Past Events

What Maryanne Smith and Noel Leeming can teach us about Marketing.

Written by Sophie Jaggs from Likeable Lab.

Last night I had the pleasure of attending my first MOPED event and it did not disappoint. Coming away from listening to Maryanne Smith, you really get the understanding she’s been there, tried that, and got the outcome she wanted.

With a mountain of experience in a corporate environment, Maryanne delivers her insights in such an easy to understand, personable manner. 

For such a demanding role with (I’m guessing) huge amounts of pressure, it’s refreshing to know Maryanne is facing the same ‘work-life balance’ problems that most of us face —  and doing a fine job at promoting that this is the #1 priority in her everyday life. 

Read on for a summary of her talk.

Thinking about our customer

Maryanne talked about things like ‘being obsessed with the customer and the brand storyteller’. Which reminds us all to link everything we do back to our customer and how it’s going to benefit them.

I personally loved the term Maryanne used — ‘Be bold, not stupid’. It’s so true, we need to be bold to attract attention but it needs to be done in a risk-free, financially viable way. 

Barriers in marketing can be overcome

Maryanne highlighted that understanding barriers within our business is hard, but not impossible. Don’t hide from them, look to overcome them. How do we do that? Communicate with staff, challenge opinions and bring new ones, look back (at fails) to look forward, and make a conscious effort to improve team dynamics. 

Noel Leeming Group repeatedly review and measure the performance of their strategies. This allows them to be creative, innovative and keep their customer firmly in their focus. It’s not just about selling the customer a product, it’s about creating an inspiring customer journey.

Create a customer journey

Creating a journey that incorporates ‘Feel - Think - Do’ is one way Noel Leeming are honing in on the customer journey. My interpretation of this would be… 1.    Tug on the customer’s feelings 2.    Give them all the materials and knowledge they need to able to think their purchase through 3.    Encourage them to act on their feelings and thoughts.

Purpose above profit

I have huge amounts of kudos for big corporates who have the guts to say out loud ‘purpose above profit’ —  it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Maryanne touched on a US company called REI, an outdoor clothing and equipment chain store. These guys made us all smile as well as realise that ‘purpose above profit’ is really what they believe in. Check out this Youtube clip to find out what pretty shocking act they did on the biggest shopping day of the year in the US. 

Thanks Maryanne

Maryanne did us all a huge favour...she made us think about our own customers and clients and how we are interacting with them. She reminded us to look at our team culture and how we can improve it. And lastly, encourages us to reflect on how we present our brand and tell our story for effective customer engagement. 

Thanks Maryanne, it was a true pleasure listening to you.