Category: Musings

Why CSR is Not a Marketing Strategy

Posted on by Drew Neisser

38075c6

Over the years, this blog has applauded the efforts of a number of brands endeavoring to “do well by doing good” (i.e. Petco, J&J, Richline, Patron, Omni Hotels and more).  Framing such efforts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in this way, I may have implied that CSR is actually a strategy in itself.  Fortunately for you in our interview below, Karen Quintos, CMO of Dell, clarifies why CSR is not a strategy but rather a “mindset” that can and should permeate an entire organization from product development to customer service, recruiting to marketing.  In one of my favorite quotes of the year, Karen notes, “Ultimately CSR is not a marketing strategy–it’s a tool for building a better business.”

This distinction is important and instructive. “Building a better business” is the ultimate goal of any enterprise which involves finding a sustainable competitive advantage that will create a return on capital invested.  So when Dell found a way to cut materials out of its packaging, they not uncovered $50 million in cost savings but also they avoided creating 30 million pounds of waste which was better for the environment and their customers (who didn’t have to deal with the extra waste.)  This is just one of the meaty examples that Karen shares in our conversation about CSR, one that will make it very easy for you to understand why she was recognized by The CMO Club as a Social Responsibility Award winner.

Drew: Congratulations on winning the Social Responsibility Award. How do you define Corporate Social Responsibility?

At Dell, we look at CSR a bit differently. It’s not a strategy; it’s a mindset that’s part of our culture. It’s about using our processes and products to create value for our customers and communities in a world of growing demand and finite resources – and leaving the world better for the next generation.

Drew: Can you provide a short recap of your CSR initiatives in 2015?

We continue to make terrific progress against our Legacy of Good Plan, which outlines 21 ambitious CSR goals we intend to achieve by 2020. These include environmental and giving goals, but also commitments to workplace diversity and volunteerism. We’re progressing on all fronts, but one in particular that I’d like to highlight is our industry-leading circular economy practices. We are designing out waste and making better use of available and sustainable resources through our closed-loop supply chain. To date, we’ve recycled more than 4.2 million pounds of e-waste plastics and put them back into new Dell products. We recently launched a recycled carbon fiber program that replaces virgin materials in Alienware and Latitude products. It will keep about one million pounds of materials out of landfills this year alone. These programs provide greater efficiency to Dell, but also to our customers who are increasingly looking for help to achieve their own CSR goals.

Drew: How do you measure the success of these programs?

We know we’re successful when our programs deliver both business value and societal benefit. A perfect example is our product packaging. Since 2009, we’ve saved more than $50 million dollars and avoided 30 million pounds of packaging by using sustainable materials and deliberately reducing the amount of packaging used to ship our products. That’s a significant savings. It’s also a great innovation story with real benefit to our planet and our customers, many of whom share our commitment to a cleaner planet.

Drew: Building a business case for CSR initiatives can be tricky. What were the keys to gaining management support? 

Educating and shifting mindsets within management is critical. There’s a perception that these programs involve compromising on cost or quality, but we’re actually seeing the opposite. CSR initiatives are often a source of hidden efficiencies and innovation. But the best approach, in my opinion, is deeply embedding CSR into the corporate culture. At Dell, it is part of how we design, deliver, sell and support our solutions globally.

Drew: There are an unlimited number of options when it comes to CSR. How did you narrow the list down?

Everything we do from a CSR perspective ties back to our core belief that the purpose of technology is to enable people to solve problems, make discoveries, and advance society on a global scale. That starts with universal access to IT and training, which is why our global strategic giving programs focus on bringing Dell technology and 21st Century skills to underserved youth around the world. It also means partnering with others to tackle huge, global challenges. We’re working closely with doctors and researchers to bring the power of high-performance computing to bear in the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric cancer patients – and we’ve seen some amazing results. When your CSR strategy is grounded in your company purpose, it becomes a lot more clear what and how you should be engaging with your people, communities and planet.

Drew: When it comes to sharing your company’s CSR initiatives is there a fine line between letting the world know about it and overplaying the contribution?  Where do you sit on this spectrum from letting the good action speak for itself and broadcasting it from the treetops?

There is  absolutely a balance.  We believe it’s important for our customers to know the good we do and, quite frankly, they are asking more and more. As a matter of fact, CSR is a factor in about 60 percent of the RFPs we complete each year. It’s also becoming table stakes for hiring and retaining millennials. We announced a partnership with actor and entrepreneur, Adrian Grenier, this year as our first Social Good Advocate. He is a strong, outside voice for Dell and is helping amplify and guide our responsible business approach. But ultimately CSR is not a marketing strategy. It’s a tool for building a better business.

Drew: What is the single biggest challenge that you’d like to overcome in 2016?

Since finding a couple more hours in the day isn’t an option, I don’t think I could name just one. I’d like to see the world’s biggest problems solved – hunger, poverty, cancer, climate change, energy, etc. I’d also like to see more global support for the world’s entrepreneurs who, as the No. 1 source of innovation and jobs, are key to our future. The good news and a big reason why I love working in this industry is that technology is helping entrepreneurs and bright minds all over the world breakthrough and make important discoveries in these areas every day. Who knows – 2016 could be the year some of these big challenges are solved.

CMO Insights: Focusing on Innovation

Posted on by Drew Neisser

32440db

In part one of my interview with Rich Smith, CMO of Ditech Financial, we focused on Ditech’s sponsorship of NASCAR and how that helped build broad awareness for the brand. In part two, we’ll broaden the lens and explore the brand’s overall strategic approach, internal training to improve the customer experience and a program that aimed at improving brand loyalty (offering another great example of the power of “marketing as service” in action).  There’s a lot of meat in here so I’d encourage you to read the interview carefully but I would be remiss if I didn’t point out a few highlights:

  • Ditech is gaining customers without being the low cost provider;
  • Increased employee training helped to remove the friction from the buying process;
  • By delivering an unexpected progress report to current customers, Ditech improved loyalty;
  • While CMO’s can’t be expected to control the entire customer experience they can be the “voice of the customer” across the organization.

All of this should leave little doubt why he won the Marketing Innovation Award from The CMO Club late last year.

Drew: Let’s talk about some of the innovative things you initiated in 2015.

I think we’ve done a lot of innovative things with our brand message and how we are reaching consumers.  Most brands in the industry either compete purely on price or they compete purely on a quick and easy transaction. We’re certainly very competitive on price, but we’re not the lowest. We also strive to provide a very convenient transaction process. Taking it one step further, we position ourselves as a partner that can be trusted in the mortgage process, who understands customer needs and won’t put them into the cookie cutter, one-size-fits-all, thirty-year fixed product. Customers are trying to find the best fit for them and we think Ditech offers that. Our Home Loan Specialists are educated to work with customers by asking questions, building rapport and finding solutions.

Drew: How did this translate to into you brand messages?

We have a certification program for our home loan specialists that helps them take a more personalize approach with each customer and we’ve found a way to work that training into our brand message. For example, we mail our current customers a “report card” on their current mortgage that tells them where they are and how they could change their plan by refinancing. These report cards could also tell them about the value of their home and even when there is no opportunity for them to refinance. We call this our Smart Watch Report and it’s a health of your mortgage report. You don’t see that from other providers. We are really transparent with our customers when it comes to what they currently have and what their opportunities are. That’s the theme we strive for throughout our business. We find that transparency with customers generates trust.

Drew: I suspect social media customer service is lot harder in the financial services industry because you have so much sensitive data. How do you use social media as customer service?

We definitely have to be sensitive to that and we have. We are very good at responding to the common issues we hear from customers on social media but if they’re upset, we then try to get them offline as quickly as possible and service them in a way that’s private such as on the phone or e-mail or gather more information and provide a solution to their situation.

Drew: How do you handle privacy on social customer service?

We have a customer care team that handles all the escalations. But certainly any time that somebody posts something like an account number, social security number or any private or secured information we either delete it or advise the customer to do so because you can’t have private information like that out there. And then we also obviously try to get the conversation offline as fast as we can.

Drew: Can you give me a specific example of how customer-centric approach to marketing has translated into some form of out-bound marketing, whether it’s TV or print?

The one I just mentioned was our direct mail campaign with the Smart Watch Report. That is one of our most successful retention marketing programs because people really appreciate getting that information. They call our home loan specialists about their options; it’s very engaging for the customers. And we are in the midst of taking that beyond just one direct mail medium to make it digital in the future which is very interesting.

Drew: Interesting. And so, how important is retention to the acquisition process?

That’s a very interesting question. It’s important in not necessarily a direct way but it’s important perhaps in an indirect way for a couple of reasons. In as much as you do a great job of servicing and retaining customers you have happier customers who then write more positive reviews about you and influence other people to seek you out or consider doing business with you. So that’s a nice indirect benefit. Also, the better job you do at retention the more financially sound your business is and the better base you have from which to grow. Any company that can’t do a good job of keeping its own customers probably is not going to do a good job of acquiring new ones.

Drew: I think that’s a fairly safe bet although I have worked with clients who put all their energy into acquisition and just kept watching the retention numbers decline.

Yes, you can’t fill the bathtub if you have a big hole in it. Just from an ROI perspective on marketing campaigns, the ROI on retention campaigns are many multiples higher than the ROI on acquisition campaign. It’s been true in every business that I’ve worked in my entire career.

Drew: One of things I’ve seen happen to other brands when they start advertising on TV is that their cost per clicks go down on Google Adwords. Increased awareness translates into better SEM performance because people are more familiar and click faster and therefore you can bid lower. Have you seen this?

We are seeing growth but it is a little hard to identify direct impact in SEM. We are definitely seeing more and more organic growth throughout the year, which is a clear indication of rising brand awareness. We did an extensive brand awareness study right before we launched and we repeated it about six months ago and saw major improvements in overall brand awareness and brand favorability. So, we know that it’s having an impact; it’s difficult to parse that out from the other things that we’re doing.

Drew: How much control do you have over the customer experience as CMO? How much influence do you have on this other areas?

I would say that the only person in any organizations that has complete control over the customer experience is the CEO. I can’t say that I control it. One of the most important roles that I play on our leadership team is to be the voice of the customer. I take on the responsibility of bringing the customers insights forward so that they are considered in all of our decision making. As we look to make changes in the future on both the origination side and the servicing side of our business, I definitely have a prime seat at the table to influence and emphasize the importance of the customer experience.

How NASCAR Revs up Marketing for Ditech

Posted on by Drew Neisser

Ditech Drive Down Your Mortgage

I think we can all agree that cutting through is hard these days. There are more brands than ever vying for our attention across a myriad of platforms and channels.  Consumers have become extremely adept at tuning out all these messages, time shifting to avoid TV ads and using ad blockers to avoid their digital brethren. So what’s a marketer to do, especially one wanting to reach a truly mass audience?

This was the conundrum facing Rich Smith when he took the reins as CMO at Ditech Financial in 2014. Without going into all the gory details, Ditech became a household name in the mortgage business in the 90’s, got acquired by GMAC in 1999, was merged and submerged over the next 14 years and then re-emerged as a standalone entity in 2014.  Given this circuitous history, it was important to Rich that the brand regain lost ground quickly, capitalizing on any familiarity with the name while adding on a new sense of energy.  To do this, Ditech turned to NASCAR, an effort that worked remarkably well as you will see in our interview below.

[Please note that this is only part of our extensive interview after Rich was awarded the Marketing Innovation Award by The CMO Club late last year. Part 2 will be posted shortly.]

Drew: What led you to sponsoring NASCAR?

We signed the deal with Stewart-Haas Racing of NASCAR in September 2014. It really didn’t get big at all until 2015. It’s been a great relationship for expanding our brand awareness in a relatively low cost way. We’ve gotten a lot of bang for our buck out of it. The days of people gathering around TV at 8:00 o’clock at night to watch a certain primetime show are kind of gone with the advent of the DVR and Netflix streaming and time shifting. So, one of the best places to invest brand building advertising dollars are live events, like sports. In many ways we’re a start up, re-launching a brand and we don’t have the really deep big pockets of other larger advertisers. The NFL, NBA and MLB are extremely expensive and it is hard to do both on a national and local level. NASCAR is the fourth largest sport in the United States in terms of reach and as I said earlier, it’s been a really cost effective way for us to build brand awareness.

Drew: Interesting. Tell me more about your NASCAR relationship.

The beauty of NASCAR is it’s a sport that completely gets the sponsorship model. Just watch a race and you’ll see the logos of Fortune 500 companies everywhere. The entire sport gets that sponsors make the sport go around. The fans understand that sponsors make the sport go round. Even though it might be fourth largest in terms of fan-base size, it’s number one in terms of brand loyalty with sponsors, without a doubt. It is also has a very good overlap with our target market and relatively low cost inventory. They race 38 out of 52 weekends a year, so it’s almost year round. And there is a home game in a different city almost every weekend. So, you get national coverage at a relatively low price point. It’s definitely helped us grow brand awareness with a relatively modest budget.

Drew: How do you evaluate the effectiveness? Is it brand tracking that simply shows that pre and post awareness went up as a result of this program?

We track it in a lot of different ways and we’re working on refining and getting even more analytical about how we do this. We do pre and post brand awareness surveying and analysis. We also do direct tracking through our websites during events and the resulting activity of that traffic. We monitor the impact of social media through the sponsorships. We have separate social properties that we use for the sponsorship. We look at engagement rates on various pieces of content. I would say that even though our social following is relatively small, it’s growing rapidly and we’ve achieved much higher engagement rates in social media than most of our competitors do. People attend, interact and engage with our content at a much higher rate than most of our competitors. Some of that content is related to the sponsorship, most of it isn’t but they work well together.

Drew: Interesting. What if your CFO walked in the door and said, “All right, we’re spending X thousands of dollars on NASCAR can you actually show this pays out?”

It is difficult to correlate exactly to new customers.  That said, there are lots of quantifiable metrics. For example, we do track all of the exposure we get through the sponsorship. We track every time our logo appears on the screen, how many seconds was it there and how many people saw it. And we know the value of that media. So we can show the cost of the sponsorship relative to the value of the exposure we’ve received.

How to Lead When Your Company Gets Acquired

Posted on by Drew Neisser
Moths_around_a_light_bulb
Source: Dr John Brackenbury / Science Photo Library

Perhaps in a former life I was a moth. That might help explain why I am drawn repeatedly to the enlightening insights of a select eclipse of CMOs. [Just in case none of you are entomologists, it turns out that a group of moths is called an eclipse. Who knew?] Now as we fly by my uncertain metamorphosis and choice of metaphors, let’s shine the light on Judy Hackett, CMO of Dun & Bradstreet, the subject of three interviews, two shared panels and a chapter in my book (see page 99 Element Bb: B2B Content Marketing).

Judy, by the way, is a treat to chat with as she is always forthright, offering practical advice and real-world examples. This time our topic was leadership and the challenges presented when your company is acquired.  What’s particularly interesting is how her team managed to stay agile while working within the potential confines of the larger organization.  Not an easy feat which is among the reasons Judy received the Officers Award from The CMO Club late last year.  And as I reconsider reincarnation, you all can move on to wisdom of someone far less flighty.

Drew: Looking back over the last 12-24 months, what initiative under your leadership really worked well? What were some of the challenges you had to overcome? What were the results? 

What worked well: It was important for our newly acquired company to demonstrate rock solid performance the very first full quarter with Dun & Bradstreet.  We focused heavily on the success of our sales teams which resulted in beating both our top and bottom line targets for our division.  The sheer magnitude of what marketing and product accomplished in demonstrating value in our first quarter was impressive.  We completed a full rebranding in less than 30 days. We developed and launched a new concierge service for Hoovers and initiated several new product relaunches in the very first quarter as a combined company. But, it was our financial performance we could all take the most pride in.

Challenges: The biggest challenge for any small, nimble company is to stay nimble when you are acquired by a larger organization.  It’s really important to mentor your teams through that change-especially when it comes to avoiding certain large company trappings like meeting hell and PPT decks.  Setting clear goals with a focus on revenue success helped the team to prioritize what was truly important. Our division’s first quarter performance with the new company was a result of that focused effort.  Results speak volumes.  People forget that declined meeting [when the results are good].

Drew: When advising members of your team on cross-departmental initiatives, what do you tell them to do and not do to ensure success? 

Three things:

  1. If you are going to pitch something, defend something or oppose something, make sure it has strong business rationale behind it.
  2. Always have a plan B and be prepared to compromise.
  3. Try to remember that marketing is in a position of serving the rest of the organization.  Put on a service hat.

Drew: Did any of your marketing initiatives involve employee activation?  If so, can you describe what you did and how it worked? How did you get employees to care?  

We launched a new Hoovers concierge-type service for small businesses almost immediately after taking over the Hoovers business for Dun & Bradstreet. We wanted to make a sales impact quickly and in order to do so we had to build the service, train the teams and take it to market within two months.  Since we had no team to run it, we pulled in resources from across the organization to step out of their current roles and take on new responsibilities through the test and fulfillment period.  We got sales teams excited by creating a huge Formula One racing event and themed everything “off to the races.”  We supported it with direct marketing efforts, the likes of which Hoovers had not seen in years.  When the first sale was made, you could hear the celebration from Austin to Malibu.

Drew: Your company was recently acquired. Did that create some new leadership challenges and if so, how have you addressed these?  

There’s more dealing with public company policies and procedures and even politics, which can be challenging, but when it comes to heading up marketing and product for emerging businesses, thankfully I still have autonomy to lead our teams as I have done historically and with that I’ve been able to maintain our culture which is critical to our success.

Drew: Looking ahead to 2016, what is the single biggest challenge that you’d like to overcome?

Through our division’s work building and launching a suite of new credit and marketing products and services in 2016, I hope our teams can help affect a positive shift in culture at Dun & Bradstreet–one that resembles a more agile approach to product launches and go-to-market. Understandably, this is a big goal in a company that is large, global and public.

Lost Opportunities to Engage During #Blizzard2016

Posted on by Drew Neisser

This past weekend, New York City had one of its biggest snowstorms ever, and, as usual, this presented an opportunity for brands to engage in the social conversation. Not surprisingly, New Yorkers expressed a lot of joy, surprise and down right frustration across social channels. What was surprising is that as the snow and chatter piled up across Gotham, most brands stayed pretty much out of sight. We believe this was a lost opportunity. [Note all of the research for this article was done by our social analyst Andres Monsalve]

NETFLIX: #Netflix&Chill.

Across the social chatter, it was pretty obvious that #Netflix&Chill was going to be present and dominate a huge part of the conversation.

Graph1

 

Did Netflix use this opportunity for their benefit? Not so much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These were their tweets about #blizzard2016:

Could Netflix have taken advantage of this social happening in a more buzz-generating fashion? Most likely yes. For example, Netflix could have rolled out a group of special releases for the #Blizzard, encouraging their users to watch a few and of course, chill. Or bundle a bunch of bad weather related films into a binge-watching marathon.

ALCOHOL BRANDS

For many New Yorkers, spending two days in one’s tiny apartment can feel a bit like a jail term. Some people were worried about suffering cabin fever during this “extremely long” period of confinement. In order to bear with this suffering, many find a bit of alcohol a welcome companion. Note that NYC now has the 5th largest number of craft breweries in America. However, most alcohol brands did not engage in the conversation at all and ignored the opportunity to “come to the rescue.”

Brooklyn Brewery, at least, demonstrated how to use #blizzard2016, enlightening us with this innovative way to take advantage of the snow.

FOOD DELIVERIES

The real unsung heroes in this blizzard were the #FoodDelivery guys as thousands of New Yorkers stayed in and ordered out. As George Herbert Palmer said about the postal workers once, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” The men and women who deliver food ‘round the clock truly help make NYC the greatest city in the planet, and New Yorkers recognized this during #blizzard2016. More than 600 mentions were about tipping your delivery guy more than 20%. Unfortunately for their brands, neither @Seamless nor @Grubhub chose this as an opportunity to join this conversation and support the folks that make their service possible. Like empty seats on a plane, this was a lost opportunity.

THE WINNER

The big winner in joining the blizzard conversation was the @NationalZoo who shared a gleeful video of #TIANTIAN, the panda, rolling in the snow. #TIANTIAN garnered more than 13,000 mentions over the weekend and stole our hearts. What can we say? Guess we all have a soft spot for furry animals playing in the white stuff. Here is the video of #TianTian enjoying #Blizzard2016.

Responding to social conversations like the #2016Blizzard in real-time is tricky business, requiring a great deal of preparation and then, lightning fast wit. Clearly most brands rode out this particularly storm but perhaps others will plan ahead for the next big opportunity. We hope so.

Graph2

CMO Insights: Forget Mentors, Get Sponsors

Posted on by Drew Neisser

0bbebfe

Admittedly, I’m a big fan of making New Year’s resolutions and an even bigger fan of following through on them.  Writing a book had been on my list for several years and finally, 2015 was the year I checked that one off.  Yeah for me!  As for you, especially those of you who are not at the latter stages of your careers, here’s a big item to add to your 2016 list and perhaps one to scratch off it — win over a sponsor and forget about finding a mentor.

What? Forget about finding a mentor?  You thought mentors were the ticket to success, right?  Well, I have news for you or more accurately put, Sydney Seiger, the CMO of TXU Energy, has a big idea for you — get a sponsor at your current job who can and will support your career development.  As Seiger notes in our interview below, “Sponsors are advocates and the relationship feels like more of a two-way street.”  And just in case it isn’t obvious, sponsors are earned not wished for.  Sponsors are generally the result of working for an incredibly demanding boss, seeking criticism, responding to it and then exceeding his or her expectations.

For more startling insights from the winner of Rising Star Award by The CMO Club read on:

Drew: Can you talk about one of your marketing initiatives in 2015 that you are proudest of?  

I’m most proud of the new perspective I’ve brought to my new role and to the entire TXU Energy enterprise – not just the marketing department.  Specifically, this year, I’ve championed the importance of the customer experience in everything we do – from the way we create products and offers, to the way we communicate with and service our customers and prospects.  By creating and introducing ‘The X Factor’  to the organization, I’ve repositioned the X in our brand name (quite literally the center of our brand) to represent the customer eXperience that everyone – from the front office to the back office  – plays a critical role in shaping.  By organizing our efforts and communications around persona segments, implementing shared customer-based outcome metrics with our internal and agency partners, and starting and ending with the customer experience, we have fundamentally changed the way we approach our business and our customers and our prospects.  The results?  We are having a record breaking year – the strongest company and marketing performance in nearly a decade.

Drew: You’ve achieved quite a bit in a short period of time.  To what do you attribute your success thus far?

Hard work, a background in advanced analytics, an inquisitive approach, an ability to find actionable insights in data, and building a strong network of internal and professional relationships.

Drew: If you were addressing a bevy of marketers at the beginning of their careers, what advice would you give them to help them reach the CMO position? 

Be positive – and active – about learning, growth, and change.  Read more.  Ask for complex job assignments.  Go beyond your original area of expertise.  Understand business drivers and implications.  Look outside of your industry for ideas and inspiration.

Drew: Do you have a mentor or is there a person in your career that has been particularly helpful? How important is having a mentor?  

I have had several ‘informal’ mentors – several that didn’t realize they were at the time!  I’ve also been fortunate to have had sponsors in my career; I’ve found that sponsors are more impactful than mentors. Formal ‘mentors’ feel a little forced and one-sided to me. Sponsors are advocates and the relationship feels like more of a two-way street. A former boss and (now retired) CMO, Dan Valentine, comes to mind as a sponsor.  Dan was almost impossible to please, offered me stretch assignments that took me out of my comfort zone, and provided me with his broad perspective and critical feedback.  I worked my hardest to make him look good, and in turn, he championed my career.  Julie Cary, another former boss and CMO at La Quinta, is another sponsor that comes to mind.  She is whip smart, articulate, insightful, full of energy, and most importantly, she always made me feel that she cared about me personally and professionally.  While I worked for her only a short time, I frequently find myself asking: “What would Julie do?” I strive to make my team feel the way she made me feel whenever I had an interaction with her.

Drew: Looking ahead to 2016, what is the single biggest challenge that you’d like to overcome? 

Continuing to stay ahead of the competition and relevant to the customer in a category that is incredibly competitive (60+ active competitors with over 300 offers in the market at any given time).