Building Better CMOs and Marketing Leaders MMA Global / LightningPod

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It doesn't matter how good your marketing is if you can't communicate its impact to the larger organization, says Charisse Hughes, senior vice president and Chief Growth Officer of Kellanova. Her firm spun off of the Kellogg Company last year to manage iconic brands like Pringles, Cheez-It, Pop-Tarts, Rice Krispies Treats, as well as breakfast cereal outside of the U.S. Those have been household names for a long time, but Charisse says that across the marketing world, it's easy to lose sight of the long term.
"Marketers are missing the mark in terms of our communication strategy within the organization—as well as how we look at, measure, and think about immediate versus long-term business results or long-term brand equity," she says. "I feel like we, as a marketing community, have to get better at educating our organization, our CEOs, our CFOs, on what is the value of a click today, what is the value over the course of time, and what tradeoffs are we making here and why?"
Today on Building Better CMOs, Charisse and MMA Global CEO Greg Stuart discuss all of that, as well as how to unlock the value of brand marketing, purposeful career pivots and getting to the C-suite, balancing hard truths with optimism, and more. Plus: What makes a Chief Growth Officer different from a CMO?

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This episode was produced and edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm.
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Some marketers think of themselves as operators and some see themselves as visionaries. But only the great ones, says Ulta Beauty CMO Michelle Crossan-Matos, understand that they have to be both. Just before the POSSIBLE conference in Miami, where she spoke to MMA CEO Greg Stuart, she was in Orlando, working to inspire 3000 leaders from Ulta's massive retail operations.
"But when I get in the office tomorrow, it is about how are my sales doing? How can I pivot? How can I get even more this Friday?," she says. "So ask yourself deeply right now, how comfortable do you feel between that toggle? And if you don't enjoy that, that's okay. How can you learn to enjoy it?"
In this special live episode of Building Better CMOs, Michelle and Greg also talk about her unusual path to the C-Suite, managing a gigantic loyalty program, creating your own framework, preparing for every scenario, why every marketer should take a stint in retail, and more. Plus: How business leaders can prepare for unexpected scenarios like COVID.

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This episode was produced and edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm.
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Marketing is both an art and a science, but unless the science is sound, the rest of the company won't believe that you're driving results. So says Morgan Stanley Wealth Management CMO Andrea Zaretsky, who has devoted her entire marketing career — starting at American Express in 2003, with stops at Sephora and Toys-R-Us in between — to improving measurement.
"From the beginning, it's been really important for me to understand how to use analytics," Andrea says. "How to make sure that we're setting up the right test and control, how do we ensure that we're getting learnings and cascading them, and then how do we scale wins to truly drive growth for the company?"
Today on Building Better CMOs, Andrea talks with MMA Global CEO Greg Stuart about the three things companies can do to measure better, how to work with non-native marketers, and why the Super Bowl really matters. They also discuss the underrated importance of customer experience to business results and — most importantly — how E*TRADE makes those talking baby ads.

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Andrea's LinkedIn

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This episode was produced and edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm.
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"At the end of the day," says Impossible Foods CMO and Chief Creative Officer Leslie Sims, "we're helping save the planet, we're helping the environment, but people don't necessarily want to hear that when they're eating a cheeseburger."
The arrival of the plant-based meat industry came in the form of a scientific breakthrough: Foods made from plants that behave like meat when cooked, which have been steadily added to restaurant menus around the world; in the case of Impossible's chicken nuggets, many critics have declared them "better than the real thing." But our emotional attachment to the foods we eat means that, if Impossible wants people to make different decisions in the grocery store, Leslie and her team have their work cut out for them.
Today on Building Better CMOs, she and MMA CEO Greg Stuart talk about her background working at ad agencies, the disconnect between CMOs and CFOs, and her guiding philosophy that marketers must always remember the human on the other end of their work. Plus: The danger of over-reliance on data, and the enduring power of the Super Bowl.

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Leslie's LinkedIn

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This episode was produced and edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm.
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If you like Building Better CMOs, we think you'll also like "Stories and Strategies For Public Relations and Marketing," hosted by Doug Downs.
In this episode, originally released in May 2021, Doug interviews Ogilvy UK vice chairman Rory Sutherland about nudge theory — the behavioral science concept popularized by Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler's book "Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness."
We'll be back in two weeks with a new episode of Building Better CMOs!
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By her own admission, First Command Financial Services exec Kellie Richter's official title is a mouthful. It's "EVP, Chief Marketing and Client Experience Officer" — but those aren't empty words to her.
The clients who First Command cares about are military service members, veterans, and their families; even more than a regular financial services customer, Kellie says, "they do their research ... they're protective of their services and they should be."
Having Client Experience in her title gives Kellie an added layer of accountability, and serves as an invitation to anyone researching the privately-owned firm to reach out about their experiences, good or bad.
"A lot of times, it's not about getting a one or a five star," she says. "It's about, are you listening? Are you paying attention to the feedback? And are you responding to that? And that's what people want to see."
Today on Building Better CMOs, Kellie talks with MMA Global CEO Greg Stuart about how First Command's mission motivates its employees, why marketing can't fix a broken client experience, and why she believes some of the best marketers in the business are at Trader Joe's. Plus: What happens to military families during a government shutdown?

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Links:

Kellie's LinkedIn

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This episode was produced and edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices