In the second half of our conversation, we learn from Lindsey the importance of the bigger brand work and how it could significantly reduce customer acquisition costs. She urges CMOs to challenge businesses around issues that matter to customers, like sustainability and privacy. Wrapping up, we delve into the power of social media, emphasizing the value of customer engagement and audience involvement in framing your content. Don't miss out on this riveting discussion that offers a deeper understanding of the AI-driven marketing world.
Get ready to unravel the mysteries of marketing with AI as we chat with Lindsey Scheftic, the visionary founder of CMO Sidekick. Lindsey brings her expertise to our table, shedding light on innovative AI companies shaking up the landscape, why authenticity in messaging matters, and the evolving role of the Chief Marketing Officer in the age of AI disruption. She cautions about the pitfalls of releasing too much content too fast - a valuable lesson in the current fast-paced tech environment.
For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com, where you can read, watch, and listen to content from Robin Lewis and other retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
In the second half of our conversation, we learn from Lindsey the importance of the bigger brand work and how it could significantly reduce customer acquisition costs. She urges CMOs to challenge businesses around issues that matter to customers, like sustainability and privacy. Wrapping up, we delve into the power of social media, emphasizing the value of customer engagement and audience involvement in framing your content. Don't miss out on this riveting discussion that offers a deeper understanding of the AI-driven marketing world.
Get ready to unravel the mysteries of marketing with AI as we chat with Lindsey Scheftic, the visionary founder of CMO Sidekick. Lindsey brings her expertise to our table, shedding light on innovative AI companies shaking up the landscape, why authenticity in messaging matters, and the evolving role of the Chief Marketing Officer in the age of AI disruption. She cautions about the pitfalls of releasing too much content too fast - a valuable lesson in the current fast-paced tech environment.
For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com, where you can read, watch, and listen to content from Robin Lewis and other retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Hi everybody and thanks for joining our weekly podcast.
Robin:I'm Robin Lewis, founder and CEO of the Robin Report which, by the way, is much more than a daily report. It really is a knowledge platform from which we communicate thought leadership on various strategic topics throughout the daily reports, but also these podcasts, and we do webinars and, hopefully in the future, some live events and, along with Shelley Cohen, my weekly podcast partner and, by the way, she's also a professor at Fashion Institute of Technology. And today we get into the second half of our conversation on managing marketing's future with AI, with our special guest, Lindsey Sheftick, who left that big corporate world and started her own business, the CMO Sidekick, and you can listen to her amazing background on last week's podcast. We also covered some deep topics last week, including the importance of intelligence and this is important and not only focusing on AI intelligence. We're talking about all sources for intelligence, the velocity of changes in this industry, particularly in the marketing world, and what executives should be thinking about, and the cautionary tale of getting too much content out to the market too fast. So, Shelley, what's on tap today?
Shelley:Well, today we're actually going to pick up where we left off and further our conversation on AI's impact on marketing. Lindsey will tell us about AI companies making a difference, the who's who in AI and how they're doing it. Also, the importance of being authentic and using authentic messaging. And, of course, we have to touch upon retention, acquisition and the future role of the CMO. So let's get started.
Robin:Lindsay, really, it's really great having you here. You're someone who is, in the real time, sick of things. Can you give us a hinkling of what are some of the cool, cool AI companies that you have been talking to or working with?
Lindsey:Yeah, there's definitely a lot. I think a few come to mind for me. So there's a company called Brox B-R-O-X, that AI, and so Brox is basically going up against kind of like UGov and Cantor and Dinata. So what they have is, so, you know, brand trackers, like traditional brand trackers, and it tells you your brand awareness, it tells you your consideration, your purchase intent and basically tells you like how you're doing right, like, oh, this month our awareness went up and next month our awareness went down. Or oh, we had a big dip.
Lindsey:And then you kind of like you go back into all the things that you're doing and you try to look back and make inference to what happened, like what could have driven this bump up or bump down within my spend, within PR, et cetera. So what Brox is doing is it takes the research, the quantitative, but it also pairs it with qualitative analysis. So they go out and they do video surveying and they have AI takes all of that qualitative data about your brand and in your category, day over day, week over week, and it tells you. You can go back and you can see instantly insights, it sums insights for you and what happened in that week that was driving your brand awareness up or down, or telling you you know your competitors did this this week and which is why their brands are getting more awareness or buzz. Or Netflix was like a category that we look at as streaming, that they've been looking at and they can say Netflix had a lot of chatter around X show last week, which is why their brand awareness is driven up over a 2B, et cetera. So it's really amazing technology and analysis that we talked about measurement earlier and, like you know, the data and the analytics that come around. I think the quantitative right the numbers that's easier to get. The qualitative is still kind of the hardest piece to get and what Brox is doing is just taking all that qualitative data and being able to like immediately summarize it for a marketer in any given week. So that's actually signed on as an advisor for them in the last month and they're just doing incredible work.
Lindsey:I think I, when I met with their founder, I was just like you're, you're, just, you're going to, you're going to put, you go about a business Like what they're doing is like super archaic, and I was like is that okay to say? You know, it was like you're really coming in there and disrupting the category and he's like, he's like, yeah, we're not afraid of that, we're not afraid of that. So I love that, I like kind of love the, I love the brands and the companies that are going to come in and like really disrupt traditional kind of like marketing function. I think that's a, that's a fun one, wow, yeah go ahead, Shelley.
Shelley:No, no, no, you go ahead.
Lindsey:I was just going to say another company I talked to. So it's part of my journey and all of this is. I talked to a company called Arrow, so their site is the arrowai, and what arrow does is it automatically posts business content and they they're they're kind of marketing deal is they say, for a cost of a large pizza. So they're on a it's a cost by month, dependent on how many like pizzas a content that you wanted to post for you, and so it kind of take.
Lindsey:Think about it. You're a small business, you're so busy, you're running your business, you're running your website, you're running, or you have a retail store, you're running your storefront. The last thing on your mind at the end of the day is like your social media and your digital presence and your digital content. It's really hard to upkeep that, especially if you don't have. You know, you don't have enough money to hire staff or it's just like not the most important thing for you. Or maybe your business on your little bit older and you're like the whole thing is overwhelming. So this just takes that kind of guesswork out of it and yeah, it will post for you, it will post for your business like topical articles, topical posts, and it's that one's pretty exciting, I think.
Shelley:Wow, that sounds like we're really looking for some great change, which is, I think, great. I like the disruptors too. I think that's the only real change that can be made, as people come in and really just want to disrupt something.
Lindsey:Yeah.
Shelley:And then this morning.
Lindsey:Oh, sorry, I was going to say one more this morning I was actually talking to. I was talking to a guy named Frank who is an engineer and he's been working on this. He's been working on some AI that really supercharges your customer service with AI chatbots. Now I think this is and again being built for SMB, for small business, and I love, by the way, I love all the tools being built for small business, because I think those are the companies that really need it. I mean, just trying to get an edge over the competitors and customer service is very expensive. I know that from working at a very big customer service brand. It's very, very expensive. So I think that these types of tools that are going to streamline resources and give your customers not just information but good information and good solve, so that they don't have to get on a phone call with someone or chat with an actual person, I think is going to be kind of the future of how we connect with brands from a customer service level.
Shelley:So, wendy, you recently spoke at a conference and one of the things you said that really hit me is how consumers are holding companies accountable for sustainability messaging. Can you speak a little bit to that?
Lindsey:Yeah, I love this. By the way, I always tell people my husband's a teacher, so I feel like he's my carbon offset in life. I always tell people that I love to work for companies that do have a mission or a purpose or are giving back and truly giving back. I think that we see, with brands like Patagonia, who have just completely done this purpose over profit and really looking to give back to the planet through the course of profit that their company is making, I think is incredible. I think they're not just holding themselves accountable, but that their mission is out there and it's so loud out there that we're going to have to hold them to it. All their customers are going to have to hold them to it. I would say they're haters, but I don't know too many people that hate Patagonia because they do such wonderful things.
Lindsey:I think Apple is another one that I talked about at the conference is really interesting right now. At their keynote at the beginning of September, they put out that really fun video about just holding themselves accountable for this zero carbon neutral that they want to get to by 2030. They're poking fun fact checking themselves in the video, but they're really encouraging customers to go out and fact check them. I think they've done actually a phenomenal job between their sustainability and also privacy and putting their privacy policy and how they think about privacy really at the forefront of their messaging, which in years past it wasn't at the forefront of their messaging but that's been really topical the last, I would say, two years for them. And really asking customers and I said at the conference, haters also, because people always want to poke and call out brands for doing bad things. They're really putting themselves out there so that we can hold them accountable for the messages that they're putting out in marketing.
Robin:Well, you know, patagonia is a poster child and it's incredible what they do.
Robin:But in our capitalistic system it's difficult to see where retailers and brands are going to take the lead and buy into sustainability and all those other things. I just don't know because, also, it's going to rely heavily, as everything does, on the consumer. Are they really going to walk the walk or are they just talking? You know, I talked to a lot of young people Shelley talks more because she's a professor down there but every one of them will tell you oh yeah, I'm concerned about the environment and when I go shopping, I look for brands that are credible in terms of the sustainability issue. But when they get in the store and they see a pair of jeans that are manufactured in China for 12 bucks, and then they look at brands that are manufactured here, you know, outsourced or whatever but where the price tags 20 bucks I mean I'm just being hypothetical now, but you know, at the end of the day, research tells us they're going to take the cheaper brand I still think there's a lot of greenwashing happening in the retail space and beyond.
Lindsey:I think you know a lot of brands. I still think sustainability is a bit of an afterthought and I think, like Apple has taken this pretty big stance this year was really refreshing to see. And like I think I said at the conference, not just walking the walk, not just talking the talk, but walking the walk, and I do hope more brands fall sweet, because I feel like it's still a checkbox for brands Like, oh, we're sustainable, yeah, we recycle, or it's like, but our brands truly digging into supply chain, into how they're transporting products, I'm just not sure. I don't think so. I think it's still a checkbox. I think maybe some companies have a sustainability expert but they're not integrated into the inner workings of the company. They're more trying to look for ways that they can make claims to customers that they're sustainable versus actually having an impact on the business practice of how goods are bought and sold. So I think it's. I still think that's a checkbox. Is my, is my gut on the on the topic.
Robin:I would agree, and particularly in the apparel area. I mean you look at fast fashion, give me a break. I mean it's nuts she and, and you know you can. I was reading an article in the business week on. Guatemala has this huge distribution center where they get I don't know millions and millions of pounds of apparel every year and what they're doing with it is they're what they're in. Which is pretty smart is they are now setting up retailers in Guatemala and they're they are marketing and filling, assorting those retail stores with used goods.
Robin:So, you know it's like the re, re, re sale industry which is going on, but again, they still keep pumping more and more and more out there.
Lindsey:Anyway, before we let's bring it up a bit. Let's bring it up.
Shelley:Now yeah.
Robin:Anyway, can we touch a little upon the role of customer acquisition and retention? How? How are we measuring these across channels? Obviously, retention is a long term strategy and it takes time to really be impactful, you know, whereas acquisition can be more easily implemented, but maybe a lot more costly. So so, lindsay, how are brands balancing this to part act?
Lindsey:I think you said it, it's a balancing act. I think probably every company I've worked at in the last five to seven years everyone's like performance, performance, let's drive acquisition. And I think that you can't lose sight of the bigger the brand work that you're doing, because the brand work is not just for future customers, but it's also your current customers. Right, it's also for retention, and doing the larger brand work will have a cost savings on your acquisition over time, because they'll be more familiarity with the brand and you don't have to pay as much to acquire somebody. But, as marketers, their greatest partner is their finance lead, right, their CFO.
Lindsey:And I think, because the marketing has changed so much and we've almost gone backwards in a lot of ways, when we talk about attribution, I feel like CFOs are kind of more looking at last click right. And as a marketer, you're going like, no, this makes no sense, we would never look at it this way, but that's the data that's in front of them, right, that's what they have. And so you and everybody wants a data point to justify a reason why you're doing something. So I think, as marketers, you're kind of banging your head against the wall, going, no, that doesn't make sense and trying to show your CFO, your finance partner, why you should be investing in your brand because it's going to have that really positive effect on customer acquisition, driving less expensive customer acquisition, and that cost per and then also, when it comes to your customer, is considering a second purchase, for maybe you're on a subscription model and you want to keep your customers happy over time. Them seeing your brand in a positive light outside in the world is what's going to help drive some of that.
Lindsey:So I think brands that are putting all their dollars just down and driving customer acquisition and not thinking about the other things are very short sighted. I think that's how you see kind of some brands like, I'll say like Allbirds or like Dollar Shave Club. I think that's really kind of how they started was just driving down in social and just getting those customers, but they didn't do enough work on their brands too, and I think Allbirds is actually making a right turn, I would say right now I've been seeing kind of more brand work out of them versus just driving lower funnel advertising. So I think you're going to see brands that aren't focused on that balance just kind of be short lived because they're going to have kind of nothing to stand on five years from now.
Shelley:Yeah, good Interesting. So, lindsay, when you look in your crystal ball, what?
Lindsey:do you?
Shelley:see what's the new role of the CMO.
Lindsey:I think that, oh man, and this is part of, I guess, probably why I started my business, because I feel like CMO roles have just gotten so huge and so essential to an organization. They're no longer kind of sitting on the side, they're kind of at the center of everything a company is doing and there's just not enough time in the day to get it all done right. I think that marketers will have a lot more influence across a business and driving what that brand is moving forward, influencing retail, influencing how your product is sold. I mean, I think just even looking at what TikTok is doing in their shop and I was just playing in there last night and I was like I hadn't kind of gone into that shopping tab in a while and I was like, wow, this is like really starting to rival some of our big digital online retailers and it's all within the same ecosystem, and so I think, as a marketer, there's going to be there's so many things to think about in terms of point of purchase, customer journey, customer lifecycle. You see tons of brands moving more into subscription model and LTV being so important, helping to set the foundation of those subscriptions and the value that customers are getting from products and services. I think we'll sit. Maybe has not traditionally sit in marketing, maybe that's sat more in product, but I think that will. You'll start to see that really come through marketing as well.
Lindsey:And just, I think, as customers have more seamless journey through buying, through receiving messages, I think that marketing is just going to sit at the hub of all of that and I've already started to see that at some of my last roles and I think I think it's just going to be more important that marketing has a viewpoint into all the pieces of the business, even when we were talking about sustainability, right, sustainability, and how do you pull that forward to show your customers that you're sustainable?
Lindsey:And then how do you challenge back your business to say and I've been in this role before to say, hey, this is great, but you guys really aren't doing anything, like we're just doing nothing, like you want me to talk about this but like we're not actually doing anything. So I think it's going to be up to kind of people sitting in those CMO roles to challenge the business around sustainability, around some of those, you know, bigger topics and conversations that customers care about privacy. Another one to challenge the business to really take action across supply chain and other areas. So I really think that's how that's my crystal ball, and then the other one is just that I don't know. I think it's going to be up to the marketing team to figure out AI and how they implemented across the business. I think in engineering and building products. That's one thing, but in terms of resourcing, identifying areas to free up your team's time to do other things, to do more important things, and figuring out that data piece, I think we'll all fall on that modern day CMO.
Robin:Boy. I'll tell you, Lindsay, I could not agree with you more the front line of commerce is where the product touches the consumer, at the point of sale. Of course, now the point of sale is also your iPhone. Yes, the role of marketing I agree with you is going to be much higher, elevated and, frankly, a more complex role, because they're going to have to integrate all of the tools that they're able to do today. Once again, I'll tell you one thing I've learned a lot today and I think Shelley has too, from you. I must say that AI, well, it's currently the numero uno hot buzzy topic. On the other hand, it's also, I think, the least understood.
Robin:Yes, agree, yeah and hearing about what you do. Those who don't understand it should really reach out to you to help them. I just want to thank you very, very much again. Thank you so much.
Shelley:Wendy, tell people how to find you. How do? People find the CMO sidekick.
Robin:Well, that's right.
Lindsey:So my website is thecmocidekick. com, so you can find me there. You can also find me on LinkedIn, Lindsey Scheftic. Yeah, I would love to connect and hear about your businesses challenges and how I can help you solve. If your company is tapping you on the shoulder saying we need to do AI, let me help you figure that out, because you're probably very busy and you don't have time to meet with 500 AI vendors and implement that into your business. Yes, thank you. Thank you so much for having me. This was a lot of fun.
Shelley:Thank you, it was great fun. Thanks for coming and for our listeners. You can find more of our podcast on Apple, spotify, buzzsprout and, of course, theromreportcom, and please follow us on social media. Link in with us, and Lindsey too, for the latest thoughts about the industry.
Robin:And I want to thank everybody again for joining us, and particularly Lindsey. And, by the way, if any of you in the audience have an idea, concept or some topic that you would like Shelley and I to cover, just shoot me an email. It's Robin at therobinreport. com, and thanks again.