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The Speed of Culture Podcast
Athleisure ascendant: Inside Vuori’s explosive growth with CMO Karen Riley-Grant
00:26:32
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- [00:00]
Capital One Bank Guy
Banking with Capital One helps you keep more money in your wallet with no fees or minimums on checking accounts and no overdraft fees. Just ask the Capital One bank guy. It's pretty much all he talks about in a good way. He'd also tell you that this podcast is his favorite podcast too. Ah really? Thanks. Capital One bank guy. What's in your wallet? Term supply See capitalone.com bank capital1na member fdic.
- [00:28]
Kristen Bell
Hi, I'm Kristen Bell and if you know my husband Dax, then you also know he loves shopping for a car. Selling a car, not so much.
- [00:34]
Karen Riley Grant
We're really doing this huh?
- [00:36]
Kristen Bell
Thankfully Carvana makes it easy. Answer a few questions, put in your van or license and done. We sold ours in minutes this morning and they'll come pick it up and pay us this afternoon.
- [00:47]
Capital One Bank Guy
Bye bye Truckee.
- [00:48]
Kristen Bell
Of course we kept the favorite.
- [00:52]
Capital One Bank Guy
Hello other Truckee.
- [00:53]
Kristen Bell
Sell your car with Carvana Today. Terms and conditions apply.
- [01:01]
Matt Britton
We know brand growth equals business growth, but do your stakeholders Tracksuit is an.
- [01:07]
Tracksuit Representative
Affordable, always on brand tracking dashboard that.
- [01:10]
Matt Britton
Helps marketers and agencies prove the impact.
- [01:12]
Tracksuit Representative
Of their work on brand metrics over time.
- [01:14]
Matt Britton
Benchmarked against competitors. Built from best in class methodology, the Tracksuit dashboard is accessible and easy to understand for everyone from CSOs and CMOs to save CFOs and founders. Research shows that brand investment in good economic times and bad is essential to driving sustainable growth.
- [01:32]
Tracksuit Representative
The bottom line Turning off the brand tap will cost you in the long run.
- [01:36]
Matt Britton
Tracksuit gives marketers and agencies a common language to measure and communicate brands impact without the $100,000 price tag.
- [01:44]
Tracksuit Representative
Their in house research experts will have your survey live and your full marketing.
- [01:48]
Matt Britton
Funnel and brand perceptions visible in just 30 days. Check tracksuit out@gotracksuit.com.
- [02:02]
Karen Riley Grant
We have this shared obsession with like what is the consumer thinking and what are we delivering to them. That is true value. And so it is a fascinating move today that is about speed and quick and get it and capture it and it's very shortsighted. And this is about being the long game if you want to be an iconic leader, category leader that is here for decades to come. It's about the long game.
- [02:23]
Nat
To thrive in a rapidly evolving landscape, brands must move at an ever increasing pace. I'm Matt Britton, Founder and CEO of Suzy. Join me and key industry leaders as we dive deep into the shifting consumer trends within their industry, why it matters now and how you can keep up. Welcome to the Speed of Culture.
- [02:45]
Karen Riley Grant
Up.
- [02:45]
Nat
Today on the Speed of Culture podcast.
- [02:47]
Host
We're thrilled to welcome Karen Riley Grant, the Chief Marketing Officer at vuori. Karen's played a pivotal role in shaping VRE into a leading brand in the Athleisure space. With her expertise in consumer insights, innovative marketing strategies and brand growth, she's been key in expanding VRE's global presence and staying deeply connected to its core values of community and wellness. Karen, so great to see you today.
- [03:07]
Karen Riley Grant
Thanks for having me, Nat. It's great to be here.
- [03:10]
Host
Absolutely. For those who aren't familiar with the Vuori brand, would you mind just telling our audience about the brand and maybe some of the early reasons for the brand's incredible success?
- [03:20]
Karen Riley Grant
Absolutely. So we are a Southern California based performance athletic apparel brand. We started about a decade ago as a vision that Joe Kudla, our founder, had when he saw void in the men's market. And then 10 years ago you can imagine kind of studios out there where we'll have lots of Lululemon leggings on the women and lots of big kind of flashy logos from all the sports apparel companies and found a real void, an opportunity to wide, incredible, well made, crafty product that could hold up a your yoga mat or out on a run, but also be kind of fluid enough to kind of take you from one event into the next. There's an elevated kind of simplicity to the aesthetic and a lifestyle that really Inspired the brand 10 years ago. And here we are today, growing fast as ever and kind of taking on at the global kind of opportunity and with the ambition to be the category leader.
- [04:11]
Host
I mean, it's not easy in this day and age to start a brand in the apparel category just because so many of the brands that are tried and true in this space were built during like an era of of linear television where companies like Nike were able to essentially corner the market and obviously signing Michael Jordan help. But back then if you were able to capture some scale, you were really able to just pound your message over and over to the consumer. Where when Vuori started, it was a much more fragmented space and there were much fewer barriers to entry for brands to be able to enter. So there was a lot of noise. So I understand how Viori obviously hit the market right in terms of there was a core insight of a huge opportunity of a new type of athleisure brand for men. But there had to be other drivers that allowed the company to really capture the breakthrough success that it did. I mean, what do you think some of those things are?
- [05:06]
Karen Riley Grant
So I think it sounds overly simple, but we have the best product in the market. And I think as Jo found that opportunity in the void in the men's market, we quickly introduced women's many years later during COVID and actually so I think kind of came into the world for her in a very different way, kind of through comfort and lounge, where we entered the market for him in a Space of Fitness 10 years ago. But it really was about bringing the best product to the market and meeting our consumers through direct response, performance, media ads. It wasn't about the big tv, it wasn't about the big, big partnerships, it wasn't about kind of big celebrity endorsements. And so now we find ourselves 10 years in with still incredible product. And again, I have worked in this apparel industry for nearly 30 years and it is the most incredible product I've had good fortune to work with. And now it's about building our fan base. So what we have found through expensive consumer research and discussions, quantitative, qualitative, understand, like what is it that is working? And what's incredible is our product is working hard. Those who know us, love us. And you have expressed your love of Vori and it's this really exciting kind of discovery into this love and obsession. And those who know it, like, if you know, you know, I would say it's like kind of like the Jeep nod. You're like, oh yeah, okay, you got on Vuori. Cool. But our awareness is low. So now as we head into the next 10 years and I joined the company to be part of this opportunity to build the brand and to take this incredible product out into the world and really meet new fans.
- [06:32]
Host
Yeah. I mean, in many ways that's a marketer's dream because you have a killer product that's obviously in the right place in the right time, and you do have those super fans. And now as you put it, really it's just about unlocking them to create scale. What are some of the ways that you're looking to do that?
- [06:47]
Karen Riley Grant
I think I love how you said it is a marketer's dream because I've always worked with big legacy brands and so I never had the chance to come in and help build something. So to be able to have Playbooks and I think sitting with my incredible leadership partners that have Playbooks from previous lives of how do you enter a market, how do you open and really grow your D2C fleet, how do you connect the Omni touchpoints that are required to create a really beautiful, seamless consumer experience? We get to build that now. So it is a dream and to be able to do that Working with incredible product that stands on its own and work alongside a founder, which is a pretty incredible opportunity of itself. So all of this is very new for me and has really been quite inspiring. It's been a year and a half now and I every day I get excited and come into work and work with these incredible humans and get to build this brand. And so to answer your question, the way it looks is building that consumer connection again. Like, we learned that those who know us love us, and they're more than love us, they're kind of obsessed with. So fantastic, let's go meet new people, continue. And this is where I think some brands get it wrong. They kind of go, great, got you, loyal consumers. I'm going to focus on the new folks. Like, no, no, no, no, no. We have to really respect and honor those loyal consumers we have. Foster that relationship, give them lots of reasons to continue to love us while simultaneously building and reaching and attracting new fans and really understanding what it takes to connect and cut through all the crazy clutter that's out there that you've already acknowledged. How do you connect with them emotionally first and understand that like, oh yeah, we have a product solution for you and then they get the hands on the product and there we go.
- [08:18]
Host
Yeah. And of course, when you're talking about marketing through consumers versus to them, obviously, so many consumers are finding out about products and services through other people, especially Gen Z, the iPhone generation. And that leads us to creators. And I'm sure you in your role think a lot about creators, influencers in the fashion and the parallel space because they're so very important. What are some of the efforts Flori is thinking about or is executed in the creator space? And how do you see playing that a role in your strategy moving forward?
- [08:47]
Karen Riley Grant
Yeah, I think what has happened in this space of creators and influencers and all the tiers of all the partners that you have in the world has been really exciting to watch. I mean, I think it goes back to the Mad Men days of having a celebrity in a scotch and an advertising. I mean, they've always having the endorsement of someone that you know and trust is more powerful than any kind of single in your spot you can put out there. So I think that is something that has held true over the decades. Now there are so many layers and so many different categories and so many different types of creators and partners across every tier. That is a very surgical approach for who and how you define them. So even just the filtering process that it goes through to make sure that you've got the right brand filters in place and you aren't just grabbing people because they have a lot of followers. And I think when you do that, you could put your brand in a really dangerous place. So the vetting, the internal alignment of what must be true across all the tiers, the ones, the tiers, twos, the tiers, threes, sports, all the different categories, your growth creator, there's again, it's so really complicated, but it provides a really clear path for teams to really get very surgical about the types of people they want to work with and why. What are the KPIs that you're putting against partnerships? Some partners are about more brand awareness and they're about building credibility and relevancy. You don't see those tomorrow translate into organic traffic for your site. You have some creators that actually do work really, really hard to drive the sale. So we spend a lot of time Talking about the KPIs, what needs to be true before we ever do a sal single piece of content with that creator to make sure we understand how we need that work to work. And then my last point on this, and this is what I think is where I think brands, I watch brands right now that are becoming overly dependent on partners. And I think the danger is we as marketers need to be in the game of driving the short term revenue today. But most importantly, protecting the brand in the long term and being a brand that will sustain time and endure the test of time. And so at the end of the day, if a consumer sees your brand only on celebrity, they will only remember the celebrity. So you have to find time that you speak or you connect with the consumer just as the brand, not through a partner as your megaphone. And that's why I think brands are having a hard time finding.
- [10:57]
Host
You're right. It's almost like going for the short term, easy spike, but long term, what's the equity in your brand? And Karen, I mean that follows through to your distribution strategy. So if you go on Amazon and you search Vuori, you don't find Vuori. In fact, you find a knockoff brand called Libin, which I've never heard of and because of that I wouldn't buy it. And I'm sure that's a conscious decision that you're not selling Amazon. Obviously you could drive a lot of value there. But for those I'm sure listening know, if you sell on Amazon, you don't get first party data. And when you sell direct, you do talk to me about that decision because that's a Fascinating one and Nike recently they capitulated. They're selling on Amazon for a while. They said they never would and they do. You guys aren't. So tell me about that decision because I think it's fascinating.
- [11:41]
Karen Riley Grant
It is fascinating. I think that what I've been so impressed by really you know as Joe setting the tone and followed by our leadership team to help build and create this brand is very strategic decisions and not not to be tempted to go fast because the opportunity is there. But really think I'd say the same would apply to our global expansion strategy. Like absolutely. We have opportunity but we're not putting a thousand source into China tomorrow. We're going to take it really strategic and be thoughtful and test and learn and understand before we scale. And I think for me this is exciting because I've been in places where it existed already. So to be part of a team to go hold on and they always say we don't have to undo it yet. Do you know how fortunate we are? We don't have to undo it yet. So let's really do the laps around it. And I think that you make no mistake, I think we have the ability. I think you are small, we are agile, we are fast, we can move faster than any place I've ever been a part of which is exciting and temptation is there and demand is there but you make short sighted decisions to hit the bottom line. Those are really hard to undo. So to be in a place of privileged drill do we, do we notice that could be an opportunity. Let's monitor, let's look but let's grow this. And I think our retail strategy is really smart and sharp and allows us to really build. And of course the marketing person like I want to build the brand, I want to be able to not build through other parties and we have those strategic alignments around the globe where it makes sense. But it is a different type of strategy and I think it is one that takes patience and deep discussion and testing and learning and understanding the consumer. We have a shared obsession with like what is the consumer thinking and what are we delivering to them. That is true value. And so it is a fascinating move today that is about speed and quick and get it and capture it and it's very shortsighted. And this is about being the long game. If you want to be an iconic leader, category leader that is here for decades to come. It's about the long game and it's hard in today's climate to remember and keep your eye on the ball.
- [13:33]
Host
Well said. And you Mentioned earlier that the company got out the gate and still has its growth driven by a lot of direct to consumer and a lot of that was been driven by programmatic data driven targeting. Obviously there's been a lot of changes in that world with the size of the cookie and then the rebirth of the cookie and then obviously everything that Apple's done in the privacy area at the device level has that business model become harder to achieve over time at scale? And on the flip side, what are some of the benefits at the same time you've been able to unlock by having all this first party data of your customers which is something that a lot of your competitors do not?
- [14:10]
Karen Riley Grant
Yes, I would say kind of starting the last it's we're just trashing the surface. I think we are in a very privileged position and we have so much to learn and internally we are doing laps and laps around really unlocking that omni consumer. Really understanding the behavior where the new customer's coming in. What is their second purchase, third purchase, what are they buying like? Really understanding how our cohort right now is behaving and then being able to understand that. And then as I said our brand awareness currently is low one for actually Noah. So understanding that current cohort and then being able to kind of repeat or evolve and change that we're capturing the right qualified consumer to kind of build the brand in the long haul.
- [14:51]
Nat
We'll be right back with the speed.
- [14:52]
Host
Of culture after a few words from our sponsors.
- [14:56]
Matt Britton
We know brand growth equals business growth, but do your stakeholders Tracksuit is an.
- [15:01]
Tracksuit Representative
Affordable always on brand tracking dashboard that.
- [15:04]
Matt Britton
Helps marketers and agencies prove the impact.
- [15:06]
Tracksuit Representative
Of their work on brand metrics over time.
- [15:09]
Matt Britton
Benchmarked against competitors. Built from best in class methodology, the Tracksuit dashboard is accessible and easy to understand for everyone from CSOs and CMOs to CFOs and founders. Research shows that brand investment in good economic times and bad is essential to driving sustainable growth.
- [15:27]
Tracksuit Representative
The bottom line, turning off the brand tap will cost you in the long run.
- [15:31]
Matt Britton
Tracksuit gives marketers and agencies a common language to measure and communicate brands impact. Without the $100,000 price tag.
- [15:38]
Tracksuit Representative
Their in house research experts will have your survey live and your full marketing.
- [15:42]
Matt Britton
Funnel and brand perceptions visible in just 30 days. Check Tracksuit out@gotracksuit.com.
- [15:57]
Capital One Bank Guy
Banking with Capital One helps you keep more money in your wallet with no fees or minimums on checking accounts and no overdraft fees. Just ask the Capital One bank guy. It's pretty much all he talks about in a Good way. He'd also tell you that this podcast is his favorite podcast too. Ah, really? Thanks. Capital One bank guy. What's in your wallet? Term supply. See capitalone.com bank capital1na member fdic.
- [16:25]
Elise Hu
Running a business is hard work. Building your website shouldn't be. With wix, you can express your ideas, give direction, then leave the heavy lifting to AI. From site creation to branded content and images. Have fun with the details, customize what you want the way you want, and manage your whole business from a centralized dashboard with expert AI tools. Build, scale and enjoy the incredible results. You can do it all yourself on wix.
- [16:56]
Host
So obviously online only gets you so far. And as Of May now, VRE operates over 80 stores in the US and five international locations. And I know you're on track to exceed 100 stores by next year. How important is the physical store to your overall business model?
- [17:13]
Karen Riley Grant
Stores are incredibly important. I think we were digitally native, we grew through E Comm and still our bread and butter had continued to be an incredibly important channel for us. Absolutely. But stores provide us the opportunity for a tactile experience. And I just maybe it's still kind of in the hangover of COVID where we didn't have that. There still is this deep desire to touch and to feel and to smell and to hear and to talk to a sales associate who can tell you about the product. And I think that we take great pride in our stores, great partner store experience and so that portal for us to be a portal into the brand and who we are and what we represent and being able to bring a slice of the sunny California, Southern California that is our backyard and the sense of optimism and what inspires us every day. How do you translate to sound and smell and the talk track for the store staff? So I think that retail stores are incredibly important for us. That said, I think that as we kind of go on this global journey, how do we make sure that we don't go too fast, that we really understand the kind of local market? And that's where our stores as community hubs become even that much more important. So we do a lot of community events on a regular basis across all of our stores, you know, around the world.
- [18:23]
Host
What does that mean? Community events? What does that look like?
- [18:26]
Karen Riley Grant
So we do active club, we do run clubs, we do Pilates classes, we partner with local fitness studios and organizations to activate community events at our store.
- [18:35]
Host
Localize it, basically make it seem accessible.
- [18:38]
Karen Riley Grant
Absolutely. So you can only do so much here from San Diego to kind of bring the ethos of the brand out. And as we go on a global journey, it's even more important to how do we actually connect with that consumer in Beijing as we open the market to really create that emotional connection? And that's why I believe stores and retail stores moving forward play a really critical role. But as a brand person, not a charge to build that emotional connection, we need the online, we need the offline. But those community moments give us a reason to connect beyond our product. Because at the end of the day, we make product. But as much as I'd like to think they're buying our product 365 days out of the year, they are not. And they're not coming to our social to look for product messaging for 365 days out of the year. So we need to connect with consumers on something that transcends products. And that's what those community events allow us to do. Brand storytelling allows us to do that. But that's where that real emotional connection really happens. And that's what gets your loyal consumer base over time.
- [19:30]
Host
Absolutely. And as you push forward internationally with global expansion, I imagine you're spending a lot of time thinking about what localizing the brand looks like on a global basis. Just the cultural nuances, the competitive landscape, just the sensibility and the fashion and style around the world is different. So what does that process look like in terms of globalizing a brand? Because I'm sure it there's a lot of twists and turns to such an approach.
- [19:55]
Karen Riley Grant
When I was at Levi's, I sat in Singapore for a few years and I got to work with those markets. And I love global markets. I love the complexity of the markets. But it was about how do you bring a brand value proposition and a brand purpose to life in a market without making it cut and paste the same same everywhere. And so that challenge and how to bring that consistency through, but really relying on back to consumer insights, what is important to them? How do you take the value of the brand and thread it through what is important to that consumer in the UK or in China or Dubai or whatever market you're expanding in and spending a moment really understanding. And this is where back to the community events that we do or the part back to the partnership conversation, who we align to to help build that dimension on the local level that gives that local relevancy without diluting the power of your brand value proposition and who you are and what you represent. And I think there are a lot of brands that take a detour and then all of a sudden, ten Years later they go, wait, what, what did we look like? Hold on, it's like, let's back up. And then they're kind of in reboot mode. And so again, back to my earlier statement, you don't have to undo anything yet. Through that incredible international partner, we talk a lot about how do we do this and how do you do it. Right. So that, that globally you have a unified point of view, but locally you drive relevancy another level that gives the consumers a reason to fall in love with you.
- [21:11]
Host
Yeah, easier said than done, obviously, right? I mean the devil's in the details when you go from market to market.
- [21:16]
Karen Riley Grant
I'm sure it is not easy. It's way easier said than done. It's way easier on a page in a PowerPoint to say global and locally relevant. But it takes, I think listening more than anything and not kind of getting your head of sales and thinking that, you know, from your HQ you gotta like really listen.
- [21:31]
Host
So from a brand building perspective, how are you looking at content and reaching the consumer with your message? Whether it's at the top of the funnel where you're trying to establish a brand identity or obviously during key buying seasons like the holiday season, you're obviously pushing a lot of offers. Like what's working in terms of the channels and the types of content that's really resonating with your customers.
- [21:52]
Karen Riley Grant
Yeah. So I think the hard working product marketing has been working for us this being a time the paid social, what is it? Why does it exist? Why we need to buy it? What we're exploring now as we kind of move up the funnel funnel and start to build brand is what are the brand stories that we can tell. Sunda kind of transcends the seasonal product that give the consumers a peek into the world of VR and why we exist because we haven't told a lot of those stories. I think we started last year as a longer form series called the Rise the Shine. The Rise the Shine is not about get up and go rise and shine. It's about the internal mantra that we use that really represents the human spirit, the rise and the obstacles that you go through in life. And you kind of get to this point and have a moment to kind of celebrate. So we did some longer form with some of our partners. Taylor Knox as well and Elaine Gouge is another really telling their story of kind of how they achieve the success in kind of their journey. So that was our first kind of foray into this. Like, is this something that is interesting? Is this helpful? Is this something that we can provide content that is valuable and inspiring to consumers and then from there really building and deeper storytelling around our products. Actually just launched a new series called the Design Philosophy last week which kind of pulls the curtain back and talks about how we create our product. Making great product is one of our core values. Making great product, being great relationship and living extraordinary lives. Those are our three eternal values. And so really using those values to fuel and inform the content that we create. But also back to like listening to the consumer, making sure we're delivering something that is indeed valuable, not talking to ourselves. And a lot of brands like make cool things. They think it's cool and it's kind of self serving. Like is anyone going to find us valuable? Yes. Let's go. And right now we are just starting to tell our brand story. We also actually just launched a longer piece with Joe, our founder, talking about the last 10 years and our brand story.
- [23:33]
Host
Well, it's great that you have, I mean a lot of companies don't have the story or they don't lean into it. And at our core, ever since we were kids, we love to be told stories by our parents and the founder stories are often so inspiring. And really within those founder stories is that aha moment which at the core is the essence of the brand.
- [23:51]
Karen Riley Grant
That's right. And your question which what is working? I mean even taking content that we've recently created in that longer form of 10 years, Joe's journey. But even Joe as a founder speaking to the product, I mean those ads and we have Joe talking about the core short, the strategy they are some of the high is performing performance media ad. So again it's back to credibility and trust that the founder Joe's also our fit model which I love to use that fun fact because he literally is touching and approving every vitamins product. But it is a dream to have that have the opportunity to be part of a team in a brand and work with a founder that has real depth in the journey and the drive and the inspiration to get here. And now I feel like I'm kind of like late to the party. Okay, yeah. Now let's take this and go tell everyone like we don't have to miss that it literally is living and breathing in these wall. We get to turn on the camera and capture it and figure out the best place where do we put it in the funnel so that it is meeting the consumer with the right message and the right time with something valuable that really moves them to be part of this brand for sure.
- [24:52]
Host
So Shifting gears a little bit. Karen, just to you and your career. You mentioned earlier you spent some time at Levi's and also Converse, and obviously you've been around the apparel lens your entire career and now you're CMO of one of the most exciting brands in the space. Certainly one of my favorites. When you look back at your journey in your career, what are some of the decisions you think you made right along the way? Areas you focused on, relationships you built that put you in the CMO seat where you are today?
- [25:19]
Karen Riley Grant
That's a great question. I laugh. I say sometimes to Joe, this is like my everything, everywhere, all at once moment. We're literally, I think, my journey. I've always been in apparel. I was actually an engineer major, which is like a fun fact because I changed gears. But it tells you how, like, my brain thinks like the art and the science. I love retail. I love fashion. I love. But as I become more kind of seasoned, I love brand and I love the values and the people. So I think I've kind of learned the tactical thing and how to do the marketing. Obviously, we are all in a sharp learning curve these days with all of the tech enablements and the complicated kind of mixes that we get to build and work with. But I mean, for me, I've always worked for brands that I truly loved. If I need to tell the story of a brand, I mean, I have a very short list of brands. Gap Inc. Nike Inc. Commerce, Levi's, now Vuori. I need to be a personal consumer of the brand. I need to understand it and needs to align with my values. It needs to have a role in my life. I am, am going to be better at my job. And then I think as I've grown in my career, I've taken assignments that put me in really uncomfortable or sitting in Asia for a few years was the best experience I ever could have had. And I think that was something that I wanted to really push myself and learn and just understand. And so I think it was the taking the projects that were just interesting, really, and kind of building on my love for brand. And I think now what really inspires me every day are the people. I don't know if it's a science, security, you know, the people, the culture, the values. Okay. This aligns with me where I am in my life and I get to use all of the marketing skills and the capabilities that I built over the years and I get to work with product that I love. Like, okay, everything kind of comes together.
- [26:52]
Host
Pretty good deal, right?
- [26:54]
Karen Riley Grant
Exactly. So I feel Very, very fortunate. But I'd say every day what does fuel me really are the people that I get to work with and the culture that we're creating and to be part of a build and part of taking my experience, whether it's in building teams or team development or taking and building marketing and content and building new strategies. But I get be part of the build and introduce that to new people, which is new and fresh and been a really exciting chapter for me in my career.
- [27:22]
Host
Yeah, I'm sure. And for people who are in the earlier stages of their career, just starting out, knowing what you know now, what are some of the areas that you would suggest they should focus on here in 2025 to put themselves on the right track?
- [27:35]
Karen Riley Grant
I would say, as like, from a functional standpoint, marketing. Listen to the consumer. Like, just do not underestimate how much time and attention you spend listening, understanding, observing. Get away from your desk. They'll get in the world, Go be where they are. It was something that I learned a long time ago, and I thought they were like teeny boondoggles. Like, we get to go where. We get to go to Coachella. Just where I'm like, no, actually go to where your consumer is and really deserve. And so I think that is like, you know, was ingrained in me early on in my career. And still, I mean, we are really obsessing our consumer insights here at VRI as we build that part of our marketing organization. But go listen and sometimes you are going to learn something that you have no idea and it'll be humbling. And maybe that's pivot your direction and your strategy, your evolution. But that by far would be the one thing that I'd say. Do not underestimate the power of what consumer insights can provide to you and inspire you to really build amazing work and put out there in the world.
- [28:22]
Host
Yeah, I think obviously the consumer is changing so very fast, and if you don't understand where they're at, you're going to quickly find yourself irrelevant, either as a marketer or as a brand. So you always have to keep your finger on the pulse of where things are at, for sure.
- [28:36]
Karen Riley Grant
Exactly.
- [28:37]
Host
Absolutely. So to wrap things up, Karen, we often asked our guests if there's a mantra or a phrase that helps define or encapsulate their career journey. I was just wondering what might come to mind for your. You.
- [28:48]
Karen Riley Grant
That is a great question. Honestly, I just said this, but I think it's kind of been. I go full throttle. It took me a long time, didn't understand how to harness that and I think I was afraid of it, but I think it's I do live this everything everywhere, all at once. Like you take in everything you have, you take in all the experiences and you put everything you got into it. I feel like it's my journey here at Vuori, but I think it's definitely how I've kind of lived kind of unapologetically and really understand kind of how to harness harness what I have in the energy and the passion and the drive and bring some sense of hopefully some optimism and progress to the world.
- [29:20]
Host
Well, it's been great catching up with you and again, I'm a huge fan of your brand and I can see why you're a big reason for the brand success and I'm wishing you guys nothing but success for the rest of 2025 and beyond. So thanks so much for taking the time today.
- [29:33]
Karen Riley Grant
Thank you so much for having me. This was really fun.
- [29:35]
Host
Absolutely. On behalf of Susie and I, we keen thanks again to Karen Riley Grant, the Chief Marketing Officer at vori, for joining us today. Be sure to subscribe, rate and view to Speed of Culture podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
- [29:46]
Tracksuit Representative
Till next time.
- [29:47]
Host
See you soon everyone. Take care.
- [29:48]
Karen Riley Grant
Foreign.
- [29:53]
Nat
Culture is brought to you by Susie as part of the Ad Week Podcast Network and a guest Creator Network. You can listen subscribe to all Adweek's podcasts by visiting Adweek.com podcasts to find out more about Suzy, head to Suzy.com and make sure to search for the Speed of Culture in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere else podcasts are found. Click follow so you don't miss out on any future episodes. On behalf of the team here at Suzy, thanks for listening.
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Host of the podcast Ted Talks Daily. For more than 20 years, Paylocity has been leading the way with cutting edge work solutions like On Demand Payment which offers employees access to wages prior to payday, flexible time tracking features which enable staff to clock in and out through their mobile device, and numerous other cutting edge solutions that simplify collaboration across hr, finance and it. Learn more about how Paylocity can help streamline work and enhance business outcomes for your organization@paylocity.com simplified banking with capital One.
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