Ep 1: Veronica and the Rogue Campaign
At her first day on the job, a savvy Growth Marketer has to cut a few corners to do what’s best for the customers when the surly Retention Manager gives her the cold shoulder. If she can’t work with him, she’ll have to work around him.
Catalyst Couture Headquarters; 35th floor boardroom.
Ding!
The elevator’s chime announced Veronica had reached her stop — the 35th floor at Catalyst Couture. Veronica clutched her shoulder bag against her leather jacket, patting the outer pocket to ensure she could feel her notebook. She never goes anywhere without it.
Lurching open the heavy 10-foot glass doors, she hurried into the office past reception, avoiding eye contact with the perky looking admin assistant who was about to start talking. She approached the door of a room labelled ‘Serenity Pond’. Oh boy, here goes nothing, Veronica whispered as she walked into the room full of people. Uh-oh, was she late?
She scanned the semi circle that surrounded the sprawling boardroom table, quickly picking out Ephraim, the earthy-looking CEO who she’d spoken with at her interview.
“Veronica, join us! Welcome to our Monday Energy Flow. Everyone, this is Veronica, the newest member of our Marketing Team. She comes to us with over ten years of experience under her belt from some of fashion’s top e-commerce brands.”
…Well, not exactly. Veronica looked around the room, taking quick inventory of her new coworkers. Seems like a pretty cool bunch.
She recognized Barb, Catalyst’s VP who was recently featured on the cover of Fortune’s 40 under 40 issue. Holy crap, I better not screw this up.
“Veronica will be heading up our Growth initiatives”, Barb said. “Veronica, you’ll be working a lot with Carl, our Retention Marketer.”
She gestured towards a sharply-dressed man a few years older than her who looked less than impressed. He cast Veronica a dismissive nod and then looked back towards the front of the board room. Burn.
“You two can catch up with each other later,” continued Barb. “In the meantime, we’ve got a new promotion rolling out and we can’t wait to tell you about it. Ephraim?”
Ephraim began to stroll around the boardroom. His long hair was tied back in a ponytail, secured with a beaded rope. A repurposed bracelet from the Fall line?
Veronica noticed he was barefoot.
“Gratitudes, Barb. And welcome again, Veronica. You’re bringing strong energy to our circle today, I like it. Feeling it. So, everyone, this year for our annual promotion, we’ve decided to really show our friends — and that is to say, our customers — how much they matter.”
Barb interjected, “And by that we mean, we’re short on our projections for the year so we need to drive some more business, fast.”
“Yes, basically,” continued Ephraim. “Which is why we are offering a special….” he paused, seemingly for emphasis. “Fifteen percent promotion to each and every Catalyst customer.”
That’s it?
“Veronica. The offer launched this morning. This will be your first campaign.
Veronica nodded.
“Thanks for your receptiveness. That resumes this morning’s flow, family. And just a reminder that I brought in some of my homemade kombucha, you’ll find it in the break room. Help yourselves!”
As the team filed out, Veronica approached Carl and held out her hand.
“Nice to meet you Carl. Sounds like we’ll be working pretty closely together?”
“Doubtful.” He gave her a cold handshake, then put his phone to his ear and hurried down the hall.
Nice guy.
“Ignore him,” came a voice from behind her.
It was a young man with a friendly smile. “I’m Marco. Product Manager. I actually sit right beside you — c’mon I’ll show you your desk. I saw them getting it ready yesterday.”
“Thanks!” said Veronica. “So…how ‘bout that customer promotion? Do you always offer lacklustre deals to your thousands of customers, I mean, ‘friends’?”
Marco laughed. “Pretty much. Marketing’s not my department, but I guess that’s why they hired you, to get some of your insights. How did you handle promos at your last job?”
Veronica hesitated. “Uh, well you know, NDA etc., I shouldn’t really get into details, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve”.
At least I hope I do.
“Cool, well here we are,” Marco led Veronica to a pair of chic sawhorse desks with a divider in between. “That’s you. This is me. Lemme know if you need anything else! I think all your logins are on your desk there.”
“Thanks!” Veronica grabbed her notebook and threw her bag on her desk. Sinking into her chair, she booted up her computer and surveyed the landscape. Open concept office. Lots of windows — great views of the city skyline. Too bad I’m in the middle of the room.
By the time she looked back at her screen, the emails had already begun to arrive in her new work inbox.
Here goes nothing!
From: support@catalystcouture.com
Re: Support ticket 1059VY: 15%, SERIOUSLY!?
“I’ve spent close to 10k with you this year, and you ‘thank’ me with the same 15% coupon crap you’re advertising to everyone on your site? Not cool.”
Veronica,
Great to meet you just now at the Status Meeting! FYI, we’ve already gotten a few of these ^^ emails in response to today’s promo. Threw them back our boilerplate apology but figured you might want to look them over?
Thx,
Jenny
I don’t blame them. She scanned down the list of logins, locating the credentials for the CRM analytics. How many other big spenders were out there? Could there be a way to look it up? She pulled up the dashboard and began playing with the filters. Yes, there was a way to segment customers by dollars spent. Almost a hundred other customers had spent over 10k in the calendar year.
Hmmm…what else could we do with these customers? Google, help me out here. After a quick search, Veronica opened up the most legitimate looking article she could find in the results page.
“…Increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25–95%.” — Harvard Business Review.
Whoa. These ‘friends’ of ours need appreciation. More than this weak promo is offering.
* * * *
After lunch, Veronica poured herself a glass of kombucha and poked her head into Carl’s cubicle.
“Hey Carl, got a sec? I noticed something in the promo data. I think we could make it better.”
Carl didn’t turn around. “How?”
“Offer our most loyal customers a better promotion. Something more in line with how invested they are in our brand.”
Carl kept on typing.
“This is your first day. You don’t have to move mountains. Just monitor the campaign like they asked you to.”
“I’m trying to improve the campaign. These people should feel like we value them. I think I have a good idea — “
“ — Bring it up at next Monday’s meeting. I need to be on a call.”
Carl picked up his phone and started dialing. Veronica stared shocked at Carl’s turned back before leaving to go back to her desk. Guess I’m fixing this one myself.
* * * *
It was around 6pm when Marco poked his head around the corner, putting on his jacket.
“Well, I’m off. Um…what are you doing?”
Veronica’s desk was covered in papers. A pile was accumulating beside her, with names written in dark bold Sharpie. She was surrounded by paper, in fact.
“Why is your webcam on? Why are you sitting like that? That can’t be comfortable…”
Veronica sighed. “I’m trying to take the picture and hold the sign straight at the same time. It wasn’t working, so I’m using my foot to click the mouse. I might be here awhile. Have a good night!”
Marco took his jacket off. “Let me help. What exactly is happening here?”
“Jenny from Support sent me a couple of customer complaints from people who were offended about the 15% promo. When I looked into our dashboard I saw that we have over 100 customers who spend thousands with us each year. I felt those Big Spenders needed a little extra love.”
She exhaled. “So I made signs.”
Marco read out loud, “‘Owen Anderson, you rock!’ Ok…so you’re writing them…individual messages?”
“Yeah. I edited the digital coupon. Also with one other thing. 40% off their next purchase.”
Marco blanched. “Are you kidding?! Did Barb OK this?”
“I didn’t ask. I tried to bring it up with Carl and he brushed me off. And Barb and Ephraim were in meetings all afternoon.”
“Whoa girl. You’ve got some guts.”
“I guess so. But we’re supposed to be gaining customers, not losing them!”
Two hours later, Veronica finally clicked the last “send” with a silent wish. Please let this work. It was 8:30pm — 12 hours for a first day ain’t so bad.
She shut down her computer, threw on her jacket and headed for the evening train.
* * * *
After a full week at Catalyst, Veronica was confident she’d made at least two friends. Neither of those friends was Carl, who seemed to have a particular dislike for her and her opinions. Veronica sat on the subway, mulling over a new plan to win him over when an email alert came in. It was Barb. “Re: rogue campaign — report to Serenity Pond immediately”
Oh crap. She’d been found out. The secret campaign ‘adjustments’ she’d made a week earlier with Marco’s help seemed to be doing well. She hadn’t tracked them in a few days, but there hadn’t been any more complaint emails from Jenny. Surely she was going to get canned for breaking the rules if her plan hadn’t worked.
Veronica burst out of the elevator and walked briskly to the board room where Ephraim and Barb sat waiting.
Carl cut past her just before she went through the door and smirked over his shoulder.
“Already in trouble?”
She saw Marco craning his neck out from his cubicle. He cast her a nervous look, eyebrows raised.
Barb and Ephraim were sitting at the head of the table. Her campaign was up on the screen behind them. Veronica braced herself as she closed the door behind her.
“Have a seat, Veronica,” started Barb.
Yep, this is it. It was fun while it lasted.
“We don’t know how you did it,” blurted Ephraim.
“We’ve had our biggest week for sales on record,” continued Barb.
Oh em gee.
“40% off, it’s bold. But only to our top customers — it’s an enlightened approach.” Ephraim wrung his hands together excitedly, adjusting his bracelets one by one.
Barb placed both hands on the table and leveled a square gaze at Veronica.
“Brilliant, but unsanctioned. At Catalyst we value process and protocol, and it appears you executed this campaign without seeking either of our approval or even running it past your department.”
“Barb is correct. You and Carl should be working together as a team and bringing any recommendations directly to us before moving forward.”
Tried that. Got me nowhere.
Ephraim continued, “Think of yourselves as two branches on the same tree. Or two leaves on the same branch. Or blossoms. The point is, pollination takes teamwork.”
“You’re absolutely right and I’m really sorry I broke protocol.” Veronica offered.
“We understand that things may have been done differently where you worked previously.“
Yeah. You could say that…
“I understand why it was wrong and it won’t happen again.”
Ephraim nodded and showed Veronica to the door.
“Namaste. And, thank you.”
Veronica made a beeline for the water cooler. Not the best way to make a first impression, but she couldn’t help but feel pleased at her successful scheme. Not bad for my first rodeo. And then Carl sauntered up beside her.
“On your way to empty your desk?”
“Nope. Thanks for the concern, though.” Veronica screwed the lid onto her water bottle and walked away coolly, high fiving Marco as she returned to her desk.
“Beginner’s Luck.” Carl muttered after her.
