Anna Kirina of Agro Club On The Top 5 New Marketing Trends Leaders Need To Know
An Interview With Rachel Kline
Artificial Intelligence for Data Processing. AI technologies can be used not only to automate communication but also to process a large flow of customer data. AI allows us to better analyze users and further customize the customer journey and target audiences.
Marketing trends are always changing, and it’s so important to stay relevant. What are the latest trends? How does one stay abreast of the new trends? Is it good to be an early adopter or is it best to see which trends withstand the test of time? To address these questions, in this interview series, we are talking to experienced CMOs who can share their “Top 5 New Marketing Trends That Leaders Need To Know About.” As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Anna Kirina.
Anna Kirina began her career in the B2C segment as a customer relationship specialist at the largest kids retail in Russia, where, after a few years of professional development in the role of a marketing strategist, she had a chance to meet and consult with Andrew R. Gatto (former Senior Vice President for Toys “R” Us), carry out loyalty projects with Visa, and research private-label production for the 2014 Olympic Games. After the second degree in Public Affairs, Anna initiated projects for private-state-owned enterprises and a Swiss crypto-bank, led the PR department for B2B companies, and in 2019 she joined global AgTech provider Agro.Club Inc.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
One of my favorite proverbs says “Choose a job you love, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life”. Having had a great opportunity to work in various business segments and with different products, I’ve completely realized that my true passion lies in marketing and communications. This is what keeps me up at night without exhaustion; this is what drives me to improve myself and, if you like, to turn me from an employee to a creator.
It has been said that our mistakes can sometimes be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest marketing mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Matthew Syed once said that “a progressive attitude toward failure turns out to be the cornerstone of success for any institution”. I have an example. My first work experience was in an area of customer relationship management at a retail corporation trading kids products. Two days a year, back-office employees from marketing and commercial departments had to go out in the “fields” and get to know the customers assisting at points of sale. Having a perfect understanding of the customers most frequent requests, the brand’s loyalty program, and marketing promo activities, I only had a rough idea of the trade assortment at that store. So, when any potential shopper approached me asking for the shelf location of this or that item or what the difference between the two products was, with my eyes wide open, I had to apologize and look for the “real” shop assistant. A lesson I learned was: if you want to increase sales, you’d better know the product well enough, right down to its location in a store. And it’s especially relevant for the B2C segment, where the process goes through the full marketing complex and the product component.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
There’s a famous Japanese proverb that says, “Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher”. This teacher was my first boss, the head of the marketing department. I’m not sure exactly what made him so involved in the initiation into work of a newly graduated student; maybe his inner aspiration to share the knowledge, or he knew he was leaving in a few months and intended to do something good..But the real client-oriented approach he’s ingrained in me, the necessity to use tech tools and rely on numbers when measuring any performance, the omni-channel way to communicate with customers and peers (and to collaborate where it’s possible) that he gave me, cost more than years of college.
Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?
I can’t help but cite Thomas Jefferson and Agro.Club’s CEO here: “I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.” It’s so simple and practically proven.
Hard work is the common factor for success and recognition, regardless of talent, intelligence, and natural abilities.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Agro.Club is an AgTech company that leverages technology to streamline a messy grain supply chain. With over 40,000 farmers and 1000s of grain companies using its B2B marketplace, there are definitely many key factors that make its business different and special.
From my perspective, I would highlight the following:
- An omni-channel approach to reaching customers. We’re ready to serve and support the users, actually, by any means possible: online, offline, or in a hybrid mode.
- As a tech solutions provider, we’ve developed our own tools and dashboards that help track and analyze every step of the trading process. From the moment the farmer-user needs to get in touch to sell his crops until the grain is received by a buyer or a vessel is loaded to travel overseas.
- As the brand was founded by a team of ag industry insiders with over 20 years of proven experience, it’s easy to foresee and deal with any challenge our customers may face along the way. Which also makes us different from SaaS companies that develop tools for any industry or from grain traders that trade crops without due attention to technology or more efficient ways of doing business in the new age.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Right now, I’m very excited to be engaged in the promotion of Agro.Club’s Global Grain Marketplace. It’s a unique platform solution that helps any farmer-user trade grain worldwide. The company’s mission is to use technology to connect the global ag value chain and make the food supply more secure, efficient, and sustainable. I do believe that products like ours are critically important, as staying united and working together can tackle the issues of global hunger.
Fantastic. Let’s now shift to the main part of our interview about Marketing Trends. As a CMO, you’re at the forefront of the marketing space and leading diverse teams. What resources or tools do you use to stay abreast of the ever-changing landscape?
Having a growth mindset is the key. Our team members are strongly encouraged to share interesting content, business tips, and their own ideas on innovation. The more people are involved in this “knowledge base” sharing, the more adaptable and competitive the whole company becomes. So we foster a culture of continuous learning and promote open communication. As well as providing resources for upskilling (like access to business books and additional education). We empower teams to adjust to the dynamic business environment.
In your experience, is it possible to forecast upcoming trends? How does this process work? Please share a story.
“Whatever field of human activity one may take, only those trends that are in harmony with the needs of society show rapid progress.” (Nikolay Chernyshevsky). I believe that is the main lifehack. Just look around and distinguish the temporary from the permanent, the false from the essential. Analyze Maslow’s pyramid and understand where your product or service can fit in.
In marketing, would you say it’s better to be an early adopter of trends or wait to see if they stick before allocating resources? What are the pros and cons?
Marketing is always about testing hypotheses, so I would combine the two. By disregarding the trends, you may find your business ineffective and outdated. By investing resources in the “cutting edge” or “disruptive,” you may find your target audience is not ready to follow your new modus operandi.
What are some of the past trends that you embraced? What results did you see?
From a marketing perspective, we combined online and offline customer experiences and switched to a hybrid mode of interaction.
From AgTech trends, we embed financing, collaborate with other ag stakeholders, and adjust our products to doing business via various digital tools.
Can you share a time when a strategy didn’t deliver the results you expected and what you learned from the experience?
Most recently, I saw that the strategy was good enough, but the consumer niche was unprepared. And it could take too much time, effort, and additional resources to change the game and make things work. Usually, startups don’t have any and have to either fail or pivot and rearrange the strategy for a new, market-proven product or service.
What factors should leaders consider before jumping on a trend? Can you please explain what you mean?
As we’ve discussed before, your main consumer must be ready for any innovations within your business. So before jumping on a trend, make sure it’s the right moment to upgrade or improve and that there’s an opportunity to yield back if something goes wrong.
Here is the main question of our interview. We’d love for you to share your expert insight. What are the top five marketing trends leaders should know about in 2023? Can you please share a story or example for each?
- Artificial Intelligence for Data Processing.
AI technologies can be used not only to automate communication but also to process a large flow of customer data. AI allows us to better analyze users and further customize the customer journey and target audiences.
2. Personalization.
Traditional advertising is losing out to personalized marketing messages that create a real connection between the brand and its audience.
3. Visualization of Content
Today, no written content is as important as visuals and design. This is evidenced by the strong growth of image-centric platforms, a trend that will stay popular in 2023 and beyond.
4. Using the Customer Data Platform (CDP)
CDP is a marketing technology that aggregates customer data from multiple sources and makes it available to other tools used by marketing teams. It enables a more customized and multi-channel experience when analyzing your customers’ behavior.
5. Integrated online-offline customer experience
Huge numbers of consumers are moving their shopping activities from offline to online. I would suggest brands switch to hybrid mode.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I would suggest that we, as people, learn to use less but share more. And always treat others the way we want to be treated.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
I guess my LinkedIn profile is the best way to reach me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-kirina-a818b3130/ and my company’s news page is the easiest way to follow our work: https://blog.agro.club/?roistat_visit=112198&_gl=1*lizoew*_ga*ODcxNTcwMTE3LjE2NzE0NDM5MDY.*_ga_HQGJXJ9H0E*MTY3OTQ5ODQzMi41NC4wLjE2Nzk0OTg0MzIuNjAuMC4w
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
