OVERVIEW
Description: Building a Marketing Plan, Process, and Team
Brand: PLAE, Inc.
In-Market Dates: June – December 2019
Target Audiences: Millennial Adults, Parents/Moms
BACKGROUND/BUSINESS PROBLEM
PLAE launched in 2013 as a kids footwear brand, quickly gaining ground among parents with its innovative, thoughtfully designed, and award-winning collection of high-quality and durable shoes. PLAE products were specifically designed for kids' growing feet, enabling them to have fun and explore the world around them — to play. In 2017, after definitively establishing itself as a leading kids-wear provider, PLAE saw the opportunity to extend its product line and enter the adult footwear category.
But as PLAE's goals grew, so did its needs: specifically, a better understanding of this new digital world and consumers' evolving behavior.
That's where I came in.
SOLUTION
When the PLAE team approached me in early 2019 with an opportunity to build their marketing department from the ground up, I was sold. I recognized an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime chance to help a startup develop a robust strategy that would generate awareness, increase leads, inspire a more substantial global movement, and champion its core values of inclusivity, sustainability, corporate responsibility and, above all, FUN.
I am immensely proud of the tangible impact I had on the business during my tenure. I grew a legitimate marketing team by recruiting amazing new talent, bringing focus to the brand story and architecture, initiating and completing customer research, developing a new content and creative strategy, and implementing a data-driven approach across all channel tactics.
In addition to these strategic accomplishments, I also contributed to the improvement of both marketing performance and operations by implementing: 1) creative and strategy briefs, 2) content calendars, 3) message matrices, 4) media flowcharts, 5) weekly channel performance reporting dashboards, 6) detailed photoshoot shot-lists and visual documents, 7) budget trackers, 8) campaign planning timelines, 9) status documents, and 10) monthly team and executive presentations. Whew!
RESULT
These combined efforts — coupled with a healthy dose of pluck, partnership, and positivity — led to the establishment of a legitimate marketing department and process at PLAE and the startup's best quarterly results in its 7-year history (October-December 2019).