What does it take to build a world-class brand? Many marketers aspire to it, but few are ever able to actually participate in building one of the top brands in the world. However, Michael Mendenhall has had the opportunity a number of times. As a senior marketer at Disney, he was able to learn from great brand builders like Michael Eisner, Bob Iger, and Steve Jobs. And as a multi-time CMO, he has had opportunities to perfect the craft of building a brand from the top. Now Michael is bringing that expertise to TriNet, where he serves as Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer / Chief Communications Officer. On this episode, Michael opens up his playbook and talks about how to build a world-class brand. He also discusses how to manage a marketing team, why communications should sit with marketing, and much more.
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Interviews with trailblazing marketers, including CMOs, CEOs, VPs, and industry leaders.
What happens when marketing’s sharpest minds pull back the curtain? Hosted by Stephanie Postles, Marketing Trends drops listeners into the world of trailblazing CMOs, CEOs, and visionaries who share their journeys and groundbreaking strategies.
Most Recent Episodes
What is the difference between solid companies and those that dominate their industry with exponential growth? According to Kris Bondi, CMO of LogDNA, it's the ability to create a movement. On this episode of Marketing Trends, Kris explains why creating a movement is so powerful and how to do it. Kris also talks about her best advice for first CMOs, best practices for creating growth at startups, and much more.
Being a CMO is a tough job, especially in the weeks and months after stepping into a new organization. Few people have mastered stepping into a new CMO role quite like Heidi Melin, CMO of Workfront. Heidi has more than 20 years of senior marketing experience. Previously, she has served as the CMO of Plex Systems, Eloqua, Polycom, Taleo, Hyperion, and was the group vice president of marketing at PeopleSoft. On this episode of Marketing Trends, Heidi shares her best practices for taking over as CMO. She also discusses how to optimize work management, how to build a great marketing team, and much more.
Insurgent brands that use a direct-to-consumer e-commerce model have seen enormous success over the past few years. Many of them have skyrocketed from fledgling startup to category-leader in seemingly no time at all. Does this new trend mean that all legacy brands are doomed to be disrupted and eclipsed? Not necessarily, according to Nancy Shah, Senior Brand Marketing Manager at RB, a conglomerate that produces health, hygiene, and home products under well-known brands like Clearasil, Lysol, Mucinex, and Durex. According to Nancy, there are tried-and-true strategies for fighting back against insurgent brands and dominating your category. On this episode of Marketing Trends, she lays out those strategies and explains how she has been able to help RB's sexual wellbeing brands maintain their position as category leaders. She also discusses the unique difficulties and opportunities of marketing sexual wellbeing products, her best tips for starting a performance marketing program, and how to break down silos between performance and brand marketing.
What do consumers value most? According to Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Founder and CEO of SoulTour, the answer to that question is changing. Tara is the author of "The Transformational Consumer: Fuel a Lifelong Love Affair with Your Customers by Helping Them Get Healthier, Wealthier, and Wiser." Tara is using the findings of her book to empower a number of brands by focusing on their consumers. On this episode of Marketing Trends, Tara also talks about how she got into marketing, her career journey, what led her to write a book, and much more.
Over the last couple of years, there has been a 118% increase in job openings with sale enablement in the title. Why is this often-overlooked area of marketing exploding? To find out, we talked to John Raguin, CMO of Seismic, a leading sales enablement platform. On this episode of Marketing Trends, John talks about sales enablement, why it is exploding in importance and popularity, and how mastering it can lead to explosive growth. In this interview, John also talks about making “enablement” a word, what being a CEO taught him about being a CMO, and much more.
Throughout the entire history of business, marketers have always been concerned with promoting their product or service to buyers. But then a new business model arose: Marketplace-based businesses like Uber and Airbnb not only market to buyers, but to sellers as well. How does this new dynamic change the job of a marketer? To find out, we talked to Kevin Frisch, CMO of Wag!, a marketplace for dog-walking services. On this episode of Marketing Trends, Kevin talks about best practices for marketplace marketing, his best tips for a first-time CMO, his favorite campaigns he has ever been a part of, and much more.
Most marketers only have responsibility for promoting one brand. A few senior marketers are responsible for a handful of brands. Leslie Tom, SVP of AppExchange Marketing and Programs at Salesforce, has marketing responsibilities for an entire ecosystem. On this episode of Marketing Trends, Ian and Lauren sit down with Leslie to talk about how she handles this unique challenge, best practices for partner marketing, the top technology trend she’s watching, and much more.
Millions of people know about the "pay gap," or the average difference in wage earnings for men and women in the USA and throughout the world. Relatively few people know about the "equity gap," or the difference in ownership stake between men and women who work at early-stage companies. Emily Kramer, VP of Marketing at Carta, is trying to change that.
Marketers are often proficient at diagnosing and patching holes in a funnel. We spot places where potential customers drop out of the buying process and fix or add touch-points accordingly. But what about the potential buyers who we don't even know about? According to Ed Breault, CMO of Aprimo, there is an entire "dark funnel" of people who are looking to buy a product in your category, who never make it onto your radar. According to Ed, using predictive data to illuminate this dark funnel can lead to stunning results.
