Thread by @minethatdata

1 - The most amazing experience of my career happened early in my career. Very early. Years 5-6 of my career.

I was an Analyst & then a Manager, working for a Director of Marketing. As marketers, we shouldn't be in a position to influence merchandise/creative much, correct?

https://twitter.com/Daath12/status/1199396913054986240

2 - But my Director (a former CPA) was different. She tied marketing to merchandising/creative.

Did Marketing have this place in the organization before she took the job? Absolutely now. She "willed" her way into merchandising/creative decisions.

3 - She combed all merchandising reporting, looking to identify what worked and what did not work.

And in any meeting with non-marketers, she changed the rhythm of the meeting from bashing marketing to evaluating merchandise / creative.

4 - She'd make the most amazing statements.

Merchant - I'm not convinced you mailed the right people the catalog.

Marketing - Why are you running a mock turtleneck on page 3 when we know from the past five years that every time we do that the catalog tanks??

5 - You should have seen the looks on the faces of Executives and Merchants when she'd point out obvious merchandise / creative issues.

6 -

Creative - Sales would have increased if we mailed more customers.

Marketing - Look at the dress on page 15. Catherine (our best model) isn't wearing it. No wonder it performed 30% worse. Why would we do that? Are we stupid? If it is on Catherine, it works.

7 - Needless to say, my Director didn't make a lot of friends.

But she sure got herself invited to an ever-increasing number of Executive-level meetings.

And by proxy, her staff (me) got invited as well.

8 -

Merchandising: The July catalog tanked.

Marketing: Why did we put a bald man on the cover of the catalog? That's why the catalog performed so poorly (true story). Do we like flushing money down the toilet?

9 - She'd leave a meeting and run right over to my desk ... "Bill said that the first twenty pages of the May catalog are stuffed with Domestics merchandise. Can you query the database to see how every catalog in the past five years performed when featuring Domestics up front??"

10 - She used to bring catalogs with her ... she'd say that it was her job to roll up the catalog and swat it across the face of the offending Professional, like one might do with a dog who misbehaves (this was 1992, mind you, not 2019).

11 - Here was her career trajectory.

1992 = Director.
1995 = President, Kids Division.
2001 = EVP Merch/Creative.
2006 = Founded Own Brand.
2011 = Sold Brand, Retired.

12 - What's the point of this story?

It is the responsibility of a Marketer to hold a business accountable ... to stop sloppiness, to work with coworkers more than with vendors, to CARE about merchandise and creative & analyze the heck out of each discipline.

13 - This stuff isn't rocket science.

It's what is required of a modern marketer (that's you).

Go out there and fuse your discipline with merchandising and creative.

Questions?
KH