Thread by @minethatdata

1 - This is such a fun time to be a marketer and/or analytics expert in the retail world.

Especially if you are a new Marketing VP, especially if you have a background in digital.

2 - If you have a digital background, you get to install your own Marketing Management System, your own program now that you're the new VP of Marketing. "This is how we've always done things" is out ... it failed, and failed miserably. Omnichannel & old-school marketing failed.

3 - If you have stores in malls, that business model is being fundamentally transformed. The "shared traffic" model that served malls for the past 30 years is over.

This is the best possible news for the new Marketing VP, especially one with a digital background.

4 - Say you become the new Marketing VP at a company like Gap ... and you are digitally focused. Look at the Great Eight below. On day one, you have to have a plan for each topic, right?

5 - Who is your target audience? Those with legacy in the company (i.e. the keepers of the culture) have an idea who the Audience is, and that idea is likely outdated. You listen carefully, but you chart your own course, a modern course, and you teach relentlessly.

6 - How are you going to make your Audience "Aware" of who you are? The "shared traffic" mall-based model finally collapsed, so you can't count on Macy's sending you 15% of your traffic anymore. Your digital chops really pay off in this instance ... right? Have a plan on day one!

7 - Once you define your Audience & you make your audience Aware of who you are and why you matter, you need to convert the prospect to a purchase, thereby Acquiring the customer. This is what your coworkers think your job is. Of course, you know it is more complicated than that.

8 - Make sure, on day one, that you run your five-year forecast simulation, so that you know exactly how many new customers you need in 2019-2020 so that you begin growing in-store sales while turbocharging online sales.

9 - Email becomes your biggest Welcome Program, once you Acquire the customer. Have a different email cadence and have different content for first-time buyers ... this program should last three months while the customer is most likely to buy for the second time.

10 - Your Welcome Program is going to feel uncomfortable for most marketing employees. They're not used to doing something fundamentally different than what they've done since 2000-2005. Here, resistance doesn't come from customers but from your co-workers, merchants, and staff.

11 - Your Anniversary Program is also going to make employees feel uncomfortable. You are going to create 3-4 major events each year that you build your digital marketing tactics and store events around. Your business becomes comparable to a sports/entertainment franchise.

12 - In wrestling entertainment, you have "Wrestlemania" ... and this brings in major $$$ each year.

You will have something comparable ... 3-4 annual events that customers crave. Your digital chops will take you only so far here ... you'll need a ton of offline creativity.

13 - You'll need a credible Optimization Program as well.

In particular, your brand spent 20 years getting store customers to buy online, and customers listened, thereby hurting stores.

You'll have to figure out how to do the opposite ... get a digital customer in a store.

14 - And you'll have to figure this out at minimal cost ... because getting a digital customer to buy in a store will likely not increase sales and will likely cannibalize a future e-commerce transaction. Therefore, you'll need significant online/offline expertise & cost mgmt.

15 - The new Marketing VP will need to become a merchandising expert ... not knowing what to offer, but instead knowing what (of the existing assortment) to feature to various customers.

You'll quickly learn that you must promote New Merchandise to your best customers.

16 - You'll use all of your low-cost digital channels (think Instagram) to feature the best new merchandise you have. Your job is to foster the growth of new items so that they become winning items, items that amplify your future marketing efforts.

17 - You're going to play a role in the shrinking of retail ... fewer stores, and more importantly, smaller stores in new locations. You will be able to demonstrate that Winning Merchandise (i.e. best sellers) need to be prominently featured in these new (smaller) stores.

18 - When you shrink the size of stores, you need to keep sales at a high level. You do this by featuring Winning Merchandise (i.e. best sellers). This protects your brand.

Sell new merchandise in low-cost digital channels.

Sell existing merchandise in expensive retail stores.

19 - You bring your plan to the table on Day One. You teach every single employee about how customers behave, and you teach them why this is important, and you teach them why you win long-term by executing The Great Eight.

20 - This is SUCH A FUN TIME to be a New Marketing Leader, especially in Retail.

Take advantage of The Great Eight ... build your own Marketing Management System and help your brand transition into the future.

Questions?
KH