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Walmart CMO William White on brand values and cutting through the competition | Modern Marketers
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This week on Modern Marketers, Walmart SVP and CMO William White joins Google’s Joshua Spanier and Bethany Poole to talk about how he empowers his team to stay nimble, using customer insights as a competitive advantage and how the brand breaks...
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- [00:02]
Joshua Espanier
Hi everyone. This is Modern Marketers by Think with Google. I'm Joshua Espanier, VP of Media Lab within Google Marketing. I lead teams around the world who plan, invent execute and measure marketing programs on behalf of Google's brands. Each episode I talk to game changing marketers and founders who are delivering modern marketing. Today I'm here with William White, Chief Marketing Officer at Walmart. Also joining me today as co host is my colleague and global Senior Marketing director at Google, Bethany Poole. Let's dive right in foreign. We're excited to talk with you, William. Walmart is just a remarkable company. Tell us a little about your journey to get to Walmart, where you've been, what you've been doing and the Walmart role.
- [00:46]
William White
Sure. So I've been in the job here for a little over four years and I entered Walmart right at the start of the pandemic. We could probably spend a whole chapter on that. But the role is really about leading a marketing team that is focused on creating and capturing demand. So when I think about creating and capturing demand, it is what are we doing to drive traffic both to our site and our store and how are we driving qualified traffic that comes in and makes a purchase? So that's kind of the core KPI that we look at. Of course we look at how we're building engagement and loyalty with our customers and our members and how we're strengthening brand equity on behalf of the Walmart brand. Those are kind of the big buckets of the things that we're focused on day in and day out for the short term and the long term.
- [01:38]
Joshua Espanier
Okay William, let's start off with some rapid fire questions. Let's get you warmed up. Favorite creator on YouTube.
- [01:44]
William White
I'll give you two Kafuzi, who is really a running guru who is always kind of reviewing the latest, both gear and tech in the running world. I'm a big runner, so that's, you know, shouldn't, shouldn't be a surprise but always good to see what, what the, the newness is that he's tapping into, whether it's shoe technology or you know, other kind of running tech. There's another guy who I, who I really enjoy following Devin on Deck. And Devin on Deck is really a men's kind of style fashion. I think he does a really nice job of pairing high low. He's also a dad and so there's a lot of fun moments, you know, with his kid in terms of, you know, getting dressed and styling together all. Uh, he also happens to be in our Walmart creator platform which is really exciting. So yeah, those are kind of my go tos right now.
- [02:38]
Joshua Espanier
I'm always impressed by anyone who's written a book or can actually run any length of distance. So. So what was your, what, what was your last long run?
- [02:45]
William White
Well, Sunday I ran 16. This Sunday, this Sunday I'll be doing 23. I'm running the Berlin Marathon in three and a half weeks. So yeah, wow. I'm really on my last big week of running before the taper where I start to dial it back and gosh, I am ready to taper. My left Achilles is really ready for the taper, that's for sure. But yeah, I'm excited for the Berlin Marathon. It'll be my first international race of any distance and it's the 50th anniversary so it should be good.
- [03:19]
Joshua Espanier
That's awesome. Well, good luck with that. I look forward to seeing your sub two hour time. What's the best piece of career advice you've ever got?
- [03:27]
William White
This is a really good one. So this Walmart CMO job is my first CMO job, but it's not the first CMO offer that I had. And before I was at Walmart at a previous company I had an offer to be the CMO of a company that pretty cool. I think it would have been good opportunity. And my boss said to me when I told him I was considering it, first of all, he was so incredible just in that moment. But one of the things he said was, William, I have no doubt you are going to be a CMO one day. Make sure when you leave here you're leaving to something great and it's a great opportunity. Not just the opportunity and whether it was, you know, CMO or not, I think of anybody at any point in their career, you know, probably thinks about making a move. And I think the best moves that I've made, quote, are probably the moves that I haven't made. And so I think really being thoughtful about not just jumping at the thing, but jumping at the perfect opportunity to really help kind of launch your career and help build capabilities and competencies and all of those types of things is really important. And I think you work for a really long time, a career is a really long time. Don't be impatient, I think is the ultimate lesson from that advice.
- [04:53]
Joshua Espanier
Can you throw some stats at us about the scale or just the proximity of people to Walmart stores in the US and around the world? I just know it's going to be crazy.
- [05:03]
William White
Sure, sure. So Walmart's big. We've got about 4,700 stores. We also have a very robust E comm presence as well. Walmart serves about 90% of Americans. 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart. We've got about 150 million people coming into our doors each week.
- [05:24]
Joshua Espanier
Wow.
- [05:25]
William White
We've got 275 million people visiting our site each week. It's a pretty large company that serves our customers and serves our members for all the things that they want and all the things that they need.
- [05:38]
Joshua Espanier
So I have a huge soft spot for Walmart. Right. I grew up in the UK and I would come out to California to spend time with my fiance. We had to live apart for a while and my, my wife now and I would go to Walmart. And I remember the. I literally remember the first time I went to Walmart and I was walking down the very first row. That thing where you have all the deals of the week where it's sort of. It used to be called Action Alley.
- [06:00]
William White
Or Action Alley is a thing for sure.
- [06:03]
Joshua Espanier
I remember being there and I was maybe sort of like I was about 20 years old, 20, 21 years old. And I remember getting giddy at the price of Pringles, right? The pringles were like 39 cents a tube. And I literally was like, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. And I kind of. It was one of the funniest moments for me ever. And then I spent about three hours inside that Walmart and ended up buying pretty much everything that I could buy, even though I was living back in the UK at the time. So I couldn't take it back with me. But it was a really magical shopping experience and that set me up for life, I guess.
- [06:32]
William White
Well, we appreciate that business. I hope you've remained a lifelong customer since then.
- [06:37]
Joshua Espanier
There's a warm up within 10 minutes of me, so yeah, sure. Bethany, Funniest thing you've ever bought at Walmart.
- [06:42]
Bethany Poole
Last week I was buying birdseed and a baffle for my bird seeder that was like my bird feeder to keep squirrels off. That was a little, not too odd.
- [06:51]
William White
But you know, it's funny you mentioned the bird feeder and birdseed because one of the great items that we've talked about recently is basically a bird feeder camera so you can be watching. Do you have one?
- [07:04]
Bethany Poole
I have the bird buddy. It was my birthday two weeks ago. But the whole key is that. And I'm getting updates now that I'm back in New York. And I would say eight out of the nine videos are of a Squirrel. So that's why I go to Walmart, because I have to buy the jalapeno laced bird seed which used to keep the squirrels away. But the squirrels have decided they don't care and they'll just still hang out at the bird feeder and get photo shots.
- [07:29]
William White
That sounds like quite a delicacy for the wildlife in your backyard.
- [07:34]
Joshua Espanier
So we here at Google, we have Google Search which has always been this brilliant intent signal. And one of the questions we always get is can we see what's coming by what people are searching? I would imagine, William, that across Walmart in terms of what people are starting to buy, you get really interesting data and insights in things which are still blowing up. And like the bird buddy camera or whatever it may be, we.
- [07:56]
William White
Well certainly just given some of the stats of the size that of Walmart that we talked about earlier, we've got a lot of great signal coming in from customers as far as what people are buying, how that might depend regionally or vary regionally and that sort of thing. So I do think that we are a place to certainly see trends, not just in merchandise, but see trends from an economic standpoint of what's happening, how customers are feeling. Our customer insights and strategy team sits within my team and I think that's just such a valuable resource for our organization to tap into just the general state of the US consumer. And that's something that we report on internally on a monthly and quarterly basis that really helps guide us in terms of what we're seeing from our customers. And you know, broadly within the U.S. of course we also rely on other places for signal as well and trends and that sort of thing. And so obviously Google is a great partner to help us in that regard. But you know, we want to make sure that we're picking up all of the signals where we can to really make sure that we're positioning ourselves to be able to serve our customers and members in the best way possible with what they're looking for.
- [09:11]
Joshua Espanier
So fascinating. Your insights team reports into you and you sort of share across the company the sort of distinction between a sort of a longitudinal insight which might be. For example, I have read that a lot of mothers or people who run the household don't love the Christmas holidays because it's a massive amount of work and every year the burden falls on them and people don't realize it. The magical time of the year actually sucks for a lot of people who have to make make it magical. That's kind of like a longitudinal insight which sort of seems to every year versus something which is more short term around, okay, what's the latest hair color that people are buying? And it's leading to a resurgence in this, you know, short term sort of thing. And it's such a fascinating area for insights to unpack. How do you guys think about that? And am I just barking up the wrong tree here?
- [10:01]
William White
No, I mean, I think that's, I think that is an important distinction and it speaks to one. How do we make sure an organization as big as ours can be nimble and agile to respond into what I would call more sales trends that are kind of quick hitting. And how do we make sure that we adapt? And you think of the big supply chain challenges of just making sure how we have, you know, hot items in the right places at the right times. And that's, you know, a very important part of our business to make sure that we are driving sales in the short, short term. But of course we want to make sure that we are really in tune with how our customers are thinking and feeling. Not just in the moment, but what, you know, making sure that we're a season or two ahead. And I think kind of tapping into broader sentiment, also tapping into kind of broader human and cultural trends is really important for a retailer who's trying to serve everyone and make sure that we're showing up in a way not just with the assortment that we sell, but in terms of how we position ourselves and how we make sure that we are part of the cultural fabric of our customers lives.
- [11:15]
Joshua Espanier
So we struggle with this issue of the short term versus long term. And insights in some ways becomes almost a dirty word because what's really an insight that hey, young people like going to the movies and going on dates.
- [11:25]
William White
And eating well, I think anyone in marketing needs to be a student of insights. So yeah, I mean, I mean, I think I've got a couple decades of tapping into human and cultural truths for sure. It takes a little bit more digging and a little bit more unraveling to ultimately get to what is truly insightful that you can tap into. And I think if done right, true insight is a competitive advantage. And so organizations that are able to really dig in and kind of get to the crux of what's driving behavior or sentiment are the ones that can position themselves and react in important ways to really help serve the customers that they're trying to reach in compelling ways.
- [12:11]
Joshua Espanier
Just thinking about how the world of insights and data collection and just what signal has changed over the last 20 years and where do you turn to now for more current or new data sources versus maybe where we were 15 years ago. Any thoughts?
- [12:27]
William White
Well, I don't know if I'm going to rattle off the full list. My team puts together a state of the U.S. consumer brief, if you will, on a monthly and quarterly basis and they're combing through usually 20 or so different sources. I'm sure somebody on my team would listen to that, say it's more than 20, but you know, they tap into a number of different places. Obviously we have our own rich data, but they're looking at third party data points as well and kind of triangulating between all of these sources to really get at the root of what's the customer feeling, what's the sentiment, how are people kind of reacting to the macroeconomic things that are happening in their lives and you know that, that, that they feel at a micro level. And so, you know, I don't think there's any one silver bullet to rely on. I think it is combing through a number of sources such that you can start to answer that question of why, beyond just what, what is the data point?
- [13:24]
Joshua Espanier
One of the challenges I think large brands and marketers face is when you appeal to everyone, it can get very generic very quickly. And I was just interested in, in how you think about that. You have so many customers. Walmart is for everyone. You sell everything to all of them. What does that mean for how you approach marketing and how you think about either segmenting your audiences or positioning this brand, which is so broad but needs to feel something for everyone as well. Right?
- [13:51]
William White
Yeah, it's a great question. I mean I think on the kind of the macro and thinking about the brand, we certainly always look back to our purpose and values as a guide. And I think that that is something that is universal. It's, there's, there's a universal truth to what we provide in terms of helping people save money and live better, in terms of the values that we have. And I think that leaning into and showing up in a way that someone can feel our purpose and values is going to speak to everyone. And so, you know, kind of at the macro we think in those terms. We also think about while Walmart has everything for everyone, we also have your thing. And you know, we just talked earlier, Bethany's thing around her bird feeder, her jalapeno bird seed, you know, like there's something, there's something there that is, you know, personal what you're looking for. And I think the opportunities that we have to connect those unique insights that we have about someone. And the thing that, you know, offers a level of personalization that we know them and that we can show up and serve that individual, not just everyone, is a really powerful part of how our marketing comes to life. And then, you know, yes. In terms of audience selection and targeting and things like that, yes, we tap into all of the 21st century ways that, you know, we can select and cut audiences to speak to different affinity groups about certain things. That's a very powerful, I think, component to how we go to market. But all of those things are still rooted in the macro universal truths about our brand.
- [15:31]
Joshua Espanier
Makes sense to be true to who you are. So I have a very clear sense of what Walmart is and always low prices. And that makes a lot of sense.
- [15:39]
William White
There's a mantra I say to the team and I should give credit where credit's due because I stole this from Mark Matu from 20 years ago. But this notion of be it, do it, say it. And I think that often times in different companies and different brands, you try to say something that isn't something you're being and doing or, you know, the organization says, oh, we need to, we need to tell people about this. And it's like, well, is that really true and authentic to who you are? I mean, it's be it, do it, say it in that order. And I think that from day one at Walmart, throughout our history, there have been really core things going back to our purpose and values that haven't wavered. And so I think that for us, being true to those and who we are as an organization and the things that we do and then saying it really comes across in a way that's powerful and reinforces the great thing about this brand.
- [16:35]
Joshua Espanier
I was really struck this summer past with the Olympics in the past now, but what a great moment the Olympics was and how it's such a actually very few and far between when I feel like I saw some warmark activities around the Olympics. But it just seems like it's a. It is possible to have these mega events which speak to mega audiences, whether you're a brand or social, culturally, back to school is probably one of them as well. It's just universally understood and a place to activate and build around. And it's exciting to me that these large cultural moments that we can all tap into and sort of build common community across audiences.
- [17:09]
William White
The Olympics were, I think, very big and powerful this year. Live sports is certainly a part of our media buys, is a very important component to how we show up because we know, there are great audiences that are there. You referenced back to school. You know, seasonal moments where everyone is kind of going through similar types of, you know, needs and wants and desires and how they show up seasonally are also moments that are really big and powerful for us as a retailer and as a brand because obviously we can serve all the needs someone is looking for in those moments. But also it's great opportunity to tap into the universal truth of what everyone desires around a back to school season or a holiday season or the fourth of July or that type of thing. So seasonal strategy is a really big part of what we do.
- [17:58]
Bethany Poole
William, I love your motto. I gotta ask you about AI and the hype and also thinking about, you just talked about, Josh, talked about all of the different consumers. Everybody goes to Walmart for different things. You know, what the consumer trends are, you know, a lot of things that are happening. We're thinking a lot internally about how do we harness AI to be more responsive, both to find the insights but also to deploy more quickly from a creative perspective. Would love your perspective on the current AI hype and how much is hype in your opinion? What's the real opportunity and what are the watch outs?
- [18:31]
William White
Doug McMillan, our CEO says think about AI today versus the future. Like AI will be at its worst today than at any moment in future history. Like it will continue to get better and better, more powerful. And I think it is quite meaningful in a number of ways. Today there are a whole host of places that we leverage AI across our company in different functions. You know, specifically within marketing, there are a number of places where AI comes into play. I mean, a few that I would really note that really drive a lot of great action for us are one and just how we think about our bidding and budget, pacing and performance marketing. That's certainly a big thing where we are leveraging machine learning. When I think about how we build audiences and look at propensity models, AI machine learning really comes to bear there. You referenced on the creative side. And I think that for us, whether it's content generation or in particular content optimization, AI plays a very powerful tool and allowing us to be really nimble and agile and responsive to what is working and not within the work that we're putting out in the world. And so I mean those are, those are three big buckets that are very real, certainly not hype. And I think we'll continue to get better and better as we, as we go into the future.
- [19:50]
Joshua Espanier
We're chatting early September holidays are just around the corner. Holidays and Walmart are synonymous. So as much as you can say, I'd love to get your perspective on how Walmart approaches the holiday season, how you differentiate yourself as a retailer, as a place to go and just be there for everyone for all the busiest, shoppingest time of the year.
- [20:11]
William White
Yeah. So I referenced marathoning earlier. Planning for holiday at a retailer is definitely a marathon. You say we're in September and it's just around the corner. The team's been planning at really since December 26th of last year. I'd start by referencing something that you said earlier, just in terms of a time of joy and a time of stress. And that is very much the case that the holidays, we talk about it as the most wonderful time of year, this joyous time, and it certainly is, but it also drives a tremendous amount of stress for people for a whole host of reasons. And I think of the role that we play within marketing is to help inspire people, help people get excited for the holidays, help foster that browse and discovery and those magical moments and tapping into all the things that we know about gift giving, where the gift makes the moment and the moment makes the gift. You really want to give a gift that shows that you know the person and you know. So we're trying to do all the things to inspire and to demonstrate that we've got the great gifts that everyone's looking for, but we've also got to do things that really help lower the stress level. And so from a convenience standpoint and how we're leveraging our full supply chain to get your items wherever you want them, whenever you want them, however you want them delivered or picked up at the store or what have you. That's a really important factor, is the level of convenience that we provide. And then in a time of real financial stress for people as well, making sure that we're doing all the things to drive our prices down, have the lowest price on the key items, something our merchant teams work across all year long. And we as a marketing org want to make sure people know we've got all those great items at great prices. And so there's a lot in terms of how we want to convey and message to people from a marketing standpoint. It's also the most cluttered time of year. So the level of spend in Q4 from advertisers is through the roof and it makes it really challenging to break through. And we are focused on how do we have Walmart breakthrough in a way that requires, I think, consistency about the look and the feel and how our Brand shows up across all touch points is really critical. But also making sure that the creative is insightful and drives a level of impact that gets people's attention. We built the first shoppable rom com. I call that RomCommerce where we tapped into a number of different insights in terms of one, people are more and more consuming long term content in quote unquote, short term platforms. We also know holiday rom coms kind of spike and so we decided we were going to build our own. We built 23 two to three minute episodes, if you will, where every single item was shoppable. And so, you know, that's something that we're breaking through. There's a power of the idea, it's fully shoppable. Like it's really kind of touching on, you know, all, all the things that we are trying to accomplish and there are a whole host of other things we did last holiday season. Obviously I can't talk about what we're doing yet for this year, but given it is early September, we're super deep in getting this year's holiday to be amazing and better than last year because we've got to comp the comp and all of those things. So it's been a long planning season for us. Just before doing this, I reviewed the final kind of media plan for the holiday season and with the team and I'm really excited. I think Walmart is going to show up in a powerful way across, you know, all the functions that we have. But I think, you know, the marketing is going to be stand out again this year.
- [24:22]
Bethany Poole
I was thinking of something Josh, you said at the beginning about holiday and how stressful it is and I'm a mom of two children. But now I want to kind of revise my favorite Walmart purchase because every holiday, not just holidays, but every single thing, you guys have a $2 plastic tablecloth that is always holiday themed. I go in and I do all the things that I need to buy the must haves and my reward to myself is the $2 plastic tablecloth. Whether it's Halloween, Christmas, I did it for 4th of July and it's like kids table done. And that is my big highlight to myself. My last minute purchase as I walk out the door and it actually now drives me in.
- [25:01]
William White
Bethany, I love that. I do want to encourage you as you think about a reward for yourself.
- [25:10]
Bethany Poole
That's cleaning. William. I don't have to clean. It's perfect. I will say I'm a little bummed because you have the new shoe drops thing. Today. And I bought shoes for my son last week at Walmart and I wish I had waited a week for the new like, well, I'll have to buy a second pair. Second pair.
- [25:28]
William White
You can buy another pair. You can, you can indulge beyond the $2 tablecloth.
- [25:35]
Joshua Espanier
There's this stereos and jewelry and other great stuff at Walmart as well. William, thank you so much for being here today, having this conversation. I've really enjoyed it. I like to end each episode hearing three cheers, something that you are, or three things that you're looking forward to, you're excited about. And it can be professional, personal. But what are your three cheers right now?
- [25:53]
William White
Three things that I'm looking forward to.
- [25:54]
Joshua Espanier
Yep.
- [25:55]
William White
Well, I think we've, we've referenced a couple of them already, which are one, I'm very excited for the Berlin marathon coming up. It's been a long training cycle and I think that's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm also very, really excited for our holiday marketing that's coming out because I think we've got something pretty, pretty standout there. But the last thing I would point to, which we haven't mentioned yet, is we are doing, first of its kind thing coming up this fall, a creator upfront. And so if you think about classic kind of upfront in the marketing world, we're doing a creator upfront where we're bringing and we're partnering with Forbes on this, where we're bringing in a whole range of, you know, call it the mass creators to maybe the more niche creators and really kind of talking about and spending time together on how brands, creators work together, how kind of the whole influencer creator marketing space is operating today, how you can get ahead in the creator economy. And I think it's going to be a fantastic session. It's session a couple of days. It's something we've been working with Forbes on for a bit. I think we're doing this in October in la and creators are a really big part of our marketing mix right now, something that we've invested a lot of time and energy into and are seeing really positive results in our business from and something we want to continue to leverage. And I think this is going to be a really fun way to supercharge that even more.
- [27:24]
Joshua Espanier
That sounds great. Look forward to my invite in the mail.
- [27:27]
William White
Awesome.
- [27:28]
Bethany Poole
Based on this podcast. Right back. You're a creator based on the podcast, right?
- [27:33]
Joshua Espanier
That's right. William, thank you so much. A huge thank you to my guest this week, William White. And as always, my colleague. If you like this episode, please subscribe to get the latest updates and the next recording as soon as it's ready. We'll see you next time. For Modern Marketers by Think With Google.
- [27:51]
Unknown
Thank you for listening to Modern Marketers by Think with Google. Our host is Joshua Spanier. Modern Marketers is brought to you by Google and Attention. The podcast is produced by the Google Ads Marketing team and Frankie Guadagnino, Tiffer Baucher and Emily Behrens for attention. Our technical producer is Kevin Fisher. Modern Marketers is edited by Sean Colello and this podcast is mixed and mastered by Andy Inglott. Our theme music is by Jerry Matei. Thanks for listening.