Tonight’s keynote featured Eric Reynolds, the CMO of Clorox, who candidly shared that the process of embracing digital transformation is incredibly difficult. He said “If you’re a startup, you don’t have much to lose, but if you’re a 100-year old company, there’s a lot to lose in your brand,” which makes the process exponentially more difficult. He spoke about the fact that CPG companies know how to scale, but the challenge now is to learn to be intimate with their marketing. But Reynolds’ advice to the audience was to not let fear get in the way. “It is an incredible, but fearful time. It is a time of big courageous bets.” And he cautioned that digital can’t be just data or technology, “Digital is going to be a way that we work and a way that we see – an entirely new way of doing things.”
Reynolds spoke about how the team at Clorox knew they had to embrace digital and that part of their secret to success has been finding vendors that they can partner with who not only have reputable brands themselves, but who also align well philosophically with the Clorox brand. One of Reynolds’ comments that I enjoyed the most was when he said “Most of the time, my people have no idea what I’m talking about on this digital transformation journey. And they are really smart people.” He’s right. This is new territory, and no matter how smart you are, getting your head around all that’s involved in digital transformation is an entirely new undertaking.
Based on our experience, this is very true. When you’re immersed in the process of digital transformation, whether you’re a client or a vendor, you’re pretty much joined at the hip. You have to spend a lot of time together, and break a lot of things apart, then rebuild them. And doing that with a team of people you trust to have your best interests at heart is the only way you can be successful with an undertaking of that nature. I think that’s true whether your company is very big or very small. When you go all in on digital transformation, it requires commitment that’s different than what you find in vendor relationships that we are often accustomed to. This is about rebuilding a business model that’s suited for a different kind of customer relationship and wholly different objectives than what has come before. And it’s exciting—and scary as hell, all at the same time. But the end result is worth the gamble.
Next up for the evening was Western Union’s CMO, Nick Cerise. This was an example of yet another iconic brand embracing digital transformation in new and innovative ways. Cerise started off by saying something that is true of just about any business, in any vertical:
“If we don’t disrupt ourselves, we’re going to be disrupted.”
Cerise talked about how unsophisticated the company’s marketing efforts have been in the not too distant past, relying on old school sales calls and “batch and blast” email campaigns with little strategy. Sound familiar? For many companies, I know it does. For many of our clients, I know it does. But we need to move beyond that.
Embracing digital transformation has resulted in Western Union developing an integrated and sophisticated approach to marketing. Their challenges have been to leverage data, fine tune their email marketing strategies, and to connect marketing technology to the full customer lifecycle. They started the process by tracking customers’ digital body language using Eloqua (yes, that’s an Oracle product). And the keys to their success? A commitment to always improve. That means a continual focus on better listening, better insights, always learning, and always fine-tuning processes. Since diving in headfirst to a digital transformation strategy, Cerise reported that Western Union has seen better engagement for customers, greater sales efficiency, and funnel velocity.
The last keynote of the evening was Sears’ CMO, Ryan Deutsch, who started off by saying that digital transformation is all about a tremendous focus on consistency in customer experience and personalization at scale–which is one of the hardest challenges for any brand, and certainly for the Sears brand. For the team at Sears, omnichannel interoperability has been a focal point, so that across every channel, the customer experience is optimal. Says Deutsch, “What matters is getting that message across all touch points, not just one perfect message.” One part of Deutsch’s message that I particularly enjoyed was when he spoke on his philosophy about connecting with customers: the four “Rs”:
In all too many instances, sales teams and marketers recognize a need (or an opportunity) and don’t bother with the stages of remembering what it is that’s important to customers, and relating to them, before they barge in with a recommendation. Relationship building is what sales (and marketing) is all about today, and if you miss those critical middle steps, you’re missing out on the part of the equation that’s most important.
These three CMOs were a great start to what I’m sure will be a terrific event. If you’re not at the event and want to learn more about what’s happening here over the course of the next few days, follow the #MME16 hashtag on Twitter. You can also watch for updates from my colleagues here at the event, including Top Rank Marketing’s Lee Odden (@leeodden)) and Susan Misukanis (@smisukanis), Social Fresh’s Jason Keath and Nicole D’Alonzo, Steph Carls (@stephelisecarls), Nate Riggs (@nateriggs), Tim Moran (@timothymoran), and Tim Crawford (@tcrawford).
If you’re interested in knowing more about digital transformation, my business partner, Daniel Newman’s newest book, Building Dragons: Digital Transformation in the Experience Economy just came out this week. I’ll admit to bias on this front, but that aside, it’s an awesome book–and well worth your time to read.
photo credit: Time drawers via photopin (license)