John Paik

Building an emotional connection is so crucial within brand/sports marketing for several reasons: 1. **Customer Loyalty** 2. **Brand Differentiation** 3. **Influence on Purchasing Decisions** 4. **Word-of-Mouth Marketing** 5. **Customer Lifetime Value** 6. **Resilience in Crisis** 7. **Enhanced Customer Experience** 8. **Etc.** We have to remember that by focusing on building emotional connections, brands can cultivate deeper relationships with their customers, leading to long-term success and a sustainable competitive advantage. Once more - it’s about listening to the voice of the consumer and then building a great storytelling that brings that emotional connection.

As I work with brands I ask this question frequently. Whom are your consumers? What are there persona’s and are you truly listening to their voice? As you understand your audience it gives you the adaptation and agility to change as you go within your strategy (GTM/consumer journey). Properly if done correctly by listening and communicating with your consumer; you’ll be able to be creative, curate, challenge the team, collaborate and be consistent as you move forward.

I’ve always been taught from great mentors - it’s about “One Team One Dream” As we become leaders it’s our opportunity to be mentors/coaches to be able to support, listen challenge the team to think differently. By delegating; I actually love the term empowering; as it brings out a greater boost of self assurance, self esteem, feeling apart of the team, trusting in building their strengths/leadership, having that safe space and ultimately trust in you as that leader. Another aspect is that this cultivates a culture of solutions. My method by supporting and utilizing what I call the 5 c’s (Creative, Curious, Challenging each other, Collaborating, bringing Consistency) that lead to the 3 R’s (Retain, Recruit and Repeat).

When a brand team is resistant to change, there are many steps and factors that need to be found. 1. I'd call what I call a CAM (Catagory Alignment Meeting). Having all Subject Matter Expert x functionally and start having a discussion from Product, Innovation, Brand, Creative, Supply Chain, Sales, Finance, etc. 2. Let's find out the "why". What makes it so that the team thinks change is not ok. Questions like: What are we afraid of? 3. Ask are we truly "Listening to the consumer?" 4. Start white boarding and ask - what are we doing well What are the bottle necks then by communicating What are our opportunities and what are our competitors doing. etc. 5. Then agree on terms for the next plan and create those deliverables as a team.

KPI is such an ambiguous direction for many brands. Please note: that the traditional KPI's are still important such as Margins, AOV, Traffic, Conversion Rates, Revenue, EBITA, Sales, etc...but I'll ask another question. Dependent on the brand - what is truly important? Brand recognition? How do you measure cool? This will really depend on you as the brand.

The question I'll ask is: What is the consumer journey look like? Are you planning 6 months, 12 months or 18 months ahead? As you plan out the GTM/Consumer Journey, this gives you within brand the opportunity to cross collaborate with each function in making sure you all are connected, agree upon your promotions, launch events, etc....I call it the Category Alignment meeting (CAM)