Dialog with Jo Ann Herold (Part 3)

Jo Ann Herold

Welcome to the July 2010 edition of The Marketing Dialog. This month’s guest marketing leader is Jo Ann Herold, who brings over 20 years marketing experience to Top Right Strategic Marketing. Prior to consulting, she spent 16 years at Honey Baked Ham and was formerly the VP of Marketing and Chief Marketing Officer with them. She has worked as a Regional Marketing Manager for Shoney’s and Captain D’s for five years. Before that, she was head of marketing for the Jackson, MS Zoo and has owned her own marketing firm.

We started the dialog with Jo Ann last week. To start at the beginning of our dialog, click here.

To thank our guests for their participation, Polaris will make a donation to the charity of their choice. Jo Ann has chosen The American Marketing Association Atlanta Ken Bernhardt Scholarship for Outstanding Collegiate Marketer Award. “The reasons I am passionate about this scholarship is that I am a lifelong learner, it gives students a chance to study marketing—which has been a great career for me, I am president-elect of the Atlanta chapter of AMA, and Ken Bernhardt has been a friend and mentor. As an added bonus, he will match all donations personally,” said Jo Ann. (Please note, Ken Bernhardt was also TMD’s very first guest marketing leader : » Ken Bernhardt Post)

If you would like to know more about The American Marketing Association Atlanta Ken Bernhardt Scholarship for Outstanding Collegiate Marketer Award or to make a donation, please contact AMA Atlanta or Jo Ann directly at jherold@toprightpartners.com

TMD: You’ve had some great experience in marketing over the course of your career? How has your thinking about marketing research evolved over that time?

Jo Ann: Dramatically—especially as my responsibilities increased. The impact of my decisions had significant financial implications. Research aided the decision making process.

TMD: What has been the most successful marketing research project your company has undertaken? What made it successful?

Jo Ann: The most successful projects are the ones where there is a creative insights process involved.

• This includes smartly identifying what is the problem that needs to be solved,

• Including the business in the problem identification,

• Sourcing the right approach or supplier to lead the research,

• Wrapping the project with a session that summarizes the key insights and “Ahas”,

• Determining how to commercialized the findings for financial gains, and

• Sharing the research and findings throughout the organization and with key suppliers.

TMD: The creative process is certainly important. But how do you get buy-in for marketing research from other executives?

Jo Ann: Include them in all steps of the process. Share the problem statement, invite executives to hear and see any aspect of the customer interviews, ask them to provide input into the “Aha” section of the research project. They will love being a part of it. And you will too!

Let us know: How has your thinking about marketing research evolved since the beginning of your career?

Join us in next week when The Marketing Dialog with Jo Ann Herold of Top Right Partners continues!

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