We are no longer in an age of digital transformation; we are in a state of perpetual metamorphosis that has forever altered the clock speed of business. This period of disruption stands poised to continue in perpetuity and bring to light the need for new CX ecosystems that rely on systemic human-centered marketing. Many of these market corrections are being propelled by a more empathy driven economy that must place the customer at the heart of any enterprise. Consequently, the need to fuse technology with human touch to drive levels of innovation that spur new customer acquisition, retention, loyalty and growth has never been greater.
For my latest column, I had the privilege of sitting down with Lorraine Barber-Miller, Chief Marketing and E-Commerce Officer of Philips. With notable roles at leading brands such as ADP and IBM, her career is emblematic of a commitment to excellence, exemplified by best-in-class marketing innovation and leadership. We met recently to talk about the first phase of transformation she has executed for Philips, elegantly pivoting them from an industrial conglomerate into a company now known for furthering the health and well-being of us all. Following is a recap of our conversation:
Billee Howard: When we chatted the first time we met, we talked about your unique views on transformation and how you have approached it as CMO of Philips. Can you share some detail around the work you have done?
Lorraine Barber-Miller: When I joined Philips as the Chief Marketing & E-Commerce Officer three years ago, I faced a significant opportunity with complex challenges: to lead the most extensive transformation of the enterprise’s global marketing organization. This challenge was further intensified against the backdrop of a worldwide pandemic, alongside efforts to shift this 131-year-old brand to focus entirely on health technology. I led with curiosity, and personal ownership to pivot the brand from a historical product-push approach to a relevant customer-centric solutions orientation. This required innovative thinking and a proactive approach to transforming everything about how we work and, ultimately, how we engage with customers. Implemented on an accelerated timeline, the immediate business impact has been evidenced by the highest sales and customer satisfaction levels in the enterprise’s history.
Howard: What people often get wrong when they think about transformation is that it needs to happen perpetually in today’s environment and to execute on that type of change, you need to have a vision and a phased approach for bringing it to life. What are your thoughts there?
Barber-Miller: Historically known as a diversified industrial conglomerate, Philips had undertaken a multi-year shift focused on a single ambition — to become its customers’ preferred health technology partner. With the healthcare industry at an inflection point, customers sought integrated solutions rather than just products to address their most pressing needs. Philips needed to reexamine every element of its business strategy, portfolio, go-to-market plan, and customer experience to enable healthcare providers to deliver better health outcomes, improved patient and staff experiences, and lower cost of care.
We really worked to pivot from being seen as a producer of goods to a customer partner. A great example of this thinking, which is truly human-centric, is rather than leading with the functional benefits of our Sonic Care toothbrush we emotionally engage with the customer around us being there with them on their individual journey to living a healthy lifestyle.
The marketing function needed to urgently transform to deliver on this ambition. Increasingly, customers signaled declining interest in the brand’s traditional, non-integrated product launch marketing strategy. We needed to imagine how the marketing organization could be rebuilt as omnichannel and audience-centric with a holistic, compelling narrative, and instrumented with data and analytics for real-time customer insights and predictive intelligence.
Howard: Another critical component to transformation is engaging all stakeholders throughout the process. What are your thoughts?
Barber-Miller: Before embarking on yet another attempt to change, I engaged in over 100 individual dialogues with customers, industry analysts, and leaders across the other functions, businesses, and markets, as well as with my team. Listening and learning while respecting history and culture enabled me to understand the journey to date and to inform the path ahead. Based on these perspectives, I built the case for change solely focusing on the customer and articulated the “why, what, and how” of a new transformation to the enterprise. Why did customers need us to change and why did we need to focus on understanding and anticipating their needs, while also delivering value? What was required of us to deliver for our customers, and what innovations were necessary? How would we transform and build signature brand experiences to ultimately delight and exceed customers’ expectations?
Inspiring and engaging employees while addressing cultural factors were fundamental to advancing the organizational vision. The enterprise needed a reason to believe that innovation was possible and that change could be actualized, as many efforts to do so in the past had failed. Because of the magnitude and scale required, I built robust change management and communications capabilities to ensure the change would be embedded and sustained across the enterprise. I invested in relationships with key stakeholders, including Product Management, Sales, Finance, Supply Chain, IT, HR, and others. These partnerships were critical to solving collaboratively around the customer agenda as one team. Regular communication and transparent feedback were imperative to rebuilding trust and confidence across all stakeholder groups.
Howard: Talk to me about how you leveraged data and analytics to drive the transformation of Philips.
Barber-Miller: To create lasting impact, I built a unified leadership team and implemented a clear, orchestrated functional blueprint — from redesigned roles to newly designed processes, governance, and working methods — along with dedicated talent and engagement initiatives. I defined the global marketing strategy as the standard framework across functions, businesses, and markets. It aligned and prioritized all customer segmentation, audiences, needs, solutions portfolios, and product development roadmaps into integrated marketing plans with omnichannel messaging and engagement across digital and physical channels through direct e-commerce.
With customer centricity as one of the most critical pillars of our new work, we embedded a 360° view of the customer where possible. Data and advanced analytics for customer insights and predictive intelligence powered this new work. The data backbone enabled the analytical models to identify and understand customer needs, preferences, and behaviors at scale and to depict marketing performance across all channels and touchpoints along the customer journey.
With real-time performance dashboards now available, multi-disciplinary teams across the function were able to diagnose results and optimize media investments and in-market activation with speed — all informed by data and automated for the first time. As we experimented and learned what resonated in-market, we further simplified and strengthened our messaging by audience and end-to-end campaign design.
As with any transformation, a 360° view must also be placed on your people, who are ultimately customer number one. I believe talent is at the heart of embracing and driving change. We invested in building a performance-based culture with deep functional expertise — blending the art and science of marketing, which in my view, is the most critical priority all marketers today must remember, particularly in our new age of perpetual change.
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