Lochhead on Marketing

In today’s episode, we dig into two how two companies approached a viral situation. First, Ocean Spray’s positive trendjack in response to Nathan Apodaca’s viral TikTok video. Second, is how Sherwin-Williams fired an employee who created viral Tiktok videos mixing paints. We ask the seminal question, how can you be more like Ocean Spray? Marketing Wins and Fails When Nathan Apodaca’s Tik Tok video went viral (he was skateboarding, drinking his Ocean Spray, singing Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams”), newly appointed Ocean Spray CEO, Tom Hayes took action. It was the trendjack of the year and Tom Hayes took it to a whole new level. It ultimately gave Ocean Spray positive PR.  Now, on the other hand, when Tony Piloseno, an Ohio University senior, who worked part-time at Sherwin Williams created a set of popular paint videos on TikTok, he got fired. What’s worse: Piloseno said he actually pitched Sherwin Williams Corporate Marketing Team the idea of being more active on TikTok with some of his videos.  “Piloseno says it took TWO MONTHS to get in touch with corporate marketing and they ‘basically told me that there wasn’t really any promotions going onso there wasn’t a need to see the presentation.’ %$#@!!!!” - Christopher Lochhead What Savvy CEOs and CMOs Do Do you work for a company like Ocean Spray or Sherwin Williams? If you want to be more like Ocean Spray, how do we do that? Most companies today, if they are smart, they have social media marketing departments trying to create what this guy has created. “Savvy CEOs and CMOs invest heavily in creating legendary digital content. leaders want to share knowledge, they have a point of view, and as a result, they are mobilizing communities, they are creating movements and ultimately, they are growing their category and brands through a thought leadership owned media and earned media strategy.” - Christopher Lochhead Seminal Questions To Ask Christopher narrates one of his conversations with Robert Rosenberg, the former CEO of Dunkin Donuts. He and his team capitalized on one franchisee discovering a potential product, the munchkins and that is a great example providing support to your team.  “This brings us three seminal questions for all of us Marketers, number 1, are you building an Ocean Spray or Sherwin Williams-like culture? Number 2, are you encouraging radical creativity amongst your people and number? Number 3, are you building a digital owned media strategy and capability?” - Christopher Lochhead To know more about marketing fail: Sherwin-Williams Vs. Ocean Spray story, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger. He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur. Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist. In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion. He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

At a time when career uncertainty is high and the need for economic security has maybe never been higher, let's talk about three ideas on how you can have a legendary marketing career to 50 and beyond. If you're younger or older than 50, Chris has got some ideas for you in this episode. Ageism In Business During the last episode with Dave Gerhardt, CEO of Privy, there was a question that popped up around the possibility of having a career in marketing past the age 50.  Chris thinks there's ageism in business broadly and certainly, in the tech business as well. He further shares facts from an Harvard Business Review that says, “seven out of 18 top Silicon Valley companies having a median age of 30 or younger.” “In addition, a study conducted by the San Francisco federal reserve bank showed that callback rates for jobs for older people, older applicants were much less. And with women having lower callback rates than men, additionally, more research from Stanford. The Stanford center on longevity says that, contrary to popular belief, older workers are healthy and have a strong work ethic and tend to be very loyal to their employers and are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs than their younger coworkers.” - Christopher Lochhead If You Are Over 50 Some may claim that younger professionals have more energy to fulfill work. However, London Business School published a study which showed that people under 45 were exhausted. So now, Chris advises listeners, ages 50 and above, to become known for a niche that you own.  “You don't want to be just a generic marketing person. What you want to be is recognized as an expert, as a guru, as a Yoda, as a sensei in a particular type or style or approach or discipline of marketing said in a simple way, niche down.” - Christopher Lochhead 3 Ideas For Your Career Number one, ask yourself the Seminole question, “what am I great at that few others are great at, that also delivers the most economic value.” Step two, niche down hard on that superpower skill. Third, name yourself in your niche, claim it and frame it. “Now you know that your personal niche is working for you. You become known for a niche that you own. As that happens, as you age and, assuming you stay current, you do legendary work. You have to produce legendary results. There's no question about it. Of course, you have to build great relationships. So you do those other smart things along with being known for a niche that you own.” - Christopher Lochhead To know more about the 3 Ideas To Have A Legendary Marketing Career to 50 and Beyond, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger. He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur. Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist. In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion. He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive. Links: 5 Ways to Respond to Ageism in a Job Interview Silicon Valley has an age problem Study using fake resumes shows widespread age discrimination When No One Retires Our Assumptions About Old and Young Workers Are Wrong We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

In this episode, one of the most high profile CMOs in the tech world, Dave Gearhart, aka DG, CMO of Privy is here. We have a fantastic conversation from marketing, planning to category, design, and more. Christopher recently guested on his podcast, which is called B2B Marketing Leaders. In a lot of ways, this conversation is a continuation of that conversation. It's one younger CMO with one older CMO, we'll let you decide who's who. He's also got an awesome new marketing group on Facebook called Digi MG. To know more about how to be a legendary CMO, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Dave Gerhardt is a B2B marketing leader & widely regarded as one of today’s leading brand builders. Prior to Privy Dave was VP of Marketing at Drift where he helped the company grow into one of the fastest growing B2B SaaS businesses of all-time. His work has been featured in Forbes, Fortune, Inc., Entrepreneur, TechCrunch, and Harvard Business Review, and he’s the co-author of the definitive book on Conversational Marketing, which was a #1 new release on Amazon in Marketing & Sales and a top 20 business book in the U.S. He lives in Boston with his wife and two kids. Links:  Linkedin: Dave Gerhardt  Privy Twitter: @davegerhardt The B2B Marketing Leaders Podcast Patreon: @davegerhardt  Privy: Dave Gerhardt  We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter,Instagram and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter,The Difference, for some amazing content.

This is a super fun episode. Christopher Lochhead talks about what was almost for sure, the most fun marketing trendjack of 2020. On September 25th, Nathan Apodaca was going to work when his truck broke down. He grabbed his longboard skateboard and his bottle of Oceanspray and shot a video of himself going to work, drinking his juice while smiling and singing Fleetwood Mac's classic song “Dreams.” The video went viral and Oceanspray and Fleetwood Mac just pulled off a feel-good trendjack of 2020. Trendjacking In Past Episodes If you’re a long time listener, you might remember Episode 23 with the legendary Paul Maher from Positive Marketing in the UK. He's the godfather of trendjacking. In that episode, we popped the hood on this powerful marketing concept called the trendjack. Moreover, on Episode 26, we looked at how actor Ryan Reynolds and his gin company, Aviation trendjacked a Peloton ad. Ultimately, he sold it for $160 million.  “Part of what got Ryan there was being creative and doing things like trendjacks. A trendjack is a simple, powerful idea, where you look at what's going on in the world of news and you find a creative way to put yourself in the middle of it.” - Christopher Lochhead  The Viral Video Nathan Apodaca’s video has been viewed 61 million times on TikTok alone. His video started to go viral which led people to recreate his video while skateboarding or driving a bike or doing something with movement singing this song, including Mac Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks, herself and other celebrities, and normal, regular people.  “It created an absolute phenomenon on social media. Of course, the company Oceanspray was paying attention. Oceanspray CEO Tom Hayes got into the fun and he recorded his own version of Apodaca video. Now, as all of this was happening Fleetwood Mac's 1977 classic ‘Dreams,’ as billboard says, thundered into the Top 10. Think about that for a second. Fleetwood Mac, 1977 with a top 10 hit, thanks to a viral video from Nate.” - Christopher Lochhead Oceanspray’s Radical Generosity Ocean spray decided to get radically generous and thoughtfully aggressive with this incredible opportunity. They proceeded to buy Nathan a new truck because his truck had broken down and they made sure they got him one that they called “Oceanspray Red.” Of course, they stuffed it with juice.  “Recently, CEO Hayes said ‘we have about 15 billion media impressions.’ You think that's going to help sales. You think that's going to help grow the category and the brand for ocean spray. Fascinatingly, Hayes has only been the CEO for about three months of Oceanspray. So for a brand new CEO to mobilize the company to take action on this, I think is pretty extraordinary.” - Christopher Lochhead To know more about Christopher’s thoughts on this recent trendjacking of Oceanspray, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger. He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur. Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist. In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion. He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

Every time a tech company launches a successful IPOs, we end up hearing a lot of negation from the media. Claims such as “I can't believe this company is worth so much” or “so much money invested it must be crazy because they hardly have any revenue” or “they hardly have any profits or they rent.” So in this episode, Christopher gives us a low-down on why market cap or valuation (the value of a company) is not only a function of financial metrics. He also talks about the crucial role marketing plays to actually help drive market cap. What Really Drives The Value Of A Company There are three principal drivers of a company's value. The first is investors' perception of the size and the growth rate of your market category. The second is the investor's perception of the company's ability to become the category queen. The third is the numbers and metrics in the context of the first two points that validate that this company is actually on a good path. Breaking Down The Three Christopher breaks down the characteristics of these three factors that drive the value of the company. He cites specific examples, such as Airbnb and how they were able to gain a successful IPO through these three factors. “Marketing has to take a leading role here in helping the company articulate its category strategy. Why this category could be very big over time.” - Christopher Lochhead What Does It Mean For You Smart marketers, smart CEOs, smart founders, and certainly smart CFOs need to work together in the very early stages for your investor deck to cover these three factors. Christopher also discussed marketers and their major role in creating the perception of inevitability. To know more about How Marketing Drives Market Cap / Company Valuation, download and listen to this episode.  Bio: Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger. He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur. Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist. In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion. He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

In today’s episode, Christopher Lochhead's answer addresses a listener question, “what kind of CMO should we hire?” He further discusses what’s the difference between a fighter and a farmer CMO and what you, as a marketer, should keep in mind when you plan to pursue this role. Get Clear On What You Want Christopher discusses two things: first, identify the background of the CMO. This is highly specific based on the company and the current stage of the company and its category. Secondly, Christopher points out that it's very important that the CMO knows who he is, his strengths and weaknesses, and his specific legendary trait.  “What am I legendary at? What am I not? How do I build a team based on that, that multiplies or amplifies where I'm strong and that compensates for my weaknesses?” - Christopher Lochhead  A Fighter Or A Farmer CMO If you have identified where your company stands, that is the best indicator of whether you should hire a fighter or a farmer CMO. Chris gives a specific discussion on the difference between a fighter and a farmer CMO in this episode. “What are the skill sets that you think are critical? That's important, but it's not maybe as important as a lot of people think. Second, are they self-actualized? Self-aware enough to know where they're truly strong and truly weak? Do they have the capability to build a team around their strengths and weaknesses? And probably most importantly, are they a fighter, or a farmer?” - Christopher Lochhead Advice For Marketers Chris shares that if you're a CMO yourself, it is critical for you to figure out how to be self-actualized. It is important to realize, are you more of a farmer? Or are you more of a fighter? “As a marketer, I think you'd have to decide ‘who am I,’ and again, I don't think there's a right answer, but I think you should know. The worst thing you can do as a CMO, or a wannabe CMO is go take a farmer job in a place that requires a fighter or vice versa.” - Christopher Lochhead To know more about what is a fighter or a farmer CMO, download and listen to this episode.  Bio: Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger. He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur. Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist. In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion. He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

Today, we go deep on a big powerful idea called Movement Marketing with a legendary entrepreneur, category designer, and company builder turned venture capitalist, David Sacks, from Craft Ventures.  He's written this blog post recently on this idea and it's a simple, powerful idea that legendary innovators don't just market a company or a product or a service, they create a movement that changes things. Frankly, it's a seminal part of designing and dominating a new category. If you care about changing the future, this episode is pure gold with David.  Two Sections of Marketing David likened marketing to LSAT, having math and verbal exams which ultimately give one final result. He says that marketing has a quantitative side, such as spending money on campaigns to generate x number of leads. It also has a qualitative side, which includes messaging, brand, content, press influencers, among others. “Defining who you are to the world is one of the most important things that a founder can be doing. But the metrics are vague and elusive. So, therefore, because it's hard to measure, I think a lot of founders don't necessarily spend the time on it, they don't really know how to approach it.” - David Sacks Movement Marketing David shares that the founders who built great companies have done more than just “create a company” or even a category. They have created a movement around their company. He wrote a blog post recently on this idea which went viral. He mentioned some great examples of CEO who have done movement marketing such as Elon Musk of Tesla and Marc Benioff of Salesforce.  “What I've tried to do is layout the tactics. This area of marketing is typically called earned marketing because you can't just buy it, you have to earn it.” - David Sacks Capturing Vs. Creating Demand Christopher expounded on what David discuss the parts of marketing and how movement marketing is far from just quantitative and qualitative aspects of marketing. Movement marketing goes beyond capturing existing demand as it creates new demand.  “You're creating a movement to drive a set of thinking around an idea, around a vision for the future, around a problem that hasn't been addressed or viewed in the way that the founder views it. Or you see a possibility in the world, in the future.” - Christopher Lochhead  To know more about movement marketing, download and listen to this episode. Bio: David Sacks is a highly accomplished entrepreneur and investor in internet technology firms. He is a general partner of Craft Ventures, a venture capital fund he co-founded in late 2017. Previously as an entrepreneur, Sacks was the founding COO and product leader of PayPal (acquired by eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion) and Founder/CEO of Yammer (acquired by Microsoft in 2012 for $1.2 billion). In 2016, he led the turnaround of Zenefits as interim CEO. In 2017, Sacks co-founded blockchain startup Harbor as incubation of Craft Ventures. His angel investments include Facebook, Uber, SpaceX, Palantir Technologies, Airbnb and Houzz. Links: Twitter – @davidsacks Craft Ventures Crunch Base – David Sacks We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

Welcome to Lochhead on Marketing. In this episode, Christopher Lochhead answers the question, what is the most important skill for marketers to have? Sales Skills Christopher shares that his frequent answer to the most important skill for marketers to have is sales skills. He says that a lot of marketing people have no sales experience at all. "Marketing is actually sales at scale." - Christopher Lochhead The Best Marketers Are Salesmen Christopher recounts that the best marketers he know are those who have sales experience even at a young age. "I think legendary marketers, and frankly, legendary executives, for that matter, regardless of what part of the business you're in, have a base level of a solid foundation of sales skills. So if you can't sell one on one, then you can't market at scale." - Christopher Lochhead Marketing People Are A Joke Second prime importance why sales is the essential skill to have as a marketer, is that many salespeople think marketers are a joke. "I know this is harsh, but it's true. And the reason for that primarily, is that many people in the sales organization realize that many marketers suck in front of customers. And if you suck in front of one customer, how can you market to thousands or hundreds of thousands of potential customers." - Christopher Lochhead To know more why marketing is sales at scale, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger. He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur. Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist. In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion. He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

As this theme kept on coming up in Follow Your Different episodes, whether he spoke with entrepreneurs or venture capitalists, Christopher decided to finally talk about the purpose of business. Specifically, he dives into what his friend Gil Spencer calls a noble purpose and how noble purpose can tie to building categories companies brands. Mission-Driven and Mercenaries A noble purpose is a cool way of thinking about things that we do hear about in business and entrepreneurship. Sequoia Capital and many others, talks about it a lot. The discussion revolves around this notion of being mission-driven. Are you a mission-driven entrepreneur?  Similarly, Eddie Yoon, who has been a guest many times on my podcasts, shares about the distinction between missionaries and mercenaries.  “People who are on a mission will literally crawl through flaming glass ⁠— if that's even a thing ⁠— to achieve their goal because they're up to something, and no matter how much you pay a mercenary, when the going gets tough, many mercenaries will tap out.” - Christopher Lochhead What Is Your Noble Purpose? Chris shares a few more examples of companies and brands and how their noble purpose differentiated them and allowed them to dominate their categories. He spoke about TOM’s shoes. Another example he shares is about Patagonia, which is an environment-based company. “Regardless of how you think about it, I think now's a good time to think about what's your noble purpose? Specifically, can you tie this notion of noble purpose mission-driven being a missionary to the design and development of your category and brand?” - Christopher Lochhead Mission-Driven Entrepreneurs Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, is a proud supporter of LGBTQ+ rights movement. Vala Afshar of Salesforce shared about their noble missions in Follow Your Different Episode 116. “Now's a great time to think about what's your noble purpose. Are we up to something greater than just making money and believe me, I'm a fan of making money. If you want to use this moment in time to clarify your noble purpose, why not think about how you can tie your noble purpose, to your category design, to your marketing, and maybe even to some level Have activism around topics that you think are important?” - Christopher Lochhead To hear more about finding your noble purpose, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger. He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur. Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist. In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion. He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive. Links: TOMS Shoes  116 Dreamforce Special w/ Salesforce’s Vala Afshar 024 The Difference Between a First Mover and a Category Creator w/ Eddie Yoon We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

Today, Chris goes deep on how to design a legendary category, company product, and brand with his super special guest, Michelle Stacy. Michelle is a living consumer product marketing legend, honing her craft with brands such as Gilette, Oral B, Keurig, and now, HydraFacial. Putting Consumers First Michelle spent many years honing her craft at Gillette where she led Oral B. She launched a number of great new products including the Pulsar battery powered manual toothbrush. She was the President of Keurig from 2010 to 2014, where the business grew from less than $1 billion in revenue to 4.5 billion.  Through her leadership, she took Keurig from being a category-defining product to becoming — what we, in tech call — a platform. She did this when they started inviting in the competition to sell their coffee for Keurig machines. Additionally, she's been a board member at iRobot, Coravin (a legendary wine preservation system), and Hydrafacial (Clint Carnell CEO on FYD #160) “I think what always resonates with me is putting the consumer first and trying to think through ‘how do I make an emotional connection between what I want the consumer to buy and the product itself.’ To me, that's where longevity happens around products. When you can get a consumer to fall in love with your product, then you have the opportunity, to as you would put it, become a Category King.” - Michelle Stacy The Keurig Story Michelle started working with Keurig in November 2008, more or less the onset of the global financial crisis. She found herself contemplating if she could ever push forward a premium-priced business given the financial crisis at that time. With consumers in mind and with the right launch plan, they successfully introduced a well-loved product.  “Keurig was actually the fifth single-serve company to market. They're just the ones that got it right.” - Michelle Stacy Creating Momentum In this episode, Michelle walks us through the process of developing and launching Keurig machines. She mentions initially offering this to client-facing businesses, then slowly grew to every home through word of mouth. They also knew that customers do not like to be tied into a single brand of coffee, so they explored tying up with different coffee brands for their K-cups. “In my DNA is the concept of looking at how you create value in every step of your environment so that you're creating value for the consumer, you're conveying value for the retailer, you're creating value for your suppliers that are supplying you with the product. So as everyone benefits within an ecosystem, it creates momentum.” - Michelle Stacy To know more about designing legendary categories and to know more about Michell Stacy, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Michelle is a strong leader whose personal and professional skills have developed over a 35-year career. Keurig, Gillette, and P&G have all benefited from her ability to develop and articulate a clear vision and strategy, build brands, and identify avenues for growth. Michelle’s key to managing and driving exceptional growth has been her ability to create a positive and focused culture that generates high employee engagement, as well as talent for creating company-wide commitment to lead with a higher purpose. A few of the brands that Michelle has impacted include: The Gillette Series Gillette Mach3 Oral-B Oral-B Stages Keurig Links: Michelle Stacy We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.