Jamie Haenggi didn’t always envision a career in marketing. But after a college receptionist job at a security company taught her how to improve processes and add value to any project, Haenggi became hooked. Now, as CMO and customer experience officer for Protection 1, Haenggi drives brand awareness and sales. Under her direction the brand’s online sales and visits have increased 28% year-over-year.
Marketing strategy: Starting at a frontline job and progressing throughout my career has always been about learning new things. Now that I’ve been in a marketing role for almost 25 years, it’s about leveraging my experience but not letting it blind me.
Winning Ways: The accomplishment that I’m most proud of now is the brand that my team has built with Protection 1. When we came to the company three-and-a-half years ago, there wasn’t a very large budget [and] we were a totally unknown brand…. We said that we were going to design the customer experience and win it from that aspect. Then we did a lot of innovative things around marketing on very few dollars that gave us a bigger-than-budget exposure and really drove us.
Defining Moment: Several years ago we were on a road show with our employees. I was in front of about 1,000 people getting up to present, and they introduced me as the new VP of sales. It was for a large national company. I had never done sales before, and I was suddenly going to have about 4,000 people under me in sales. It really stretched me…. I was very confident in my abilities—or my skills—to do something, but this opportunity showed me how broad my capabilities, meaning my power, really could be.
Trend watching: Social media is and will continue to be a very important marketing trend…. More companies now are trying to figure out how to leverage it as a business opportunity—the reason we communicate with customers is…to propel the business forward. There has to be a tie-back to the business. It can’t just be the levity of social media.
Words to live by: “Live a life worthy of the calling you have received,” from Ephesians 4:1.
Good read: Socrates’ Way by Ronald Gross. What it really taught me is that asking questions is a powerful tool. So often, people are afraid to ask questions because it looks like [they] don’t know the answer. The fact of the matter is questions are very powerful…. The quality of your results is only as good as the quality of your questions.
Good advice: You have to know the data and statistics that drive your business. Come with facts, come with data, and ask questions.
Meet the rest of the 2014 Marketing Hall of Femme honorees and read their inspirational stories.
