Marketing With Purpose Kit: Customer Connection in a Data-Driven World

**SPEAKER_2** (0:03)
The Bliss Business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection and consciousness in business. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media, and programmatic ad experts.

**Mike Liwski** (0:17)
Welcome back. Welcome back to the Marketing With Purpose Kit series of The Bliss Business Podcast, where really we explore what it takes for marketing leaders to create the impact that goes beyond just really the numbers that we're oftentimes pressed to look for. I'm Mike, and in each episode, we sit down with CMOs to explore their leadership approach and the different strategies that drive performance and that really resonate with their audience. Together with these guests, we'll dive into what's working, really what's not working, and things that we love to talk about like how purpose and empathy can transform the way that a brand leads to a genuine connection with its audience. With that, let's get started. Our guest today, I'm being joined by Liane Caruso. She's the Fractional CMO at IMAGE Studios.
Liane is a seasoned marketing strategist, which I know you will enjoy hearing from her today. As well, she's a brand builder in the franchising space with over 20 years of experience leading growth for multi-location and franchise brands. She's also the founder of HelloCMO, where she delivers data-driven strategies that accelerate development, elevate brand visibility, and improve franchise marketing performance. Then specifically at IMAGE Studios, she's leading the marketing efforts across franchise development, brand positioning, and local marketing support, which is a ton to save, particularly when it comes to this franchise. We're going to explore today with her customer connection in a data-driven world. I'm super excited, as I'm sure you will, to learn all the insights that Liane has to share with us. So with that, Liane, welcome to our show today.

**Liane Caruso** (2:21)
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.

**Mike Liwski** (2:24)
We're super excited. So Liane, maybe let's just kick off, before we dive in real deep into all these other topics. I'd love to hear really, why was customer connection in this data-driven world the topic that you chose for us to explore today?

**Liane Caruso** (2:40)
Yeah, I think it's so top of mind right now. We're just inundated with KPIs and dashboards and ads and social media, and just all of the things. I was reading an article not too long ago that the funnel is broken, and is there even a funnel anymore? That just makes me sad because it's like, where is the storytelling? Where is the true customer connection? At the end of the day, especially in business, we still buy from people we know like and trust. I don't think we should lose that even in this data-connected world that we're living in.
I think it's a fascinating challenge for all of us to keep the human nature of marketing still top of mind.

**Mike Liwski** (3:28)
Yes. I love that you said that phrase, top of mind, because it's true. We're bombarded, it seems like, with data and dashboards and new shiny tools that we can implement, that it's so easy today to lose what really should be the most important thing, is our connection with our customers. Maybe transitioning to bridging the strategy together with growth. It's been reported that, and I think we feel this too, as CMOs, that CMOs are often pulled between these short-term campaign results and ROI, and then the long-term building of the brand and its essence and what it really should stand for. I'm curious in your thoughts on, how do you ensure that your marketing stays aligned with the company's growth goals, trying to meet those almost every quarter, every three months? Where do you find the biggest friction points in trying to make that happen?

**Liane Caruso** (4:31)
That's a great question and in the franchise space, not only are we thinking about our brand, but we also have to think about our franchisees' success and their local store. And so we have to kind of keep two things in mind, because ultimately when our franchisees are successful, that drives our growth. So we really kind of have to align the KPIs, I think, with our company objectives, AUVs, franchisees' success, all of that stuff, and retention, not just lead metrics. But the friction really comes in balancing some of those short-term wins, especially when development teams are under pressure to deliver leads, and we're constantly being tasked with, I'm not getting leads, I'm not getting tours, in our case. Ours is more B2B-driven world, even from the franchisee side. But really kind of keeping that long-term brand equity play, and because that's what's necessary to sustain our growth across the system.

**Mike Liwski** (5:32)