Welcome to the art of marketing operations, a tailor podcast. Here you can
grow your knowledge about marketing operations, listen to ideas and strategies to help you
scale, grow and optimize your efficiency, drive your speed to market and enrich
your work life. Let's get to it. Welcome to the art of marketing
operations, a tailor podcast. I'm Glen bottomly, and today my guest is
Rebecca Robinson, head of marketing operations at Ben and Jerry's, a worldwide company
committed to making the world a better place by promoting peace, love and ice
cream, and offers a wide variety of ice cream, doggie desserts, non
dairy desserts and snack able dough, all made with high quality, ethically sourced
ingredients. Thanks for joining me today, Rebecca. Thanks, Glenn. I'm
super excited to be here, so I need to know first off, what
is your all time favorite Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavor? You know,
Glenn, we get this question all the time at Ben and Jerry's and it's
a tough one because there's always new, exciting flavors that our team is coming
out with. I would say fish food and give me some more is two
top favorites of mine. Um, and especially give me some more if you've
ever had it. I can never get enough of our Graham Cracker swirrel in
it. That's FANTASIC. So do employees actually get free ice cream? We
do, so one of the amazing perks is that we can get up to
three free pints a day. Around the office. We actually have chess coolers
and I probably have about nine to twelve points in my home freezer on any
given day and it really keeps my husband and my kids really happy. That's
incredible. You get three a day. You can take up to three Um,
the longer that you've been at the company, you know every few weeks
you might bring some home Um, but when you're new to the company,
I've got to say you are going through and just testing a lot of the
new flavors that you may not have tried before. Oh, that's fantastic.
That is so fun. And I've also heard that there are, is it
called the is it k nine to five R's at Ben in jury's where,
you know you have dog friendly offices, uh, you know, encouraging employees
to bring their their their dogs into the office. Is Is that correct?
And is that something that you yourself take part in. We do. So
we call them our canine to five ers at Ben in jury's in it's always
been a canine friendly company. Um. It does add a lot to our
culture. So, Um, basically what we do is um US humans can
bring them into the office and there's as you go through and you see different
offices and cubicles. If there's a baby gate, that's usually where you'll find
a little dog with their heads sticking out of it or just saying hello.
Um. But it really adds a lot. So we have a lot of
team members that will bring their dogs in. Um. It brings a different
energy. A lot of people find it really relaxing and then there's kind of
like pop hangout. So a lot of times people bring their dogs out at
the same time and the dogs can get some energy out, employees get to
get some fresh air, Um, and really it's kind of a nice sense
of community. I personally have a dog, Petrie, that I bring her
to work. Um. So she loves our day. We dropped the kids
off, she goes to a ride in the car, we get to go
into the office together, Um, and she doesn't have to be alone.
So one of the cool things is for anybody listening, if you're interested in
seeing some of our k nine of fiers, we actually have a page on
our site dedicated to pictures and profiles of all of our dogs that come into
the office frequently. Oh, that's fantastic. I mean, obviously that must
make uh for an incredible company atmosphere. Can you share a little bit more
about I mean what it is? What is it like, you know,
both working at the injuries but also with such a wonderful in reinforcing benefit such
as, you know, being able to bring the dogs in and and and,
and how much of a focus the company puts on on that? Yeah,
I think if Ben and Jerry's in general, Um, it's very much
a sense of community feel. So, whether you're a dog lover or you're
not, Um, it's really about being inclusive, having to be a workplace
where you're relaxed but you're energized, you're inspired and you can be creative.
and Um, even if you come to our office at some point, or
anybody does, like we have curvy walls and Um, we have a slide
in the front that you can go down and a lot of visitors who come
by Um, we'll go down our crazy slide. And so I think it's
more around like how do we have an environment that really feeds that culture in
Um, kind of who we are as a company, and it offers that
environment for people to be creative and Um and be themselves excellent. Now,
Rebecca, you've worked at Ben and Jerry's now for four years and and then
you've also been with the Unilever family of companies for about seven years. So
what drew you to work for such well known brands? Yeah, I think
Um, throughout my career I've had a really cool opportunity Um, starting out
in the industry at Ja and Jay, working on brands like Thailand, on
Listerine, Um, and you know, moving to a small company, mentally
term, where you're working on hot a Labo and Um soft lips, to
Unilever, where you get the exciting you know, dove and vassline and Um,
some of these really well known brands. One of the things I've always
really loved about Ben and Jerry's Um how authentic they are, that they're really
trying to make a difference in what they're doing. Um. I remember slurging
on their ice cream because when I was in college, you know, late
night ice cream and I was like, oh my gosh, what a cool
company. And my husband did his masters in Vermont and remember going to the
factory and being like one day I really want to work here. Um and
so is throughout my career. I started reaching out to people at benderies and
saying, you know, I really want to be a part of this and
I want to be a part of something that stands for more than just a
job but is actually really trying to make a difference. Um, from a
grassroots lens in is proving a sustainable business model, that you can do business
in a different way and you can be really successful at it. Um and
so what I think that that's really, in a nutshell, what like brought
me to bend and Jerry's is that, you know, working for all of
these, you know, exciting and cool brands throughout the years, Um,
it's been amazing the experiences, but really looking for one that aligns with the
values and what, Um, I hope to become a small part of,
to make a difference. Yeah, well, and you sort of touched on
it there, but can you expand a bit on sort of the mission of
Ben and Jerry's, because I I know that, as you just stated,
you know, Ben and Jerry's really believes that, you know, ice cream
can change the world and and I believe that there's a sort of a three
part mission, uh. And so you talked about the importance of mission and
what that means to you. That draws you there. So can you expand
on that a little bit more? Yeah, definitely. When Ben and Jerry
started the company Um, and they are two real guys, if people don't
know who are listening, Um, they really started it and founded it with
the idea that length prosperity can work, there's a sustainable model that can work
for everybody who's a part of the business to have sustainable growth and when we
truly think about our communities, that everybody can thrive. And so they the
whole company has been founded off of a three part mission Um, which has
remained that best in the guidance of how we even operate today. And so
the three part mission is around Um three areas product mission, economic mission and
social mission. And the product mission is all about making the best ice cream
in the world with the highest quality ingredients, Um, having a high standard
for UM quality business practices, respecting the Earth, in the environment and everything
that we're doing multiple layers deep and ultimately providing something that is super amazing.
We have the economic mission, which is about sustainable financial growth for all of
our stakeholders we engage with. So this includes vendors, Um, basically anybody
that we interact with. We want to make sure that it's a sustainable,
profitable business for all. And then our social mission, and this is really
around Um finding ways to, you know, make something better, and so
this relates to social environmental issues. Um. The goal is to bring awareness
in support action in overall, hopefully improving the quality of life for people,
whether locally, nationally or internationally. So what's really cool is we have,
you know, different areas in this. We have an activism team that works
in grassroots with organizations. We have, Um, a sustainability team WHO's working
on making sure that we have the most sustainable practices across our whole areas of
the business. So there's lots of depth there to make sure that we're constantly
doing the right thing, Um and also continuing to try to progress um whatever
we can. Yeah, Um, that's excellent. I appreciate that that review
of product, economic and social. Can you then now shift a little bit
and just talk about how you know these these three areas in this concept of
changing the world? How do you bring this into the role that you're now
in? Uh, you know, in terms of how do you how does
this impact the work that you're doing from a marketing operations perspective? It's a
great question. From a marketing operations perspective, I think what's so cool is
that we work so cross functionally with all of the different teams to bring the
go to market strategy to life. So, you know, when we think
about it, really in marketing operations you're an enabler and helping all of these
other teams do what they're doing by providing a profitable growth in a way that
we're driving the economic mission Um. And then there's a lot too that we
can do across marketing operations, whether it's with industry partners. So if you
think about retailers, vendors, um other areas of the business, it's also
about like how do we change some of the systems? How do we make
sure that equity is is a part of those systems? How do we drive
sustainability? How are we a really good partner in hopefully inspiring learning from others
and continuing to progress for, you know, people that we're working with.
It's not just about Ben and Jerry's working with people or Ben and Jerry's,
you know, doing the work. It's really about how do we get more
people involved in this so that we can really make a bigger difference Um,
and so I think that that's where US in marketing operations, enabling Um and
driving some of the budgets, driving the growth and the strategies and everything,
and then working with people on some of those like systemic processes or places where
we can really drive equity and Change Um. That's where we can really make
an impact. And what's interesting and when I hear you describe that is Um,
it's like you're it feels as if you're always looking through that broader Lens.
You know, it's not about necessarily just driving growth. It's not necessarily
about Um, you know, one creative strategy, but it's that it feels
that you're always going back up uh to check is this does this Gel with
our overall strategy? that it seems like, just in how you're describing it,
there's always that, you know, is this aligning with our overall mission.
Did I get that right? Absolutely. I think it's something we think
about all the time. Is, are we truly driving something that's sustainable in
are we doing the right thing? And having that three part mission is something
that we're constantly thinking about. It really offers an opportunity to tie it back
to are we are we driving that strategy? Are we doing the right thing?
Are we making the right choices? Um and I think it's super helpful.
Is is kind of a a roadmap and it continues to evolve, but
I think by having that really strong Um, you know, mission that we're
trying to accomplish, it makes it easier to make these decisions. Well,
and I know that when we chatted before, you know you would talk to
me a bit about you know, just how fun you know Ben and Jerry's
is as an organization to work with Um, but I know that you had
mentioned that it's the part that you love so much about about marketing operations and
what you do every day is you sit at sort of this intersection between marketing
strategy, creative, the goals, you know, of the organization, et
Cetera, to to drive the P and L is there a favorite part of
your job? It's funny because when people ask me what I do on any
given day, and I think for all of the marketing operations professionals out there,
sometimes it can be really hard because you're like, what problems that I
solved today and Um. And so what I think is one of the things
that I love from a marketing off lens is that every day is so different.
You never know what sort of fire drills could come up, Um,
what sort of problems you might need to solve in so when I think of
out it, I think of marketing operations is you're really a true connector Um,
and you're working so much cross functionally. And so it's such a cool
space because some days you get to span working on a five year brand strategy
and then you go into meetings with innovation teams or R and D or supply
chainer finance to figure out, you know, how do you bring that product
to market with those teams? Um, how do you work with field sales
and retailers and some of those meetings to how are you making sure that your
fans are really happy and you're driving, you know, successful marketing programs?
So I think what's really cool is like, and are you doing that from
a sustainable financial lens? And so what what you just mentioned Um in the
lead up is that you do. You get to span in marketing ops,
the strategy, to some of the technical pieces, to the execution Um,
but you get to do it with all these amazing cross functional part nerds,
while also solving a lot of problems and trying to come up with like creative
solution. Yeah, I love that and that, for me personally, that's
one of the things that I absolutely love about just marketing overall as a general
discipline, but particularly marketing operations as well, because brings in so much of
the data side, it brings in that creative creativity, but it's you just
can't get the work done without partnership, you know, with the other functional
areas and teams that you're that you're working with. Are you struggling to find
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at Taylor dot com. Now when, obviously, with when we uh did
our introduction. Uh, Ben and Jerry's has so many amazing products. Uh
and that spans so many different types of customers. Uh, you know that
that you are targeting so generally, who are you really trying to reach with
your marketing efforts? Does it completely depend on the product set that you're going
after, or are you looking for a certain type where, for example,
Ben and Jerry's mission really will resonate with them? And I really want to
kind of dive into how do you actually nurture relationships with your various sets of
customers? So I think one of the interesting pieces is Um if you take
a step back on you know who you're trying to reach. From even taking
a look at marketing across a lot of the different brands that we've worked on,
marketing has evolved so much in consumers are so much smarter than ever before,
Um, and so I think that in understanding who you're trying to reach,
it's so important for brands to truly know who your consumer is. So
who's buying you versus who's engaging with you might be slightly different. What channels
are people engaging you in, because there's now so many different opportunities for people
to engage with you um across, you know, technology, as we know,
or some of the more traditional marketing Um tactics that are there. And
so I think what is so important in trying to figure out who you're trying
to reach with your marketing is who is that consumer and how are they engaging
with you? And then as you go about nurturing them for each brand,
like for Ben and Jerry's versus listening versus some of the other brands, it's
really how do you go about determining where to meet those people in what sort
of messages is do you want to have? So I think I've seen throughout
my career that it can actually it can be different. Right you could maybe
focus on our product specific communication, or what you might find is you are
trying to just drive general awareness of your brand. And so I think it
depends on where your brand is in your life cycle, how aware people are
of it, and then what are you trying to communicate with them and how
are you trying to engage them, and I think it differs a lot for
each brand. That's uh, that's a great comment about not only deciding where
to meet them, the messages that you want to, you know, serve
to them, but also your comment about where the brand is in terms of
its brand life cycle. I think that's a very powerful, uh comment,
because it's almost that overlay, because if you're a brand new brand, if
your market doesn't know about you, you know, you have to do much
more on the awareness side as opposed to nurturing or what have you. Um.
And so, for that perspective, do you what, what advice would
you give if somebody is at the early stage of brand awareness and how you
engage with them versus a very mature brand, Um, you know, and
how you engage with them? What, what experiences would you have that you
could provide advice either way? Yeah, I mean, I think if you're
a new brand, it depends on who's your target market because, Um,
as we know, there's, you know, from a full funnel marketing mix.
At the top of the funnel you can drive general awareness. So there's
so many different tactics where you can grab a ton of the population and send
a communication out. So if you're trying to drive mass awareness, there's opportunity
there. But if you're a niche new brand in maybe you have very specific
target audience that you're looking for, you might want to do something that's a
little more defined. From maybe it's a digital Um perspective that you're going after
and you focus more on digital marketing or more targeted. I think it really
you know, if your niche or new, depending on what your product or
your service or your offering is, Um, who are you going after and
where are those people and then how do you meet them there? So,
like a lot of times whenever, Um, I've been at companies, that
goes back to the question of like, are you just trying to drive awareness,
or are you trying to drive awareness and trial or ultimately, are you
trying to drive that conversion? And I think that those answers will then help
you define like how do you go about approaching the people that you're trying to
read? That's excellent. And then, Um, you know, when you
think about your career, uh and so many of the well known consumer brands
that you've mentioned, you know here, you know during this uh podcast.
Um, what have been some of those best lessons that you've learned along the
way specifically to build brand equity. So, for brand equity, I think
this is such an interesting question. Um, authenticity inconsistency are two of the
key pieces, I think, because people getting what they expect from you and
being consistent in that. Um, providing consumers with the experience that you're communicating
to them. So not over selling it, not over communicating what you're offering.
Um and understanding what consumers think of your brand or your company and where
do you sit with them. Sometimes it's really tough, but you have to
sit down and and really listen to people and what they think about your brand
and where are there issues and opportunities that you can help address for people?
Um and then also maintaining and protecting is also really important for brand equity because,
whether you're a new brand or new company and building it out, or
you've been really established, holding to certain guidelines and guard grills, Um,
which automatically then really helped that authenticity and consistency that you're building with people,
um becomes really important because, when we think about it, brand equity and
growing brand equity is about people getting what they expect in trusting in knowing that
you're going to be providing exactly what you're talking to them about. Very well
said. I think you're as you described your first too, authenticity, inconsistency,
uh. You know, Kudos to you, Kudos to Ben and Jerry's,
because if I think back to how long I have been aware of the
brand uh, I think authenticity is absolutely a word that I would use when
I would describe Ben and Jerry's and certainly consistency, because I think from you
know, year after year, product after product, every product, extension after
product extension. I think everybody would would would say who has familiarity with the
brand, would say that there is absolutely a consistency and message uh from from
the Ben and Jerry's team. So I think the way that you've described that,
that would certainly describe very high brand equity, you know, in terms
of UH. You know the anecdotal comments here for me, but also your
comments about maintaining and protecting because I think that that is something that I think
you don't it's sort of the result authenticity and consistency. As a result of
that focus on maintaining uh and protecting the brand uh, you are the steward
of of the Ben and Jerry's brand and I think you're doing a fantastic job
in driving that equity forward. Thanks. Now, what about the marketing mix?
Um. So when you think about the marketing mix, can you share
some of your views on how do you use both print as well as digital
tactics, uh, to to drive brand awareness and growth? Some of the
actual tactics side? Yeah, I mean I think we um, I think
we started getting into it a little big ooh. Is that it depends on
Um. I think it depends on a lot of what you're offering for your
brand or your company. And then what is what is your goal? Is
it driving awareness and where your consumers at? So I think how brand leverages.
It's been really interesting because some brands will leverage print really heavily, Um,
and you'll still see them in, you know, magazines and newspapers in
a lot of different print offerings. Some will be very digital focused, especially
newer brands, because, depending their target consumer might be, you know,
only on their phones and only being an indated with little adds and everything from
an engagement perspective. And then there's some brands that, from a traditional TV
commercial, UM, they might be funneling a ton in for general awareness and
that has even involved with all of the new streaming services. So there's so
many different options now and I've seen some brands really drive that traditional print in
commercial Um, I've seen some really be in that digital space and then there's
brands that you can see use a combination. So maybe, depending on if
you're trying to really just drive awareness to Um a really high circulation of people,
you might go more of the traditional route from a marketing mix of print
um as well as like freestanding inserts and in different promotions where, depending on
you know who you're targeting and if you're ultimately going to try to convert people
at the lower funnel, maybe you're focusing more on, you know, digital
consumer promotions Um different ways that you're trying to really engage them and then drive
that conversion. So I think that for each brand that is looking at their
marketing mix, it probably depends on who their target consumer is and what they're
offering and it's probably a wide spectrum of what they include from all of those
different tactics to make it really successful. One of the pieces that I would
say is Um. I'll never forget that's really early in my career, one
of my mentors said, always keep in mind, like first, where you're
meeting someone. And so, if it's online or if it's in a magazine
or in their house, how do you then bring them on this journey with
you? Right? And so, Um, how do you kind of bring
them along the story or the journey? And so first they meet you there,
but then how do you engage them it? Once you're in store,
fifteen feet out, ten feet out, five feet out? And if you
think about that path to purchase, where are you meeting them and where are
you bringing them along your journey? That's excellent and uh, that, Um,
is a great description as you as you described from the like in a
store, you know, uh, ten feet out, five feet out,
et Cetera, as they get closer and closer to the product. And and
how are you? You know, how is how do you want that engagement
to to be? What do they see about the brand? You know,
everything from the packaging to you know, uh, you know, store display,
et CETERA. I think that's great, but I think that what is
also interesting in a B Two b context with what you just said, is
where are you first? You know, meeting your your buyer. Uh,
you know, and uh, and, although it may not be fifteen feet
out, but if it is, you know, uh, six months before
a contract coming up, three months before a contract coming up, one month
before a contract coming up, what is the experience that you want your buyer
to to have? So interesting tie between, you know, both in a
B Two c environment as well as a B Two b environment. So I
think that's very, very interesting description. So when you think about the just
the marketing operations discipline overall, how have you seen the marketing operations discipline transform
over, say, you know, the past ten years, and how do
you anticipate that marketing operations is going to transform over the next ten years?
Let's say I think a lot has changed over the last ten years. If
you think about the rise and smartphones, social media, the rise of content
marketing, UM, consumers being inundated with so many messaging, Um, so
many different ways that you know there's you have to figure out how to stand
out more and engagement across the Internet. Even if you think about, as
we've continued to evolve even over the last two years now, the Internet and
how we use the Internet both across work and personal time. It's evolved even
faster than I think we could probably have thought about due to covid and so
a lot has changed, with access to insights and data, connecting with consumers
and more versatile ways. Um, people have a better sense of when a
brand is being authentic and transparent. They can do their homework on brands and
companies and really, you know, vote with your wallet, right Um.
And marketing is really holistic now. Consumers are looking for more information, they
care about honesty, they care about kind of looking under the hood, so
to speak, Um, and so you really need to understand your consumers.
What are truly their needs, are wants, and then how do you meet
that? Because you can't just provide um like, with so much being personalizing
customized now across a lot of different industries, you can no longer just put
one advertisement out and have that be super successful. Um. You really have
to figure out what people want and meet and then meet them there. M
Hmm, well said, very well said. Um. Well, Rebecca,
before we wrap up today's episode, what is the main takeaway that you want
to leave our audience with in understanding the challenges facing marketing operations executives today?
I think there's three things that I would leave everyone to think about. In
people who are listening are probably thinking about this is Um. Listen to your
people, trust them and give them the space to test new ideas and concepts,
as everything keeps evolving. Um. The second piece would be really stay
true to can inunicating honestly about what you're offering as a brand or a company.
Um. Don't try to be something you're not in consumers and employees can
see faster than ever if it's authentic and if it's really something that they want
to be a part of. And then lastly, and this is something that
I was talking to a mentor about Um a couple of weeks ago, is
having a vision in a multi year strategy is key. Um. With this
ever changing environment that we have in the world that we're living in, it's
really easy to get caught up in wanting to change your your vision or your
strategy to meet what's happening today. But it's really important to hold true to
what you're trying to accomplish and you can make subtle tweaks, but not getting
caught in the hamster wheel of reinventing your strategy to encompass all of these shiny
new things. M M. Excellent. Well, that reps up this episode
of the art of marketing operations. Thank you so much for joining us today,
Rebecca. Until next time, stay safe, take care and thank you
for listening. Thank you for listening to the art of marketing operations, brought
to you by Taylor. Don't forget to hit subscribe in your favorite podcast player.
If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review and share. Until
next time,