‘We’re a yellow banana in a sea of blue’: Tom Klein, Mailchimp CMO
There was a time when marketers saw B2B as very different from B2C – a place where decisions were more rational, with little scope for challenger personality or emotional differentiators. Because, well, business is serious.
If Daniel Kahneman showed us we are not the rational decision-makers we sometimes like to think we are, Mailchimp’s success shows the potential of being Real & Human in a business environment – even to the point of being ‘a little weird’.
Tom Klein, Chief Marketing Officer of Mailchimp, talks about what it means to be yourself, and how Mailchimp became a yellow banana in a sea of blue.
Tom Klein, at Mailchimp’s headquarters in Atlanta.
What are the beliefs that drive you at Mailchimp?
We believe that being yourself makes all the difference. To be a Real & Human challenger, we need to connect with other human beings and that requires us to be our true self – it drives pretty much everything we do, and helps us to connect with people.
How has Mailchimp evolved as it’s grown?
Mailchimp started out in the email marketing business. Over time, we have evolved into much more of an automated marketing platform offering elements such as CRM, advertising and landing pages, etc. We’ve essentially expanded from offering an intimate form of communication to include more of what marketers need.
How would you describe the evolution of the Mailchimp brand identity?
When we do weird things, we’re being ourselves. We know that delights our customers and helps us to stand out. Coming from an email marketing background, we love great storytellers and the ability to connect with people through stories. So, when the opportunity arose to sponsor a podcast called Serial, we said, ‘Okay, we’ll do that’. When the guys who created Serial were filming people on the street for a promotional campaign, one of the interviewees couldn’t pronounce Mailchimp. We thought it was hilarious, so we just ran with it. I don’t believe many other brands would have signed off on someone who had just mispronounced their brand name. But it resulted in our ‘Did you mean Mailchimp?’ campaign and secured our place in pop culture.
Mailchimp’s latest campaign promoting their expanded offer beyond email marketing.
You once described the ‘Did you mean Mailchimp?’ campaign as reckless. What did you mean?
It was a period of wandering in the desert for us. We wanted to introduce the real Mailchimp to the world, and that meant being our true self in a very weird and ‘Mailchimpy’ way. It was reckless because we didn’t want to feel like a sell-out. Many of our customers had been with us from the beginning, so we wanted to remain true to them but go big and introduce ourselves to the world. We knew we were on to something special when the ‘Did you mean Mailchimp?’ concept made everyone feel uneasy.
What happened after ‘Did you mean Mailchimp?’
We had created this crazy world where dogs are covered with kale and shrimp sandwiches come to life but felt that we needed to tell a bit more of our story. We developed the ‘Black Hole’, which tapped into the very real and human emotion that sometimes marketing feels like throwing money into an abyss. We wanted to acknowledge how hard running a small business can be, while inspiring SMEs to keep going.
We followed up with the ‘Brain’ campaign. It was essentially a weird way to make marketing automation more accessible. We just played with the real and human dilemma that if you’re running a small business, there are all kinds of stuff that you don’t know how to do, don’t want to do, would rather someone else did for you, and don’t really understand, but need to maintain control over. I feel like marketing can be mysterious to people. Our role is to help them have the confidence to put their heart into their communications, which leads to better marketing and improved connections with customers. We’re saying it’s okay to have personality, to be quirky and weird in your messaging.
Is it possible to define the ‘Mailchimp’ way? Is there a communication playbook, or is it simply an innate feeling?
The brand has always had confidence in its own voice. There’s no playbook. A lot of it comes from our founders, who have the freedom to go ‘burn some pancakes’ because we’re not responsible to any shareholders or venture capitalists. We’re completely bootstrapped, so our confidence is more of a feeling. If we play it too safe, we’ll just end up looking like everybody else. So, we run the business with the professionalism and discipline of a public company, but with our entire focus on the customers and employees.
What do customers tell you about their perceptions of the Mailchimp brand?
I love that they feel like there are real people behind the brand. The perception of those people may be wild-eyed and slightly crazy, but at least customers don’t see us as a bunch of robots or faceless technology. That pays dividends because it starts a conversation that never ends. Our customers also tell us they really appreciate those special moments within the applications that acknowledge how stressful marketing can be — things like the high-five when a campaign is sent, the big red button and the sweaty finger. We acknowledge the emotional journey and provide a lean-back moment of fun to celebrate the completion of the task.
How would you describe Mailchimp’s media behaviour?
I’m in the enviable position of being the media. An email is media and we act as a network, which people return to time and again. So, whether it’s the Mailchimp application, paid media or earned media, I think of it as one. For example, small businesses always start with what’s available for free, whether that is organic social media or a basic Mailchimp account. When you’re ready to pay for media, you can upgrade and buy Facebook advertising, Instagram advertising or Google retargeting from within our application. Our media behaviour strategy is to steal fire from the gods, get rid of all the jargon, hand it to small business owners, and let them become successful.
What’s coming next for Mailchimp’s ‘Weird Ones’ approach?
We want to provide further, deeper customer experiences – those special moments that may be helpful or entertaining. As we evolve the product, we’ll look to become more relevant in mobile and social channels so that we’re building on things that we know our customers really love. We’re still repositioning from email to a fully automated marketing platform so I’ve still got lots of marketing campaigns to run.
Paid media has a key role in introducing the brand to all the people we haven’t met yet while reminding those that knew us five years ago to revisit us and see what has changed. We’re still weird, we’re still quirky; we’re cuddly on the inside but we have a very strong competitive spirit. It stops us from drifting into the blue and maintaining our yellow banana status. Our purpose is to empower the underdog.
Those underdogs are small businesses, not actual dogs.
