Why Keds Is Consumer Obsessed And You Should Be Too

This post was originally posted on Forbes.com on SEP 28, 2017. You can access the original post here.

Marketing isn’t always about the newest omnichannel tools and cutting customer acquisition costs. For Keds, the iconic casual sneaker brand worn by stars worldwide, it always starts and ends with the consumer. 

Chameleon Collective partner, Veronika Sonsev, talked to Emily Culp (CMO of Keds) and found out why strategizing with a consumer-first mentality proves so successful. With such laudable metrics like 30% ecommerce growth and 20% email growth annually, Culp’s turning traditional marketing tactics inside out—and it’s working.  

The Keds customer sweet spot is the multi-talented, on-the-go, everyday woman who values classic style and comfort. Putting her needs above all else, Keds ensures every brand touchpoint is curated exactly the way, and exactly where, she would want it. From social media content to collaborating with retail partners, the team focuses on high-touch experiences leveraging thoughtfully curated micro-content. The brand also looks to its retail partners to tell its story and launch its products in a customer-first manner. At its annual brand conference, Keds provides comprehensive marketing toolkits to every partner, complemented by frequent strategy sessions around maintaining the global brand and attaining shared goals. 

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Veronika Sonsev is a Partner with Chameleon Collective where she leads the Retail Practice. In addition to developing the retail business for the company, she works with B2B clients in retail and digital media to help them accelerate revenue through strategy, marketing, and business development. Prior to Chameleon Collective, Veronika founded and ran inSparq (acquired by Adiant Media), a software company that worked with some of the largest retailers and brands to market their trending products in real-time. She has also held senior leadership roles at Jumptap (acquired by Millennial Media) and AOL, and has experience launching to international markets, building new business lines, and developing strategic partnerships. Clients rely on Veronika to help them develop strategies for growing their business, tell their story in a way that gets customer attention and secure those all-important deals to help their businesses scale.

Veronika is an active advocate for women in business, and in 2009, she founded the global non-profit Women in Wireless, which now has over 12,000 members and 10 chapters around the world. Recognized as a thought leader and industry expert, Veronika has spoken at dozens of retail conferences, including Shop.org Digital Retail Summit, FashionDigital and Goldman Sachs dotCommerce Day, contributed to a number of business publications, such as Inc., Forbes, Business Insider, and Retail Touchpoints, and been interviewed by NPR, the Wall Street Journal, and TechCrunch. Her success as an entrepreneur combined with her support for women in the digital industry has led Fast Company to include her in its League of Extraordinary Women and TechWeek to name her as one of the Top 100 digital leaders in New York.

Veronika holds a B.A. in Economics and Russian Studies from American University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. You can find Veronika on Twitter at @vsonsev and on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/vsonsev.