Are most brands still designing customer journeys, or are they just trying to keep up with where their customers are leading them?
Agility requires a willingness to meet your customers where they are—not just where you wish they’d convert. In an era where the consumer journey can begin and end on a social platform or anywhere in between, brands must be fluid enough to engage meaningfully across channels while still connecting the dots behind the scenes.
Today we’re going to talk about the changing consumer journey and why a connected ecosystem that includes social commerce, audience targeting, and measurement is now table stakes.
To help me discuss this topic, I’d like to welcome Janna Navarro, VP, Brand & Media Strategy at Wpromote.
About Janna Navarro
Janna has two decades of experience spearheading brand evolution across sectors such as automotive and quick-service restaurants. As VP of Brand, Media & Consumer Strategy, she leads with an integrated approach to digital-first marketing. Before Wpromote, Janna led teams at CPB, collaborating with brands like Domino’s Pizza to leverage data-driven decision-making and new media. Her experience also includes working with GM on its Cadillac EV line.
Janna Navarro on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jannatopolewski/
Resources
Wpromote: https://www.wpromote.com
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Transcript
Greg Kihlstrom (00:00)
Are most brands still designing customer journeys or are they just trying to keep up with where their customers are leading them? Agility requires a willingness to meet your customers where they are, not just where you wish they’d convert. In an era where the customer journey can begin and end on a social platform or anywhere in between, brands must be fluid enough to engage meaningfully across channels while still connecting the dots behind the scenes. Today we’re going to talk about the changing consumer journey and why a connected ecosystem that includes social commerce, audience targeting, and measurement is now table stakes. To help me discuss this topic, I’d like to welcome Jana Navarro, VP Brand and Media Strategy at WPromote. Jana, welcome to the show.
Janna Navarro (00:39)
Thanks, Greg.
Greg Kihlstrom (00:39)
Yeah. Looking, looking forward to talking about this with you. Got a few things to talk through here, but before we dive in, why don’t you give a little background on yourself and your role at W promote.
Janna Navarro (00:49)
Yeah. So as you mentioned, I am VP of brand and media strategy at WPromote. And all your listeners are probably wondering who is WPromote? We are an independent marketing agency founded over 20 years ago, really specializing in driving transformative growth for ambitious brands. So really think of those challenger brands that are breaking through and have big lofty goals. And how do we do that?
We do that through a full funnel marketing strategy that’s inclusive of media, creative, and data. So really connecting the dots for these brands. How did I get here? Been here over a year. I like to say that I’ve kind of been around the agency block. If you will, I have spent some time at some of the big holdcos where I was classically trained in media, but really where my career sort of took off and excelled was at an agency called Crispin Porter and Bogoski.
which was really big in the early 2000s, 2010s. And I had the privilege of working with Domino’s Pizza and working my way up to eventually lead their media strategy. And looking back on that, I now realize what a transformative era that was in my career of not only being able to work with such an incredible brand, but at an agency that was very consumer creative led. So it allowed me to think of media differently. Also spent some time brand side where I created an in-house agency and really appreciated that experience because now I understand what our clients are dealing with. In those Monday morning meetings, right, with the CFO, CEO, and you have to report on numbers, that also helped me give a different perspective. Now I’m here.
Greg Kihlstrom (02:23)
Nice, nice. Great. Well, yeah. Let’s let’s dive in. And I want to start with the idea that the consumer journey is no longer linear. It’s or even predictable for that matter. So from your perspective, how has the traditional you know, we’ve we’ve all seen the the marketing funnel, you know, diagrams and all that kind of stuff. You know, how has that traditional funnel broken down and what should brand and media strategists do differently to keep up with consumers who are kind of they’re increasingly converting on their own terms.
Janna Navarro (02:55)
Yeah, great question. This is one that I feel like I could talk all day about. I mean, wouldn’t it be a dream, right, if consumers went through the traditional phase of awareness, consideration, conversion? But that’s just not the truth. And the reality is, is that just because a consumer purchased you once does not mean that they are going to purchase you again. So it is our job as marketers to ensure that brands are developing a relationship with consumers. And that extends beyond that last point of purchase. I always like to share this quote. I have an eight-year-old daughter, and we’re watching NFL. And she was like, hey, mom, why is Amazon advertising on the NFL? We get packages from them every single day. Because Amazon needs to make sure that they’re reminding me of why I care about them as a product, because they are not banking on the fact that I order them every single day, right? Like that could end very soon. So again, it’s our job to really make sure as marketers that we stay in relationship with our consumers.
Greg Kihlstrom (03:53)
Yeah. So you’ve talked about how social commerce is becoming a key part of the conversion path. Where do you see some of the biggest opportunities or pitfalls for brands that are trying to commerce and content in social spaces?
Janna Navarro (04:09)
Yeah, I think there’s two areas here that brands need to make sure they’re doing. Number one, and they both actually start from a customer first lens. So number one, ensuring that they is the brand are in content that feels authentic and native to who they are. Because consumers see right through that, right? And then I think the other area to really make sure that social commerce works is by ensuring that the purchase process is seamless. So you think about how Amazon’s integrated with TikTok. That is a very seamless, easy for a consumer to click purchase in that second. So it’s our job to, of course, making sure that we are in the right content, but also making it as easy as possible for our customers to transact.
Greg Kihlstrom (04:54)
Yeah, yeah, definitely. So let’s talk about, you know, of the the reason why journeys aren’t as linear is because consumers are on multiple devices, multiple channels, you know, all of that. So talking about this, this ecosystem and how to think about that. So it’s no longer enough to just be on all the channels. You need to be connected across, you know, like the the Amazon tick tock example. You know, you need to be connected not only within them, but also across them. Right. So how should marketers think about building a truly connected media and brand ecosystem?
Janna Navarro (05:32)
think marketers need to first and foremost understand the power of the first party data they have and how consumers are flowing through process when it comes to their brand and their product, right? Because not everyone is the same. So I think that that’s really important when you start designing a connected ecosystem. And I think too, we need to make sure that we understand the roles and responsibilities of various media channels because they aren’t all going to fit in the same box. So making sure you marry again the data you have on your customers and then really understanding the role of the channel, marrying that together is where you’re to get that connected ecosystem.
Greg Kihlstrom (06:11)
Yeah. And so, you know, what role does data and measurement play in understanding the total lift? how are you helping brands go beyond just last click metrics to do something more meaningful and really understand that total lift?
Janna Navarro (06:28)
Yeah. So number one, brands are no longer coming to us with just a ROAS goal, right? Or like, I need to drive this revenue in return. I mean, obviously that is a big business goal for them, but we’re now seeing brands coming to us with a goal of awareness, with a goal driving trust, with getting new customers, right? Like all the way down the funnel. So that’s requiring hundreds of metrics and KPIs, which can become incredibly overwhelming to look at. So we’re actually working on an index here at WPromote called the Care Index, which sort of takes all of these KPIs together into one unifying metric that really is all about how do we measure that a consumer actually cares about your brand? And by caring about your brand, that is going to dive down into naturally revenue growth.
Greg Kihlstrom (07:25)
So I guess zooming out a little bit then, you know, with so many shifts, you know, we’ve touched on the consumer behavior shift platforms coming and going and consumers, you know, using multiple ones, privacy rules, which we haven’t even touched on yet. How do you advise brands to test and learn without losing that strategic focus that drives them?
Janna Navarro (07:47)
Testing and learning is a strategic focus. We have to make sure that we’re testing and learning. It’s imperative to brands right now. mean, even if you think about Google, starting in 1998, and how long it took them to get to where they are, I think that the latest stats on like chat, TVT, and AI, it would surpass Google by 2030 at their growth rate.
Right. Right. So that is how fast our industry is moving right now. And if we aren’t testing and learning on a consistent basis, then you’re already behind. So in my opinion, it’s not a question of, let’s test and learn over here. It is part of the strategy.
Greg Kihlstrom (08:28)
Yeah, yeah. And so, you know, there’s certainly a lot of talk about the customer journey and customer experience in general. You know, I just got back from the the Forrester CX conference showing that, know, again, despite all this talk that we give it, the CX index has dropped for the third year in a row and stuff like that. So what are brands getting wrong about, you know, for all the talk and all the writing and all the podcasts and all that stuff that we do at this?
What are brands still getting wrong about the consumer journey today?
Yeah. I mean, do you think that brands are still in many cases operating under kind of the old way of like, we’re going to we’re going to map out this linear journey and just kind of hope that consumers, you know, follow what we’ve kind of dictated or, know, are in your experience and what you’re saying, are our brands starting to come around to this idea of they do need the connection and the, know, to kind of be everywhere and and and yet tie all the strategy together like our is the is there momentum in the right direction in other words.
Yeah, yeah, good point. And then, you know, know, I know one of your focus areas is social commerce. And I know we talked a little bit about this, but you know, what’s what are you seeing there? You know, what’s a trend or area of growth that brands should really be paying attention to in this in that in that realm?
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that’s a that it’s hard. It’s hard to do that. Right. Like that’s that’s a difficult thing to even internally to get teams to really understand what the what the brand is all about. But now, you know, and let alone, you know, the end and consumer. But now you’re talking about there’s sort of this middle layer, right? That where maybe maybe they can get a little bit of coaching. But you’re saying then the some of the trust is that it just
It’s it’s lack of authenticity because it’s overprescribed. Is that Yeah, and I can only imagine that would that should trickle down to the end consumer as well. Like, in other words, if they can if they can first do it internally really well and then second do it for influencers, maybe again, that kind of that outer layer, then it must like the end consumers, whether even if they don’t interact directly with an influencer, I would imagine the brand is so well defined at that point that it it benefits them in all ways. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
