Marketing Strategy from Article: Canada's fastest Growing Company | Duncan Blair

06/15/20 • 45 min

Anstice aCast - Candid Conversations on Modern Marketing

In today's episode of the a-Cast, host Marc Binkley interviews Duncan Blair, the Director of Marketing at Article, the Canadian ecommerce giant. Article is a direct to consumer (DTC) online furniture retailer and for the past two years has been the fastest growing company in Canada. Duncan leads over 40 people in marketing to support their sales growth which is currently over $100M in revenue.
Duncan began his career in New Zealand with an early stage TelCom startup. After moving to Canada, he worked on the agency side before becoming one of the first marketers at Article in early 2016. Since then, Duncan has had the opportunity to jump on the rocket ship that is Article and support the development of its brand and this new DTC business model.
In this interview, Duncan shares his thoughts on many of the pressing issues facing modern marketers. Listen to this podcast to hear more on topics like the difference between traditional retail and DTC business model, the importance of customer loyalty, the cost of customer acquisition, finding the right media mix, attribution modelling and how to measure marketing performance.

Time Stamps

4:00 - What is driving Article's Growth?
6:52 - Are the last mile delivery teams part of your marketing team?
8:39 - A story that highlights Article's branded customer experience
12:10 - What makes DTC so unique?
16:11 - DTC's unique opportunities compared to traditional retailers
19:00 - Unique risks with the DTC model
22:26 - Advantages with Digital Media
26:30 - How design thinking can influence customer experience
31:20 - Shifting the perception of marketing from an expense to an investment
36:00 - How to balance attribution models like ROAS with Lifetime Value
42:13 - Budgeting for eComm

Time Stamps

Previous Episode

Lessons in Business Strategy from Chinese eCommerce Giants with Chengyi Lin

Professor Chengyi Lin is a professor of strategy at INSEAD, one of the worlds leading business schools. Chengyi's work focuses on digital transformation and business innovation. Professor Lin’s research and consulting interest primarily focuses on the topics of digital transformation and innovation for global and multi-national organizations. His research and teaching explores the drivers of successful execution of companies’ digital strategy, the impact of corporate innovations and the effectiveness of strategic initiatives.

In this podcast, Professor Lin shares lessons and insights from the response by Chinese ecomm giants to the Covid-19 lockdown. We cover a lot of ground in this episode including the speed and scale of their response, how to balance effectiveness and efficiency, how to create innovative and resilient companies, where leaders can get innovative ideas from, how to use the gig economy to acquire new talent and capabilities and the importance of listening to customers.

Please leave a review, like or comment to let us know what you think of the show!

Time Stamps
2:00 - What makes China so interesting to study for businesses.
4:14 - How do these changes apply beyond the covid pandemic period?
6:52 - Is it fair to compare the Chinese ecomm response to Canada, US and UK?
11:10 - How can customer's online shopping experience improve during times of high risk for physical shopping?
13:23 - How businesses can take advantage of increased talent pool and gig economy.
17:16 - What can we learn from strategic pivots like JD.com's venture into to telehealth.
22:28 - How do leaders balance control with empowerment.
24:20 - Is efficiency helping or hurting innovation?
26:40 - Three ways that companies could use this covid environment to test & learn from new innovative ideas.
31:08 - How leaders can manage during this transformative period.
32:20 - Three ways that can help leaders develop a more resilient business.

References
HBR - In the face of lockdown, China's ecommerce giants deliver
HBR - Delivery Technology is Keeping Chinese Cities Afloat Through Coronavirus
INSEAD - 11 Leadership Guidelines for the Digital Age
INSEAD - A Sustainable Future for Food
Ali Baba
JD.Com
Tour of Ali Baba's Freshippo online grocery
BCG Growth Share Matrix
Captain David Marquet's Turn the Ship Around

Next Episode

Leading Agile Brands: How to Balance Short Term Results with Long Term Goals with Marty Neumeier

Host Marc Binkley talks with Marty Neumeier about how companies can create better balance between short term needs and long term goals. Marty is the Director of CEO branding at Liquid Agency, Founder and Parter of a branding masterclass certification program called Level C and author of 8 books including Zag, considered one of the 100 best business books of all time.

1:29 - Wicked Problems - balance short term results with long term goals
3:43 - The Problem with discounting
4:57 - Using strategy to compete
9:43 - How to stay focused on the future
13:16 - How purpose inspires the right kind of innovations
17:56 - Why design is so useful for brands
21:44 - Design thinking for innovation
24:33 - The new C-Suite
27:41 - Why Marketing Directors shouldn't manage branding
29:44 - Why brand training is important
33:21 - Agile Strategy & Swarming
43:24 - Developing Chief Branding Officer (CBO)
46:32 - How CEOs and CBOs can work together to run a company