The Ideal CPG Organization Structure: Julie Liu From Clif Bar - Episode 149

INTERVIEW WITH JULIE LIU - CLIF BAR, SHOPPER MARKETING MANAGER

 

DESCRIPTION

In this week’s episode, we are joined by Julie Liu, Shopper Marketing Manager at Clif Bar. Julie focuses on driving omnichannel growth at Clif Bar & Company. Currently, she leads the shopper marketing strategy for national retail accounts, including Walmart, Target, and Kroger, after previously managing eCommerce marketing strategies on Amazon.

Tune in to find out what she has to say about omnichannel, Instacart, org structure, and more!

Julie started in marketing in the beauty industry, responsible for accounts in the Asia Pacific region. She did that for five years before moving into a shopper marketing role at Clif Bar as part of the marketing organization. In that role, she focused primarily on the in-store experience, but did some tests and learns with digital media and couponing. After three years, Julie joined the Amazon side as part of a newly formed eCommerce marketing group where she was responsible for content development, paid search, SEO, review generation, and Amazon advertising strategies for the Clif Bar portfolio brands. A little over a year in that role, she rejoined the shopper marketing team to help grow brick and mortar digital businesses.

“What I’ve seen that with an eComm specific or in-store specific team structure, you may find that without a very close partnership, the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. So it’s very difficult to marry your sales and marketing strategies together and truly be consumer obsessed.
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— Julie Liu

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Where should shoppers buy?

    • Sales side - channel harmony and customer harmony.

    • Marketing - short-term, it depends on the objective of the brand and the campaign (immediate trial or immediate sales), but long-term, consider DTC to build a relationship. 

    • Instacart - newfound comfort in buying online, but there is a lack of consumer data. 

    • Amazon shoppers are increasingly considering Walmart.com

  • Instacart - an emerging opportunity for brands:

    • Order volumes on that platform have surged by 500% - shoppers have migrated to shopping for groceries online and they're feeling comfortable with it.

    • It should be a key part of every CPG's national shopper marketing or eCommerce strategy.

    • Reach - Instacart now has 350 plus retailers within their network.

    • Search - more efficient results since transitioning over to that second-price auction model.

    • Instacart has recently launched its customer intelligence platform, which unlocks insights based on your previous quarter's marketing investment.

    • The spend minimums have increased for some marketing placements, specifically the delivery promotions.

    • Sampling is not a current capability with Instacart. 

    • Targeted placements are missing.

    • A lot is left up to the retailer, e.g. content (but you can control shopper marketing).

  • Specific criteria when considering new sales channels:

    • First-party targeting capabilities, the efficiency of spend, and reach.

    • In terms of more established platforms, look at both quantitative and qualitative data.

    • Big players like Kroger, Amazon, Walmart, often eat at most of the marketing spend, but with the regional customers, dollars probably stretch much further. 

  • Ideal org design for the new eComm era:

    • Omnichannel development manager, category insights team, and Amazon marketing team helped educate the sales organization on eComm fundamentals, like product availability, content, ratings, reviews, and search.

    • From the shopper behavior side, there's rarely an online exclusive shopper or an in-store exclusive shopper - the shoppers will move seamlessly between tools and platforms based on convenience.

    • Having this omnichannel approach allows activating strategies that have both the physical and digital element to customers.

    •  eCommerce is both marketing and sales - at Clif Bar, on the marketing side, Amazon-specific team is reporting into sales, but omnichannel shopper marketers, report into the marketing org. 

  • Tips

    • Focus first on the fundamentals - making sure that you have your product in stock and available for shoppers to buy, that you have good content that's engaging for the consumer and really talks about your products, features, and benefits.

    • Good ratings and reviews are super crucial now. 

    • Search - optimize your keywords, your content, and invest in paid search.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Season 3Kiri MastersComment