Brand loyalty and product innovation: A marketer’s guide

Data has become an essential tool in the pursuit of not just customer acquisition but also brand loyalty and product innovation. In this episode of Marketer’s Alchemy, our host Kathryn Turnoff is joined by Heather Teskey, former Deluxe CMO and current VP of Marketing at Andersen Windows & Doors, to explore how brands can leverage data to foster deeper customer connections and drive meaningful innovation in product development.

About the guest: Heather Teskey from Andersen

With more than 20 years of marketing experience under her belt, Heather Teskey leads division and enterprise marketing efforts at Andersen Windows & Doors, driving awareness and demand across both B2C and B2B audiences and championing brand management and digital enablement across businesses.

Before arriving at Andersen, Teskey was the Chief Marketing Officer at Deluxe; prior to that, she championed B2B initiatives at Hallmark Business Connections, a subsidiary of Hallmark Cards. She has also held key marketing roles at U.S. Bank and Campbell Mithun. Teskey earned her Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Colorado State University and completed the executive leadership program with The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Kathryn Turnoff: What are some data constants that you've noticed throughout and over across industries?

Heather Teskey: When it comes down to it, the elements of marketing stay the same no matter what industry you're in. Do you understand your audience? Do you understand the insights around that audience that will drive them to either be your customer or be an advocate for you? Do you understand the mediums and the channels that your customers are operating in, and how do you speak to them?

I’ll give you an example from social media. At Andersen, we have a different strategy for reaching out to homeowners versus reaching out to the pros (the builders and the contractors). The pros we find are more often on Instagram, whereas Facebook might be used more of our homeowners. From a messaging perspective, the pros want authentic content – they want to see the window going in, see it opening and closing. They're not as interested in a finessed piece of content.

On the other hand, the homeowner wants to see the end result. They’re more interested in the “before and after.” Because of these differences, a lot of our homeowner content doesn't resonate with the builders – that’s not where they're engaging with us. But when they can see the product in action, that really does resonate. And they’ll call you out if you’re inauthentic. That's also really important – how are we being true to who we are, and why should the pros value this brand over another brand?

KT: Thinking about all the different personas and stakeholders that you’re trying to satisfy, how do you determine what matters to each group?

HT: It comes down to a lot of research, as well as having different people at the table. At Andersen, the voice of sales is becoming one of the most important voices at that table – and when I say the voice of sales, it's really the voice of the customer and the customer's need. And this is really important when it comes to our product roadmap and innovations. We're listening to customers and making sure that we bring their voice into the loop with what we're doing.

You have to get close to your personas. I spend a lot of time right now out in the field with contractors, builders and dealers to understand from their perspective what matters – and why Andersen matters.

Compared to the needs of a contractor or builder, a homeowner often only needs to replace their windows once. Those marketing efforts are pretty immediate – I can see the results fairly immediately. Not so much on the B2B side, where results could take much longer to realize. On the builder side, you have to be more thoughtful about where they are on the funnel and how you’re going to turn that first-time user into an advocate for your brand.

KT: When it comes to innovation, and given all these different components we've talked about, how are you looking at revolutionizing how people shop for windows and doors?

HT: If you think of our mix of revenue at Andersen, you have more windows in a house than you have doors, whether they're patio doors or even entry doors. But high-level, the decisioning is often to pick your door first. Pick a door, and then the windows follow. Yet our business model is based in there being more windows than there are doors. So, when we think about innovation, we have to shift our mindset and realize that the journey starts with this secondary product (doors) before arriving at the primary product, i.e., windows.

At Andersen, one of our foundational principles is that innovation matters, and that's why our windows have the quality that they have.

We came out with something called Fibrex, which is a composite material that we created and patented, and it’s the foundation of many of our products. This material allows our products to perform better in different ways. From a marketing perspective, we had to create value on Fibrex because it's our differentiator – we’re creating value in a product that no one else has. That differentiator is why a contractor might go with one of our premium products rather than going with a lower-quality window.

What I found is that being tight with innovation matters, because that is what makes a brand different and better than its competitors. And to a contractor or a builder, what’s in a window – what it’s made of – really matters. The homeowner consumer might not understand Fibrex, but the contractor and the builder are going to understand and value that.

Watch the entire interview with Heather Teskey on YouTube, and subscribe to Marketer’s Alchemy on your favorite podcast platform, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Audible, so you don’t miss a single nugget of marketing gold.