Conversations with CMO Dara Johnson Treseder: Branding in the Age of Digital
For our first year at Inbound, we had the unique opportunity to interview the Chief Marketing Officer of Carbon, Dara Johnson Treseder. Described in Forbes as one of the 50 marketing chiefs redefining the role and shaping the future, Treseder is a force to be reckoned with.
After attending her session on “Becoming a Unicorn: Brand-Building Secrets from a Silicon Valley Innovator” we met with her to discuss B2B v. B2C, culture, and brand-building in the digital age.
Check out a snippet of our conversation below:
Adebukola: In your session, you talk about how there’s no more B2C or B2B. There’s only B2H and robot takeover, I think that’s so profound. I’ve never heard anyone say that. As you may know, I’m getting my Master’s in digital media and all we do is B2B and B2C. Can you expound on what it is to be B2H?
Dara: What I mean is that robots haven’t taken over yet, we’re still talking to humans on the other end of the line. And the fact is, that if the human is making a decision, you have to be able to connect with that human regardless of what the product or service is. Studies have shown that B2B customers make a lot of buying decisions based on emotions even more than B2C customers. Think about it, if you're making those B2B decisions, the stakes are higher. If you ask for millions of dollars to invest in a particular program or software and it really goes wrong that could be your professional reputation or job on the line. But if you end up buying a pair of shoes and you don't like it as much, you just buy another pair of shoes -- the stakes aren’t as high. So actually B2B customers are making a lot of the emotional decisions. And I think because we have wrongly said, “when I'm talking B2C, I'm talking to a human but B2B is more of a business so I'm not trying to even connect on an emotional level.” As marketers, we really left a lot on the table. It's time we change our mindset and stop talking B2B and B2C and start talking B2H.
Adebukola: In marketing, the most important thing is to bring value to our customers in the hopes that it matriculates into a sale down the line. What are some of the things and values you hold dear to yourself?
Dara: I think the most important thing is to create value for your customers. Because if you can create value, you can capture value. If you're not creating value it's going to be hard to capture some of that value, whether that’s in growth, in profit, or in marketing. And in order for you to create value for your customer you have to be solving actual problems, you have to be addressing a real need. As I always say, you need to be more of a pain killer than a vitamin. You can't solve a problem if you don't know what the pain points are. It's so important that you’re constantly connecting with your customers and your prospects. Because once people come into the fold, their needs are going to be different than those who are just discovering or figuring out who you are. They may not even know what their pain points are. That's why I think it's important to talk with existing and prospective customers. If you keep talking to existing customers, you're only tweaking things.
“As I always say, you need to be more of a pain killer than a vitamin. You can’t solve a problem if you don’t know what the pain points are.”
Adebukola: How do you stay on top of the new market trends that affect your identity as a black woman?
Dara: I think marketing trends affect all of us. They affect me as a woman, they affect me as a person of color, as a female person of color. They affect me as a mother, as a spouse, immigrant. So what I am trying to understand is how culture is shifting and evolving because brand affects culture and culture affects brand. If I have a good grasp of how culture is evolving and where things are going then I'm better positioned to not only understand how the different trends affect me and the different intersections of my identity, but I can also understand how they affect others and other identity intersections that I may not necessarily identify with. It’s so important to have a good understanding of culture and be culturally attuned. Because as a brand you you don't want to be off-tone or tone-deaf. And if you don't understand what's happening in culture, how it's impacting the way consumers are thinking and evolving, then you can make a wrong step.
A: How can young professionals of color market and train themselves to be more competitive within the tech industry?
D: I think it's really important to have a solid foundation. I was really fortunate to have started my career as an intern at Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs, at the time, invested so much in training and trying to get you up to speed. They also had training you could subscribe to on your own, they had a Goldman Sachs University and you could take additional courses. So I took additional courses, I really wanted to be the best. I think having the ability to learn in the workplace and build upon on what you've already learned in your academic environment is key. There are two ways you can learn: you can learn by doing or you can learn by seeing and I think it's important to combine both. I think if you can only learn by doing then sometimes you don't know what great looks like, so how can you build great? If you only learn by seeing, you're not really taking risks because sometimes you have to jump into the deep end. What’s really important is how you mix both those things. You need to take the time to learn and see what great looks like, but then you have to take that leap of faith. And so I always say, when I’m talking to people that I mentor, is that you have to know where it’s time to grow and when it’s time to bloom where you’ve been planted. So you’ve got to figure out, “Is this a time for blooming where I’ve been planted? Where do I have to put my roots in and learn by seeing?”
A: It should be a right to be in your workplace, be happy and feel connected. One more question, what is it like being and CMO? What is the best day you’ve ever had at Carbon?
D: Well, I’ve had a lot of good times at Carbon so it’s going to be hard to pinpoint. A recent one is that we just launched Crafted by Carbon which is our ingredient brand campaign. We created the first-ever bike seat to be grown from liquid polymer with light and oxygen and it’s improving performance for cyclists. And it was such an amazing moment. Here we are, sharing that with the world in a more public way. We’ve always been going to market with our customers but we hadn’t codified what the ingredient brand is, so my team did incredible work on it, showcasing the entire company and I think that’s what I love. I love when we all come together and we work and we can share that. That’s so important for Crafted by Carbon. Even though it’s an ingredient brand, it’s really a promise, it’s a commitment and dedication to crafting what the world truly needs – what’s better for the people and the planet. That’s something that really excites me and motivates me.
A: Thank you so much, congratulations on everything. Thank you for your time and again, really enjoyed your talk. Wonderful, thank you so much.
D: Thank you so much, thank you.