In this episode of YouShouldTalkTo, Kathy Neumann, CMO of Rent, explains why it is important to test before pulling back the budget, even during hard times. Kathy and our host Daniel Weiner get into the benefits of digital to brands and consumers and discuss the importance of agency-brand relationships, how to work with agency partners, and how to get the most out of them.
Guest-at-a-Glance
💡 Name: Kathy Neumann, CMO of Rent.
💡 Noteworthy: Kathy is a strong marketing professional skilled in marketing, digital, social and brand strategy, market research, management, direct, performance and multi-channel marketing. Kathy joined Rent as the CMO in February 2022 with a wealth of experience in brand and consumer marketing. Most recently, Kathy oversaw integrated marketing at chewy.com, the beloved direct-to-consumer pet food and pet care brand, awarded one of "America's 20 Hottest Brands 2020" by Ad Age. Prior to Chewy, Kathy worked on building brands including Carter's, OshKosh B'gosh, Lands' End, Pink, and Victoria's Secret.Â
💡 Where to find Kathy: LinkedIn l Website
Key Insights:
âš¡ Test before you pull back the budget. The COVID pandemic has brought both changes and problems that have affected everyday life and the entire economy. Due to the uncertainty that followed COVID, many companies stopped working, and even now, we are witnessing many brands pulling back and controlling spending due to the current economic situation. Kathy points out that pulling back budgets is often a short-term reaction that can do more long-term damage, so she suggests testing first. "The most important thing to do is keep testing when you tend to pull back budgets. Sometimes we get that test because they're expensive in the short term or more inefficient in the short term, but that's what's going to give us the leverage to improve our performance over the next six, 18 months. And if you forgo your testing plan, you are really giving up future efficiencies. Whether that's new channels, new creative, new copy, CTAs, all of that stuff, it's still gotta be tested just like it was back when things were a little bit brighter, maybe. And if we walk away from that, we're walking away from really being good stewards of the business."
âš¡ Agencies are a smart investment in partnerships to accelerate performance and learning. Often the success of a brand or a business depends on creating the right partnership with an agency because agencies can contribute a lot to their development. They can help you with many things, and you can also learn a lot from working with them. Kathy says that during her career, she has used agencies for many different things and that you should definitely invest in them. "Agencies can play a critical role in helping grow a business, especially as we're testing new things, and we're trying to find additional expertise, additional hands on the keyboard, skill sets that we may not have or we may not know we need yet. And it's often easier to partner with an agency and learn through something, and maybe there comes a time where you have an understanding of what's going to work for your business, you've learned through it, and it starts to migrate back into the house."
