Feb 15, 2022

Welcome to another episode of 3-Minute-Marketing, the world's #1 podcast for binge-worthy, easy to digest tips and insights from the world's top growth marketing leaders.

Today's guest is Doug Zarkin, Vice President and CMO at Pearle Vision, a franchise with over 550 locations. Doug has had a really interesting and storied career, including helping to build out Victoria's Secret in the early days of the company before they were a huge juggernaut.

Doug has had a string of victories that weren't just quick pops but sustained growth. So my question for him was, "How do you build a brand in a sustainable and ongoing way?".

Show notes:

1. To be a marketer, you have to have a degree of arrogance. Marketing at its core is about tapping into a consumer, understanding what they want and need, and putting out messaging that motivates them to take the action that you want when you want. It's a bold challenge.

2. The humility comes from recognizing that in order to lead you must first listen, especially in a product or service that you can't relate to.

3. Think human. Marketing is about identifying a target, but that target isn't a bunch of data points. It's about understanding the people behind the target.

4. Be as consistently consistent as possible. It's challenging to radically change the direction of a brand in one or two years, especially in the current marketplace where there are so many choices and options.

5. Best laid plans take time. Identify the musts and the needs, then the coulds and the shoulds, then the wants.

6. Fear of missing out is not a marketing strategy. There are a lot of things you could do and even more things that you want to do, but if you're not doing a fantastic job with the things you must do and need to do in order to move your brand forward, then you're not going to get credit from the consumer.

7. Listen in order to lead, recognize that consumers make emotional decisions before rational choices, and maintain a degree of humanity in everything that you do.