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As marketers seek innovative ways to maximize the impact of limited budgets through creative thinking, diverse platforms and measurable tactics, thought leaders from around the industry joined Adweek’s Power Pivots series to talk about their bold strategies for driving business growth in a down economy.
While uncertainty surrounding the economy builds, businesses on the frontlines are focused on addressing employee challenges to strengthen their workforces in this accelerated era of tech transformation. Stacy Malone, vp of global business marketing at Pinterest, spoke with Adweek svp, editorial director Chris Ariens on the back of years of uncertainty, one skill has emerged as a ‘must-have’ for marketers.
“Agility is so important, and really focusing on it as the key marketing skill of our time,” she said. “That means having a plan but revisiting it regularly, testing and learning, and really expecting the unexpected.”
Jeff Cha, chief brand and growth officer of Blue Bottle Coffee, said for subscription-based businesses, taking a customer-centric approach becomes increasingly key during times of uncertainty.
“Staying close to those subscribers who are most committed to the brand is a big thing for us because those are the highest-value customers,” he said. “Especially going into this kind of inflationary environment where there’s a lot of potential risk, making sure that our value proposition is really honed in, especially with that core base, is something we talk about a lot, and we’re trying to focus on making sure we retain that while growing.”
Leaning into innovation
During times of volatility and unpredictability, some brands may shy away from risks and think it’s time to stick to what they know. Malone said although it can be challenging to find inspiration to try new things—and find the courage to follow through with it—when the outlook is uncertain, it’s increasingly important.
“Innovation is even more important in times like this,” she said. “You gotta lean into innovation. You gotta leverage your competitive advantage to separate yourself from your competitors. The tendency might be, ‘oh, that seems risky. I want to go back to the safe bet.’ But I think the real risk is not innovating and not being able to differentiate from your competitors.”
Driving revenue in an uncertain economy
As household budgets become tighter, consumers are increasingly searching for value and brands they trust. Bill Schneider, vp of product marketing at SheerID, spoke to Adweek chief experience officer Jenny Rooney about how tools like SheerID come in to help brands create exclusive offers, verify customer eligibility, and convert and retain a loyal following.
“Our solution helps brands pull together these offers for driving customer acquisition and revenue. But there’s also a brand-building component to it. For example, we worked with Nike to develop an offer for nurses and first responders during the height of the pandemic. The question was, ‘what is the appropriate way to respond that honors the brand and the community?’”
Schneider said Nike put together an offer that created specific footwear for healthcare workers spending hours on their feet.
“In this case, Nike was able to promote that offer through their channels and use SheerID to verify that the people that were redeeming that offer were first responders and nurses so they could feel confident that it was going to the intended group and create something really unique that drove high engagement and conversion. This is a great example of how these offers can be valuable from a brand perspective and also drive revenue when they’re discount or promo code-related.”
In addition to the economic downturn, marketers are grappling with another looming challenge: the demise of the third-party cookie.
“The environment we find ourselves in as marketers right now has really shifted dramatically as third-party cookie depreciation has pulled away a lot of the data we’ve typically had with targeting our customers and getting to know our customers,” Schneider said. “Consumers have become more selective about the brands they share their data with, and they want to own their data and have control over that data and who it’s shared with.”
Schneider said his team has found that consumers want a transparent exchange with their data, and they’re willing to share it in exchange for something valuable, such as a special offer or discount.
“We have a brand that we work with in the health and beauty space that reported a 72% opt-in rate to their promos and offers as consumers went through the verification experience,” he said. “Ultimately, what that shows is they had a clear understanding of the data they were providing about them in order to receive the reward on the other end, created a clear connection of trust with that consumer, and they wanted to have a deeper relationship with the brand.”
Cultivating loyalty for future growth
Mark Messing, vp of digital experience and loyalty at Domino’s, and Melisse Shaban, founder and CEO of Virtue Labs, agreed in conversation with Adweek breaking news reporter Rafael Canton that the secret to retaining customers and bolstering loyalty, even in times of economic uncertainty, lies in technological innovation.
“It’s a race of arms,” Messing said. “One advantage we have at Domino’s is we built our loyalty program in-house, so that gives us the ability to design really differentiated programs, which really helps. The digital stuff makes it so you can execute the target group so much more precisely that it really takes some of those ideas that were seeds of an idea before and ramps it up because of the ability that exists in terms of getting your message in front of a precise target.”
Going forward, Messing said he expects these programs to evolve further to anticipate customer needs without the customer even needing to vocalize them.
“That needs to be balanced with the idea of using the technology to put the tools into and empower the business so you can pivot and make changes really quickly to drive the success you’re looking for—those two lanes are going to be the path to progress moving forward,” he said.
As consumers start to understand the value—and power—they hold, Shaban said brand authenticity will hold the key to standing out from the competition.
“Loyalty is going to come from consistently delivering on your product and consistently being authentic,” she said. “So whether you’re a large or small company, sticking to your roots, sticking to your knitting, not trying to exploit every opportunity that comes your way, I think consumers recognize it and stay loyal to those businesses.”
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