About Cristina:

Cristina Porter is an experienced marketer that has worked across a wide variety of industries, including flooring, telecommunications, consumer electronics, agriculture, and building materials. She is passionate about branding and digital marketing and loves learning new things. Originally from Mexico, Cristina has lived in Georgia for the past 10 years and she's still looking for the perfect taco in the state.  

Guy and Cristina discuss the evolution of digital marketing, the mysterious metaverse, and the challenges of the great resignation in this episode of The Backstory on Marketing.

Links:

Mohawk Website

Cristina Porter Linkedin

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Hi, I'm Guy Powell and welcome to the April episode

of the backstory on marketing. If you haven't already done so,

please visit pro relevant.com and sign up for all of these

episodes and podcasts. I am the author of the upcoming book, the

post COVID marketing machine, prepare your team to win. You

can find more information on this at marketing machine dot

pro relevant.com. Today we'll be speaking with Christina Porter.

She is the Senior Manager of digital brand strategy for the

Mohawk group. She's an experienced marketer that has

worked across a wide variety, variety of industries, including

flooring, telecommunications, consumer electronics,

agriculture and building materials. She is passionate

about branding and digital marketing and loves learning new

things. Originally from Mexico, Christina has lived in Georgia

for the past 10 years. And she's still looking for the perfect

taco in the state. When you find that I want to have it so I'm

ready for that. Welcome, Christina.

Thank you guys. Thank you for having me on. i

Yes, I am still looking for it. I've found some really good ones

and Dalton, actually, but still looking.

Yeah, exactly. Well, I love I love tacos. I love

Mexican food. Well, I hate to say it, I love to eat. And I

have to keep holding myself back. But anyway, so let's get

started. So tell us a little bit about yourself. So what is your

backstory on getting into marketing?

That's an interesting one, actually.

Because I didn't start in marketing. I didn't even study

marketing, I started, I studied communications. And I started in

editorial, actually, I was the editor of the children's section

in a newspaper in Mexico and sports newspaper. And then

afterwards, I went into journalism, and I decided that I

did not like journalism as much as I thought I did. So I went

into PR and PR kind of launched me into the marketing world

fully. I started doing I started being the PR manager for Sony

Ericsson and Mexico. And then I started getting interested in

other parts of the of the business really, digital

marketing been my my core passion because it was this was

you know, 1817 years ago, where digital marketing was taken on a

different flair, flavor. It was before the social media

explosion. That's where I started going, going into

actually social media once it started into Twitter. I mean,

my, my handle is still four letters long. So it tells you a

little bit of how long I've had Twitter for. And then going into

Instagram, Pinterest and all the other ones, I'm still trying to

get more into Tik Tok. I am a viewer, not a creator there. But

I'm still learning and that's what I liked about digital

marketing in general was that it was always changing. So once you

thought that you were an expert on something that changed then

you were not an expert anymore. And then I'd like all the other

parts of marketing, of course, and I've done all of the all of

the things in marketing, which makes it's very fun. Because one

of the things that we actually learned a lot during my time in

Sony mobile, on their a great CEO, cmo story, Steve Walker was

that you needed to see everything as integrated, and

everything needs to be connected and make sense, depending

depending on the channels and the audiences. And that has

carried over basically my whole life afterwards.

Yeah, fantastic. Well, it's certainly changed

since the last 17 years. And I got into marketing as well at

roughly the same time. And, and, you know, and I and you came at

least from something that was closely related. I came from

engineering and then got into product management. And then

finally in the marketing and now I do more marketing than then

than I ever thought I would but yeah, so now you didn't mention

the metaverse. I thought I'd just bring that up. Do you see

any opportunity for you at at Mohawk are generally with the

metaverse?

I think we do. That is one of the questions I

it's as I said, it's always evolving, right? So the

metaverse is something that to me is a little bit of a funny

situation because I don't know if you remember that about 15

years ago. Second live was a big thing. And it was kind of

Metaverse, but it wasn't as interactive or won't immerse

serve as it is nowadays. So we saw that second life was like a

big thing for a couple of years, and then it fizzled out and

died. So I am wondering about the metaverse, I know that

there's there's always that support of big companies, and

that's going to drive it. I do think that the way they're doing

things related to being more immersive and how we're going

towards that virtual world is very, it's very different from

the experiences that we've had in the past. I think that there

are there are opportunities. So one of the conversations that is

that right now we're having is like people are actually be

buying real estate in the metaverse, so who's actually,

you know, providing the furnishings and flooring for it,

and how does that even work? So there are opportunities. I think

that more than anything, we need to understand what is happening

before we jump into anything. But I do think that there's

opportunities for companies in general. In my case, in my

industry, I do see some opportunities, because as I

mentioned, it's like, how are you going to create those

environments to be realistic? Because that's what you want or

non realistic, right? Right. That's the part of the metaverse

is like you can actually exist within not a realistic space. So

yeah, I that's such a good question. And I think it's

evolving. So it's very difficult to right now tell you Oh, yeah,

this is the future that we see. And this is the opportunities, I

think it's all evolving. And I think in the next couple of

years, we'll see a lot more of what it really means.

Yeah, I think you're right. You know, it's funny,

when you talk about, you know, the evolution, you had Second

Life, and it did well for a year or two, and then it kind of

faded out but but now I think with the communications speeds

and qualities that are available to the home, that the this

Metaverse can really be able to take advantage of that. And so

it's kind of like there's a trial like it gets its gets a

little bit off the ground, and then it kind of fades because it

just, you know, get there. And you know, it's almost what

really amazed me, even with COVID was how much the use of QR

codes took off QR codes. Nobody was using them, they are such a

great idea. And then all of a sudden they you know, they with

the with COVID. Now everybody's using them. So it really amazes

me how you know, things really just take off, you know, for

whatever reason that's driving it?

Well, it's a lot. I think all of those are

related also, with technology, education and technology. It

people really taken on technology differently, and also

the technological barriers. So when when QR codes existed in

the beginning, you had to download an app to use a QR

codes. And it made it a lot more complicated and complex for

people you want. Especially with technology. You want things

easier and faster, and you just need one click one set got

embedded into the cameras natively, then that reduced the

amount of barriers that the user had to have, or jump through to

get it done. And I think that helped a lot with QR codes.

Yeah, basically, and that's helping with the metaverse to,

once it, you make it easier for the consumer to have a VR

headset and to access that Metaverse, then then you see

that really, you get that you moved from early adopters into

kind of like the mainstream.

Yeah. And I think you're right, because initially

the QR code, you had to buy a, you know, download a QR code

reader. And then now I'd like you said, it's native on your

camera, you just, you know, click at it, and then all of a

sudden that link comes up. And it's totally, you know, the

experience and the barriers to that experience are totally

gone. So, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So what do you see

as the big challenge now for marketers and for you for 2022?

Oh, I see so many. It's, it's really

interesting, because I think that one of the most challenging

things is really figuring out what's next. Right? So the

pandemic has accelerated and a lot of the technology

acquisition and education basically. So you are, you have

a lot of shifts that are happening that started two years

ago and you were still seeing kind of like the results to it.

I'm still having a lot of challenge with for example,

trade shows and in person meetings and things like that.

You have this combination of people that Just want to go back

to normal want to go back to the way everything was and then you

can't really go back to that you need to shift a little bit into

that virtual or digital world and combine it with the real

world. So I think that's one of the challenges and figuring out

where the consumers are in any kind of way, like in the b2b or

the b2c, it doesn't matter. I think that we don't really know

what consumers are doing right now and where things are going.

There's a lot of challenges also, with supply chain and

inflation in which the consumer power and I mean, again, b2b or

b2c is being reduced. And people are, they're kind of waiting to

make purchases a lot. So things that were clear for us in the

beginning of the year are not so clear. That is, to me

fascinating. And it goes back to data, right, that's a

conversation that I always had with you. But the part of IMC in

certain data, but I still don't know what that will mean. So

having prescriptive decisions is very difficult at this point.

It's kind of like a wait and see situation. Yeah, no, that makes

budgets as well. And because when you don't see where the

consumer is going, then the budgets get reduced, or you have

to kind of be more wary of spending money in general. Yep.

Well, I've seen though, for for trade shows and

conferences. A lot of them now are online and virtual. And I

just signed up for one yesterday, and I'm a little bit

leery because when I sit there and want to watch the

conference, and I kind of say, well, you know, I got all these

emails I got to do yes. And so you're kind of listening, but

then you're not if they're not a good speaker, then, you know,

you totally tune it out. And so, you know, I think it'd be great

to get back to the in person conferences, but I don't know,

are you seeing that there's still a lot of reticence to go

back

at it. At flipflops. Actually, I see

certain people like we live in Georgia, right. And Georgia is I

feel a little bit of an outlier on how everything is going on

with a pandemic, because we tried to get back to normal

earlier than you would have seen for example, in in cities like

New York, or Chicago or Philadelphia. So to me, it's

really difficult to gauge that because I live in a different

environment. But I have seen that at least in our industry,

we're going back to trade shows in person. So it actually

started earlier during the year where multiple events that used

to be they went fully digital are going back to in person. So

things like neocon, which is happening in June, is actually

going to be fully in person, there's going to be virtual

elements to it. So a lot of the convert the talks and panels are

going to be online as well. But most of the people are going

back and apparently, everybody's really excited about it. So you

you see that combination of people that are still worried

about it. But most of the people that I've talked to, are really

excited about being in person again. And they're all really

excited about going and traveling and everything. I

actually started traveling last last week. And it was to me I

hadn't traveled for a long time. And it was a little bit

unnerving. But everybody's going back to normal, slowly. But I it

was really interesting. The airport was like super full. And

it was before spring break. So it was full of family is

traveling. So it was to me was a little bit unnerving. But it was

like, people are really going back trying to go back to

normal.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I do my first business trip this

coming weekend, Sunday night and then gone for two days. So and

that's been sincere, you know, for two years. As a matter of

fact, in March 6, that writing 2020 was our last business trip.

And I think one of the guys that works for me got COVID on the

flight coming back, because he was sick for about almost two

weeks. And yeah, we ended up and at the time, there were no tests

or nothing. So you know, you don't know whether he had it or

not.

Yeah, we suspect the same thing with my

husband. The last trip that he took was to a trade show. And he

got back and he got really, really sick. And then he made

everybody else sick. And we suspect that he got COVID. And

that wasn't the beginning. It was on March 2020 as well.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, really just amazing. It's hard

to believe that was two years ago, just and it's just now

coming out of just coming out of it, man. Oh, man. So anyway, so

tell me about what do you see you've been in on the consumer

side of marketing to see and b2b. So what are kind of the

differences so that you see now, or if any, because between b2c

marketing and b2b marketing,

I think it has to do with the complexity. So,

and it depends on the product, right. So my experience would be

to see was mostly with products that don't require. I mean, they

required a lot of research online because it was mobile

phones or consumer electronics. But the decision was made by one

person basically. So you had a centralized point of contact

that you would have to organize all your communications around

versus b2c and b2b usually has, you have one person that makes a

decision. But that's not really true, because you have usually

several people that influence or are related to, to that purchase

decision. So it's either you're going towards one person that is

in this case, for example, in flooring, the person that's

making the specifications, spec in the product, which is the

architect or designer, but then the decision doesn't necessarily

fall on him, it falls on three or four other people like the,

which I related to the to their own clients. So it is more the

complexity and the different touchpoints that you have, based

on the different types of personas and influencers, I

think it's just that's the main difference, basically. And

probably, in certain consumer products, you have more that

complexity, like thinking about in construction materials, like

I used to be the brand manager over Hart's surfaces product.

And that requires a lot more touch points. And it was more

b2b to see in which you would have to deal with also the

installer or the hardscape architect, and then back to the

consumer. But it was still a lot less complex than what you'd see

in b2b. So b2b, you have a lot more really touch points and,

and it's longer lead time. So some of the deals that would

happen, they can happen for more than two years, like you from

the first touch point until you have that conversion or that

sale. So that's the other part that I see that is really,

really important and different.

Yeah, and I think, I think, because of the lead time,

because of the multiple decision makers, and because of typically

the limited budgets, b2b marketing is much more

challenging than consumer marketing, you know, you might

be able to get a lot more detailed and really defining,

you know, who your target consumer is, and be able to then

really find the right media for that, you know, that, you know,

that male, aged 25 to 35. And living in Atlanta, Georgia, or

whatever. But b2b Because of the lead times, it's, I think it's

just a, you know, it's a much more challenging marketing

environment.

Correct. And if you think about attribution, and

it is very difficult to determine when your campaigns

have a really clear return over investment, just because, like

in our case, is very difficult to determine if the person that

we first touched on versus, for example, social media, or the

website ended up being a project that they purchased, just

because of the the amount of touch points and the handoff

into sales and all that those pieces that you start getting,

kind of you start losing that, that that information within

that journey. Yeah,

yeah. And to your point about attribution. But

even on the consumer side, people make or marketers make

mistakes, you know, you've got last touch attribution versus a

more kind of a model approach. And I've been surprised at how,

how many mistakes the attribution is, so I'll call

them make in in trying to different determine what the

actual marketing ROI is. And we just did a project with a in a

furniture industry. And we've been, I was shocked to see that

what they thought was the most productive media channel was

actually the worst one to be investing. And, you know, and

it's just, it's just amazing. And so, and that, I think, is

also one of the challenges as well for b2b is you don't have

the tools or you don't have the money to be able to invest in

all the tools like you might do on the consumer side.

Yeah, well and investment and media right.

Comparing, like going back from again, the the comparison that

we used to look at how much money competitors would spend in

media for example, in the In the consumer electronics side, and

the amount that is spent in media is insane. Like this is,

again 15 years ago how much apple was spending, and we would

compare it against what we were spending. And it was like, oh,

yeah, no, you can't even try to mimic what they're doing because

it's insane the amount of of money. So yeah, and b2b, you

have to be a little bit smarter on what you do and things that

have. You have to be also, using that combination of you are

increasing your awareness. And you're also increasing your

standing in the industry, because you have to become an

expert. In b2b, you have to be seen as an expert, otherwise, it

doesn't work. Or at least in the industry that I've been in. And

that relates a lot more into content marketing, which could

be important in in the b2c environment, but not as much as

it is in the b2b. So one of the things that I've seen a lot is

the increase of content marketing and making sure that

you are creating the content that matters for your consumers

and the right time and the right moment. And that's another

challenge on itself. But it's a fun one, though.

Yeah. You know, although I think there's no

question that content marketing today is critical. But, you

know, there's now so many people putting out content content, how

do you actually find what you're looking for? And know that, you

know, you've got the right thing? Because there's just so

much stuff out there.

Yes, and I agree. So I think research helps

a lot. And having a really close here to your, your consumer,

right. So we have conversations with our not only our field,

like sales, which always are very connected to their

customers, but also directly to the customers. And we also talk

about this items with trade media. So we reach out to the

media, who are always a little bit ahead of really the the

manufacturers, or the companies on what is resounding with their

audiences. So we go back to them and ask them what is going on

what is what are people interested in? And that's how we

do it, at least on our side. And I think that's, that's the main

thing is like, doing a lot of research helps to make sure that

whatever you're creating is, is interesting for your consumer

versus just putting out something because, you know, you

need to put out content.

Yeah, that's, that is definitely true, and really

makes a difference in in what's really valuable to that decision

of how that consumer you know, whether it's a business or a

consumer consumer is going to make that purchase decision or

not. Let me just shift a little bit. What about people, you

know, you hear about, you know, the challenges of hiring folks

and getting them when you need them and being able to grow your

team or whatever? What kind of challenges have you had to

fulfill, fulfill your team or fulfill the teams in general? In

marketing?

A lot? Actually. You're hitting, you're

hitting one of my my main issues this year, actually, we, my team

increased? A lot now. Well, yeah, a lot. 50%. So when I

started trying to find people to fill those positions, it's it's

been a challenge I've been I've had an open position since

December last year. And I just seem, I can't find the right

person. And I might, I'm very picky on what I want for that

position. So that's affecting part of it. But I also know, our

culture and what I need that person to do. So if I can't find

that right person, I'm not going to hire somebody just because I

can't find exactly what I what I want. And I am flexible. Because

we need to be flexible at this point. And the market is super

hot, especially in at least in around Atlanta is is insane how

many people are hiring, and they're hiring on better

benefits and, and a lot more money. And that makes complete

sense. And I think that's great. I think that's part of it,

though. I think that because of how the market is going and all

the the priorities shift, because in the end, the end what

what we saw in the pandemic is there was a priority shift. And

people are leaving. The companies are not aligning with

their vision or what they want from work. That's what we keep

seeing, like all the people that have been leaving my companies

because they're going for more money and fully remote. Right.

Which is great. I think that's great because it's shift thing

back into the priorities of that work, work life balance and

having more flexibility. And I think that was a shift that was

needed. And the other part is the salaries, I think that this

actually pushed on making sure that people are remunerated as

much as they deserve. Which is something that we haven't seen

in forever, like, I've never in my career have never seen this

shift of people are getting more money, better seats, way better

benefits and better flexibility. Which is, I think it's great.

It's also very difficult, because I can't find the right

people, because everybody else is getting a lot of offers out

there.

Yeah, yeah. Well, and that's, I think that's

definitely, you know, a challenge. And it's also a

challenge for, for keeping people because then you've got

to raise everybody to kind of get to the same level. So that,

you know, you've got this demand this enormous demand for a

limited pool of, of employees. And, you know, you've got to

keep your current employees and then you got to, you know, make

sure that you can find the right ones. Have you have you tried,

like, being a little bit more flexible in the job description.

So potentially taking one or two positions and reshuffling things

so that you can maybe narrow the focus to make it easier to hire

the, the persons you're looking for?

Yes. And I actually, when I worked on the

job descriptions for the new positions, I shifted a lot of

the responsibilities. And it's really interesting for me,

because that's why I think I'm having issues with finding the

right person, because I need somebody that is very flexible

on. Yes, your role is this, but we are really small. Team, like

in the end, my company works kind of like a startup. And

we're a really slim, slim, Lean and Agile team. So you kind of

have to shift caps all the time. And I think that that happens

with most of the companies, I don't think that I've ever been

in a company that you have a role and you only do what is in

your job description. So I need somebody that can actually jump

and do other things, just because our responsibilities are

constantly growing and shifting. And it's a very fluid situation

all the time. So like, I still do a lot of things that I go

like, Oh, okay, well, I'm back to, you know, being the

community manager for all the social media channels, and I

kind of don't want to do that anymore, but I'm still doing it.

Because that's, that's what it is, everything is put away, then

everything moves.

Yeah, you know, it's interesting. One of the things

too, that I think is an interesting challenge, so we

were talking with another friend of ours, and he's the CMO of a

trucking company. And they want to hire, and I don't remember

the exact numbers 2000 drivers. And if your growth plan is and

revenue plan is contingent upon hiring, you know, 2000 drivers,

so you got to get from whatever you have today to another 2000,

which is a big number. And then what's kind of interesting is

the marketing to hire those 2000 employees is more important than

the art marketing to drive demand. Right. And so almost in

your case, as well, the marketing needed to hire the

right kind of employees to be able to, you know, offer the

right product to the consumer, the employee, to market to them

to make sure that you have the right benefits, the right

flexibility, the right pay, and everything else is almost more

important than the actual marketing to create demand. And,

you know, and we used to say, you know, like, if you were

going to market to, you know, to create demand, that when you put

some analytics behind it, the analytics is always a better

investment than the than the demand creation. Well, now, it's

almost like that has to even take a backseat to being able to

hire the right employees, so that you can finally create the

marketing so that you can actually measure and analyze the

marketing to see if it's working.

Yeah, and I do, it's really funny, because once

we started planning for 2022 A lot of the things that we

discussed was like, Can we get it done with the resources that

we have? I mean, in the resources, meeting the people,

and there's a lot of things that I always push back on, no, we

can't get that done. Because I don't I don't have the people to

get it done. Let's be let's be completely realistic and let's

be better to deliver great things but and the time and with

the resources that you have than promised that you will deliver

the deliver poorly and get everybody burnt out and the

process which we don't want.

Yeah, yeah, well, you know, and the problem too

is, you know, the shareholders who in the end we all report to,

you know, they really don't care. You know, they really just

say, Listen, you got a profit goal, you got a sales goal, if

you guys want to keep working there, yes, you know, at the C

level anyway, then, you know, get get it done, get her done,

you know. And now, I will admit, you know, when I was talking

about analytics, and employee marketing, and then of course,

demand generation, I wonder, too, if there's a price

component to that. So if you don't have the supply chain, and

in this case, you don't have maybe the employees to do it

exactly right. I'm wondering if there's a way to kind of

restructure what you are able to do, but do it at a higher price,

because then you can, like you said, do it and do the

marketing, but also then the product at a much higher

quality, and then demand a higher price for that.

Well, and I think that's happening, just by

itself. So at least in the in my, in our industry, because of

the the supply chain, and the availability of certain products

that we use to manufacture products. There's, there's been

a constant price increase, without even hitting on getting

benefits out of it, really. So I think that's happening overall.

Price is getting increased, not necessarily to, to improve

situations within the company, but just to kind of survive. At

least that's what I've been seeing across the board. I've

seen it a lot in our industry, obviously. But I've seen it

along, like given food, which, you know, it's increasing the

production and everything. You're not You're just it's

everything is becoming more expensive, and how things are

right now, who knows what's going to happen in the next six

months? Right? Everything is kind of like up in the air?

Yeah, well, especially with energy. But

where I was going, though, on the pricing is because I agree

with you, you know, if you don't have the, the raw materials, or

you don't have the energy, or they've gotten more expensive

than certainly you do have to charge more, or try to charge

more. And but if you're limited in other ways, then you know,

limited supply can usually translate into higher in some

way to higher prices. Yep. And so so it's not just not having

the products, but it's also you know, having more expensive, raw

materials. And then can you even go higher than what those are

asking for? Because you actually have some limited supply that

you can now, you know, take advantage of.

Yeah. When it will depend on the demand. Well,

yeah,

yeah, yeah. But you know, what's funny is the

economy, the if the economy is so messed up, right now you have

this enormous demand, you know, there's people just, you know,

buying and buying and buying, which is great, I love it. But

then you have all these prices going up, because the raw

materials are going up, because the, you know, the the wages are

going up, and the salaries are going up. And it's just funny

how it how it's all kind of, you know, leading to even this high

demand, but also at higher prices.

Yeah, well, and that's the thing, if, if

salaries go up, then people have more money to spend. And that's

great. That's what you want, frankly. Yeah, I worry more

about the the man kind of slowing down. Yeah, with

everything being more expensive. So it is it is kind of like a

very thin line between between the prices going up and then

affecting demand as well. So I mean, that's, that's above my

my, you know, understanding of economics, because I took

economics a long time ago. But I do I do worry about that. And I

think that companies are also worried about that. So they're

they're also being very careful with investments and very

careful with their budgets. And that's kind of like a cycle that

that at least I've started to see.

Yeah, and I agree with you, though. And I don't

know what your right is whether this is temporary right now. And

then there's going to be a cliff that we all fall off of, and

then demand goes away, because the prices are just too high.

Yeah, I'm very, very worried about that. And I think you're

not the only one that's worried about that. Same topic, so on

you. So one of the things that that is also a huge trend and

marketing is everything is moving digital. And yet that

also leaves some opportunity on the on the on the traditional

media, the offline media. And certainly when you're in a b2b

environment where you have sales salespeople are offline. They're

not you know, they're not digital salespeople, although at

least not yet. We don't have robots to take, take that over.

But you know, so you have that have, you know a strong offline

component? And yet, then the value that the digital marketing

can offer just seems to continue to grow and continue to be more

valuable? Where do you see that balance? Shifting here over

time?

See, that's a that's a? That's an interesting

question. It's a difficult question for me to respond.

Because I do think, again, I'm, I'm a really passionate person

for digital. And that's basically my core. But I do see

that with the pandemic, it was very difficult because

everything went completely digital. So all the the offline

components that we usually see with salespeople kind of shifted

completely, and it was very challenging for for a lot of

people, we had tools in place, we use a sales enablement tool

called Shoba, that we used a lot with the salespeople. And that

helped, because you could, they could create presentations that

are very customized for them and send them over and then have

calls to present them and then follow up with some kind of

offline treat. So I discussed this one with you. But there

was, there was one of our sales reps that did send back by a

Ballantine's they palette that he they sent through Shoebat.

And then they followed up with with some chocolates that were

inspired. And that's about it. And I see that a lot. And that

combination, that it doesn't matter that everybody is still

home. working remotely, they still can have those kind of

offline touch points that help with building the relationships

or making the customers more interested. The other part was

samples, we are very heavily tactile industry. So one of the

great examples that I've seen on that balance between offline and

online is this company called material bank. And it's a

website that what they do is that they ship samples

overnight. And it's not only samples, flooring samples, it is

samples for all of the types of building materials that you

would spec within a project. And by centralizing that in one

place and making it overnight and adding some personal

touches. Because every time that you get your box it has like

other giveaways and cute things that you would want to include

to enhance this experience. It's been very successful, because

again, it combines that digital experience in which you don't

have to wait or reach out to your sales rep. You just go

online, you order the samples that you want, and you get them

immediately the next day, which is super important for people,

especially in an industry as tactile as this is. So I do see

that that combination of experiences in which you have a

digital component, and then goes into offline, to make the

experience better and to also respond to the needs of the

customers. In the end, you know that architects and designers

will need to touch and see the physical example of it. Another

example that I see that it's, it's great, there's one of our

we launched this personalization and visualization tool called

personal studio, which what it does is that you take on all of

our products, carpet products that are running online, and you

can go in and recolor them, you can see them in photorealistic

environments, so room scenes, you can download those, you can

order printed samples. And you can also order the set a

physical sample right there from there. And why I think it's

really interesting that again, it combines that online

experience with the offline, but it makes personalization in an

industry that is very difficult to think about personalization,

very easy and, and really easy to access really. So that that

is a really cool example of things that I'm seeing that are

kind of meshing those, those limits. With personal studio, we

also created a personal study hub, which is basically a

physical place where you can go and you will do the

personalization quickly in a computer, and then they print

out your sample right there, which I think is really, really

cool. Because you don't have to wait or anything. You just get

it from there. And, again, it's that mission and that balance

between the offline experience going into I mean, the online

world offline, going online going offline in this case, I

think there there is a lot of opportunities there. For an

industry that is very tactile, right. In which you're showing

things, visualizing things, and then you get something back that

you can then touch

it Yeah, absolutely. You know, as you were talking, I

was thinking about way back when when I was an engineer, you

know, and I had to order samples and whatever it was, and you

know, and I, maybe you'd get them in a week, maybe you'd get

two weeks. And, and now, as a consumer, when I go on Amazon,

if if I can't get it tomorrow, then I go home, man, I'm you

know, so it's that my whole mindset is that I should be able

to get this stuff tomorrow.

Yep. And that's the Amazon effect. That's what

the Amazon effect. Yeah. And because we are all consumers, it

doesn't matter that you're b2b, the expectations are those. So

we, as a company need to kind of respond to that, as well.

Well, and now, of course, Amazon and Walmart are

trying to do same day, they'll get ready.

Well, that's, that's why I think the personal

studio hub is so cool, because if you live in Chicago, you can

just go there, and you can get it the same day, which is

really, really cool. And it's unheard of,

yeah. Well, you know, in my book to, which, as

an aside, is almost ready to come out very, very close. But,

you know, when you now the way books or even physical books, so

a paperback and the hardback book, I can order it today. And

Amazon or Ingram will print it today, and then have it

delivered tomorrow, it's a whole the whole publishing industry

is, is been turned up on its upon its head, you know,

1000 3000 20,000 however many, you know, for books in like in,

you know, in the business side of things, and nowadays, they

don't print any, they you just upload your file, and they'll

print on demand with a color copy, which on the with the

color copy, even on the inside, as well as as the cover. And

that's just, it's just incredible how how well that's

now done.

Well, and if you think about the, I still

love the part of 3d printing, because I feel like that is also

gonna revolutionize all of the supply chains for things. When I

was in the agriculture equipment company, we were looking at 3d

printing for for accessories and things that had to do with

repairs and things like that, when, especially with that

industry, time is really important. Because if you're not

out in the field, doing things, you're losing money, basically.

So having on 3d printing and on demand printing for pieces and

stuff like that would make complete sense. So I think that

that's the other. That's the other element that I find

fascinating about 3d printing and printing on demand.

Yeah, absolutely. So that'll be the next challenge

for you. You know, because one of the things that I've seen is,

if you go into the UPS store, they have 3d printers there.

They ask the people, you know, the people behind the camera,

and I see anybody using them, they go no, not really. And yet

that is available. So you can almost do like what you're

talking about. And I don't know how easy that would be. But for

certain industries, maybe where you just send a file to the 3d

printer. And hey, have you you know, go pick that up? It'll be

there this afternoon. So so maybe you could actually get

same day delivery on that.

Exactly. Same day printing and delivery? Yeah,

exactly. Well, I've taken a lot of your time, but I

really appreciate it. Is there one thing that you think is

gonna be the superduper aha moment for 2022 or 2023?

Marketing?

God, I don't know I keep. I think you touched

on the metaverse, and I think that we need to keep an eye on

on the metaverse. In general on digital I also think that what's

going to change a lot of how we do especially advertising will

be the cookie situation in which cookies are disappearing and how

we're going to deal with that. I am keeping a really close eye on

that. And I am also keeping an eye on social media because

social media is shifting a lot. What we see what we saw in 2022

is that video is more important with you know, with tick tock

and and reels. And Facebook has seen massive slowdown as well.

But I still am looking forward to seeing what what else comes

out. There's also you know, sound only social media with

clubhouse which I still don't think that has exploded as it

ought to be. So there's a lot of elements in social media that

I'm keeping my eye on just because it's very different. And

then there is the whole blockchain and NFT story that we

Don't even touch. And that's another thing that I'm keeping

an eye, especially to see what companies are doing with it. And

not necessarily because I've seen a lot of the entertainment

industry companies going into it, like, for example, the

Atlanta Hawks had several NF T's released and things like that,

which makes complete sense because their product is very

different. But what happens with companies that their product is

physical and completely specific to certain industry that really

nfts don't make sense. But they might make sense. So that's

another one that I'm looking forward to seeing what happens

and how it gets released into other industries that are not

really entertainment or content.

Exactly, exactly. So yeah, I think I think you're

right, we didn't even talk about and I hate to say it, I'm not an

expert, or,

No, me neither, I just keep my eye on those

things.

But, you know, it's, it's just funny how things are

changing. And I just wrote a post this morning, you mentioned

podcasts, and this is going to be a podcast, and the podcasts

are actually exploding. And yet, it's people are not in the car

as much anymore. Yeah. But then the use of audio is been

significantly reduced. And so you know, if you're home, I

don't know about you, but I can't listen to a podcast and

try and get work done. It's it. It's just too distracting. i You

can do the other.

Yeah. And I find it fascinating because I, I

come from Mexico, and most of my friends were into podcasts, like

producing podcasts 15 years ago. So I actually am on podcasts are

15 years old. Because that's what my friends used to do. So I

was in multiple podcasts. And it's really fascinating to me

that out, like the last five years, just podcasts have

exploded. And to me, it's it's very fascinating, because I've

been expecting this to happen for the last 15 years. And I'm

really look, I'm really excited that it is happening. Because I

think that podcasts are great. Just a great media opportunity,

not only not only as thought leadership, but also they're

very entertaining. So we're actually going back to the the

radio, the base of the radio shows where it was all theater,

basically. I mean, most of the podcasts that I listen are like

history or business or et cetera. And they're all telling

you a story, which is great.

Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think that's

what, you know, makes them valuable. So I think you're

right, I think right now is kind of the time for podcasts. And I

think the year over the next couple of years, it's definitely

going to be, you know, be the one of the new mediums that that

we'll all have to try and figure out. So

yeah, and I'm glad that you're doing it. Yeah.

I listen to your podcasts. So Oh, great. I'm always learning

new things with podcasts, and I listen to yours.

Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate that.

So And with that, though, let me let's break right here. And

maybe we'll do another one. We'll continue on the next one,

which will be NF T's and blockchain and how we can figure

that out. But thank you so much. It's really been really been

awesome and definitely appreciate your time. Otherwise,

please stay tuned for other videos in this series of the

backstory on marketing, please visit marketing machine dot pro

relevant.com/getting started to download the first chapter of my

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can, of course rate this podcast with five stars. Christina,

thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Thank you, Guy