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San Diego 2024

The Brand Operator Playbook: Community, Product, and Growth

Chris Lang, Hans Harris, Greg Dalby, and MacCoy Merkley compare the decisions behind operating and growing consumer brands. Topics include customer feedback, community, storytelling, and inventory.

Chris Lang · Hans Harris · Greg Dalby · MacCoy MerkleySeptember 202441 MIN WATCH

Watch it. Put it to work.

ABOUT THIS SESSION

Connect growth plans to operations.

Chris Lang, Hans Harris, Greg Dalby, and MacCoy Merkley compare the decisions behind operating and growing consumer brands. Topics include customer feedback, community, storytelling, and inventory.

For ecommerce founders, marketers, and operators working on brand building.

Speakers
Chris Lang
Owner, Fresh Chile
Hans Harris
Director of Growth, BrüMate
Greg Dalby
Former SVP of Omnichannel, Milk Bar
MacCoy Merkley
CMO, Portland Leather Goods
Recorded at
San Diego 2024 ↗
September 2024

Speaker roles and platform examples reflect the session’s original context. This is an archived conversation.

TAKE IT BACK TO YOUR DESK

Ideas to put to work.

  1. 01

    Connect growth plans to operations

    Brand growth creates work beyond marketing.

    Read this part · 07:06 ↓
  2. 02

    Use customer feedback to guide the brand

    Customers can inform product and communication decisions.

    Read this part · 14:28 ↓
  3. 03

    Give storytelling an operational foundation

    Storytelling and new channels need a business that can support the response.

    Read this part · 24:41 ↓
READ THE SESSION

The edited transcript.

A condensed, edited reading version based on the YouTube captions and session chapters. Repetition and unclear audience audio have been removed; the discussion is paraphrased for clarity, rather than presented as a verbatim transcript. Timestamps refer to the original video.

Original recording on YouTube ↗
07:06

Connect growth plans to operations

Brand growth creates work beyond marketing. The panel discusses operational choices before turning to customer feedback and community. Their experiences show why an operator needs to consider the business supporting demand, rather than viewing acquisition as a separate activity.

14:28

Use customer feedback to guide the brand

Customers can inform product and communication decisions. The discussion connects feedback with the role of communities, including Facebook groups. The speakers compare ways of staying close to the audience and using those relationships to understand what the business should do next.

24:41

Give storytelling an operational foundation

Storytelling and new channels need a business that can support the response. The panel moves from brand communication into TikTok and inventory considerations. Those topics connect the customer-facing story with the product availability and execution required to make the experience work.

YOUR NEXT STEP: IN THE ROOM

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