Ever wondered about the people behind amazing brands? How do they convince the leadership to invest in brand? How do they set and guard a vision? What do their teams look like? What metrics do they use to measure success? 

We spoke to Alison Feldmann about her career journey from writer to brand executive, and building out of the Etsy brand from a scrappy startup to an indie brand that is known and loved around the world.

Watch the full recording 👇 and browse the key takeaways from the chat below 👇👇

Q&A SESSION WITH ALISON

9:57 As head of brand, how do you ensure a brand stays true to its vision and values as it grows?

Alison explains that brand heads need to continually look at decisions being made and ensure that the true essence of why the business was set up is maintained. 

Organizations can engage employees at all levels to gather feedback and ensure that the brand remains consistent with its core principles.

19:53 What does brand strategy implementation look like in practice? 

Work on strategy inside out, ensure that the employees understand that brand is more than just colors and fonts.

Let employees see how the brand strategy affects their daily work and decisions. 

The major stakeholders are the people living the brand everyday.

21:35 What should a good brand team look like?

Alison’s ideal team, besides the creatives, would be researchers and strategists.

Researchers to help you understand your customers, and measure success.

Strategists to understand the strengths of the brand, opportunities and build a solid long term communication and marketing plan.

If you have the budget, an external agency offers a great set of fresh eyes as it is difficult to figure everything out from inside.

30:35 How do you convince senior leadership to invest in brand?

Alison suggests using the power of persuasion to get senior leadership on board.

Provide metrics to prove the longer-term business value of investing in brand as a competitive element that sets the business apart from its competition.

34:00 In a data-driven organization, what are the best metrics to support investment in brand?

Net promoter score (NPS), Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).

36:50 If you were to join a scrappy startup today, what would you invest your brand/marketing resources in?

Influencer marketing - so much of how people engage with a brand comes from recommendations from other users. Finding relevance through people your customers identify with.

Building a community around your brand is a great investment. A trusted community helps you attract more people in the future.

44:28 What are your favorite brands right now? 

Some brands Alison admires are;

Oatly: a future-facing brand  

Glossier: the company started as a blog and currently leverages heavily on user-generated content 

Netflix: consistent in supporting and creating culturally relevant content 

47:30 How do you deal with the desire to be sustainable when that is not the core of the business?

Some organizations have a sustainability team internally that supports the brand team in telling their story externally.

Alison suggests partnering with subject matter experts on sustainability to create a communication strategy around the topic.

53:28 Any advice for anyone wanting to make the move from freelance or advertising agency to an in-house team

You can leverage three strengths: you will likely have experience across different media, across different products or sectors, and you bring an outsider perspective.