In this exciting episode, Sue Frech, TINT CRO, sits down with Tiffany Pegues, Head of Social, Search, and CRM at Church & Dwight Co. Tiffany shares insights into the digital strategies she leads, emphasizing the importance of authentic voices in brand communities and the power of consumer energy. We discuss the challenges of keeping up with social media algorithms and the role of brand communities in advocacy.
Tiffany also provides valuable advice for marketers looking to start a brand-owned community. Looking ahead to 2024, she highlights the opportunities and challenges in social commerce and the significance of user-generated content. Plus, Tiffany shares her thoughts on AI’s role in revolutionizing marketing productivity. Tune in for a dynamic discussion on the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing!
Supporting Stats are from the 2024 State of Community Powered Marketing unless otherwise noted.
Featured Quotes from the Podcast
Brand Strategy, Consumer Lens
“We had a consumer who wrote to us frequently. I became pen pals with this person. We wrote physical letters at first, then it went into the social realm. The person gave me a framed picture. It sat on my desk; I would take it into meetings. When I talked about brand strategy, it was from the lens of that consumer.”
Takeaways
- Loyal consumers are the ultimate brand advocates.
- They want to connect with the brands they love and publically show their appreciation through visible markers like wearing logos on stickers, merchandise, and (in extreme cases) even tattoos.
- Digital communities are places where brands can discover unique consumers.
Supporting Stats
- 88.1% of consumers believe it’s important to have two-way dialogue with brands so they can share feedback and opinions.
- 40.1% of consumers are more likely to stay loyal to a favorite brand because of engaging with it in an online brand community.
- 76.6% of consumers wish their favorite brands had a community.
Seeding Messaging
“There’s so much coming at consumers every day. The way you seed a brand is harnessing on a message that makes sense and is relevant to that community. That’s what I think of when it comes to the flywheel of advocacy. How do you seed messages that resonate with a specific audience?”
Takeaways
- Consumers are inundated with marketing messaging. The key is finding ways to cut through the noise.
- Starting with brand community and micro-influencers allows brand marketers to test language, voice, and perspective before rolling it out to more expensive channels.
- Influencers and advocates of all sizes typically start building their audiences by activating their family and friends.
Supporting Stats:
- 78.2% of consumers say interacting with a brand’s online community makes that brand more “top of mind” when shopping.
- 53.73% of marketers agree influencer content converts higher than brand content. (State of Social & User-Generated Content 2023)
- 67.4% of consumers feel more connected through community than social.
Mining for Insights on Social
“It is about mining for insights. Looking at the world around you, What are the communities that your Gen Z cousins or children are engaging in? What are they talking about? That’s where social listening comes in, whether it is in the context of that platform or from a macro-perspective, looking up and seeing what’s capturing people’s hearts, minds, and attention. “
Takeaways
- Social and digital professionals are expected to have a point of view and familiarity with emerging technologies and social media platforms.
- It is the “Wild West” of platforms as they vie for competition and attention.
- Use personal experience to guide understanding of how consumers use social media. Ask why certain things appear on your feeds and not others.
- Not everything is the next blockbuster platform. A key part of any strategy is knowing when to watch, when to activate, and when to scale.
Supporting Stats
- 59.5% of marketers are concerned about losing access to their brand’s fans on social media due to an algorithm change.
- 67.4% of consumers feel more connected through community than social.
- The top way marketers use or plan to use online communities is to collect consumer opinions (51.0%), amplify other marketing initiatives (45.0%), and grow loyalty (41.0%).
More Insights
“We live in a cancel culture. That’s the biggest fear of any brand; they find themselves in headlines. There’s an element of reputation management. There’s the aspect of working with trusted voices, from the influencer perspective, that minimize the risk.”
“It is important to own this relationship because we don’t own our brands increasingly. I think of them as living, breathing, organisms. They’re out there for consumption. Consumers will adapt them as they want to or need to.”
“When we think about some of our internal social tools, our R&D team are constituents of those tools even more so than maybe members of my team. I think the richness that they’re getting from that is, how can they think about new product ideas, product renovation ideas, pricing, things we can take out or remove from the product. There’s so much richness from mining social and consumer reviews.”
About Church and Dwight
Church & Dwight Co., Inc., founded in 1846, is the leading U.S. producer of sodium bicarbonate, popularly known as baking soda. The Company’s ARM & HAMMER brand is one of the nation’s most trusted trademarks for a broad range of consumer and specialty products developed from the base of sodium bicarbonate and related technologies. The Company has fourteen key brands representing approximately 85% of its revenues. These “power brands” include ARM & HAMMER, TROJAN, OXICLEAN, SPINBRUSH, FIRST RESPONSE, NAIR, ORAJEL, XTRA, VMS (L’IL CRITTERS and VITAFUSION), BATISTE, WATERPIK, ZICAM, THERABREATH and HERO. About 45% of the Company’s domestic consumer products are sold under the ARM & HAMMER brand name and derivative trademarks, such as ARM & HAMMER liquid and powder laundry detergent, ARM & HAMMER cat litter, ARM & HAMMER dental care and ARM & HAMMER baking soda. The combination of the core ARM & HAMMER brands and the other 13 power brands make Church & Dwight one of the leading consumer packaged goods companies in the United States.
