Joe Jackman Reinvents How Brands Embrace Change

Not many people – or brands -- love change as much as Joe Jackman. The CEO of Jackman Reinvents has been a valued advisor to major retailers like Staples and brands like Flow Water, to B2B companies and to private equity partners. In this episode hear how he uses insights about trends and human behavior to drive change – or reinvention – and why that’s essential for a brand today. Jackman believes that moving from town to town as a kid with his retail exec dad emboldened him and taught him relationship skills. To the envy of any who have experienced “imposter complex,” Jackman has confidently embraced change professionally, moving from creative to CMO to CEO, admittedly making it up as he went along at many of the stops along the way. Learn what’s needed for companies to thrive, and the consequences for those that choose to emulate ostriches. This 40-minute conversation is filled with insights – or, as Jackman calls them when working with clients, “nuggets you can actually hang a strategy off.” I encourage a full listen, but here are some unmissable elements and Jackman Takeaways: Change has been coming fast and furious for many years, but the pandemic has compressed the need for speed to do things differently now; not just in people's lives, but in the dynamics of the marketplace  Jackman Takeaway: “If you're not changing and evolving, you’re stuck. That would probably be the best scenario. But the more common scenario is you're moving backwards or, in business terms, you're waning or dying.” Joe Jackman explained his personal path and how an appreciation of change took him from creative director to business owner after stints helping launch brands like Joe Fresh (no relation!).  Jackman Takeaway: “I said, why can't I be a brand strategist? What do I need to know? Who do I need to learn from? And then, eventually, I just thought, ‘Why can't I shape strategy at the very highest level?” That attitude led to becoming a “reinventionist” – and the definition thereof: Jackman Takeaway: “It’s a word I made up, but basically the definition is to just be really good at making change happen and to great benefit. The world needs more people with the skills and in the mindset of making change.” Learn which immutable law of marketing he adopted from Al Ries and Jack Trout and built his agency on. Jackman’s concept of reinvention is tied to “invention,” and a brand’s transformation is intrinsically tied to its DNA. We need to collectively “reposition the entire idea of change in our minds as a positive force, and essential. It should be seen as creating the next best, most powerful and relevant version of you or your company.” (He literally wrote the book on this: “Reinventionist Mindset”with a set of five principles for change.) The status quo – especially when paired with success -- is a killer. Business model life cycles, executives' tenures, the length of brands’ relevance, are all compressing. So, since “the future arrives daily,” brands need to figure out step-by-step how to evolve and “get pro athlete good at it or you have it done to you.” Learn how Jackman helped Staples create trial stores that were hybrid workspace meets product sampling; and transformed Rexall, including being the first drugstore in Canada to start offering flu shots. Jackman Takeaway on Retail: “In a world of choice, which is what the internet did to retail, retail was relatively slow to adapt.... There are exceptions, but retail generally sat and was lacking innovation... A lot of disruption was enabled by that sense of ‘oh, maybe one day we’ll evolve, but stores are the thing now...’. If retail leadership was prescient in reading what's happening, Amazon wouldn't exist. Casper wouldn't exist. Netflix wouldn't exist and there’d be a streaming service called Blockbuster.” Big Jackman Takeaway: “There's probably only one rule in all of this work in transformation: That you must deeply understand who your cus...