Thursday Dec 21, 2023
The Challenger Brand Ethos With Cathy Davis of IG Group
Cathy Davis is the Chief Marketing Officer of IG Group, and was previously the CMO of Feeding America, the Chief Marketing Officer of Leo Burnett, and held several other high-level marketing roles at organizations like Morgan Stanley, Diageo, Accenture, and more.
Over the course of her prolific career, Davis has led the repositioning and rebranding of several major brands, including Allstate, Discover Card, and Jose Cuervo. She is passionate about understanding consumer psychology and translating those insights into impactful business strategies. In this wide-ranging interview, Davis shares stories and lessons learned from her extensive experience as a marketer and brand builder. She discusses the importance of unifying brand building and performance marketing under the CMO role, being the "voice of the consumer" within an organization, and nurturing a "challenger brand" mentality even as companies grow to dominate their categories.
Davis also openly recounts an example campaign failure, when a Jose Cuervo ad aimed at the popular bottle service club scene had to be pulled when the 2008 recession made the concept socially unacceptable seemingly overnight. She details her leadership approach in bouncing back from such failures, grieving briefly before rallying the team around new objectives.
This episode delivers a wealth of real-world perspectives that will resonate with business leaders and marketers focused on driving growth through branding and innovation. Davis is clearly an insightful expert on not only building brands, but also rebuilding and reinvigorating them amidst economic flux and social change. Her emphasis on understanding consumer psychology also contains lessons relevant far beyond the marketing function.
OUTLINE:
(00:00:00) Introduction
(00:02:00) Cathy's background and early interest in marketing/branding
(00:05:00) Getting start at Leo Burnett and repositioning major brands
(00:10:00) Breathing personality and emotion into more sterile brands
(00:15:00) Defining a "challenger brand"
(00:18:00) Transitioning from agency side to client side at Morgan Stanley
(00:22:00) Keys to successful brand repositioning
(00:25:00) Becoming a Chief Marketing Officer and unifying brand building with performance marketing
(00:30:00) Work at nonprofit Feeding America and increasing impact
(00:35:00) Balancing professional and nonprofit board responsibilities
(00:38:00) Joining TastyTrade and recent rebranding effort
(00:42:00) Selecting and working with agency partners
(00:45:00) Naming considerations for brokerage firm
(00:48:00) Staying on top of trends and avoiding status quo
(00:52:00) An example campaign failure and how to rally teams after setbacks
(00:55:00) Recommended resources for continuous learning
EPISODE LINKS:
TastyTrade: https://tastytrade.com/
Feeding America: https://www.feedingamerica.org/
Leo Burnett: https://leoburnett.com/
Morgan Stanley: https://www.morganstanley.com/
Diageo: https://www.diageo.com/en
Accenture: https://www.accenture.com/us-en
Cathy’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/catherinedavis1?lang=en
Cathy’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherineadavis/
Eating the Big Fish (Book): https://www.amazon.com/Eating-Big-Fish-Challenger-Compete/dp/0470238275
SUPPORT & CONNECT:
Digital Surgeons Website: https://digitalsurgeons.com
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@digitalsurgeons
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/digitalsurgeons
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/210497/
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