Meaningful Consumer Relationships with Kimberly-Clark's Josh Blacksmith

The CPG Guys, Sri & PVSB, are joined in this episode by Josh Blacksmith, Senior Director of Global Consumer Relationships & Engagement at Kimberly-Clark, a manufacturer of household paper and personal care products.

Follow  Josh Blacksmith on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-blacksmith/
Follow Kimberly-Clark on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kimberly-clark/
Follow Kimberly-Clark online at: https://www.kimberly-clark.com/en-us/

Josh answers these questions:

1) Let’s start with a broader industry perspective. What are some of the emerging consumer relationship capabilities that have your interest and how are data, creative and technology enabling them? 
2) How do you think about investing against these capabilities? Where do you see brands making trade-off and sourcing funding from traditional investment areas?
3) The pandemic had a profound impact on brand loyalty as product availability was severely challenged. Switching became a necessity to ensure consumers could satisfy their needs. What best-in-class examples come to mind in how brands effectively managed consumer relationships to minimize the negative impact on share of wallet during the last 1.5 years? What categories do you still see facing this challenge?
4) How important is first-party consumption data to the art of consumer relationships? How do brands go about sourcing this information? Are retailers a viable source and what limits do they typically present? Assuming you can source it, what are some of the core applications for this data?
5) Retail media is all the rage in the CPG industry. Brands are rapidly expanding or reallocating budgets to invest in Walmart Connect, Amazon Advertising, Kroger Precision Marketing, Instacart and the like. Are they all “walled gardens?” How, if at all, do these closed loop platforms provide brands with opportunities to build consumer relationships. Are there specific capabilities you are hoping will emerge in these platforms to assist brands in enabling consumer relationships?
6) Are marketing mix analytics still all-encompassing and relevant in today’s unified commerce environment? How does consumer experience play into brand KPIs?
7) DTC is a serious consideration for CPG brands. This is a major challenge for perishable manufacturers. But even for non-perishable goods, investing against the supply chain capabilities can be very daunting for organizations designed to ship pallets to retail warehouses. KCC has taken a different approach, partnering with Shoppable. We previously had Shoppable’s CEO Heather Marie udo on our podcast. What has been the appeal to KCC for this CX?


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