Heidi Arkinstall - GP 00:00
Marketing is everything from brand to demand, then if you want to take that CMO chair, you really have to understand it end to end.
Ben Kaplan 00:06
This is the podcast where we go around the globe to interview marketing leaders from the world's biggest brands, fastest growing companies and most disruptive startups. Three ideas package a certain way want to spread, you want to be told us someone else's simple, surprising and significant. Unlocking viral creativity is to make it rapidly scalable. This is TOP CMO with me, Ben Kaplan. today I'm chatting with Heidi Arkinstall. CMO of GP, formerly Globalization Partners. That's the company that helps you find hire onboard and manage teams in 180 plus countries at record speed. Heidi started on the marketing agency side, working at agencies like Ogilvy publicists and FCB for more than 20 years, but it was as CMO at Logitech, the longtime maker of mice, keyboards and more, where she says she truly understood the power of a brand, and the power of refreshing a brand to bring in new audiences. So how do you reinvent a more old fashion company to reposition it as a brand that can go toe to toe with the hottest new startups? Let's find out with Heidi Arkinstall. Heidi, one of the things that I love about what you've done a GP and how you think about GP, is that you've tried to really focus on how do we use brand to reinforce our position as an innovator, you're a company that's only been around 10 years, but in the industry you're in that can seem like a long time. So how did you kind of think about how branding relates to this message about innovation and what you needed to do when you got your star in the midst of the pandemic about a year ago?
Heidi Arkinstall - GP 01:55
Yeah, so I started with GP about a year ago, on globalization partners, as it was known then. And, you know, when I was going through the process of actually interfering, so the company, you know, I was really intrigued by the whole company in the category actually, it started from really not understanding or knowing that these employer Recalled category existed. And when I understood what it what it was, and what it can enable, and tons of companies Scaling group global teams remotely. I thought that was really interesting. And, and then the second part of it was, I didn't know anything about it, you know, I didn't know anything about globalization policies, I didn't know who was in the space. And I thought that as a marketer, that was a really amazing opportunity, right to have a business model that was really solving a real problem and creating opportunities around that problem. And then to be you know, sort of with the company that created the category and created the business model that enabled that seemed like a fantastic opportunity to come in as the marketer and really accelerate, you know, kind of the business through a brand blend transformation. My impression, you know, of the business model was that it was really innovative. My impression on the company was that it continued, you know, it both originated this category, but continued to innovate this category, and had a great vision for where it could go, but that the brand didn't reflect that, that it seemed like, you know, it was a little tight. And and, you know, and wasn't a particularly kind of modern vibrant view of, of what it was the night building. And so when I came on board, you know, a big part of my remit was really to transform the brand and, you know, having spent, you know, 20 plus years on the agency side of marketing, with, with brands that were very brand land, that's really the place that I lead from, and so that that instinct to really transform the brand was a key part of me wanting to take the role, and to really make sure that the that the company stood out as kind of the modern, vibrant innovator that it was, or is
Ben Kaplan 04:12
it's an interesting space, because on one hand, when you talk about it, the technical term is employer of record, in some ways that space means that like, Okay, you're expanding, let's say you're expanding to a different country, a different market, and it's a lot of time and infrastructure to have a corporate entity and be in compliance with local laws and issue payroll and all that. So, on one hand, that sort of sounds like HR, the utilities, you know, the kind of the plumbing of a company, like it sounds like a little bit old stodgy. It's like a plumbing the foundation of a company. Yeah, you've got to do it, but doesn't sound that exciting. I was one hand. On the other hand, you come to 2020 through 2022 and you have remote work exploding, people are sort of forced to work from home people are moving to other on trees, employers are discovering that they can scale and reach people in places that have workers, it's gonna work out just fine. You don't have to have them at all in an office, plus other people in other countries have discovered like, hey, they can actually find a job in another place where they don't have immediate resources around them. So in some ways, it's like the future of work is here on how these global companies are going to be enabled. So how did you reconcile that because like, on one hand, you could be like, this is like very unsexy. And on the other hand, it's like it is the sexiest thing going on right now. Which is it? And how do you bridge that divide?
Heidi Arkinstall - GP 05:34
Well, I think the outcome, you know, if we focus on outcome, and what we're enabling in terms of outcome, that's the sexy part, right, the fact that growing companies can scale their businesses at a at a pace that just isn't possible, you know, if you follow that traditional model of setting up branch offices and subsidiaries, you know, if you can do that, in an apply of talent from, you know, in markets that you wouldn't otherwise have had access to, if you can bring remote teams together, and a combination of talent that otherwise you know, will not be able to sit in a room together, those outcomes are actually really exciting and really fatal, really 60 for a visit us in terms of the opportunities they unlock, you know, the the plumbing piece, as you mentioned, whether it's the tax piece, the you know, the compliance piece a legal pieces of the things that you know, that we handle, and we take that away from, you know, from customers so that they don't have to worry about it. And so I think, you know, that that's really where we kind of intersect with creating, and, you know, unlocking that opportunity for customers and for talent, and then making sure that they can, they can get access to great teams, great talent, for each opportunity in a way that is compliant and the way that they're doing the right thing, both in the countries that they're operating in and with the people that they're hiring. Because I think that, you know, great companies do want to do the right thing and the way that they they hire people, and they bring teams together. And the fact that we can do that for them, we have a decade of experience of having done this can give them the peace of mind that actually it is possible. And there they are opportunities to really focus on the great outcomes and benefits that you have from creating and building new teams.
Ben Kaplan 07:21
And let me add one more sort of challenge to the mix. We sort of said, Okay, are you kind of older and deeded originally or the model, but a little bit kind of a little bit tired? Are you new and innovative, that will the world order is changing, the future of work is changing, but at the same time, you got one more in flux, which he got really in the past couple of years GP faces a whole new crop of it's a hot space startups are being funded to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, they're growing fast, but now you've got companies 10 years seems kind of old, because there's companies in two years that are achieving, you know, $5 billion $10 billion valuations really, really faster in a hot space. So was it difficult to get everyone on board that we need to ride revitalize the brand and sort of reinforce our innovators like kind of positioning, or was it like easy at that point, because everyone could see we're in a hot market, lots of players are coming in, we're either riding this wave or this wave is going on without us and so everyone was on board, it was real easy for you to get done what you need to get done.
Heidi Arkinstall - GP 08:20
I mean, I think my was certainly, you know, a recognition that the brand didn't feel as innovative as the business was I need. And that, you know, we can own both the originator space, but we also need to have the innovative space as well. And, you know, in transforming the brand, you know, you don't want to leave all of the goodness that you have a home, you know, and we certainly looked at, you know, do you do an entire name change of the company from globalization of partners, you know, it, you know, that's a mouthful. And certainly, you know, if you were naming a company today, and you probably wouldn't call it globalization, not, you know, it can be mistaken for, you know, a legal company, a law firm, a financial services company, but we didn't want to leave all of the the equity out of the goodness that we had built. And so, you know, when I started, you know, it was clear from day one, that people just refer to the company as GP. And so in making that sort of brain transformation, it was about, you know, how do we find that right balance between bringing, you know, everything that we that the company had built over the last 10 years, but creating sort of the modern interpretation of that. And so that was really the impetus for evolving the name from globalization partners to GP, you know, it's a transformation that a lot of companies that are making their brand identity where we, you know, International Business Machines became IBM molded Hewlett Packard became HP, you know, that was sort of the, you know, a way to signal that we were, you know, really, you know, evolving how the brand showed up and then, you know, in conjunction with that the tagline that we now leverage, which is global made possible with a real reflection on really what we're trying to enable. So I think, you know, for us, it was about how do you straddle both sides of both the heritage and, you know, the the fact that globalization partners really created this category, but also signal that, you know, we're continuing to innovate, we're not being left behind as new competitors enter the market. And I think from our perspective, competition is great, because it validates that there's a real there there in terms of market opportunity. And it also keeps us on our toes, right. And my competition makes you better. And that's why most governments and in most categories like to avoid kind of monopolies because it's not really in the best interest of the customers ultimately, to not have competition. And so I think, in this case, competition keeps us focused on the customer keeps us looking at what can we bring that's new and innovative to the market. And the more to both customers and talent need as one will remote work continues to evolve. Because, you know, we're really just at the beginning of it, right. And we see today that, you know, even though there's a lot of companies embracing it, there's a lot of companies that are going moving into it, you know, moving away from it, and nobody's really cracked the code there. So I think, you know, for us, you know, we're really committed to both living that model and enabling that model. And so every day our focus is on how do you create the best experience around it?
Ben Kaplan 11:40
Have you ever wondered why some brands make you feel a certain way Nikes JUST DO IT campaign. Doves real beauty campaign, or Coca Cola, choose happiness campaign, are all great examples of brands leading with emotion. It's not just about the logo or the tagline, it's about the emotional connection they create. As a brand marketer, one of your main goals is to create that emotional resonance, whether it's for a consumer or a b2b brand. At the heart of it, we're all people, and people connect emotionally with brands. That's why it's important to go beyond the functional and rational aspects and tap into the emotional outcomes that people really care about. And when you do that, you'll create a brand that people will love, and will want to be a part of.
Heidi Arkinstall - GP 12:29
I think what was suddenly obvious is the need to create an emotional connection with the brand drivers and brand led marketing, that's, you know, the point around which I orient within the brand is consumer brand, or b2b brand, I think at the heart of it, you know, whoever your audience is, they're all people and people connect emotionally, with brands. And so creating that kind of emotional resonance around the brand was, was a really important piece of it. You know, as you mentioned, like a lot of what we do is very functional and rational. And that's great. That's how we enable these great outcomes. But it's, it's those outcomes that are very emotional, that we want to tap into. And also, you know, we had two sides that we have both the customer side or the enterprise side, you know, the companies that are looking to hire, but we also have the people side and you know, the professionals of the talent, that are looking for opportunities, then so being able to kind of straddle both of those sides, was really important. You know, I mean, you you articulated the process, you know, exactly how we went through it, and that we can actually discuss that. We did all of that, you know, I always say that these exercises, these rebranding exercises, they take longer, and they're harder than what you think that they they shouldn't be. This one took about nine months, which is actually not, you know, an, you know, extraordinary ly long period of time for an a project like this. But, you know, there's certainly a lot of nuance, there's a lot of, you know, thinking as you go through every touchpoint and every element of what the brand is supposed to be saying. And then how do you really embed meaning in the choices that you're making, I think, ultimately, you know, if you do have, you know, that sort of deep strategic consideration, that every decision that you make, that goes into the brand, ultimately, you know, expressing the brand and executing the brand becomes a lot easier, ultimately, you know, I wanted to make sure that the choices that we made around the brand, you know, whether it was colors or fonts and you know that they had a real kind of depth of meaning in in the choices that we made, and that we were able to kind of speak to those choices. And then a big part of what we did, in going through this was making sure that we really, you know, went through this exercise, cut it inside out as well. And we did a lot of work in terms of in conjunction with our team in terms of, you know, making sure we re articulate it out not just sound boring. and values that our people values, our ways of working. You know, we created, you know, a whole slew of kind of, you know smorgasbord of materials. And we had a real process to work it out to launching the brand, externally, to making sure that people internally really understood what we were doing and why we were doing it. Because ultimately, you know, they become the best advocates for the brand and for what you're doing with the brand. So we wanted, you know, our internal folks to really understand it, and to, you know, and to embrace that, which was fantastic.
Ben Kaplan 15:35
Once you had the positioning, did the visuals, and logo and colors that all fall into place? Was that clear? Or was there still a lot of debate? And how did you resolve it? They just be like, Hey, I'm deciding this, I worked 20 years and creative prior to this, we're just gonna go with my judgment, or did you kind of go around and try to like, let a lot of people have voices in the kitchen. And the CFO is like, I don't like purple? Sorry, we're killing purple. How did you go about that? For people who haven't done that before?
Heidi Arkinstall - GP 16:05
Yeah, I mean, I always say the N of one sample size of one is that is the most dangerous thing. And that includes, you know, me being at the end of one, you know, I think, you know, there was certainly ultimately the decisions I made are my responsibility, you know, I have to own those as the CMO, but they can't be my personal opinion, right, they have to be informed by both the internal perspectives that you get from a range of different stakeholders, what you hear externally in the market, you know, any kind of partners that you bring in to kind of develop the brand with you and the team that you're working with, you know, if you don't value the opinions and the input of the people around you, then you probably have to question what the team looks like around if you're not willing to kind of take their their input and their opinions on board. And then hopefully, you know, you combine that with a lot of experience than having done these things. And you get to ultimately the right decision. But I think that, you know, when you do have those, when you get to clarity around what the brand stands for, and what the brand means. It helps to really provide that filter around your decision making, you know, we have a statement that we have around the brand, and who we want the brand to be and we talk about it as your trusted global guide. And then we have so so we think about sort of the brand, as opposed than in that way. Okay. It's been Brian does the trust and go global guide, how does the brand behave? How does the brand speak? What is the brand look like? And then that becomes kind of the filter for all of the decisions that we make around how the brand shows up.
Ben Kaplan 17:46
In this case, you had gone through a similar kind of experience when you were a top marketing leader at Logitech, Logitech, a brand that people know kind of known for keyboards and mice, but maybe had a bit of a heyday in past decades. And your role in part was to kind of refresh and revitalize that brand. What do you draw a product that Logitech experienced that you applied to GDP and making sure that the brand and perception of it didn't get in the way of what the company truly was and had the potential to be given that you had a similar experience a different type of company before?
Heidi Arkinstall - GP 18:20
Yeah, I mean, you know, completely different company, category audience. But I think there are parallels in terms of the brand challenge, which was, you know, a lot of heritage and a lot of equity in terms of the category and not wanting to lose that. But at the same time meeting people to reconsider and rethink about, you know, what Logitech was, and I think, you know, it had a similar kind of challenge, and that there was a lot of innovation and a lot of new thinking that had been built into the products, that wasn't really reflected in the way that the brand was showing up, or the way that the products were being marketed. And so, you know, needing to again straddle that heritage piece with innovation, and really get people to care reconsidering getting new audiences and new generations of audiences that hadn't grown up, you know, we've kind of set the you know, explosion of the PC and the late 90s to think about, you know, what am I the mouse or keyboard, you know, can bring in terms of enabling your creativity and your productivity that it was more than just that kind of basic peripheral one of the lines that you know, kind of came up with us as a thought around how we wanted to transform that variety was to move you know, the mouse and the keyboard from being a peripheral to an essential and you know, then how do you drive that kind of thinking and I think you know, it's a GT is a very different businesses that are very different stage of maturity, I mean, the category around employer of record is still not even while on just shorten So I think, you know, there's still a lot of category growth there. But in terms of the evolution of a brand, I think, you know, there, there were similarities in terms of the way that we needed to kind of get people to rethink about, you know, how do you be both the category originator, but continue to be an innovator, I think, you know, for this category, you know, it's a, it's a category that moves more quickly than any category that I've, that I've worked in before, as we mentioned, you know, we have so many more competitors, that's a lot of funding that's come into the, the category, so it's evolving rapidly, but you know, also when you look at, you know, the competitors that are evolving, but so are our customers, this category, and remote workers evolving so quickly, and I think, you know, the overall, you know, culture around remote work and building global teams, and how do you be, you know, how do you create effective productive teams, you know, continues to allow them quickly, that, you know, for a business like ours, you know, the sort of a brand transformation, you know, it's not something that you can do, you know, I think, you know, brand identity used to be, you know, a once in five years, you know, project, right, every, every sort of four to five years, you know, you've had to really look at the brand, and whether you've made a major evolution or a minor, sort of minor tweaks, you know, you would kind of keep the brand updated in that way. But I think, you know, the challenge, you know, been, you know, been cheapy in this category, and actually, I think it's been a more broadly as well is that, you know, market is evolving so rapidly these days, and culture is changing so rapidly, not just in remote work, but you know, but more broadly. And so I think, you know, brand, you know, because something that you really have to continue to evolve over time. And even though you kind of get to one of these projects, and you think, Okay, I'm gonna get that done, you know, it's not a thing that I think that we can say that
Ben Kaplan 21:58
innovation is a key driver of success in today's fast paced business landscape. Companies that are able to innovate and stay ahead of the curve often have a competitive advantage in marketing, and are better positioned to meet the evolving needs of their customers. Companies such as apple with his focus on simplicity and user experience, only on the Red Bull leverages extreme storytelling through extreme sports. And even Tesla's emphasis on word of mouth, rather than big advice come to mind, Tesla. So the question is, what specific marketing moves, the GP makes reinforce their innovation position, beyond refining their brand look and selling it internally? Did they ramp up thought leadership on innovation, make any other cool moves in the digital or social media space?
Heidi Arkinstall - GP 22:53
Certainly, you know, the investment that we're making around our platform, and our technology, and our product, is something that we had not really talked a lot about. And so really needing to make sure that we put some wood behind the arrow around, you know, what we were doing to continue to innovate from a product perspective, you know, has become, you know, a huge priority in terms of how we support the business going forward.
Ben Kaplan 23:19
Okay, so meeting this new positioning is actually, it's not just, you know, a sizzle that you put on top, you want the substance the direction are going to reflect that as well.
Heidi Arkinstall - GP 23:28
Yeah, exactly. I mean, I think the other thing is, you know, we have the steak. Great. And we actually needed to put a bit of sizzle on the steak. But the fact is, you know, you know, we're making, you know, a significant, you know, a significant part of, you know, the funding, you know, that we've received, or way that we're growing the business is investing in innovation that you know, will be driven through our platform and our product offerings. And so, you know, being more clear about what we're doing there, and really kind of putting that that foot forward, was really, you know, is really critical and will continue to be critical, as we, you know, here, we don't want the brand just to be kind of a superficial layer on top of the business, right, it really needs to represent what we're doing within the business in a meaningful way. I think across all of the channel.
Ben Kaplan 24:21
Okay, so from a product perspective, there's a there's a renewed commitment to like, let's put forward in our roadmap, more innovation, let's bring a little more sizzle forward. What else in terms of marketing channels or messaging or ads, or, I don't know, keynote addresses at conferences where you're doing?
Heidi Arkinstall - GP 24:36
Yeah, I mean, certainly the way that, you know, sort of the brand identity, you know, it's bright, it's vibrant, you know, we gave a lot of consideration to how that shows up in in, you know, sort of new media channels and social channels. You know, if you want people to kind of really engage with the brand you need to stop them in their feed. And so how did we make sure that we could really break through and hack To create a brand identity that people wanted to engage with, that was very human that was that was modern, that was from library. And so, you know, we did a lot of the, it was very much kind of like digital photos design, and I would even say, you know, a social first design, because that's certainly where you know, where we want to reach out audiences is through those channels. And then, you know, the event space is, is really important for us. And I think, you know, we've seen how the new brand is showing up in some of the key events that that we're now at. And, you know, one of our kind of key takeaways is, you know, with this brand, we don't need to have the biggest space, because the way that the brand is shows up and looks, you know, just creates, you know, kind of a way that it punches the ball, it's its physical footprint, and that, that's great, you know, we've had a lot of people, you know, come to our new booths at advance, then it really complimentary, and, in some cases jealous that the way that the brand is, you know, really kind of standing out these days. So, you know, we want to make sure we continue, sorry, go ahead.
Ben Kaplan 26:10
I recently saw an announcement of a partnership with the Seattle Seahawks, NFL football team, we have listeners all over the world. So those were talking American football here, Seattle being kind of a gateway city on the West Coast, especially to a lot of Asia, and people do business out of Seattle, too. What was the thinking there? And it is a bit outside of the box for this industry without a lot of folks and in your particular space? are doing partnerships with NFL football teams? What was the thinking? And why did that kind of reinforce the message you wanted to support?
Heidi Arkinstall - GP 26:40
Well, you know, in addition to the Seahawks, we have a pretty significant partnership with the Patriots as well. And I think what's interesting about Americans football is that it is looking to expand globally as so, you know, a number of those, you know, both the NFL organization, and the teams are actually looking at how they create footprints in other markets in other countries. And so, in that way, we're not only just an advertiser with them, but we're looking at, you know, how I how do we move with them as the global expansion partner, and as they look to expand their presence in other markets and get some traction around American football globally, that we can really help them from the business side, you know, to, you know, to really expand their, you know, their presence in those markets. So, that's where the partnership goes beyond just kind of the, you know, the stadium presence, and all of those things, which are great, you know, and great kind of corporate hospitality opportunities, you know, certainly, you know, bringing potential customers or customers and partners to, you know, those sorts of games, the great, you know, business relationship and business development opportunity, but beyond that, it's really the partnership that we have with those organizations, and helping them grow. That is an sort of an exciting part of that relationship.
Ben Kaplan 28:04
And What haven't we tackled yet? What is coming up? Seems like you've been busy, if the branding and branding project took nine months, you only been a year on the job. So what is on the list of things? Is the list never ending, or what's on the top of your list that still needs to be done? Oh,
Heidi Arkinstall - GP 28:18
you know, we have a lot of great partnerships, beyond just near the publishers, I talked about them, but partnerships with all the key players, you know, in the HR, you know, tech industry, that, you know, we think is, you know, a huge part of kind of our positioning and, and our footprint in the industry. So really deepening a lot of those partnerships is a key, you know, key priority for us, continuing to, you know, make sure that we show up for companies that are looking to kind of grow and expand and making sure that we're kind of the brand choice that you know, we see, you know, based on our, you know, CSAT scores and our NPS that, you know, we don't we don't just provide that plumbing but we create a great experience for both, you know, companies who are expanding as well as the talent that they bring on board. You know, to really expand that there and grow with a portable remote teams and so, you know, continuing to kind of make our presence felt, I think, you know, the Elan category employer vehicle category is just sort of starting to become more non so there's certainly still a category education you know, opportunity for us that's a priority and then you know, we want to be the brand of choice within that within that category.
Ben Kaplan 29:38
And after a rebrand and something like partnership marketing, which is a tried and true specially b2b tactic. Do you find that any partners or potential partners engage with you differently after the rebrand like if you have a new partner, they don't know you? And you're putting this different face forward that everything from visually to everything the source they want you to We're modern, we're innovative, we're on the cusp of what's hot right now has that effect. It's something that is as traditional as partnership marketing, that many reasons people partner, but one of them is that there's a halo effect from brands to each other, and we're going to have that halo effect, and that directly deals with your brand. So has it made a difference? Yeah,
Heidi Arkinstall - GP 30:17
I mean, I think you know, when you do a rebrand, you know, part of that is wanting, you know, all of your audiences to think about you differently. And, you know, it certainly gave us the opportunity to kind of force and tell cells in a new way to new partners, and, you know, to new and existing partners, and then to kind of create those opportunities for conversation around what we might do differently together. Moving forward, I think, you know, certainly any brand that you have a partnership is that you have a partnership with is a reflection of your brand. And you know, nobody wants to partner with a brand that looks, you know, old fashion, no look. So take, you know, it's not leading a category and want to be a partner, you want to partner with the industry leaders. And so, you know, when you reinvigorate your brand, and that way, I think you can get that, you know, you reinvigorate an opportunity to kind of create those partnerships, and, you know, open and kind of conversations around what you can do differently together, moving forward.
Ben Kaplan 31:20
Are there any marketing channels who looking forward that you want to explore that you haven't done yet. It's something you haven't tackled, but you think it's worth exploring? Give me something emerging that, you know, we're just not doing I mean, the heck, a lot of people are trying to figure out web three and everything else, it could be just something your particular company or brand just has never done, and you're like, I can't believe we've never done this. What is the future of marketing look like? And sort of new territories, new areas?
Heidi Arkinstall - GP 31:45
Yeah, you know, we've tried a bit of everything. You know, I think in terms of web three, honestly, the most exciting thing I think about web three is how the blockchain can support the business. I'm not sure that you know, that marketing kind of leads the way there, I think there's a lot of interesting opportunities in terms of blockchain supporting, you know, how contracts get written and how payments get made? And how do you actually, you know, make how does that help enable global remote teams? I think there's a lot of really interesting opportunities we went through I mean, you know, certainly I think, you know, tick tock is, you know, of course, a platform that everyone is starting to explore. You know, I think it's really interesting, you know, to think about what is a b2b company do on tick tock? And then how does that show up, then. But I think there's a really interesting opportunity, when you think about, you know, that's where, you know, a new professional talent is going to spend their time. So how do we show up as a brand there, so that when a company that they are looking to work with wants to hire them through GP, but they know us then that they feel comfortable being hired by GP to work for any company across the wool. So I think that's where we can kind of show up in a way that is maybe a little unexpected, and probably is not so immediate, in terms of generating results for the business, but it's really looking at, you know, how do we position ourselves over the long term for future generations of business decision makers and talent.
Ben Kaplan 33:21
And any last advice for those maybe five years away from being a CMO, those who are looking for their career, you had a long career rising the ranks and sort of global agencies, then you, you know, made the jump to sort of in house technology related companies to any last a device for those folks on on just your journey to being a CMO and what they might take from that, um, I would say,
Heidi Arkinstall - GP 33:47
I think it's about being in business person first. And then, you know, obviously, with a with a deep expertise in marketing, but you really, you know, my perspective is always you know, that marketing is there to support the business. And so having that deep understanding of the business, I think needs to be at the forefront of the way that you think about what is marketing going to do to actually help the company reach its goals. I think the other thing is, you know, throw yourself into areas of marketing that maybe are not your comfort zone, you know, if you're a brand lead, well, you know, you may not have spent a lot of time on that demand generation side, but to be a CMO, you need to have that experience across, you know, all areas of marketing need and if you're, you know, deep specialization is is not in that areas. So I think it's that be comfortable with getting uncomfortable into some of the areas that you know, maybe you know, had not been you know, the places that got you where you on today, because really, you kind of need to have that very holistic view of of marketing I always say you know, marketing is everything from brand to demand, then if you want to, you know, take that CMO, ha You really have to understand and tan.
Ben Kaplan 35:03
According to Heidi Arkinstall being a business person before being a marketer is the key to success as a CMO. As marketers, it's crucial to have a deep understanding of the business we're working for, and how marketing can support its goals. But it's not just about staying within our comfort zones. We need to be comfortable with getting uncomfortable, and exploring different areas of marketing to have a holistic view of how it all fits together. Heidi also champions the power of a strong brand, and how it can affect partnerships and relationships with potential clients. A rebrand can be more than just a new visual identity. It can be a reflection of the company's renewed commitment to innovation, and can attract new partners and opportunities. And finally, don't be afraid to explore emerging marketing channels like tick tock, even if it seems unexpected for a b2b company. Being where new talent spends their time and showing up as a modern vibrant brand can position you for success with future generations of business decision makers and talent. For TOP CMO, I'm Ben Kaplan.
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