Benita Williams’ Post

Getting your product to your consumer! Day 3 Hosted by Marks and Spencer at their Marble Arch store - things got very real! Kicking us off was Lauren Mallon bringing real energy and honesty in sharing her career journey - important theme being just how far attitude takes you in unlocking breadth & experiences. Hantian Wang brilliantly brought to life the magic of range & spacing - how to stand out and insight into what your customers (Buyer) are prioritising. Our teams were joined by some outstanding graduates Niamh Timpson Hannah Connolly Gregor Munro Millie Stewart who took our teams to stake out different channels (Stores, Restaurants, Pubs etc.). Prompted some excellent thinking around the right channels for the right brands. This is part of the magic of the industry: it's so very relatable and the deeper you dive, the more interesting it becomes. Our delegates felt the same - teams were getting strategic about who was staying/who was going: there's some tension brewing with laptops being slammed shut as soon as anyone who isn't in your team approaches! A huge thank you to the team Marks and Spencer for a brilliant and thoughtful experience - particularly Becky Cock who took the reins mid-way through and delivered such a cracking day. Over half-way now! The energy levels have been sustained, the quality questions keep coming - what a treat to have a front row seat! Psalt

We may not have won, but we are winners nevertheless! Being nominated, especially as part of a consumer’s choice award, which is an honor in itself, naturally comes with the desire to be #1. We did not win. Not this time. Is there still a positive impact? In my view, yes! #recognition | We were nominated alongside top brands like Frank Body and Sol de Janeiro— the latter being the winner. In this category “Everything in the Shower”, we stood out as the only body lotion among body washes, scrubs, cleansers, and oils. #awareness | Consumer voting introduced us to diverse audiences, potentially gaining new #loyalcustomers who may not typically shop bath care at #Mecca or are unfamiliar with #SoapandGlory. #experience | Our focus remains on getting more people to try our products, experience their quality, and have us become their go-to choice for future awards. Congratulations to all nominees and the winner! This journey has provided us with valuable lessons and a clear roadmap for the upcoming year. 

LinkedIn Post: 🌮 Exciting News from Taco Bell 🌮 Thrilled to share the incredible journey of rebranding Taco Bell! 🚀 As the lead analyst, I spearheaded a strategy that revolutionized the brand's approach and elevated sales to unprecedented levels. Here are the key milestones: 1️⃣ Target Audience Refinement: Identified males 18-34 as the primary audience, strategically focusing efforts to capture more visits from heavy fast-food users. 2️⃣ Value Menu Innovation: Crafted the original "Value Menu" strategy, with the 59-cent taco as the star, providing an affordable and flavorful alternative to hamburgers. 3️⃣ Distinct Brand Personality: Established an edgy, cool, and engaging brand persona, creating a consistent DNA that resonated across all customer touchpoints. 4️⃣ Creative Execution: From advertising to in-store decor, every element was meticulously aligned with the brand personality, offering a unique and exciting experience. Results? 📈 The most successful campaign in Taco Bell's history! A whopping 35% weekly transaction increase for years. 🎉 This journey exemplifies the power of strategic rebranding and effective execution. Proud to have been part of this transformative process! 🙌 #BrandTransformation #SuccessStory #TacoBell ---

SEPHORA has one of best loyalty programs out there, and they are making sure it's ready for the holidays season! 🌟 Diving Deep into Sephora's Beauty Insider Loyalty Program: Leadership: Emmy Brown Berlind, Sephora's SVP, spearheads the program with a clear vision: combining value with convenience. Membership Perks: Exclusive access to bi-annual promotions, redeemable samples from points, free online shipping, in-store pickups, and even same-day deliveries. Balancing Act: A continuous effort is made to strike the right balance between acquiring new loyal members while keeping the existing ones engaged and satisfied. Facing Challenges Head-On: The quest? Keeping the program fresh, exciting, and on the cutting edge, without overwhelming members. Golden Advice for Retailers: Align your loyalty program with the primary reasons customers choose your store. Regularly reward your loyalists and always ensure the program echoes the values of convenience and value. To all fellow retailers and marketers, it's essential to keep adapting, evolving, and listening to our customers. Sephora's approach serves as a brilliant example! 🛍️ #LoyaltyProgram #RetailInsights

✨Five years at Campari America!✨ When I saw this job description back in 2018 posted by a few people I used to work with who had since moved on to Campari, I knew it was my dream job. It’s unusual to find a role that has unlikely combinations of everything you want, and even more unusual to be able to morph it each year based on our growing needs - curating the hospitality experience within our office and running the bar & Academy spaces, while being heavily involved in building brands and their strategies (for the whole portfolio and for our innovation pipeline), and working with the field to meet their needs for accounts and customers through education and Academy. That’s morphed into so much more than what it was five years ago, and I almost can’t believe there was a time when I did almost everything myself - including washing all the glasses. I’ve woven the Academy into the fabric of so much of what our organization does at a local and global scale, and it’s taught me so much about business and myself in the process. It has become the most cross-functional and broadly demanding role I’ve ever had - which has shifted what “I” do into what “we” do in a profound way. From just over 300 attendees in our early days in 2019 to a staggering 7,000 in 2023, the journey has been remarkable (and that’s only the people through the doors of our HQ!). Every year since our modest beginnings, and navigating through the challenges of COVID, has shaped us. That would be a lot of glasses to wash if I were still doing it all alone! Huge thanks to my team, those that feed into our work streams, and the agencies - their support is how this is all possible (and why I’m still standing). The old saying, 'go fast, go alone; go far, go together', has never been more appropriate. Now, I'm excited to focus not just on creating new things but on optimizing what we already have. Shocking that I would be so pragmatic, I know! Building the plane as we’ve been flying it since 2019 has been an exhilarating challenge, but now it's time to refine our course. Here's to the next chapter! ✨

🛍️ 💄 💅🏽 It’s no secret that I love all things retail, but it’s not just shoes, clothes and bags- I’m obsessed with skincare and make up too. I’m also Pakistani (if you didn’t already know that, here’s a cheeky plug to check out my last dissertation of a post here 😜). So it was a total treat when Nicola Conway and Sana Malik invited me to talk on their podcast about diversity within the cosmetics and beauty industry. 🎙️🤎 Check out the link below and listen on your morning run, during a quiet solo lunch break, or on your commute home from the office. We name drop some really cool brands who are nailing it on the DE&I front, talk about how things have changed over the years, and share a list of top tips on how companies can ensure that diversity runs through the DNA of their brand.

LinkedIn Post: 🌮 Exciting News from Taco Bell 🌮 Thrilled to share the incredible journey of rebranding Taco Bell! 🚀 As the lead analyst, I spearheaded a strategy that revolutionized the brand's approach and elevated sales to unprecedented levels. Here are the key milestones: 1️⃣ Target Audience Refinement: Identified males 18-34 as the primary audience, strategically focusing efforts to capture more visits from heavy fast-food users. 2️⃣ Value Menu Innovation: Crafted the original "Value Menu" strategy, with the 59-cent taco as the star, providing an affordable and flavorful alternative to hamburgers. 3️⃣ Distinct Brand Personality: Established an edgy, cool, and engaging brand persona, creating a consistent DNA that resonated across all customer touchpoints. 4️⃣ Creative Execution: From advertising to in-store decor, every element was meticulously aligned with the brand personality, offering a unique and exciting experience. Results? 📈 The most successful campaign in Taco Bell's history! A whopping 35% weekly transaction increase for years. 🎉 This journey exemplifies the power of strategic rebranding and effective execution. Proud to have been part of this transformative process! 🙌 #BrandTransformation #SuccessStory #TacoBell #chiefmarketingofficers

What a great brand experience for employees SEPHORA The INKEY List !! Now how do we create and translate that for the customer’s brand experience to stand out from the crowd in stores?

Do you know why McDonalds or BMW are so successful? Why they are able to build a new store anywhere in the world and people show up on the day? Two things. They provide an amazing product. And they provide that same amazing product successfully in every single location. If you order a Big Mac from Mcdonalds in Sydney, it will taste the exact same as the Big  Mac in France. And better yet, if you go back to the same location it will taste the exact same each and every time. You will always get a shit burger People like to know what to expect. Once we have great service or have something delicious, we want that same thing the next time we have it. If you want to win over, not only your customers, but build advocates of your brand, consistency is everything. Because when it all comes down to it- a brand is all about consistency.

Last year John Legend and Rajakumari penned the Johnnie Walker/ Walkers & Co anthem to include these words: …There is more to life … …step off that borderline…there is so much we can explore… …you wanna turn it all the way up … ..Let’s Keep Walking, keep on walking …. This rallying cry was as close to my own purpose as it gets (at that time just in the subconscious) as I started my Diageo journey over six years back. It has been an absolute privilege to lead the India & South Asia luxury premium ++ business and iconic brand portfolio cross functionally to unprecedented heights. DIAGEO India gave a broad canvas and I had the privilege of setting an audacious vision of shaping the culture of socialisation while breaking new grounds of growth by premiumisation. In some time, it became the overarching driving force for teams across the organisation and like how… There we were - winning one milestone to the other, cruising through turbulence and tailwinds alike. A lot of what we led with, added hugely to normalisation of spirits as a category overall. Campaigns that won consumers & awards, platforms to celebrate new dimensions of inclusivity (beyond gender), future ready, sustainability forward innovations, growth in multiples and not just in CAGRs, all lines of the P&L brimming with healthy glow! Marked my last days at Diageo this week and spent them well with people who fuel it all. You have all left me with huge gratitude for your partnership in every dimension possible. Teams, stakeholders, colleagues who walk the talk, learn and unlearn , challenge<>equally get challenged and yet prevail. A gigantic thanks for every bit of the enrichment that I leave with. What is next ? A new chapter you say… I say its time for a new book! Very excited for the leap on the horizon... but for now, its all about a wee savour the pause!