COVID accelerated digital innovation, but now that genie's out the box, right?
And so I think the good news is we know how to use the tools, but in the end,
what we all want in creative is just humanity.
And I think brands that know how to deliver that at scale for on a one to one
basis. That's what it's all about.
Hey,
I'm Sarah Franklin and welcome to connections where we hear from some of the
most innovative leaders in marketing.
And there aren't many leaders who know more about connecting people than Miriam
Vanna car, head of marketing, community and global for next door,
where they are reimagining, how neighborhoods worldwide,
hear everything from local deals to life saving resources.
Let's hear how they do it.
You grew up in Iran and you were there to,
during the revolution and you left in like 79. Tell us about that.
It's true.
I actually learned English as a three year old because I went for a year to join
my parents in Boston,
where I went to preschool and then we moved back Iran and I went to an American
school in Iran. So I continued with my English.
And then when the revolution happened,
I was in fifth grade and we left to go to Paris really,
because I don't think my parents knew whether the revolution was gonna last or
if it was something that was gonna pass.
So we ended up staying in Paris per year,
where we waited to see how things went and then moved to Lafayette, California.
So you can imagine Teran Paris to Laia California was quite a journey.
So you went to Barnard college. I did. What was that like? So.
I wanted to go to New York and my mom had aspirate of my being a journalist and
Barnard was a place that really,
you had a lot of strong role models and the women that were teachers and the
president. And so it was a place where I got to find my voice, right?
Partly Barnard and partly New York,
because there's just such diversity in the city. Obviously I was an extrovert.
I connected with people and I always wanted to feel like a local and the way I
felt like a local was I lined up and joined things,
which you can imagine with my kids now they're in their early twenties.
It gets you the eye roll. Like, oh yeah, mom's a joiner. You know? Oh,
she was her freshman class president.
But one of the things about getting involved is it actually gets you connected
to the community. And so for me, that was always something I did.
I didn't really think about it.
And now there's so much talk about purpose and you take time to actually think,
well, well, what is my purpose? And I can now distill it and say,
my purpose is around creating connections to create communities that make a
difference. But at the time I just did it right.
I just like showed up and joined every club known to mankind. And so it's sort,
it worked.
You are the expert CMO. I think.
NBC universal Hyat Gnet and now next door.
Oh my gosh. The incredible resume. What, what brought you to next door?
Well, at nextdoor,
our purpose is around cultivating a kinder world where everyone has a
neighborhood to rely on the small businesses, your neighbors.
I think as a kid who moved a lot, right? That purpose spoke to me.
I knew that having a community close by where you actually felt a sense of
belonging could make a huge difference.
But I think that idea of being able to make a difference was something that I
learned early on. And I,
I often think about the fact that when you live through revolution,
you learn early that you only live. And I say to my kids, you know,
you might as well make a difference because you're only gonna live once.
And how does creating connections correlate into marketing?
A lot of marketing is about curiosity and seeing a story and figuring out how to
connect things together in order to drive growth for a business.
And so you don't know where ideas are gonna come from.
Sometimes the diversity of the people you interact with gives you new ways to
see an equation.
So much of marketing is about give an idea and how do you actually make it
happen? Right? So can you find the right person? Can you get to the, yes,
a lot of that is connections and relationships.
There's so much work that shows that companies that are,
is driven end up outperforming the market.
And so it's that notion of tech for good,
where you leverage something to enable people,
to actually get to know each other. That's what it's all about for me.
So how has nextdoor helped build that community that you talk about?
How do you help do that?
The heart nextdoor is about community and connection, right?
It gives you instant distribution into your neighborhood.
So you don't have to go door to door and bring the doorbell like we did in the
old days. It actually allows you to join. It's free obviously.
And it then connects you to those who live near you.
And it gives you a way to plug into the neighborhood that is yours,
that you call home.
That is the ecosystem that you rely on.
And so we wanna make sure that you have a neighborhood that you can rely on and
that we actually enable kindness so that every can have the neighborhood that
they aspire to when the pandemic happened.
What you discovered was that your neighbors were critical,
not just your success, but your life.
And so we very much pivoted and began living our purpose because we knew that it
was meaningful for you to have somebody that you could rely on.
Oftentimes people were separated from their families.
They needed somebody to run groceries for them or pick up the medicine and they
weren't able bodied. And so having somebody that you could turn to,
I think the number of people who offered help,
always outnumber of people who asked for help,
it's always harder to be vulnerable. And I think as a marketer,
one of the things I find amazing is those stories where somebody does ask for
help and then the response that they get. So one of my new favorite story is,
um, Natalie posted for her mother.
They wanted somebody to take her and her nine year old mother out to Staten
island to visit their father's graveside. 30 people responded wow. And said,
I will take you, no, I don't need gas money. I will just take you. And I said,
people think Yorkers aren't friendly, but 30 strangers offered to take them out.
And I said, would it be okay if I told your story? And she said,
why do you wanna tell the story? And I said,
because I want other people to have permission to do what you did to ask for
help and know that others will step up and actually be there for you.
I think it's a human need to actually wanna help.
How important is that storytelling in your marketing?
I think marketing is all storytelling. There's a reason in the pandemic.
We've all been glued to our various devices, consuming tons of content.
I think stories are sort of the narrative that connect us.
And so finding those stories and giving them voice,
I think are critical parts of all of our jobs.
So you've worked at lots of different companies.
What is the one lesson that you would love to pass on to new marketers?
Well, I think in the end you have to be a driver of revenue and growth,
cuz that is what you're there for.
But I also think it really matters to stand for something and have a brand that
can have incredible meaning and resilience.
How do marketers learn that resilience?
Well,
I think if you stand for something and it's not just words but actions and I
think that's what purpose does purpose gives you a north star and then you
actually take that and pull it through the organization,
including marketing that allows you to weather, all kinds of storms.
So you tell the world what you stand or you actually tell them by doing it,
not just using words.
And then you focus on growth cuz in the end it is a business.
How do you find that purpose? That mission?
Well, I mean, for me,
it starts with understanding the difference you wanna make in the world.
And then you think about how you pull that through your messaging from a
marketing perspective as well.
It's not always a one to one messaging because purpose is really about your
company strategy, but in the end,
people want companies even more.
So now that are purpose driven and take a stand and are actually willing to live
that. Right. And I think for me, I always start with purpose.
When I have to do storytelling,
it's a through line for your business and it's a through line that you actually
have to take the time to tell the story of through deed's actions. Well,
as words.
How much you put the customer at the center than everything that you do.
With marketing, frankly, I would say with any business,
you have to start with the customer you're meeting somebody's need.
And so I remember when the pandemic broke out, you know,
a lot of marketers were pulling back and thinking about what they were gonna do
for everybody. It was like, you know what?
You have to be focused on meeting the need of your customers.
That is literally the only thing that matters.
And if you do that over the long run, you will be rewarded.
But the thing that we all have to do is just be there for each other. Right?
And I think for any business, that's where you start.
So when I joined next door,
one of the first things I did was research to really understand the core cut
customer, as well as the prospects, cuz you have to start with the customer.
And for us,
the customer is the entire neighborhood ecosystem from the neighbors,
the small businesses to the public agencies.
It doesn't mean that they tell you what to do, but understanding them.
That's kind of the first step for me. I always start with research.
I wanna understand as much as I can. And then I go from there now.
I don't think customers can you what to do necessarily.
But starting from there gives you a sense of understanding and really great
marketing starts with that.
How did the pandemic drive digital innovation?
You know,
you hear this from all businesses right before it was hard for people to do
online, grocery shopping and then, you know,
necessity sort of the mother and mention.
And I think with nextdoor was no different.
You actually really needed people nearby you to help you get groceries or
connect. Um, and so that just became a reality.
I remember in January area when people were trying to navigate vaccines,
the number of people who were turning to next door to actually get help from
their neighbors was at an all time high because while the system was being
rolled out,
people couldn't figure out how to navigate for appointments and things like
that. And so COVID accelerated digital innovation,
but now that genie's out of the box, right?
And so I think the good news is that we know how to use the tools,
but in the end, what we all want in creative is just humanity. Most importantly,
for me, I work in the world of tech, but I wanna enable humanity and a,
and a world that we all wanna live in. Right?
There's so many people who wanna help their community and enabling them to do
that. That's what makes me excited every day.
Thanks for tuning in make sure to check out more episodes on Salesforce plus.