be on top of the search engines is a type of SEO. According to statistics, 67% of the clicks come from the first five listings of a search page. This clearly states how important it is for companies to use SEO. Pay Per Click (PPC) Pay per Click is when a company bids for a certain keywords and optimizes its website accordingly to be on the top of the search results page. The companies pay the search engines every time someone clicks on the
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ebsites link. In the process, the search engines look at three aspects before putting them on the top of the list in their search results page: Ÿ
The amount of money the company is bidding
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How relevant the keyword is with the website and its products
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How optimized is the landing page of the website
Content Marketing Content Marketing is a process of creating relevant content to acquire
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new customers. The content must be valuable to the customers and consistent in quality. It is a key tool for SEO and helps the website to get noticed on social platforms. Good Content should not be promotional but educational and inspirational so that the user can see the website as a source of information. Mobile Marketing Mobile marketing refers to advertising/selling the products and services to potential or existing customers through text messages on their mobile phones. This is one of the most direct ways of marketing as
t he response time from customers via smartphone is highest. 97% of all the text messages are read within 4 minutes of being sent. The companies acquire new customers every day by offering them discounts on its products through text messages. Social Media Marketing Social media marketing refers to the process of interacting with customers
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hrough social media platforms. Companies advertise, sell, and assist customers on social media for numerous reasons: Ÿ
Creating brand awareness for free
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To get feedback directly from customers
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Get more traffic on website and improve SEO rating
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Acquire new customer and expand sales
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Marginally low marketing cost
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47% of all internet users are on Facebook
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88% of product purchases are Pinterest pinned
Email Marketing Email marketing is a form of marketing that enables companies to communicate potential/current customers through electronic mails. The process includes: Sending emails to current customers to enhance relationship with them for brand loyalty Ÿ To acquire new customers or to convince the current one to purchase Ÿ Advertising through mail Ÿ
The key benefits of email marketing include cost effectiveness, flexibility and better rate of success. The content must be relevant and useful to the user, should look authentic and strategic and well-coordinated. Marketing Automation Marketing Automation is a tool that keeps all your digital marketing activities together and synchronizes them for efficient and effective business. It also measures the performance and ROI for faster growth. Automation gives direction to the company by providing it data that shows the area of improvement and ways to improve it.
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In other words it enables the company to know what it is doing and whether is it feasible or not. Digital marketing has become a milestone in this ever changing digital world and has replaced traditional ways of marketing to some extent by offering a variety of marketing tools that are very cost efficient compared to the old marketing techniques. It enables better interactions with customers, resilient marketing and better customer relation, rapid growth in sales and overall effective development of business. Needless to say, Digital Marketing may just be named as Marketing.
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Dhiraj Jain
Co-founder & CEO
dotkonnekt
About the Author Dhiraj Jain is the Co-founder & CEO at dotkonnekt. He is a seasoned Retail & Consumer industry leader with 20+ years of experience in building and scaling businesses at the intersection of strategy, product, and technology. His innate capability to lead and always challenge the status quo in the Retail & Consumer space led him to co-found dotkonnekt, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with a mission to turbo-charge growth for innovative brands in this Decade of D2C. Having led global Retail product management & business solutions teams at Infosys, Wipro, TCS, and Tech Mahindra, Dhiraj is passionate about the infinite possibilities at the intersection of business and technology, and the potent mix of the art of storytelling & the science of technology to fuel exponential business growth. With pay-it-forward philosophy at heart, Dhiraj mentors tech startups at NASSCOM Deeptech Club.
D2C Brands Can Now Build an Experience-Driven Commerce their Customers Desire
26 | February 2022
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Expert’s Insights
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he online economy is booming as consumer behavior continues to shift towards eCommerce at a rapid pace. Consumers are empowered, connected, and are increasingly more willing to experiment with brands and products since they are faced with even more choices than ever before. This means that brands need to own their destinies more than ever before to adapt to rapidly evolving consumer expectations. As a result of these social and cultural shifts, the direct-to-consumer (D2C) channel has become the crucial source of revenue, not only for the challenger and emerging brands but for many legacy brands too. The last two years saw years of digital transformation happening in months, accelerating digital innovation in a way that puts brands back in the driver seat. A strong digital commerce strategy is not just a critical component of a business's success anymore but a medium for the survival of the fittest. And within the broader digital commerce strategy, the owned commerce experience has become ever more important as more brands look at scaling their D2C channels. Modern consumers look for superior brand experiences that they can’t always find through reseller channels or marketplaces like Amazon. Research says that 82% of consumers expect to be able to transact with a brand on its website however, 72% are not fully satisfied with the current online shopping experience offered by their favorite brands. In other words, if consumers come to a brand’s site looking for information, it's not enough to provide basic information to them or hide the brand story in obscure places they can never find (general practice is in fact to keep the blogs, resources somewhere in the footer, right?). The separation between content, community, and commerce assumes the customer has a single objective (research, engage or buy) when they come to the site. But more likely, the customer wants to cross these boundaries and research both brand and community-generated content, and hopefully also make a purchase during their visit to a brand’s website. While heralding the importance of informative content and creating engaged communities may be old news, the key difference here is integration, one where the customer doesn’t need to switch apps or browser tabs to further the research or purchase.
data to attract and grow that consumer base. This is where the brand engages with and rewards their super-fans and loyalists, a sandbox to incubate enriched user communities, a testing ground for new product launches. It’s a home for channel-only exclusives and a place for compelling branded content to connect with consumers in the intervals between shopping. To achieve this, brands need the right technology to combine data and content into one cohesive experience to truly leverage the benefits of and deliver experiencedriven commerce. While for many brands speed to market, functionality, ease of use, and TCO (total cost of ownership) are often determining factors, a highly viable commerce solution for brands looking to take their D2C channels forward doesn’t exist today. As more digitally native businesses launched with standalone online stores, they’ve looked toward platforms like Shopify — and Magento and WooCommerce, and Salesforce — as their tech backbone. While launching on these platforms is fairly easy — brands could pick a template, click a few boxes, and essentially have a readymade online store— sustainable scaling and diversifying revenue is equally rigid and locked-down. At the heart of the issue is these platforms’ origin; they weren’t designed or built for D2C brands to start with. While Shopify and WooCommerce were designed and built for SMB businesses, mom-and-pop stores to rapidly go online with templatized sites; Salesforce Commerce, and other Hybrids were built for large enterprises and retailers who needed category-based discovery of hundreds of thousands of products. None of these platforms is suitable for any brand that aspires to deliver a very personalized experience to the consumers, forcing brands to depend on performance marketing and scaling their way inorganically.
Existing commerce platforms are incapable of delivering the desired commerce experience that winner brands need to script
An easy, templated and App Store-driven solution can just be an easy point of entry but as a brand scales, a commerce platform becomes very central to the growth strategy. D2C brands need to differentiate by scripting an experience that converges customer-centricity, community development, and a content-focussed approach with the ability to gain insights, respond quickly, and create similar delight at every digital touchpoint. One can’t tell such an experiential brand story in the templatized flows of Shopifys of the world or the legacy, monolithic, complex, and expensive platforms built for retailers. Moreover, performance marketing, social media marketing, influencer marketing can’t offer the kinds of scale brands need to sustain growth.
In today’s digital economy, the D2C channel is the gateway to truly connecting with a brand’s consumers, and using that
It's time to un-platform the tech with a purpose-built solution for D2C brands
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February 2022 | 27
The fact is that most developers are not designers, and most designers aren’t developers. Currently, brands have their blogs and communities being run by design teams while developers handle the site operations, disjointing the consumer experience right there. Brands should not be worrying about the integrations or complex tech problems or disrupting the backend system just to create innovative and differentiated customer experiences. What brands need is a purpose-built commerce solution to act as their tech backbone in their growth.
combined with better long-term affordability, will be a success moat for brands to win in this high-stakes market. To all the brands, Attract and engage consumers, grow your D2C channel sustainably and organically, and have complete control over the experience of your commerce site for both your consumer and your admin users, with dotkonnekt’s Experiential Commerce Platform, purpose-built for you!
dotkonnekt is building an Experiential Commerce platform purpose-built for D2C brands to converge content and community to organically grow their commerce. Unlike traditional monolithic architecture, dotkonnekt’s Experiential Commerce platform is headless and composable to brands’ scale needs and unique story. The flexibility of a DIY platform, power of custom-build,
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The 10 Most Influential CMOs to Watch, 2022
Peter Neve: Breaking the Marketer Mold O
pportunities are as much a part of life as challenges; knowing how to recognize the first and hurdle the other lay the groundwork for
success.
Peter Neve, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at ACG attributes his success and career growth over the past three decades to mastering this approach. ACG is the world’s only supplier of end-to-end manufacturing solutions for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical manufacturers of tablet and capsule based products. Its range of solutions cover everything from Empty Hard Capsules, packaging film, and foil to tablet and capsule production machines, inspection systems, and Track & Trace systems. A combination of personal conviction, curiosity, and innovation has enabled Peter to consistently deliver stellar marketing results across vastly different industries.
Industries, a U.K. enterprise he had founded and was managing. As is almost invariably the case with startups, Peter had no choice but to wear several hats, including that of marketer. Image Industries had to contend with selling a new technology as an unknown entity with no customer base and a fledgling business team. Effective marketing was crucial to jumpstart revenue generation and the task fell to Peter. He decided to employ high-impact, cost-effective marketing. It worked. Image Industries achieved enough success to catch the eye of U.S.-based MV company, Cognex Corporation. They acquired the startup and, despite Peter’s lack of formal marketing training, gave him a marketing position overseeing Europe based on his track record of execution.
Self-Taught Expertise
With his knack for success in the arena, he quickly rose through the ranks and was appointed Global VP of Marketing.
Peter found himself in the startup game long before it became a buzzword in the business world. It was the 1980s and he was also straddling another nascent sector – Machine Vision (MV) and Industrial ID – with Image
When asked what he believes are the key characteristics a CMO ought to possess, Peter says that the same skill is critical to any role in the marketing field – an ability to truly put yourself in the customer’s position.
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” I keep an outside-in view of the business and measure the ROI of every activity.
” “
By honestly answering the strategic questions of “Is it clear?”, “Is it understandable?”, “Does it generate interest?”, “Does it make me respond?”, and “Do I want to buy?”, any marketer can get incredible insight into what might work and what will not long before a plan is implemented.”
Peter Neve CMO
ACG Group
implement your vision, it is impossible to deliver on any marketing goals.” He works hard to prevent tunnel vision from setting in. “I keep an outside-in view of the business and measure the ROI of every activity,” he reveals.
single ACG identity that would be promoted globally. Reputed brand consulting firm, Landor Associates was chosen to help with the process. They came up with the strap line ‘Absolutely Committed’, which Peter doubts that his internal team would have been able to create on their own.
Open-Minded Collaboration He values gut feelings highly, too, explaining, “If you ignore them, they will inevitably come back to haunt you.” Peter also touches on the challenges he has faced despite embodying his effective marketing philosophy. “Building the right team is absolutely essential,” he stresses, “and this was my first priority when I joined ACG. Without the right people to complement your strategy and
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Peter’s decentralized approach is not limited to just marketing products; he also uses it to broaden horizons and bring new thinking to his team. It is the prime reason that he is so enthusiastic about involving external vendors whenever he can. This approach was on full display in the recent rebranding of ACG that Peter and his team implemented. The aim was to coalesce multiple business and regional brands into a
He believes that it aligns perfectly with ACG’s reputation for customer service and ethics, and with the company’s three beliefs ‘Collaborative’, ‘Consistent’ and ‘Unrelenting’. Under Peter, ACG’s commitment to collaboration extends beyond the marketing narrative. He oversaw the recent launch of a mobile app for
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many times as possible. Peter acknowledges that the feedback can sometimes be hard to take, but reiterates that every comment helps refine the final execution.
Using daily posts, videos, and assorted content, the initiative has been highly successful in keeping the entire organization abreast of the updated branding and new identity. It incorporates the new strap line and beliefs into many of the company’s internal events and processes.
Fomenting Progress
nternal communications, which was designed to foster better and more meaningful interaction between the company’s staff.
Peter emphasizes that it was critical to complete this internal communication activity before they started their external campaigns that incorporate the new branding. It helps to ensure that everyone in the company reinforces the brand’s values during every interaction with every customer.
Speaking of his plans to keep ACG relevant, engaged, and effective, Peter says that he intends to exploit the B2C marketing techniques that have worked so well for him in the past to B2B marketing programs today. Before joining ACG he kept his marketing mind whetted on constant interaction with new technology start-ups in the U.K. It complements perfectly what he learned in the U.S. about growing fast and reacting to change quickly. This diverse range of experiences has helped him develop more formalized processes and work faster to deliver solutions.
Sharing the Secrets Peter is a good leader and an even better mentor, having dedicated a lot of his career not just to marketing but also to creating cohesive marketing teams who value their differences as they execute a common vision. He is eager to share what he has learnt, while continuing on his own journey of personal growth. Peter is proof of the fact that a marketing MBA does not make you a naturally effective marketer. “Practical experience, experimentation - without fear of failure and working within a complex organization structure are even more important than a theoretical background,” he explains. “Making marketing effective is hard work but a lot of fun at the same time. You have to quickly acknowledge that things are not working, however great you thought the idea was,” he adds. “Learn to ramp up successful programs quickly and keep ahead of the curve in terms of the marketing mix being used.” “I love it when I see competitors playing catch up with new activities and programs we have introduced,” he smiles.
“Together, this varied practical knowledge, and interactions with people from a spectrum of industries in some of the most progressive international markets gives me great confidence about doing the right thing at ACG,” adds Peter. “I really enjoy working here. The fact that ACG was growing and successful - despite many underexploited opportunities that existed for us - intrigued me,” he says. “Helping address these opportunities and making ACG even more successful is what really drives me every day.” Over the first 18 months at ACG, he has created many of the key infrastructure building blocks needed to make their marketing even more effective. Now, he is looking forward to having more fun exploiting the promotional and revenue generation opportunities this will support. Peter relishes the unmitigated support his team and he have enjoyed from the whole organization for the strategies they have implemented. “It is very satisfying to see the team moving so quickly to achieve our targets for making ACG a recognized leader in our field.”
Another key piece of Peter’s advice is to share every idea and concept with as many people as possible, as
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The 10 Most Influential CMOs to Watch, 2022
Sharon Cook: An All-Rounder in Modern Marketing
W
ith the advent of social media, the marketing industry has taken a whole different shape altogether. Marketing personnel have an additional benefit of showcasing their products and services on different platforms to create awareness among people. One leader in the marketing industry who completely comprehends the importance of it and takes it to the next level is Sharon Cook, the Chief Marketing and Public Relations Officer for Mountain America Credit Union. After acquiring a degree from Westminster College, and receiving a certificate in Leadership and Negotiation from Harvard Law School, she held a number of positions as Director of Brand Strategy and Director of Marketing in the finance industry before becoming the Chief Marketing and Public Relations Officer for Mountain America Credit Union in 2009. Apart from this, she Co-Chairs the annual fundraising event sponsored by Mountain America which raises money for Primary Children’s Hospital. Infusing Creativity and Innovation Sharon blends a successful mix of digital, social, and traditional marketing tactics with innovative ideas and multiple technologies. She advocates technology, data, AI, and strategic communications. Sharon has
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a fascination for new technologies and has implemented a full-stack at Mountain America while building new cornerstones and digital platforms. Sharon leads numerous departments including Public Relations, Social Media, Creative Services, Content, Analytics, Web & Online, Channel Management, Sponsorships, and Financial Literacy. Adding to this, she also contributes to the strategic planning of the overall credit union as a dedicated member of the senior executive management team. She advises the executive team as well as the Board of Directors on how her multiple teams and the associated technologies support and drive growth in every facet of the organization. The results of which are evident in the unprecedented growth of the organization as it is recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in the financial industry for the last 8 years. Supporting the Communities they Serve Mountain America Credit Union was founded in 1936 in the midst of Great Depression with a commitment to guide their members to achieve their financial dreams. Mountain America Credit Union provides consumers and businesses with a variety of convenient, flexible products and services, as well as sound, timely advice. This includes checking,
savings, mortgages, home equity lines of credit, business accounts, commercial loans, personal loans, auto loans, visa cards, Express Debit cards, student loans, small business loans, and wealth management. Members also enjoy access to secure, cutting-edge mobile banking technology, over 90 branches in five states, thousands of shared-branching locations nationwide and more than 50,000 surcharge-free ATMs. Today, Mountain America’s essence —‘guidance’— remains the focal point of the company’s identity. It’s a purpose-driven identity to ensure that everything else Mountain America Credit Union does, moves its members safely along their journey. With more than 760,000 members and $7.5 billion in assets, Mountain America Credit Union assists its members on the right path to aid in identifying and achieving their financial dreams. Voyage of a Market Leader Sharon’s love for writing landed her an early career, working in strategic communications where she learned to deliver messages that built a brand and delivered exponential growth across several industries. The ability to understand audiences led her into marketing and her ability to tell compelling stories, led to big brand development. She realized what
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t
echnology and data could do when combined with strategic marketing knowledge and connected all the dots.
In order to imprint this vision on the organization, Sharon methodically introduced changes and technologies that produced results, one step at a time. She achieved this by implementing sophisticated layers of processes into projects while simultaneously growing the expertise on the team, creating a unique combination of talent and technology over time. Sharon’s commitment to help those in need has led her to work with numerous non-profit organizations in both fundraising and serving in numerous board positions within the community. A Potential to Achieve Milestones
Sharon Cook
”
Chief Marketing & Public Relations Officer
Mountain America Credit Union
Great leaders ask hard questions. Hard questions drive great results.
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”
Sharon always had a fascination for innovation. She is a recognized industry leader and early adopter in the marketing technology, analytics, and social media space. As an early communications professional, she quickly saw the potential of social media. Sharon was a pioneer in the credit union world in understanding the importance this channel has for developing member engagement and loyalty. Mountain America Credit Union’s social media campaigns have achieved national recognition from several sources, including thefinancialbrand.com as an example of outstanding Facebook campaigns. Sharon has also been able to monetize this channel through new accounts and loan growth. Her ability to implement a communication strategy, member targeting and compelling offers has delivered world-class results in short time frames. Because of Sharon’s contribution, Mountain America Credit Union currently ranks number 3 globally for Credit Unions using social media and has held this spot for the last several years. It also ranks number 2 globally for Credit Unions using Facebook. Golden Words for Emerging Trailblazers Sharon believes, in order to be a successful leader, one must be intellectually curious and should understand what makes you successful and keep replicating it. Being aware of your competition and not copying others’ tactics will always help maintain originality and thus, achieve success. She states, “follow your own strategies because you know what works for your business.”
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Reforming Benchmarks
The
Significance
of
an
Effective Marketing
Strategy
M
arketing has been the real essence in the uplifting of any Organization in the long run. While there are a number of other parameters that foster a business, marketing certifies to be the base of it, upholding the awareness and reach it requires, printing its mark worldwide. For all firms, whether any poor start-up or an MNC giant, an effective marketing strategy can serve as a pivotal roadmap for the entire business. By developing a coherent and well considered marketing strategy, organizations can promote their business, target the right types of client and allocate their resources correctly, all while safeguarding the reputation of the firm. Because one parameter of a marketing plan affects all of the others, synchronizing activities is critical to eliminate obstacles and maximize profits. A marketing strategy looks at all the areas of the sales activities and helps each one support the next. One of the most important aspects of any marketing strategy relates to recognizing growth opportunities. This can be efficiently done by using the SWOT analysis. Once an organization identifies its strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of any marketing scheme, it becomes easier to en-cash those opportunities and reconsider what course or action should be taken to eliminate prevalent threats.
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The underlying focus of the organization’s marketing strategy should be based on the concept of developing and increasing awareness of the company’s brand, and also on developing trust assurance in that brand. A company’s credibility or service is its most important asset. Hence, attempts should be made to enhance and protect it during the course of the marketing process . Understanding how to create an integrated marketing strategy is the key help to make better individual decisions with respect to specific marketing tactics. In order to achieve this, organizations must implement robust and efficient marketing strategies as quickly as possible. All the key components of a marketing strategy, if catered and applied in the best manner, helps to design and manufacture successful business. Here are some of the crucial parameters that play a pivotal role in successfully implementing and nourishing effective marketing strategies. Goals and Objectives As with all the plans, goals and objectives are the origin of any target-oriented organization. Without a proper mix of these objectives according to the prevalent resources, a company proves to be inefficient in the long run. It can begin by thinking through goal-specific accomplishments, identifying basic marketing objectives,
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which may include some of the following aspects: Ÿ Increased brand recognition Ÿ Growth in the market share Ÿ Market to New Customer Segments Ÿ Digitization
Ÿ
Investment, Budget and Revenue
As far as revenue is considered, a marketing strategy is used to determine the revenue that the campaign will deliver. All of the parts that go into determining revenue, including the budget allotted to the campaign, product cost, selling price and the life span of the product, should all be considered while developing the marketing strategy. The estimated End-Revenue can be measured against the actual revenue, and that information can be used to create future marketing strategies that are more successful.
Once the objectives for the business are fully determined, the concept of On-margin investments, Budget and End revenue come into play. However, there is never enough budget to cover all the marketing ‘wish-lists’ adequately. The process of Investment is iterative and operates continually. It may be a function of: Coming up with budget to shelter all the marketing needs Ÿ Identifying the objectives that are more critical and inclined towards the success factor and reallocating budget meet top-priority objectives on a ‘first-serve’ preference. Ÿ Searching for innovating ways to stretch the marketing budget. For example, content development, low-cost crowd outsourcing etc.
Constructing a big picture view and reviewing the key marketing thrust areas. Others parameters such as spend comparison, consumption of utilization channels, website optimization etc. should be fetched under consideration.
Ÿ
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Target Audience and Buyer Journey Tracking and analyzing the dynamic and changing needs of the audience under radar is pivotal in effective marketing. Identifying the demographic and psychographic characteristics of the target audience aids to re localize the radius under consideration. Based on the available data,
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egmentation should be done to provide qualified and need-based resources.
A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer based on statistical market research and the prevalent data about your existing customers. After developing buyer personas, developing the Buyer Journey for each single persona and its interaction with the brand is considered to be the key to implement trust and satisfaction among the target audiences. Media and Messaging Messaging is a process which signifies the firm’s intentions, and informs the actual purpose of your business to the external world. Based on a detailed evaluation of how target is reacting with the various components of the brand, establish an apt messaging media, tone, selling propositions and key terms that are likely to resonate the most. Determining the Channel Mix Ÿ
Analyze and decide where the business would get the most Return on Investment (ROI). This can be done by echoing the channels around three road categories:
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Traditional marketing channels (TV, Radio, Newspaper, Direct Mail etc.) Ÿ Digital Marketing Channels (Website, Mobile applications, Social platforms, online advertisements etc.) Ÿ Content Marketing (Blogs, Newsletters, e-books, Infographics etc.) Ÿ
Competition Though the role of competition in devising an optimal marketing strategy is limited, it helps to draw comparisons among identical products and groups, providing scope for ‘brand-improvements’. In order to symbolize a powerful campaign, marketing strategy needs to offer a detailed description of the competition, according to the small business experts at the Center for Business planning. The objective of the marketing strategy is to provide historical information on how the competition has advertised products in the past, the target market the competition goes after and the product features that the competition offers. Some other factors include competition pricing, the competition’s distribution network and the sales strategies, which are also a part of the comprehensive marketing strategy.
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The 10 Most Influential CMOs to Watch, 2022
Sidra Berman: Advocating Self-Development and Creative Marketing Techniques
I
n an interview with Insights Success, the CMO of Tangoe, Sidra Berman shares her insights behind her triumphant ingenuity as a Chief Marketing Officer. The zealous and admired leader has driven the ascension of the Technology Expense Management and Enterprise Mobility Services Company with her contemporary and innovative management and marketing expertise. Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between Sidra and Insights Success: Explain your background in detail and tell us your prime goals? When I graduated from college, I had no idea what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Fortunately, the company that I had been interning with hired me full time. Basically, I “fell” into the beginning of my career. Within a few years, I ended up at GE. GE had a great training program—the company really invested in people, their careers, and growing their skill sets. That is where I met the first mentor in my career, Reid Walker, who was a fantastic boss. I would ask him regularly during our 1:1 catch-up meetings, “What can I do better?”, and he would always give me feedback. Even though it can be hard
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to get constructive criticism, when it is well delivered and meant to grow the person, you can’t be brittle about it. As I’ve moved up in my career, I try to do the same for the people who work for me. I want all of them to be successful, and try to help them with both the hard and soft skills necessary to get to where they ultimately want to be in their careers. Tell us about the company you work for, and the services it provides. Tangoe is the global technology expense management and enterprise mobility services standard for the world’s greatest brands. Our clients rely on Tangoe to increase productivity, reduce costs, and drive predictable results. Our customers believe – like us – that people work smarter when technology works for them. How did you decide to pursue the career you are working on today? What was the pivotal moment or inspiration? I started my career working on political campaigns and for non-profits. As I matured and decided jumping from campaign to campaign was getting old, I realized that what I was actually doing was marketing. While I wasn’t marketing a product, I had been marketing and raising money for
candidates and specific issues, and was able to carry over those skillsets. What is the most important characteristic that every CMO should possess? There are two important characteristics that every CMO should possess. First, listening to the market and customers; this includes both external customers, as well as internal feedback from your sales team. Always remember that customers pay your paycheck, so you need to listen to pay attention to what they want. Second, do your homework and understand the dynamics of the market. How big is it? Who signs the checks that buy your products? Who influences and researches that purchase? Knowing the market both quantitatively and qualitatively is essential. What are the most pressing challenges that CMOs are facing today to be innovative and Why? One key challenge for CMOs is that there is so much noise in the market – it’s hard to be heard by the people you’re trying to reach. Since social media has given everyone a platform, it is difficult to get attention as people are being inundated. This makes it more important than ever to go back to the basics: who are you
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targeting and what is their pain? Where do they go to research a purchase? You need to focus your message through the right channel in order to get the attention of the people you’re trying to reach. What are the key values, which helped you to overcome the roadblocks/challenges in your career as a CMO? Tell us something about a memorable incident under your leadership. The key value I try to live by is treating people as what they actually are — people with their own hopes, goals, dreams, lives, and families. When you treat someone like a human—just as you would want to be treated—it changes the way you give feedback, lead the department, manage tasks. A key memorable incident was when I first became a Director and had my own team to lead for the first time ever. My manager at the time (as well as mentor & friend), Jim Rogers, said to me “I know you’re ambitious and running a team is a step to where you want to go. Always remember, the way you treat people who work for you influences how they feel about themselves, how their interact with their spouse or significant other, treat their child and even how they sleep. Being a manager is a massive, sacred responsibility.”
Sidra Berman CMO
Tangoe
What would you advise to the budding entrepreneurs and marketing individuals entering into the market?
”
Lead by example. Don't ask others to do what you won't do yourself.
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”
Early in your career, try as many different roles as you can within the marketing or business function you’re in. I worked in communications, web marketing, event planning, field marketing, and product marketing throughout my career before becoming a CMO. Each role taught me a new aspect of marketing and helped me figure out where I wanted to focus on with my career. Where do you see yourself in coming years, and how do you see yourself catalyzing that change? I love what I do, and want to empower and mentor others to reach the highest pinnacle they can in their careers. It would be an honor if in 5, 10, or even 15 years, there were lots of CMOs who used to work on my team.
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