Marketing Today with Alan Hart Alan B. Hart

On the show today, Alan and Michelle talk about her career journey, the ETS rebrand, the uniqueness of her current role, and why more organizations should be thinking of a similar structure at the leadership level. ETS's focus on people and mission of driving human progress forward is what drew Michelle to the company. As Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer, she is responsible for internal and external communications, customer insights and analytics, branding and marketing, e-commerce, philanthropic impact, global demand generation, and product innovation and development. 
Michelle Froah is currently the Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer at ETS, but when she was younger, she had aspirations to become an astronaut. While that dream never came to fruition, it did lead her to study mechanical engineering, which unexpectedly shaped her into the perfect person for the complex role she has now. Michelle started her career at Procter & Gamble, where she learned problem-solving under pressure and the value of a well-managed team. She then moved to Singapore and became the Asia Pacific Regional CMO for Kimberly Clark, where she developed a global perspective and understanding of local execution. She then founded Brandable before moving on to Samsung and serving as SVP of Global Brand and Marketing at MetLife before joining ETS in 2023, where she is focusing on transforming it into an organization that empowers human progress. 
As ETS enters a new category of future readiness, the CMO role itself is changing as well. While it is still about marketing, it is also about sorting through insights, perspectives, and growth strategies to apply them most effectively, which is where the innovation title comes in. Michelle's combination role allows her to work with all of their partners to serve customers in new ways and communicate that ETS is delivering real-time insights and solutions to help people enhance their skills. Michelle wraps up by talking about how her time as an engineer unexpectedly shaped her as a leader, team member, and well-rounded marketer, how shared goals empower marketers to tackle increased complexity and help the consumer win, how data can improve personalization, and the ways consumers benefit by melding marketing and innovation leadership roles.
In this episode, you'll learn about:
How being trained as an engineer made Michelle a more well-rounded marketerWhy ETS decided to rebrand and how they are launching it How ETS has been using AI for 20+ years and how they are evolving with the landscape
Key Highlights:
[01:50] Always looking for the road less traveled by[03:45] What drew Michelle to ETS, and what does she do there?[05:30] It all comes together over time.[08:00] Michelle’s career path: a global perspective and local execution[10:30] CMOs trained as engineers are just built differently.[13:10] What is ETS up to today?[15:30] Skills needed to be effective in the future[17:00] The future of CMO innovation [19:55] The AI portion of the show[25:20] Rebranding: why and how[30:30] Characterizing the new brand promise[33:15] The importance of her time as an engineer[36:10] Advice to her younger self [37:10] The increased complexity of marketing [39:10] Personalization supported by data[42:05] Thinking about how marketing and innovation can meld to improve customer outcomes
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In this episode, Alan and Jessica talk about Bubble Goods, who it serves, and how they are helping emerging food brands and unique consumers alike. 
Jessica Young is a fan of Fufu and the founder and CEO of Bubble Goods. With 10+ years in the food and wellness industry, Jessica saw a gap in the market: food brands were innovating (specifically in the health foods sector), but they didn’t have the digital know-how or right platform to launch and scale on. It was becoming harder and harder for these brands to get onto Whole Foods, launch and scale within Amazon, and drive customers into their singular e-commerce channels. Jessica saw an opportunity to launch something similar to what Etsy has done in the handmade goods space by creating and curating a marketplace for innovative, truly strict-label, independent food brands. When she was starting her career, she didn't intend to enter the food industry, but her passion for cooking triggered an evolution that led her to it, and she never looked back. After going to culinary school, she worked as a chef in NYC in Michelin-starred restaurants for a while before she became burned out and began exploring the online food space. She transitioned to the food startup scene in 2013 and eventually became the first employee and Head of Product and Operations for Daily Harvest in 2015 before launching Bubble Goods in 2019.
Bubble Goods is a drop-ship marketplace that curates brands for their users and gives small independent food and beverage brands the ability to market nationally. Jessica tells us they have a strict vetting process to make sure they are only delivering the best to their customers, but there is no order minimum so they can remain start-up friendly and keep their finger on the pulse of emerging trends. Bubble Goods has two main groups of customers: one is interested in discovering innovative foods, and the other is searching for foods that adhere to lifestyle and dietary restrictions. Bubble Goods prides itself on being low-lift and high-impact for the brands it partners with, and for many of its brands, Bubble Goods is their first retailer. To help brands succeed, Jessica and her team work hard to be good partners by putting brands in front of the right customers and giving them resources when they onboard for everything from legal resources to marketing partners. 
In this episode, you'll learn about:
What inspired Jessica to start Bubble Goods?What benefits do brands get when they partner with Bubble Goods? Who is the target consumer, and how are they targeted? 
Key Highlights:
[02:00] The first professionally trained chef on the show[03:40] Fufu is having a moment.[06:15] Bubble Goods: what they do and who they serve[08:00] Who is buying from Bubble Goods? [10:00] Bubble Goods role in helping newer brands [11:30] The importance of transparency[15:10] Who is making the food, and does it matter?[17:30] How marketers should leverage Bubble Goods[19:20] What is coming next?[20:15] Lessons from the kitchen [22:30] Advice to her younger self [24:30] New-school and old-school tactics[26:00] Snaxshot and CPGD[26:45] The AI portion of the show
Looking for more?
Visit our website for the full show notes, links to resources mentioned in this episode, and ways to connect with the guest!
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In this episode, Alan and Jessica talk about the evolution of Calendly from serving solopreneurs to enterprise organizations, the success factors that have made that shift possible, how she thinks about the RIO and effectiveness of marketing spend, and balancing the need to drive results and be creative through “creative destruction.”. 
 
Jessica Gilmartin is an amateur baker, an ex-yogurt mogul, and the new Chief Revenue Officer at the scheduling automation platform Calendly. She took her first marketing job at Dell, which prompted a move to the Bay Area, where she also started and sold a chain of yogurt stores. Before joining Calendly in 2023, Jessica was Head of Revenue Marketing at Asana and had also served as CMO of three high-growth, venture-backed startups, building their global enterprise marketing engines during rapid growth periods. 
 
Calendly started with a basic scheduling link for individuals, but business users needed more team features, and enterprise users needed more admin and security features, so the product grew to meet those needs. Jessica tells us they are building for scale but are sure to never lose sight of the individual user's success. Her team is focused on how to tell a complete story with comprehensive features while maintaining simplicity in the product and the messaging.
 
To do that, Jessica and her team have to experiment. Marketing changes all the time, and what worked then will not work now, so marketers have to be creative to drive results. She refers to this as “creative destruction” and encourages her team to make 70–80% of what they are doing every quarter new. However, to make this work, her team must trust that failing is not career-ending as long as they learn from it. Jessica also outlines how her approach to segmenting and communicating expectations around marketing spend facilitates experimentation. AI is a place where many companies are experimenting. However, within their product, the Calendly team sees a huge amount of opportunities they are pursuing, but they are taking a measured approach to keep their users' interests top of mind.
 
Alan and Jessica wrap up by talking about accepting and embracing hard feedback, the importance of listening to her gut feelings, why markets have to learn sales, and the shifts coming from the consumerization of B2B tech. 
 
In this episode, you'll learn about:
How Calendly developed through user feedbackWhat “creative destruction” is and the culture needed to make it work How Jessica segments out her budget to maximize RIO and the effectiveness  
Key Highlights:
[01:55] A love of baking born out of necessity [03:10] From investment banker to CMO[04:40] Wait… a yogurt shop?[06:20] Where Calendly started and where they are now[08:00] Comprehensive solutions rooted in simplicity[09:20] Success factors for shifting from serving one to many[11:00] ROI and effectiveness of marketing[14:00] Fulfill your commitments and build trust to get more wiggle room. [14:45] Balancing the need to drive results and be creative [17:10] The AI portion of the show is a little different this time.[19:45] How Calendly is using AI[21:30] Learning to accept and embrace really hard feedback[24:25] Advice to her younger self[25:20] Advice to other marketers [26:05] Trends and subcultures[26:45] Marketers basically have to be magicians 
Looking for more?
Visit our website for the full show notes, links to resources mentioned in this episode, and ways to connect with the guest!
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Jacqueline Woods is the Chief Marketing Officer for Teradata, the cloud analytics and data platform for AI, headquartered in San Diego, California. Jacqueline joined Teradata from NielsenIQ, where she was a member of the executive leadership team and Global Chief Marketing and Communications Officer. She also spent nearly 10 years as CMO of the IBM Global Partner Ecosystem Division, where she focused on building cloud, data, AI, and SaaS strategies. Before that, she was Global Head of Customer Segmentation & Customer Experience at General Electric and also held roles of increasing responsibility at Oracle for 10 years, as well as leadership roles at Ameritech and GTE, now Verizon. Thankfully, Jacqueline has always loved math, because, as she points out, marketing today is based mostly on data. However, she also emphasizes the importance of empathy and notes that it is essential in creating a space where people can be authentic and drive innovation, productivity, and product design.
In this episode, Alan and Jacqueline talk about where trust fits into the AI conversation, what leaders need to know before launching an AI initiative, and how AI can boost efficiency and productivity. Jacqueline also tells us why underrepresented people, like black female business leaders, need to be involved in AI as it evolves. 
While AI has been around for a while, it became all the rage at the end of 2022 with public access to tools like ChatGPT. AI is based on patterns, some factual and some non-factual. So that poses the question: how do we trust AI? 
That's where Teradata comes in. By having responsible people create the models, take responsibility, and think critically about the training, governance, and outcomes, Teradata is focused on building the trust required to use artificial intelligence, generative artificial intelligence, and large language models for their “global 10,000” clientele, like American Airlines and United Healthcare. These companies rely on Teradata for their cloud data and analytics workloads. Teradata has been stewards of trusted information and data since they were founded about 40 years ago, and they believe people thrive when empowered with better and entrusted information.
In this episode, you'll learn about:
Why is empathy important for marketers?The importance of clean data Why do underrepresented people have to participate in the evolution of AI?
Our Sponsor:
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Key Highlights:
[02:10] What is empathy?[03:45] Why marketers need empathy [07:00] How a love of math led her to marketing [10:30] Her path to Teradata[19:00] How can business leaders ensure AI can be trusted?[21:50] What to do before launching an AI initiative?[26:45] Remaining authentic using AI[30:20] Creative AI use cases as workforce multipliers[33:00] Why underrepresented groups need to participate in AI [36:20] What we can all learn from Moe[41:45] “Of course it’s Ai!”[42:10] Watching the shifting nature of work[44:40] Can you explain what marketing does and why it’s important?
Looking for more?
Visit our website for the full show notes, links to resources mentioned in this episode, and ways to connect with the guest!
Become a member today and listen ad-free, visit https://plus.acast.com/s/marketingtoday.



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In this episode, Alan and Robin discuss his path from Wall Street to citizenM, their focus on affordable luxury, the innovations they are bringing to the hospitality industry, and who they are working to serve. Robin also tells us about their unique citizensOf campaign and how it is helping them integrate into communities, as well as their partnership with World Bicycle Relief and how they encourage their guests to participate in impactful ESG initiatives. 
Robin Chadha is the Amsterdam-based Chief Marketing Officer of citizenM, where he leads the Brand & Communications team. Robin is half Indian, half Dutch, and was educated in American schools his entire life, giving him a deep understanding and appreciation for different cultures from a young age. He spent his first year after graduation on the floor of the NYSE and did another year in the offices, but knew it wasn't the place for him. He made the move into fashion by joining Tommy Hilfiger in New York, where he fell in love with the industry. He then moved back to the Netherlands to join his father's fashion company, Mexx, but left shortly after it was sold to Liz Claiborne. In 2005, Robin entered hospitality by launching Rain, a unique design-led food and drink experience venue in Amsterdam. Robin has always had a passion for travel, so he sold Rain in 2008 to join the budding citizenM team, where he has since been responsible for growing citizenM into the worldwide, distinctly recognizable hotel and lifestyle brand it is today.
citizenM was founded by Robin's father, Rattan Chadha, and opened its first hotel at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in 2008. When Rattan ran Mexx, he saw his designers traveling the world unable to find affordable luxury hotels to stay in, so they became the pioneers in affordable luxury with a focus on emotional connections, efficiencies, and experiences. Today, citizenM owns and operates 30 hotels in most major cities across the world. They focus on Bleisure travelers that are blending business and leisure, leverage their citizenOf campaign to overcome issues when integrating into new cities, and maintain impressive ESG and charity initiatives to encourage their guests to improve the world citizenM is helping them experience. 
In this episode, you'll learn about:
The market gap citizenM was created to fill, and what a Bleisure Traveler is How citizenM inspires their guests to participate in ESG and charitable giving initiatives The creative citizenOf campaigns being used to launch new locations 
Our Sponsor:
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Key Highlights:
[01:50] Polar opposites in travel, from Thailand to Dubai[03:40] From Wall Street, to fashion, to founder, to here[08:50] The idea behind citizenM Hotels[11:55] daring to disrupt and gain ground [14:45] 4 pillars it’s all built on [16:30] What is “Bleisure”?[19:05] citizensOf Campaign [26:15] citizenMovement initiative [30:40] The impact of growing up in three distinct cultures [33:30] What AI cannot do and what we do with data[35:10] Art and fashion trends 
Looking for more?
Visit our website for the full show notes, links to resources mentioned in this episode, and ways to connect with the guest!
Become a member today and listen ad-free, visit https://plus.acast.com/s/marketingtoday.



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In this episode, Alan and Andy discuss his path to creating Circle, how to build community, best practices and takeaways for community builders, how to build a great member experience, how to find the right members for your community, and much more!
Andy Guttormsen is the co-founder and chief revenue officer of Circle, an all-in-one community platform for professional creators and brands. He started his career on Wall Street, but quickly found that it wasn't the place for him. He attempted to start a couple of ultimately unsuccessful companies before he made his way to Teachable, where he had the idea for Circle and met his co-founder. Circle has community building down to a science, and they are kind enough to compile and share that science with us in their Community Benchmark Report. 
To generate this report, Circle sent out a survey to their 10,000 customers, gathered their internal product data, and put together a report on premium “Platinum Communities” to identify how they differ from other communities. The full report is available online, but Andy outlines some of the key takeaways and best practices from those platinum communities that we can use to build our own strong communities, from encouraging member interaction to designing valuable signature gatherings. However, none of these community engagement strategies work without high-quality members in the community. Thankfully, Andy also shares tips and tricks from great community builders he has seen succeed in growing their membership base. No matter the membership numbers, each community has value, but for businesses, that value will look different based on their goals. Andy gives us several examples of what can make a community valuable to a business and how to identify and increase that unique value. 
In this episode, you'll learn:
Why Andy’s first founder attempt failed, and why Circle was differentThe idea behind Circle and how it came to beBest practices and key takeaways from the Circle Community Benchmark Report How to find the right members for your community and build a great member experience 
Our Sponsor:
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Key Highlights:
[01:45] Why does Andy prioritize daily walks?[04:35] His path from Wall Street to co-founding Circle[10:30] Alan is in the Circle too.[12:05] Key takeaways from the Benchmark Report [14:40] What can we learn from Dr. Becky?[16:23] Examples of communities providing transformation for members [19:00] Circle vs. The Other Guys [22:40] What is a Signature Gathering?  [25:50] Get in the Hot Seat![27:30] Growing and finding the right members for your community[31:55] The value of community to a business[34:35] Valuable lessons learned through failure [36:25] What would he have done differently? [38:45] Adding predictability to the business [41:00] More creatives. More side hustles.[42:50] The AI portion of the show: bad copywriters beware
Looking for more?
Visit our website for links to resources mentioned in this episode and ways to connect with the guest!
Become a member today and listen ad-free, visit https://plus.acast.com/s/marketingtoday.



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