About the Guest Jennifer Renaud has served as Masonite’s Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer since March 2020. Jen is responsible for driving Masonite’s marketing strategy and is working to evolve the brand to better meet the needs of its customers and get homeowners to think about their doors in a new way. Most recently, Jen led Masonite’s first B2C marketing campaign, which took this 100-year-old company out of its B2B comfort zone and utilized customer insights to target homeowners directly. Connect with Jennifer Renaud Key Takeaways Losing good salespeople during an economic downturn entails monumental costs and weakens the entire organization. The key to retaining top talent is to invest in them – facilitate opportunities for learning and development. Raising your hand to ask questions or share ideas is a habit to cultivate in order to invite more learning opportunities. Senior executives should be wary of undermining the efforts of younger employees – this breaks trust within the team and the company as a whole. Quote “You could spend your media budget more wisely when you know who you’re trying to reach and what the messages are that you need to use to reach them. Learn there rather than test randomly.” – Jennifer Renaud Highlights from the Episode Could you tell our listeners about the comprehensive ethnographic research that you’ve carried out? Masonite did ethnographic research in order to learn about the needs of its target market. The research involved interviews with homeowners, builders, contractors, dealers, distributors, and retailers. How did you activate this data to ensure the entire org is better connected to your strategic value targets? It starts with having everyone realize that actively engaging with the homeowner will transform the business. After that comes the research to assist in executing the plan through testing different marketing campaigns. How did these insights help Masonite redefine the buyer journey, especially when it came to product & GTM strategy? The insights from this research allowed a more comprehensive look into the buyer journey. It starts with understanding where people engage with the content on the website, how they get through inspiration and selection, and then purchase. The journey then continues with installation and maintenance. Masonite also used these insights when considering changes in the content, packaging, and product features. Could you tell us about the success you’ve had in growing the business for Barn door kits by refining your customer profile and the marketing strategy in a relatively short period? Storytelling by focusing on the human need is key. In this success story, the marketing team analyzed customer profiles and found that people who needed a private space were the best target for the product. They wrote content that matched this need and communicated it to their target audience in a meaningful way. This resulted in a 200% growth in their business. What are some of the challenges you could face while trying to activate consumer insights? Any insight that you would like to share with our listeners who might be interested in implementing such a program? There are a few challenges that could come up while trying to activate consumer insights. One challenge is that it can be expensive to hire an agency that specializes in consumer insights. Another challenge is that it may be difficult to know who to target with consumer insights research. Lastly, knowing how to use consumer insights data to improve customer service can pose challenges. How are you and your organization adapting to the current economic downturn? In adapting to the current economic downturn, one should stay focused on what they are trying to accomplish and not let panic set in. Ensure that your strategy is set and that you have people in your organization who are challenging you to stay with it. Is there a book, blog, newsletter, website, or video that you would recommend to our listeners? Gratitude Through Hard Times by Chris Schembra Shout-outs Steve Olenski – Chief Narrative Architect at MMA Global Alison Webb-Fantillo – Vice President, Marketing at Vertiv
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