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

**SPEAKER_1** (0:04)
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.

**Tullio Siragusa** (0:17)
Welcome to Marketing With Purpose, a segment of the Bliss Business Podcast where we explore what it really takes for marketing leaders to create an impact that goes beyond the numbers. I'm Tullio, and in each episode, we sit down with marketing experts to explore their leadership approach and strategies that drive performance and resonate with their audience. Together, we'll dive into what's working, what's not, and how purpose and empathy can transform the way brands connect with people. So let's get started. Today, I'm joined by Trisha Peña, Vice President of Marketing at Burn Boot Camp. Trisha leads marketing strategy across the Burn Brands ecosystem. Including Burn Boot Camp, Burn On Demand, and Burn Nutrition. Overseeing brand, performance marketing, partnership, and franchise development with a focus on driving member growth and long-term strength.
She is passionate about building brands that bring people together and creating strategies that connect community, storytelling, and measurable business results.
With a deep commitment to empowering people to build strength, confidence, and long-term health, Trisha brings a human-centered perspective to data-driven marketing. We're going to explore customer connection in a data-driven world. I'm excited to dive in. Thanks for being with us today, Trisha.

**Trisha Peña** (1:42)
I am so excited to be here. Thanks for having me, Tullio.

**Tullio Siragusa** (1:45)
Before we dive in, I'd love to hear why was customer connection in a data-driven world, the topic you chose to explore with us today, and what makes this so important right now?

**Trisha Peña** (1:57)
Yeah. No. At Burn Boot Camp, we're an emotional brand, and with our members, we call ourselves Burnation.
You know when you've been touched by the brand, there's just something inside of you that shifts, and that's something that you can't use data to identify. That's all through emotion. However, through strategy, it's important that we're leveraging data to make decisions.
For us and what we're trying to do is, we want to make an impact on the world. We want people to live longer, happier, healthier lives. That's all through connection, human connection, through community. Again, one of our superpowers is our community. Burn Nation is an incredible community, and that's outside of anything that's data connected. That's really why I wanted to focus in on that, because now, especially with just everything in the world, it's heavy, it's hard, and we want people to come to us. We are an inclusive space where you can come to us. We open our arms to anyone and everyone, again, to move their bodies in the way that is intentional for them and to live a longer, healthier, happier life.

**Tullio Siragusa** (3:03)
I love it. I mean, data only tells part of the story. It usually tells you the decision that was made, but it doesn't tell you the intention of the why it was made. So that's always an interest. Sometimes it does if you've got enough of that information, but the challenge is CMOs or VPs of marketing, they're often pulled between near-term campaign results and long-term brand building. So how do you ensure your marketing strategy stays aligned with the company growth goals? And where do you find the biggest friction points in making that happen?

**Trisha Peña** (3:36)
Yeah, so we do rely heavily on data to help tell part of the story, right? It's the balance of art and science. So looking at our historical data, we just actually did a large brand study to really understand the consumer and how we're reaching our consumer more intentionally. We listen to our members. We listen to our franchise partners who are boots on the ground. And so it's really making sure we're coupling the data that we're seeing and the trends that we're seeing and understanding what we can do with the data, but coupling that with what we're hearing and what we know the heart of the brand is set to do, because that's never changed. We're coming up on 14 years of our 14th anniversary is literally this weekend.
Our mission has never changed and what our desires has never changed. We've tested and tried to have campaigns that were focused on data. And guess what? Like 100% focus focused on data didn't do as well as the campaigns that we've again coupled with the balance of art and science.

**Tullio Siragusa** (4:40)
That's beautiful. Now, let's talk about what happens in high-stakes situation, because sometimes we set out a plan, we have this vision, we want to stay close to it. But then a brand crisis happens, a market downturn happens, things change that we don't control, outside of our control.