When you pick an item off the shelf and put it into your shopping cart, you are likely not consciously thinking about how the packaging just influenced your decision; however, if you’re Frank Pollock and you work in your family grocery store as a curious adolescent, watching the suppliers bring their products in may spark your interest in the subject.
Frank Pollock began his marketing career at mix 101.5 selling radio and television advertisements and if you’ve heard his smooth, jazzy voice, you’d know that it sounds like this was his calling. Although his gift seemed to be destined for radio, his exposure to the companies who stock our pantries led him to the packaged goods industry, where he worked for several years before venturing out into entrepreneurship. Pollock now runs a company called The Pioneer Group where he has led client engagements with Fortune 500 companies including The Gallo Winery and Procter and Gamble.
According to Frank, The Pioneer Group does three things really well: they develop a strategy, they align the technology needed to execute the strategy, and they drive results – but no great success like The Pioneer Group comes without challenges. Pollock says the hardest part of his job is keeping up with the changes in marketing. He witnessed the evolution of marketing go from analog to print to digital, and with that came many changes. There are now 7000 tools of marketing to keep up with. So how does he do it? Well, in addition to the changes of the industry itself, Frank says that another huge change that occurred is the amount of data marketers have access to. “The phone you hold,” Frank says, pointing at my cracked iPhone 6 that I’m using to record him with, “has a wealth of information about you. Your search history, your apps – your apps track information from other apps. There’s an opportunity to see where you were last night, who you texted, who you emailed, what you watched, and they can devolve into a meta-picture of you.” He says that then, a profile can be created about people with a similar background/age group/demographic, which can be used to market to.
Frank Pollock is one of our Venture Coaches and is a seasoned professional in marketing. Check out our Venture Coaching program for free coaching sessions with professionals in marketing, growth strategy, sales, technology, product development, business operations, finance, and fundraising.