Does Your B2C Growth Engine Need a Tune Up?
A summary of the SMarketPlace Live Podcast episode featuring Melissa Jacobs
Join us as we explore how Melissa Jacobs, the CEO of Crow and Pitcher LLC, is revolutionizing B2C growth strategies with her expertise in brand strategy and customer insights.
Melissa’s journey spans over two decades, including significant roles at corporate giants like Kimberly-Clark. She now focuses on helping small and mid-sized businesses leverage the same strategic discipline and data-driven decision-making that power large brands. “Understanding the perception gap between your customers and your prospects is key,” Melissa emphasizes, showcasing the importance of targeted messaging and effective customer engagement.
In this episode, we dive into Melissa's unique process, including her five-point diagnostic assessment, the "Revenue 360 Jumpstart." Discover how she identifies critical growth drivers, maps out competitive landscapes, and creates emotionally resonant brand messages. Her approach ensures that even smaller brands can compete with industry giants by focusing on what truly matters.
And of course, we explore Melissa’s passion for rock 'n roll. From her first concert experience with REO Speedwagon to her unforgettable night with Bon Jovi, Melissa shares how her love for music influences her branding work. “Just as artists captivate audiences with their unique styles, I help brands resonate emotionally with their customers,” she notes, drawing parallels between the power of music and effective branding.
In this article, Shana Lebowitz of Business Insider talks to business leaders for tips on managing a team during an economic downturn. Many of the principles shared are universally applicable and valuable for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of teams in any situation.
Our CEO and Lead Strategist, Melissa Jacobs, was honored to be interviewed by Shana and featured in this story. A few highlights from Melissa's experience leading an innovative product team under the Kleenex umbrella are included below, along with a link to the full article.
"There was just a lot of frantic activity and nothing felt like it was getting done thoroughly," Jacobs said. With such a scattered approach, the team wasn't meeting its performance goals.
Jacobs enlisted several members of her team at Kleenex, a division of Kimberly-Clark, to join her in a two-week "strategy sprint," during which they would outline their growth goals and decide which sales activities to prioritize in order to achieve those goals.
"It became clear," Jacobs said, "that in order to grow faster, we actually needed to do less."
Ultimately, the team chose one big marketing opportunity to focus on "and paused some of the other activities until the time was right," Jacobs said.
"Being able to focus and work collaboratively as a team on fewer priorities made a big difference" in performance, she said."
In this episode of the Financial Clarity podcast, host Hannah Smolinski and Melissa Jacobs, CEO and Lead Strategist at Crow & Pitcher, delve into the art of strategic growth.
They unpack the essentials of doing more with less by focusing on key growth accelerators, utilizing the power of external consultants in objective analysis, and embracing the personal development journey that entrepreneurship entails.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
Our CEO and Lead Strategist, Melissa Jacobs, was featured on the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast with Brian Lofrumento.
Melissa and Brian talked about all things growth. Including how businesses rarely lack ideas and that's why the ones who manage to cut through the clutter and long to-do lists are the ones who succeed.
Listen in to hear:
Grow More by Doing Less
An excerpt from Crow & Pitcher LLC
"When times get tough and resources get stretched, it’s human nature to add to our plates. What else can we be doing? How else can we drive growth? But what happens when you try to do more? You achieve less.
The biggest transformation our clients achieve is saying no. Doing less. Focusing their efforts. And their limited resources.
Focusing limited staff and budgets on a few activities is critical now because resources are tighter than ever. The Great Resignation is limiting staff and expertise, so things take longer. Inflation is pressuring input costs across the board (the job market is impacting this too!). It’s a critical time to use limited resources efficiently and that starts with focus.
Saying no (or not yet) to good ideas that aren’t aligned to the critical few priorities is a power move that can unlock transformational results."
Our CEO and Lead Strategist, Melissa Jacobs, contributed to this article by outlining one of the steps we use to define marketing goals prior to building strategies and plans. An excerpt from the article:
"Your brand marketing goal should be as targeted as possible. Melissa Jacobs, CEO and Lead Strategist at Crow and Pitcher LLC, says, "Use a "From-To" format to clarify the perceptions and behaviors your marketing efforts need to influence before planning your strategy. For example:
An interview in Authority Magazine
In this article, Karyn Mangia, VP of Customer and Market Insights at Salesforce and our very own Melissa Jacobs discuss the shift from leading as a manager to leading as a coach.
Here are 6 tips for getting the most out of your team and accelerating your business's growth.
Interested to hear more tips and stories from Melissa's experience coaching her team? Click the link below for the full interview.
We're honored to be included in this article and share how we came up with our company name, Crow & Pitcher LLC. The full backstory and meaning can be found here.
"We wanted to be unique, authentic, and memorable. Standing out from the crowd and piquing curiosity meant avoiding typical names like Jacobs Consulting. Staying true to our values and authenticity led to a meaningful story that’s easy to tell. Finding these two things in Aesop’s fable The Crow and The Pitcher made it clear we’d found our name. And it works. We get asked to tell the story behind our business name all the time and clients easily remember it."
Melissa Jacobs, Principal at Crow & Pitcher LLC and a former marketing exec at Kimberly-Clark, joins Rival's Kelvin Claveria to talk about storytelling and creating market research reports that users of insights will actually use.
Please contact Melissa Jacobs at melissa@crowandpitcherllc.com
Schedule a welcoming conversation with no strings attached. We'll discuss ways to accelerate your growth.
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Crow & Pitcher LLC is a certified women-owned small business
