How Samsung is Transforming the Customer Experience | Connections Ep. 16 | Salesforce

The future is bright. I can't tell you everything. I can't tell you, but I'm dreaming big. Hyper Targeting, hyper personalization, AR.AI is going to take us to the next level of experience.

Hey, I'm Sarah Franklin and welcome to Connections, where we hear from some of the most innovative leaders in marketing. And today I'm here in the heart of New York City with Samsung's Chief marketing and Communications Officer, Michelle Crossan. But her journey started thousands of miles from here in Glasgow, Scotland.

So I grew up in a very impoverished area. Social housing, parents didn't work, and there wasn't a lot of hope where I grew up. However, when I look back, I feel like it was the best childhood because I learned so much about grit and resilience and I got that in abundance growing up.

I love that. So you talked about learning. What does learning mean to you and how did you learn to be a marketer?

I learned how to model people. I go, okay, if that's what it takes to get to college, I. E. Study three hours a day or do abc, I would kind of reverse engineer a little bit of their formula. Fast forward. You know, you get your job, you get busy and maybe I stop learning. And so I created this morning routine and it's kind of crazy. I wake up at 4:45 every morning, right? It's crazy. It's really crazy. And I read about four books before my kids wake up at six. So I've been up an hour and 15 minutes. Yeah, I read about a chapter in each book and you know, like, and it can be any book, but these books basically are continuing my growth because it's not just about being a marketeer, it's about being a leader. And I think being a great leader requires you to constantly refine your skill set.

What do you think about transformation as a marketer?

When I was a kid, I had to transform myself to kind of get from where I was to where I am now. And then I started to see my time in Procter and Gamble that move me into roles that require transformation. And then when I joined Samsung, one of the first things they asked me to do was own transformation. And I was like, oh. And so for me, I love transformation at a personal level, at a business level, I have people that come to me and say, oh, I really want to do something different, I want to change the same. And in my head I'm thinking, yeah, they want a transformation, so how can I help them?

So I love that because what seems simple to you is not so easy to everybody else, how would you recommend people guide their own transformation?

That's a great question. I look at a landscape of different examples and I try and find the gold standard, and I simplify that formula. When we meet as a business team, we spend maybe our first five, ten minutes talking about what did we learn, what worked, what didn't work, and what do we want to start, continue and stop. Learning is everything if you want to continue growing. Right.

I love that. And you have an incredible role here at Samsung. And we're in this incredible space. It's so great. And it's really an experience. How are you thinking about experiences as a marketer?

I love that you're here, by the way.

So for those who are here, for.

Those who are watching, we're in the heart of New York City in the meatpacking district, and we created this place in 2016 because we fundamentally believe that consumers should have a chance to play with the products. People that come here really enjoy the unique experience. People are so curious about how will this feel in my hand. And the design thinking is all about the experience, but it always starts with consumer first and what are we solving for? And I think that's what any product innovation and marketing team really should focus on.

You took on the challenge of transforming Samsung and now you have not just product marketing, but you have experience marketing. We're here in this store. Like, what do you think is the future of marketing for brands and experiences?

We created a whole program of what that would look like. And it was all about enhancing the skills of our organization so that they feel that they could be confident to be bold in that space. The future is bright. We have the metaverse coming. Who knows what this physical space will be virtual. I can't tell you everything, but I'm dreaming big. And I'm excited about how hyper targeting, hyper personalization, AR AI is going to take us to the next level of experience. We could be in the pocket of every Gen zer if we do this well.

So customer first.

Yeah.

What does that really mean for marketers?

So I think about when I first started in P and G and I'm working on the oil of Olay brand. And so I'm working with a lot of individuals that didn't grow up in my neighborhood where every dollar mattered. And so for me, I remember knowing the value of that moisturizer. And at the time, I think it was like 5.99. A lot of people think that was a lot of money. Oh, I knew that was a lot of money. And I knew there was some parent in a supermarket trying to fill up a shopping cart and keeping the mental tally of how much that shopping cart was and could they afford that moisturiser. It's about getting in their shoes. It's about feeling their pain, feeling their joy, feeling their dreams. And I think marketeers are so unique in being able to do that. So as a marketeer, it's that intuition that. God, where you see someone and you feel what they feel. So that's what consumer centric, in my opinion, is. Now, I know a lot of people say, oh, it's data driven and yes, it is, but it's mixing hard and soft with a little bit of intuition and being able to predict the future for your consumer and what you can solve for, I think is magical.

So, Michelle, you've talked about how the younger audiences care more about story living, not just storytelling. What does that mean?

It's all about actually seeing Samsung in action before we actually start to tell the stories about it. I'll give you an example. We just solve for tomorrow. And it's the STEM competition that we started in 2010 and we've met over 100,000 students and they literally are solving problems in their communities. They genuinely bring solutions for us that we would never have considered before. So really, for us, it's inside out and it starts from our people inside.

So I was in Times Square and I saw this incredible sustainability campaign. Yes, I did. Excellent. So tell me why that's important.

We believe we have an enormous responsibility to fight this climate crisis. And it takes all of us to look after our planet for the next generation. Everyone in Samsung Electronics, America and everyone across the globe, we're making so many products that are with renewable energy. We talk to the kids of the future, we talk to our gen zers, and any idea they give us, we really take to our heart so that we can include it in our efforts.

So I have a maybe personal question, and I'll share my point of view. First, is that running a big team at a big company, sometimes, you know, you're up there and you feel like, what am I doing here? What are they really going to learn from me? You have that little birdie that sits there and tells you you're not supposed to be here.

Yeah.

Do you ever feel that at all?

Yeah, I do. I'm glad you say that because actually, the imposter syndrome happens to everybody and it happens to more of my sisters than I would like it to happen to. We all have a chance to take that seat at the table. We all have something to give, and everyone has the opportunity to learn from you. You're a little bit nervous. Go into the restroom, go and look at yourself in the mirror and go and ask yourself what you're about to do. Is it hard? Score of one to ten, Ten being the hardest? Oh, they'll say eight. Oh, eight. Okay. Go back in your lifetime and ask yourself, have you done something even harder? And you're like, okay, yeah, I looked after my mum, who's sick. And did you overcome that? I'm like, yeah, I'm standing here today. Are you stronger? Oh, yeah, I'm stronger. So what you're about to do is nothing in comparison to what life gave you. Life actually has been your training ground, and you are now ready for this moment. And so I always think about those hard moments.

I need you, like in my ear, like on recording. I'm gonna record that. I'm like, you are it.

You are it. You can do it. You know, I use mantras like, you're strong. You've done this before. It's no or never. You know, people want you to succeed, whatever it is. But you need to have your own mantras in life because confidence does get, you know, it gets shaken up sometimes. That's okay. You can't let it win.

So I love that you think big. Everybody that's watching today, like, how would you tell them to think big?

You have to be open to the world and you have to get inspiration from all different places. I'm constantly watching TED talks, constantly reading case studies and articles in different industries. But you can only be open to the world if you're centered and balanced. And so for me in the morning, I'm very intentional. I really want to think about innovation in this space. And it just comes to you, but you have to listen to your consumers. We have so many people that come into this space and they want to tell us constantly, have you thought about this? Have you? So actually our source of inspiration comes from our consumers. They're so forward thinking. It's not like focus groups anymore. It's like these conversations that really trigger us to think very differently. Actually, it was two conversations here that created our bespoke customization program.

Oh, wow.

And we started to learn, oh, they like different colors. Oh, they like to have phone covers that is reflecting their personality. And hence, that's why we launched our Bespoke Galaxy flip phone with up to 49 colors. Because they told us here. So if you're listening with intention, you can do so much when it comes to leading in marketing.

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