Tricia Nichols is currently the Chief Marketing Officer at Independent Pet Partners and was Senior Vice President of Marketing at Estee Lauder along with leadership roles in a variety of different industries. Tricia joins the show to talk about how brands can use authentic storytelling to get their message across and bond with the consumer, what customer currency is and how we can gain it in marketing, and the new ways of operating that we can adapt to and thrive in this new way of operating.

Takeaways:

• ● Storytelling is what drew Tricia to marketing and she appreciates that brands can share their story in a way that genuinely helps and moves others.
• ● Consumers are smarter than ever now and see through a lot of the old manipulative advertising techniques. Things that work in brand storytelling are more mindfulness and microstories.
• ● Brands must provide a compelling reason for their consumer to follow, trust, and engage with them.
• ● Consumer currency is a brand bonding metric and a blueprint to keep the consumer at the heart of the whole journey.
• ● We can build consumer currencies in many ways including providing expertise, filling the white space in that industry, making things easy and fun, and making their customers feel as though they are communicating with a friend.
• ● Brands must not just know the “how” of what they do, but also the “why.”
• ● What is most important now is keeping wellness at the forefront of how brands communicate with their consumers.
• ● It is important to know the difference between educating and providing value, and grandstanding and just speaking for the sake of being heard.
• ● We can adapt to the new world instead of throwing away everything we know. We will always be pivoting in business since consumers are constantly rewriting their lives.

• Quotes:

• ● “You are not just sold by the brand, you are sold by the benefit of what that product is.”

• ● “Wellness should be on everyone’s mind as number one, right now.”
• ● “If a brand could do anything, it should be asking how can I help and what do people need to know.”
• Mentioned in This Episode:
• Tricia Nichols LinkedIn
• Chuck & Don’s
• International Pet Partners