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Little Grey Cells 2 May 2024: Market Orientation
2 May saw the third Little Grey Cells gathering of senior marketers at the stunning 41, Portland Place. Tim Healey, founder and curator of Little Grey Cells Club, explains the thinking behind his Little Grey cells Club events and reviews the key takeouts from his latest breakfast briefing on Market Orientation.
Through my marketing and brand management consultancy work and through my Little Grey Cells interviews I meet talented and successful marketers at the top of their game with many years of experience either in their sector or across multiple sectors.
One issue I began to see repeatedly frequently among CMOs and Marketing Directors is this: running the marketing for a business, you’re time-poor with barely a few minutes each week to stay on top of progress with your myriad of initiatives and projects. As a result: life can be lonely at the top.
When do you get the opportunity to talk to your peers – other senior marketers from yours or indeed different industry sectors but with similar responsibilities? What if there was an event that provided the perfect open, nurturing, learning environment for candid peer-to-peer knowledge exchange – one where you could ask your fellow senior marketers about their experience, or how to trouble-shoot a specific marketing problem?
And thus the Little Grey Cells Club events were born. We run 4 breakfast briefings per year. We choose pertinent topics like ‘The long and the short’, or ‘Advertising Effectiveness’. There’s a fireside chat with a senior marketer, a panel discussion with industry experts and then round-table discussions and time for networking – all in a central London venue. We launched in November 2023 and the feedback has been life-affirmingly positive.
On 2 May 2024, 50 of the UK’s most senior marketers attended our event on ‘Market orientation’. Here are the event’s key marketing takeouts:
Fireside chat:
Jess Myers (CMO, The Very Group)
Jess shared her journey from finance to her role at The Very Group – a £2.2bn business. Jess explained how The Very Group are super-focused on understanding their customers with their own value and attitudinal segmentation and the walked us through some of the precision planning involved to ensure that they continue to make 50% of their sales in the 12 week lead up to Christmas every year.
Panel discussion:
Maria Koutsoudakis (Brand and Marketing Director, Vodafone)
Maria discussed the importance of bringing clarity to the table in the world of telecommunications and focusing on what customers actually care about beyond the data plans. On her watch brand health for Vodafone is reaching new heights with extensive media-spend across advertising and event sponsorship.
Rebecca Hirst (Chief Marketing Officer, EY UK)
Research shows that EY is considered a super-strong brand in the UK: each year, Rebecca’s own brand health research provides the foundation for all marketing activities for EY.
Eleonore Murauer (Global eInnovation Director, Reckitt)
Marketing Durex globally was made easier once research into customers had been undertaken: the research revealed behaviours that had previously not been considered. El also recognises the need to be super-sensitive to cultural nuances across the globe.
Barbara Eigner (Chief Marketing Officer, CoreMedia)
Babsie shared insights from recently commissioned research that showed that customers now expect more than ever to have their website enquiries solved within a few clicks, and how sometimes you can’t rely on AI and you do “need a human” to support your customers.
Richard Palk (Head of Customer Marketing, Bremont Watch Company)
Richard explained how it was possible to get market orientated with smaller businesses who don’t have access to £8m research budgets. How you have to work with what you’ve got – or have a budget for. But being prudent, precise careful considered decision making can still yield great results.
Read Tracy Wood’s (Renegade Communication) review of the event here
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The successful businesses that support Little Grey Cells and enable us to deliver our events have put together a series of exclusive offers for the LGC network.
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Our next event:
Register now and join our next briefing on 26 September 2024, Central London, with the LEGO Group’s Global Head of Marketing Innovation, Cecilia Weckstrom, her expert panel, discussions and networking.
All event images: https://www.linkedin.com/in/photographer-andrew-maximov/
