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Jenny Slade
experienced product and content marketer
Jenny Slade is a seasoned marketer known for her expertise in product and content marketing, offering a unique blend of strategic insight and execution capabilities. With a background spanning from startups to enterprises in various B2B SaaS companies, she possesses a valuable skill set in GTM strategy, positioning, messaging, product launches, lead generation, and more. Jenny excels in translating technical features into compelling messaging to drive effective campaigns and enhance the customer experience.
Highlights
If you were trapped on a deserted island and could access only ONE streaming video platform, what would it be?
Turns out, more Americans (of all ages) would choose YouTube over TikTok or Netflix.
For those of you using video to promote products, 2X as many YouTube as Netflix users say that watching YouTube makes them feel smarter.
Check out Dan Frommer's latest #ConsumerTrends report for more fun facts and if you haven't already, put that videographer on speed dial. https://lnkd.in/gghcYH5c
Check out these stats: Can you guess the company?
- Founded in 1913
- Its most successful product last year actually “failed” in 2016
- In just the last four years its revenue has exploded from $73M to $750M
- Customer base pivoted from working-class male to Gen Z female
SURPRISE! It’s Stanley — longtime maker of the insulated thermoses popular at construction sites, as well as that trendy “Quencher” tumbler that’s been all over Instagram. Stanley’s 180 trajectory is fascinating but maybe not surprising, because it illustrates some core marketing principles.
EMPOWER EMPLOYEES TO SHARE IDEAS. Stanley’s President, Terence Reilly, already had a reputation for brand turnarounds: he helped engineer Crocs from dorky footwear into fugly fashion statement. One of his hacks was asking employees for their thoughts and ideas. When a national sales manager at Stanley named Lauren Solomon noticed that the blog/Instagram account The Buy Guide was enthusiastically touting Quenchers, she and Reilly set up a meeting. The meeting led to a co-marketing campaign, which led to a reinvestment in the product, which pushed the Quencher into viral territory. Reilly later “described the Quencher’s renaissance as ‘a story about listening to female voices.’”
TAKE CALCULATED RISKS. Start with a spark and see if you can fan it into a bonfire. Stanley initially agreed to an affiliate campaign with The Buy Guide. The blog purchased 5,000 Quenchers at wholesale, then re-sold them through their website. After the products sold out in five days, the two organizations struck another deal: Stanley would reboot Quencher sales on its website, and produce the tumbler in more colors, in exchange for The Buy Guide’s promotion and affiliate links. 🔥
PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR CUSTOMERS AND PARTNERS (even and especially the ones that don’t fit your existing personas.) Despite having discontinued the Quencher in 2016 due to low sales, Stanley listened to The Buy Guide’s feedback about the tumbler's popularity with moms and Gen Z women. Stanley leveraged this input to build an affiliate partner network that now includes campaigns with Target and Starbucks, selling products to a customer base entirely different from the one it had through its first 100 years of existence.
BE AGILE ENOUGH TO PIVOT. Many companies might get as far as noticing customer enthusiasm or discussing potential campaign ideas. But that’s often where the spark dies. Rebooting manufacturing for a discontinued product, expanding the product’s design, and shifting budget and resources to support engineering and marketing? Unthinkable at companies with long lead times, annual portfolio planning, and an intransigent marketing culture. Successfully responding to market opportunities requires that C-level leaders be open to new possibilities and sustain a company culture that can execute on them.
