Lessons from Mayur Gupta, Kraken CMO

On Marketing Philosophy

On the new role of marketing: "Every moment is a brand moment and every moment is a growth & revenue opportunity. Brand is performance and performance is brand." [1]
On moving beyond campaigns: "I think that marketing for many years has been also focused too much on the concept of campaigns, which I call the outputs. More often than not, I see people and brands celebrate the launch of a campaign, but very rarely see people celebrate the impact of campaigns." [1]
On the core of marketing: "If you think about the core principles of marketing, it's making sure whatever you're promising ladders up to your purpose, and then making sure you deliver what you promised. These are things that you teach your children. It's weird that in the race to make the numbers meet, we forget those basics." [2]
On the evolution of marketing: "It took me many years to realize that this wasn't digital marketing. Rather, it was marketing in the digital world to a consumer that was now inherently living a digital life." [1]
On the intersection of brand and performance: "Sustainable growth is not a choice between growing the brand or growing the user base." [3]
On the simplicity of marketing: "Marketing is actually pretty simple: it's just about being a good human being." [2]
On the true nature of marketing: "They say they are consumer obsessed but they are really 'channel obsessed'. They organize by channel, operate by channel, partner by channel, incentivize by channel unlike the consumer who only operates around 'value and experience'." [4]
On the future of marketing: "The future of marketing is centered around the human. A strategic vision for how brands can design relevant and personalized experiences that deeply connect with their audiences." [5]
On the convergence of disciplines: "The convergence of Marketing, Technology, and Storytelling...is how brands can integrate technology and creativity to transform consumer behavior and create meaningful experiences." [5]
On the shift in focus: "We used to call it a product's valley of death where all you cared about is the next feature. That brings some excitement and then it dies down. And what do you do to address it? You launch another feature. I think that marketing for many years has been also focused too much on the concept of campaigns." [1]

On Leadership and Culture

On the importance of culture: "Your culture and your values can eat your strategy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It doesn't matter how great you are or how brilliant the product is if your culture and values are broken." [1]
On fostering the right environment: "If they don't end up creating a safe and trusted environment, you won't excel." [1]
On evolving team structure: "Your culture needs to evolve from 'my team' to 'our team', from 'reporting to me' to 'working with me', from isolated teams to cross-functional outcome/KPI driven pods." [4]
On building relationships: "There's one thing that is most undervalued but the most critical which is your ability to build relationships with your peers within the organization just as much or even more than you're trying to build as a marketeer with the external customer." [6]
On the difficulty of change: "The hardest thing to change is not that strategy it is the culture and the mindset and the belief systems." [6]
On creating a culture of speed: "When you become the size of a Gannett or a Spotify, the companies that continue to grow are the ones that are conscious about not changing the core of what worked well for them – their speed and a belief in maintaining controlled chaos." [7]
On embracing disruption: "That's why you need a culture that thrives in chaos, where you're not afraid of chaos, you're not afraid of ambiguity, you're not afraid of change." [7]
On the role of a leader: "You need orchestrators of growth who can ensure every team contributes to it." [8]
On empowering teams: "How do you make them feel that it's not your idea It's our idea in fact they are in the bus and not outside the bus receiving." [6]

On Customer Obsession

On being truly customer-focused: "We are all obsessed by channels, and we are all obsessed by technology. But what we need is to become customer-obsessed, which means doing something in the short term that is more valuable to the customer than necessarily for the business." [9]
On understanding the customer's reality: "From a customer standpoint, they don't care. They don't think, 'Oh, you are the head of online, so the discount code you are giving me will not work in your retail environment.'" [9]
On the foundation of a human-centric strategy: "At the core of any well-rounded, successful, and long-lasting organization is a human-centric strategy that is sincere and authentic." [10]
On the starting point of customer focus: "Your goals as an organization should always be customer-focused, and that starts within your organization with your very first customer: your employee. You cannot be customer-focused if you do not first care about the people you work with, because they are the brand." [11]
On the power of the consumer: "Now, we are in a consumer-led era in which consumers have all the power." [10]
On delivering value: "Consumers don't differentiate or understand brand vs. performance. They understand value and relevance." [1]
On the customer experience reflecting the organization: "I strongly believe that the experiences you deliver to the customers are fundamentally a reflection of how you organize and how you operate." [1]
On the goal of seamless experiences: "In order for us to deliver those frictionless experiences for the consumer, which is what they are looking for, you have to break down those silos in your operating model." [1]
On the shift to a customer-obsessed model at Gannett: "It is an evolution from a legacy media business driven by traffic to now becoming a customer-obsessed organization driven by user value and not just eyeballs and impressions." [3]
On anticipating customer needs: "Marketers need to sync the customer experience to deliver what consumers need before they know they need it." [12]

On Growth and Data

On the three flywheels of growth: "The way I think about it is to break this into three always-on flywheels of growth of the brand, growth of the user base, and growth of the user value, which are constantly running and helping each other." [1]
On the nature of growth: "Growth is Not Owned But Orchestrated... it is impossible. We can create that false perception but in reality scaled growth is 'orchestrated and not owned' by any single function." [8]
On the role of product in growth: "In product LED companies, product is your first marketing engine." [11]
On proving marketing's impact: "The 3 are NOT isolated, they amplify each other and marketing has to prove that amplification, not just through a philosophical belief but through data." [8]
On the necessity of speed: "There are no other modes than your ability to run faster than the competition. Everything else is a commodity." [3]
On the approach to data: "Test, learn and experiment. If it doesn't work, then experiment more and keep trying." [4]
On the purpose of data: "How do you apply the data so you make the experience more relevant. More humanistic?" [12]
On cross-functional teams for growth: "I'm a firm believer that the customer experiences that any business needs to drive at scale... It happens at the intersection of product, data, engineering, marketing, storytelling, finance. It can no longer happen in any of those areas in isolation." [13]
On the goal of data-driven marketing: "It's all about how can you look leverage data to look ahead to really influence that very simple next best piece of messaging to her." [14]
On the importance of experimentation: "Our success will be determined by our speed of iteration, how we test to learn, how we experiment with new ideas and try to figure out what makes more sense for our customers." [15]

On Purpose and Brand Building

On the connection between purpose and profitability: "No business today can afford to make a choice between purpose and profitability, brand and performance, science and storytelling. You just cannot stand behind your purpose with a weak business model, or a business that isn't growing." [15]
On the importance of 'why': "That ultimately consumers stand up for businesses that stand up for their purpose and mission. That the 'why' is still more important than the 'what.'" [2]
On the three Ps of trust: "It all boils down to three simple Ps for me that builds that trust over time which eventually leads to loyalty. It's your Purpose that defines your Why, your soul as a business. And then the Promise you make with your customers, your community which should ladder up to your Purpose. And lastly, the Product you deliver that ladders up to your Promise." [15]
On the essence of brand building: "It's about delivering what you promised. That builds trust, and then trust builds the brand, and it builds an emotional connection." [9]
On the long-term view: "With a single minded focus on 'performance' you can grow from the 0–1 stage but to get to 1-N stage (scaled growth), you need to build a resilient, purpose driven brand as the foundation." [8]
On the authenticity of purpose: "Customers can see through that disconnect, or façade. For us at Gannett, it means continuing to stand up for unbiased journalism with deep roots in local communities, ensuring perspectives from all sides and putting those in front." [15]
On his personal mission: "I could have gone into any other growth company with a lot of exciting things happening, but I felt that nothing can beat our purpose and mission [at Gannett]." [2]
On the excitement of a clear purpose: "What excites me most about Freshly is the combination of a clear purpose with the heart and values needed to become an iconic brand. They're disrupting the food and wellness industry as we know it, creating solutions and not just products." [16]
On the non-negotiability of purpose and profitability: "It's a world of ANDs and not ORs. Interestingly, it has taken a global crisis like COVID to help us all understand that harsh reality." [15]
On loyalty as an outcome: "Loyalty is an outcome and not a strategy in every sphere of life. We all, as people and brands, have to earn that every day, every time with every single touch-point." [15]

Learn more:

Lessons from Mayur Gupta, Kraken CMO

On Marketing Philosophy

On Leadership and Culture

On Customer Obsession

On Growth and Data

On Purpose and Brand Building

Written by Antoine Buteau

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