It was my pleasure to interview Amanda Bailey, Vice President, CRM and Loyalty at Tory Burch for a recent Brand Innovators Women in Marketing Livecast.
Amanda is 90 days into her role at Tory Burch bringing deep experience is customer loyalty marketing after working at Hilton for over 8 years. We had a wide-ranging talk which you can listen to on the event replay. I have tried to summarize her key points and takeaways below.
We started the discussion talking about her new role and her approach to her first ninety days on the job (working remotely) and what her strategy was in a new company and in a new industry. She shared three things that shaped her early activities:
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Set a simple goal for each of the three months
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Double down on relationships, she described herself as a "relationship maximizer"
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Focus your energy where it matters most, don’t spread yourself too thin
This thinking helped her to come up to speed, get to know her team and quickly begin to contribute.
We also talked about the transition from an industry (hospitality) that was so massively impacted by the pandemic to one that is often perceived to be a pandemic winner (retail) and compared some of the similarities and differences. For Amanda the pandemic was the ultimate customer disruptor and has shaped her thinking that we must meet customers where they are and put the customer first by providing them with innovative experiences. Amanda shared her five “universal truths” about customer engagement:
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Seamless omni-channel experiences are expected in every industry
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Health and wellness becomes much more important as a part of the decision making process, you need to figure out how it plays into your brand relevance
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Consumers will give data if it provides value to them, they want a personalized experience
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Loyalty programs – pre-pandemic they were meant to serve the business, post-pandemic they need to serve the customer
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Values led brands – pre-pandemic this was a differentiator, post-pandemic this becomes expected
If you weren’t sure that the customer was in control pre-pandemic, now there is no question and our role as marketers is to figure out how to create that connected channel experience that keeps us top of mind.
We closed out our time with a discussion on the importance of networking and how enriching it can be both professionally and personally. Amanda is very involved with a networking group called Chief that is focused on supporting women leaders. In Amanda’s view when it comes to networking you get out what you put in, you need to engage and share – don’t just observe, and you need to tell people about it. It was a great way to close out an interesting and insightful discussion!
