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Ryan Reynolds
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Colleen Arani
I think this is absolutely the right decision for us. We have a colleague today who leads both our retail media, so our shopper teams as well as our national media. So before we kind of had those sitting in separate places and now we have it under a single leader. And what it does is it allows us to look holistically at our plan for the year and see, you know, how do we think about it from the consumer lens. That path to purchase versus this is an AP budget and that's a trade budget. This is one team or another team. It's all one team and it's all one pool of funds. And how do we think about it? Holistically from a consumer perspective to say, how do we best reach them as they're making their purchase decisions, no matter which platform or kind of media space they might be in.
Rachel Tippograph
Welcome to today's episode of Brave Commerce.
Sarah Hofstadter
I'm Rachel Tippograph, the founder and CEO of Mic Mac.
Rachel Tippograph
I'm Sarah Hofstadter, president of Profitero, and.
Sarah Hofstadter
This is a show that talks about what's relevant in e commerce for the world's biggest brands. Sarah, what's a product you're researching right now?
Rachel Tippograph
I just came off of researching outdoor patio furniture and I made a terrible mistake.
Sarah Hofstadter
What was the mistake?
Rachel Tippograph
I bought on Amazon.
Colleen Arani
Oh.
Rachel Tippograph
As an e commerce person, I read the reviews. You know what the problem with the reviews is? Even if a million people really like it, those are not the people that have my standards of poly.
Sarah Hofstadter
Well, you should have just asked me because I've already gone through this research cycle and there's only one answer. Pollywood.
Rachel Tippograph
Oh, Pollywood is gorgeous. Maybe we should get somebody from Pollywood on.
Sarah Hofstadter
That'd be fun.
Rachel Tippograph
They're selling Pollywood in Costco now, also, just FYI. Oh, really? Yeah.
Sarah Hofstadter
So it can get to us before Memorial Day.
Rachel Tippograph
Yes. We got this set that looked great, got great reviews, and we were like really kind of comparing a lot of stuff, and I was too lazy to go to a store and like, try things out. I think ratings and reviews are like super duper important. Obviously, it's a big part of my business. When we had Neil Shaw from Sharp Ninja, he was talking about those five star reviews. Furniture. I messed up on that one. I did. How about you?
Sarah Hofstadter
Because I'm expecting in August, we are deep in researching every type of baby product. And let me tell you, there's so many brands now for every single type of need. It's wild.
Rachel Tippograph
I'm assuming that the, the long tail market on that one is pretty robust as well, because everybody's trying to get into that.
Sarah Hofstadter
Yep. Well, here's a different question for you. What's something that you bought recently that you haven't thought about?
Rachel Tippograph
Disposable paper goods that are like, eco friendly. Okay, that was a very long winded answer.
Sarah Hofstadter
But at one point in your life cycle, you definitely thought about that. But not anymore. Now it's commonplace.
Rachel Tippograph
No, no, I just, I have my brands, I do my thing and yeah, I just reordered them on Amazon also. And I don't think twice about it.
Sarah Hofstadter
Yeah, yogurt.
Rachel Tippograph
That's a good one. And so, like the whole process of how you get into this of how you make those purchase decisions is very different. You're reordering your yogurt, you're ostensibly sleep shopping. And something would have to be very interoperative to make you change that versus your baby research, which is, you know, like you're basically trying to protect the most important thing in your life.
Sarah Hofstadter
Yeah. But the difference is it's now being pushed to you because of TikTok. So like instead of actively researching, I'm not turning to Google search, I'm not even targeting to ChatGPT. Literally they know I'm about to have a baby. And every single type of person who is in my life stage right now, that content is being pushed to me on TikTok and I don't have to do anything.
Rachel Tippograph
That is just the 2.0 or 3.0 version of that famous business study where Target knew that that woman was pregnant before she did or her parents did. And so the whole idea of personalization at scale and what does that do? So as a brand, what do you do to reverse engineer success? Obviously you've got to be on all the screens and certainly you've got to have a good social game for the considered purchases and then for the impulse purchases. If you're not the preferred brand, you really have to figure out how to be interruptive if you're typically the preferred brand, making sure you don't get disintermediated. And so the behaviors as Colleen Arani talks about is this whole clicky versus scrolly, like who just goes in, clicks what they want. As long as it's discoverable, I'm in, I'm getting it versus it's discoverable. But I gotta get much more immersive. I gotta start scrolling a lot more. And so the difference between how you approach a clicky category like batteries or a scrolly category like lighting or auto, much more complicated. And we are happy to have Colleen Arani, VP of Global Marketing joining us today. This has been a get we've been working on for a long time. So thank you so much for joining us.
Colleen Arani
It's my pleasure. I'm so excited to be here.
Rachel Tippograph
Well, there's a lot for us to unpack today and we're going to try to do it in our typical bite sized fashion.
Colleen Arani
But.
Rachel Tippograph
But you know, one of the things that I love about having you on the podcast is that commerce is not in your title. It's just part of what you do. And I think that there's a lot in there because the way that you guys have built, the way that you Think about unifying sales and marketing and commercial excellence and all that stuff has been so much less of a bolt on. And then you talk about the idea of being built together in order to get through that transformation. Help us understand as comfortably as you can how you got there.
Colleen Arani
Yes. So we have been on this de journey for a long time. Like a lot of companies, when Amazon was in the early days, we started off with an incubation team and they were really focused on just moving quickly, getting our products out there and seeing what we could learn along the way. And as time went on, you know, we saw that this was becoming an important space for our brick and mortar retailers too. And so we moved that activity into our commercial team so that we could, you know, have that all together. But as you said, Sarah, more recently, we've moved from being bolted on in our commercial team to being built together. And this is because retail media has just exploded in importance and visibility in this space. And so we needed to have the activity sit within our cross functional marketing teams. And so for marketing specifically, that change means that we now have our marketing colleagues that lead our long range planning, our creative approach and our media strategy.
Sarah Hofstadter
So just to make sure that I'm following within the commercial organization, they're the face of negotiating like retailer media, JBPS and just the overall retailer relationship.
Colleen Arani
Absolutely. Yes, that's right.
Sarah Hofstadter
So I have to guess that some of those people never bought like a Facebook ad or a Google search ad in their life. So what did it look like to upskill folks in media?
Colleen Arani
Yes. So what we've done is we've said that, you know, the commercial colleagues are really going to be that face to our customers. But we work very closely together. We have marketing colleagues who are leading the marketing activities. So in the past, those commercial colleagues were the ones who were maybe making decisions about retail media and some of those spaces. And we've said, gosh, given how that's really grown, we need people who are experts in that space to be the ones driving those decisions that have kind of expertise in that craft.
Sarah Hofstadter
It's interesting, you know, we've had a lot of debates on the show. Where should retail media sit within an organization? Now that you've, you've lived through this, do you believe that this is the right decision or do you think it'll change again?
Colleen Arani
I think this is absolutely the right decision for us. We have a colleague today who leads both our retail media, so our shopper teams as well as our national media. So before we kind of had those sitting in Separate places. And now we have it under a single leader. And what it does is it allows us to look holistically at our plan for the year and see, you know, how do we think about it from the consumer lens. That path to purchase versus this is an A and P budget, and that's a trade budget. This is one team or another team. It's all one team and it's all one pool of funds. And how do we think about it holistically from a consumer perspective to say, how do we best reach them as they're making their purchase decisions, no matter which platform or kind of media space they might be in?
Rachel Tippograph
You have also included content development in that world, right? So you've got the media, the shopper, marketing, the content development, all in this one unified structure.
Colleen Arani
Yes, within our team, of course.
Rachel Tippograph
Reverse engineering things from the perspective of the consumer is what any large organization will tell you they do. They're very consumer first and blah, blah, blah, but they don't walk the talk. Why? Because different talents and certain skill sets and to your point, in certain parts of the P and L. So like, what have been the bigger challenges in integrating them and then any, even anecdotal on the payoff?
Colleen Arani
The challenges have really probably been within a couple of different spaces. The first one's probably around communication and maintaining that connectedness to what's happening in the DE space as you grow to a bigger team. And I think the second one is really around our operational approach. So, you know, we're learning new things every day in this space. And when you have a smaller team, it's much easier to share that journey and be sure that others are hearing those same things too. But as the team's grown, it really requires a more intentional approach to make sure that everyone is clear on our strategies and that we're sharing those best practices across the team. It requires that more focused effort, I think. And I think on the operational approach, that second piece, you know, anytime you grow quickly, there's work to be done to figure out who should do what, how do we make sure we've got the right people on the right tasks? And definitely there's times when we face a challenge and it's all hands on deck to solve the specific problem. But we're also doing the work to say, you know, what are the races, where's the role, clarity, so that we can have maximum impact for the business. And this kind of in the weeds work is definitely not my favorite, but I do think it's important and it really makes a Difference and what we can achieve and how we get that done.
Sarah Hofstadter
We can tell where you get your energy from unintended, which is from the strategic overview and leading people through change. Energizer. I mean, you sell more than batteries, correct?
Colleen Arani
Absolutely, yes. We have more than 20 brands and we are within 160 countries across the.
Sarah Hofstadter
World outside of batteries being a core part of the business.
Colleen Arani
So we sell lighting and we also, we have auto care products. So brands like Armor All, AC Pro, stp, all within our portfolio.
Sarah Hofstadter
Got it. And so those have to be pretty different consumer journeys. Like one is impulse, others something you probably think a lot about and is tailored to your specific needs. So as you think about those consumer journeys and probably the media strategies behind them, how do you segment the approach?
Colleen Arani
You're right. Those consumers and the way that they interact with our categories is really different. So we often talk about them as being sort of clicky versus scrolly categories. So with batteries, what we see is you go to the Amazon page, you type in AA batteries and you probably make your purchase decision on that first page. It's a pretty quick sort of click and ship decision. You know how to use batteries, you know where they go. Right. The purpose is pretty clear. But what we see in our auto care products and even our lighting products is that consumers, there's more discovery behavior. They're interested to read the content and see the product in use and answer questions like can I use this on my dashboard and my tires and you know, where can I use this product and what's the best use case for it? And so consumers spend a lot more time with the content and on our pages and reading the reviews and that's more important to their purchase decision. And so we have to spend more of our time and resources on thinking about that content space within auto care than we might do on batteries as a comparison.
Sarah Hofstadter
And what about the third shelf, social? Like in which of those categories is that super relevant?
Colleen Arani
So we do put more focus on social within our auto care categories than our battery space, just for those same reasons.
Rachel Tippograph
Right.
Colleen Arani
You want to see it in use. You want to understand what consumers are experiencing and how they're using the products. And so that becomes more important.
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Rachel Tippograph
As you've been thinking about all this unification and sub segmenting that between impulse versus considered or clicky versus scrolling, which definitely is going to make it into the headline of this episode. I've always loved having frame that out when we've talked about this over time and I just think it's just a good memory sticker. But as you think about all of these different components of it, there's a heck of a lot of specialization that needs to happen when it comes to the activation. Whether that's media or content or negotiations with the retailers or the nuances of knowing your brands and how different they are and how the path of purchases are different. And then at the same time you as the leader of this bands of misfits, if you will, or just phenomenal orchestra. You've got to simplify the whole damn thing. So how do you figure out that for lack of a better term like Raci on driving the decisions that need to be made in general based on hyper specialization while also maintaining holistic strategic view of the business?
Colleen Arani
Yeah, I think the agility to have that kind of macro picture while also getting into the details is uniquely challenging in this space because you need a strategic plan that covers that horizon over the next few years. But you also have to make sure that you win search today on a very specific sku. And so for us we really approach that by having a combination of talent that's focused on both the macro and the micro. And so if I think about that broadest level, that macro level, that's where we have our experienced marketing colleagues that lead our long range planning. So they're tightly connected to the commercial team, but they're also tied into our brand teams and they're sharing that learning across both to make sure that we're doing everything we can to drive the business effectively in this really fast paced environment. So that's kind of our most macro level. And then if you go down a notch, we have specialists who are in core areas like media, creative and syndication. So these are colleagues who are wholly focused on the digital space, but they have this area of expertise. So they're working across our categories kind of within their craft. And then the most kind of specialized group, which we talked a little bit about earlier is really our commercial colleagues. They are really dedicated to that specific category. They're in the day to day running the business and they're working with the other groups I mentioned, but they're making sure that we're winning today on search, you know, on the platforms. So I think this approach is so important for us because as you mentioned, we have such a broad portfolio and that purchase decision and that purchase cycle for consumers is different. So we need both that macro and micro to make sure we reach them effectively.
Rachel Tippograph
So how do you gain shared consciousness on something like that? Because I definitely understand like the idea of everybody kind of understands where they are in that component, the macro and the micro. But then you got to do a JVP with Walmart. How does all the right stuff get in so that you're driving, you know, whether you're a category captain or you're an advisor or something like, like how do you bring all that together and say and also I need to win in these particular keywords. So can we make sure that's incorporated into slotting conversations? Like, can you get that kind of shared consciousness and bring that tip of the spear as you work with your core customer?
Colleen Arani
I think we're making progress there. Like, there's no silver bullet to that for sure. But as we have started to have more accountability within our teams for the digital space, so not just people who have digital in their title, but people who are doing all kinds of things have accountability for the digital space, I think that's helping us to make sure that we're having those right conversations. And, you know, the retailers are really focused on it, too, so they're asking about it. And so we're bringing those groups together to say, let's make sure we're talking about the digital space as we're launching this innovation and how it comes to life there. And we're talking to your buyer about that, but we're talking about that as we develop content and kind of all the pieces internally as well.
Sarah Hofstadter
You've talked about the importance of fluidity in terms of process and people in terms of budget, especially with. I mean, we're recording this in May of 2025, and so much might have been fixed for the organization, but now the world has changed. How do you approach that?
Colleen Arani
What we tried to say is we really want to invest, to grow, and that efficient growth can come in a lot of different ways. So, you know, on one hand, I think the growth in our retail media networks over the past few years has been unbelievable. And so many of our customer partners are expanding their capabilities. And it's really exciting to be a brand that has all these options in front of us. But like you said, we have limited funds, so we really have to make sure that we use them as efficiently as we can. And so we have to think holistically about the consumers and think holistically about our media plans. And that's why that combination of having both our national media and our shopper media, retail media via teams sitting underneath one leader, helps us to drive more efficiency across those plans as we think about this year and the year ahead.
Sarah Hofstadter
But given just the volatile macro changes, especially globally. With your role, are you finding yourselves in conversations where you're kind of giving the people on the other side of the table a reality check, what's happening and trying to build a partnership that might have looked different than what you thought it was going to be six months ago?
Colleen Arani
It's changing so fast. I mean, not just the macro environment, but the capabilities at the retailers too. So for us, it's really about partners who want to work with us and help us find the right audiences, engaging platforms. But you're right. Sometimes you have to go back and say, gosh, we don't have the funding for this right now because it's a.
Rachel Tippograph
Tough environment within that. One of the best things about being a guest on Brave Commerce is not just the opportunity to talk to me and Rachel, but it's also an opportunity for you to talk to your partners. And so, as your partners listen to this episode, what advice do you have for them on how they can meet you guys? Not just where you're at, but be mindful for planning for the future. So now you get to ask something of your partners versus them always asking something of you. And I say that as your partner.
Colleen Arani
Yeah, I mean, I think for our partners, we want them to be curious about how to drive the business. I mean, we all want to grow the category together. So we ask for them to come in with, like, that curiosity and the ideas to partner together for how we can grow the category holistically. And so making sure that they care just as much as much about kind of the return that we can get as we do so that we can drive that holistic growth. That's what we would ask of our partners.
Sarah Hofstadter
So, Colleen, we have to ask you our famous last question, which is, what's the bravest thing you've ever done?
Colleen Arani
Yes. So when I graduated from college, I went to a small college in Iowa. I'm from rural Iowa, and I had never been to Asia before, but I took a job teaching English in Japan. So it was kind of one of those decisions where you just sort of COVID your eyes and jump in with both feet. But it was fantastic and life changing and definitely a great decision for me.
Sarah Hofstadter
Do you speak Japanese?
Colleen Arani
Not really.
Rachel Tippograph
Why Japan?
Colleen Arani
I had spent time in Europe, and I was interested in going someplace that was just really different culturally and wanted to kind of stretch myself. And I thought it would be an amazing way to do that.
Rachel Tippograph
How do you think that changed you? I mean, it's fascinating. I just could never see myself doing that. Of course, what I would deem as much brave other people might deem as stupid and vice versa, but this is definitely in the brave realm. But what do you think it taught you?
Colleen Arani
I think it taught me just, like, such an appreciation for other cultures and other people and the way that they come at things. And it gave me a new view on even, like, our own culture. Like, I remember coming back and feeling like I could Never get a word in edgewise because in the US we just like, we speak so fast and we speak on top of each other and I have an idea and I jump on your idea, but in Japan, you sort of pause and wait to see if the person's done before you start speaking. So it was just things like that that really stuck with me and I guess kind of gave me reverse culture shock when I came back.
Rachel Tippograph
Well, I think that that's representative of almost like who you are. We started this conversation talking about, you know, bolt on versus built together. But it has to, it requires a really good, as my grandmother says, you get two ears and one mouth for a reason. And so I think that, that your cultural experience is why I was asking you because. And it's so clear that you are not just a natural leader, but you're also a really good collaborator. As we're thinking, why did you do that? Like, I wonder if it's just because she's always curious and always learning. So clearly the bravest thing you ever did was something that actually led to your career success. So thank you so much for sharing and for joining us today.
Sarah Hofstadter
If you like what you heard and you want to think more about the consumer Journey funnel, go check out the episode we did with Neil Shaw, the chief commercial officer of Shark Ninja. Or if you want to think more about org design and how to bring sales and marketing closer together, go check out an episode we did with Georgia Pacific's head of marketing, Laura. If you like what you heard, tell a friend, write a review. Thanks for listening.
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Podcast Information:
In this episode of Brave Commerce, hosts Rachel Tipograph and Sarah Hofstatter engage with Colleen Arani, Vice President of Global Marketing at Energizer. The discussion centers on Energizer’s strategic integration of retail and national media efforts to foster consumer-centric growth. Colleen provides valuable insights into organizational restructuring, media strategies, and the challenges and successes of unifying various marketing disciplines within a global brand.
Colleen Arani begins by explaining Energizer’s strategic decision to consolidate retail media and national media under a single leadership role. This move aims to create a cohesive marketing strategy that aligns all efforts toward the consumer's path to purchase.
“We have it under a single leader... from a consumer perspective to say, how do we best reach them as they're making their purchase decisions, no matter which platform or kind of media space they might be in.” ([09:18])
By unifying these teams, Energizer can effectively pool resources and coordinate strategies to optimize consumer engagement across multiple platforms.
The conversation delves into how Energizer has integrated sales and marketing functions to enhance their commercial effectiveness. Rachel and Sarah inquire about upskilling the commercial team, traditionally focused on sales, to embrace digital marketing expertise.
Colleen responds by highlighting the importance of having specialized roles in media, creative, and syndication. These specialists focus on the digital landscape, allowing commercial colleagues to maintain strong retailer relationships and optimize daily sales operations.
“We have marketing colleagues who are leading our long range planning, our creative approach and our media strategy.” ([08:13])
This integration ensures that both sales and marketing are aligned and working towards common goals, fostering a more unified approach to market challenges.
One of the key topics discussed is the differentiation in consumer behavior between "clicky" categories, such as batteries, and "scrolly" categories, like lighting or auto care products.
“With batteries, it's a pretty quick sort of click and ship decision... but in our auto care products and lighting, there's more discovery behavior.” ([12:23])
For impulse purchases, the strategy focuses on visibility and quick conversion. In contrast, considered purchases require more in-depth content and engagement to guide the consumer through the decision-making process. This understanding allows Energizer to tailor its media strategies to suit different consumer needs effectively.
Integrating multiple marketing and media functions presents several challenges, particularly as the team grows. Colleen discusses the complexities of maintaining communication and operational alignment within an expanding team.
“We have to make sure everyone is clear on our strategies and sharing best practices across the team.” ([10:29])
She emphasizes the importance of defining roles clearly and fostering a culture of collaboration to ensure that all team members are aligned with the company’s strategic objectives. This approach helps mitigate the challenges associated with team growth and keeps everyone focused on driving business impact.
Energizer operates in a rapidly evolving digital and retail media landscape. Colleen shares how the company adapts to these changes by maintaining flexibility and ensuring efficient use of resources.
“We have limited funds, so we really have to make sure that we use them as efficiently as we can.” ([20:06])
This agility allows Energizer to respond swiftly to market shifts and leverage new opportunities, such as the expansion of retail media networks and changing consumer behaviors driven by platforms like TikTok.
When discussing partnerships, Colleen advises that partners should bring curiosity and a collaborative spirit to drive mutual growth. She highlights the importance of partners being proactive in suggesting innovative ideas and working together to achieve holistic category growth.
“Make sure you're talking about the digital space as we're launching this innovation and how it comes to life there.” ([19:23])
This collaborative approach ensures that partnerships are not just transactional but are focused on long-term strategic growth, benefiting both Energizer and its partners.
To conclude the episode, Rachel and Sarah invite Colleen to share a personal story about bravery. Colleen recounts her decision to teach English in Japan after graduating from a small college in Iowa—a move that significantly broadened her cultural perspective and leadership skills.
“I think it taught me such an appreciation for other cultures and gave me a new view on even our own culture.” ([23:31])
This experience underscored her ability to adapt, collaborate, and lead effectively—traits that have contributed to her success at Energizer.
This episode offers a comprehensive look into how Energizer is leveraging unified retail and national media strategies to drive consumer-centric growth. Through organizational restructuring, specialized media roles, and adaptive strategies, Energizer optimizes its marketing efforts across diverse consumer journeys. Colleen Arani’s insights highlight the intricacies and rewards of integrating various marketing disciplines to achieve cohesive and impactful growth in a competitive eCommerce landscape.
Listeners gain valuable perspectives on the importance of aligning sales and marketing, understanding consumer behavior, and fostering strong partnerships—all essential for navigating the complexities of modern retail and media environments.
This summary encapsulates the main discussions and insights from the episode, providing a clear and engaging overview for those who haven't listened to it. Notable quotes are included with accurate timestamps, and the content is organized into well-defined sections for easy navigation.