How are successful organisations adopting growth marketing in the real world? That’s the question posed by CvE digital marketing transformation consultancy in partnership with New Digital Age.
Growth marketing is becoming increasingly prominent as marketers feel the pressure to maximise the effectiveness of their budgets. But what does this discipline look like for senior marketers and their teams?
New Digital Age and digital marketing transformation consultancy CvE held a roundtable discussion with senior marketers from several mass market and DTC (Direct to Consumer) brands to learn more. NDA editor Justin Pearse chaired the discussion and was joined by Paul Frampton, President of CvE and Aidan Mark, Global Director of Performance Strategy at CVE.
Senior marketers who attended were:
- Seb Bardin, Head of Ecommerce Marketing, Unilever
- Rory McEntee, Brand & Marketing Director, Gymbox
- Adam Wright, Head of Digital, Beiersdorf UK
- Gareth Turner, Head of Marketing, Weetabix
- Benazir Barlet-Batada, Marketing Director Confectionary UK&I, Mondelez
- Tushar Kaul, Chief Marketing Officer, Bella and Duke.
The discussion centred on the similarities and differences in how the represented organisations implement growth marketing. The key areas for discussion covered the definition of growth marketing, understanding the role of data in growth marketing, the importance of business culture and mindset behind success in growth marketing and how Agile and growth marketing can work together.
Read 5 Tips to Help Leaders Adopt Growth Marketing Into Their Own Organisation
Roundtable highlights were as follows:
Agreeing a Common Understanding of Growth Marketing
Meaning different things to different organisations, the attendees wanted to come to an agreement on the definition of growth marketing. The group were keen to distance the term from the concept of ‘growth hacking’, recognising the need for iterative testing and maximising conversion to purchase.
The definition which the group agreed on was offered up by Seb Bardin, Head of E-commerce Marketing at Unilever. He suggested that growth marketing is differentiated from conventional marketing because of the way the discipline aims to connect media metrics with real-world business outcomes. This was built upon by CvE president Paul Frampton, saying that growth marketing includes any form of marketing discipline which can be measured through to business outcome.
Sourcing and Analysing Data for Concrete, Scalable Learnings
With data central to growth marketing, the sourcing and subsequent analysis of data was discussed in detail. Sourcing customer data is a challenge for traditional brands who rely on retailers to share the data they have. Perhaps unsurprisingly, brands such as NIVEA have launched their own DTC propositions with the express purpose of acquiring more customer data.
However, accessing customer data isn’t the biggest problem faced by growth marketers. An abundance of data can be as much of an issue. Aidan Mark, CvE’s Global Strategy Director, reinforced the issue in stating that testing doesn’t automatically correlate with learning. Businesses must demand concrete, repeatable and scalable learnings which ensure results are fairly represented by using a peer-review methodology.
How Can Data be Used to Fuel Growth Marketing?
With a broad range of attendees, there was in-depth discussion about the variety of methods in which data is used to generate growth. Seb Bardin from Unilever said his team use the resulting insights to identify consumer needs while Tushar Kaul, CMO of Bella & Duke leverage data to identify and persuade profitable customer targets. Ultimately, as CvE’s Paul Frampton stated, data is there to identify the barriers that stop people buying – use data well and businesses will overcome those barriers.
The need to integrate a growth marketing mindset into a business’s culture
The group were consistent in their belief that growth marketing isn’t a discrete tool. It is instead a mindset which needs to be integrated in to the business culture. Using cross-functional teams and hiring for mindset and attitude are essential for businesses who want to integrate growth marketing into their operations.
How successfully implementing an Agile methodology will fuel success in growth marketing
An Agile methodology can suit some growth marketing organisations, helping create a formal process which will create the results businesses want to see. Although the initial transition to Agile requires extra effort, this quickly pays back with improved efficiency, less bureaucracy and better customer service. By training a marketing team on Agile ways of working, a business can expect to see a shift towards a test and learn mindset and growth marketing at scale.
Ready to adopt Growth Marketing in your organisation?
Let’s work together! Upskilling your team and developing a Growth Marketing mindset in your organisation doesn’t need to be an ordeal. With access to brand tracking data, social media data and web analytics, you’re on your way. Mapping out a step-by-step approach and celebrating the little wins that take your brand closer to the gold standard in Growth Marketing is more rewarding and motivating for the people on the ground. It also demonstrates progress towards a more cost-effective marketing department to stakeholders in the broader business.
The full report – Why Every Brand Should Adopt a ‘Growth Marketing’ Mindset –frames the successes and challenges experienced by a spectrum of businesses with real life examples of integrating this discipline and mindset into marketing teams and the wider organisation. Download the full report to access these case studies and receive to-the-point guidance that will help you kickstart your team’s journey towards an improved Growth Marketing competency.
Download the full report and get ready to define your brand’s approach to Growth Marketing.
