For the first feature in our Spider Spotlight series, we asked our SVP of Strategy Brett Banner to tell us more about himself, his time at PriceSpider and his vision for the future of ecommerce. We asked, and Brett answered.
First, a little bit about Brett …
Brett Banner lives in Huntington Beach, California, popularly known as “Surf City, USA”. He’s been happily married for 15 years and has four kids under the age of 12. Brett’s top hobbies include family adventures of any kind, surfing, camping, gardening, traveling and coaching his kids’ sports teams. And his favorite food is a 4 way tie between tacos, pizza, SunChips and any kind of breakfast.
We asked: What’s an accomplishment you’re proud of since working at PriceSpider?
Brett answered: There is so much that we have accomplished as a team over the years. The seasons and market conditions we successfully navigated, the extensive market research we conducted, the global acquisitions and integrations we accomplished, the amazing products we developed and launched, the customer facing teams we built and the leaders we promoted – all highlights. But I think I would narrow it down to pride in the teams we’ve built that make it a joy to work here every day … and that translates to how we serve the market.
I’m specifically proud of the quality and caliber of the talented professionals around me that have fostered resilience, agility and a strong culture at PriceSpider. As they say, iron sharpens iron. Personally, I take pride in having a people-first approach to business, whether that is internally or externally, and I hope I’ve held true to that value.
We asked: What are your goals for yourself, your team and PriceSpider over the next year?
Brett answered: My objective this year and purpose is simple: connecting great ideas, people and technology to help brands grow. I want to help facilitate a conversation with clients and within the market that will push brands to think bigger, smarter and more holistically. That starts with amplifying the voice of the customer and the market in meaningful ways that push the industry forward.
Five key components of this strategy are centered on market advisory, channel partnerships, customer advocacy, thought leadership and product evangelism. The relationships and communities we build are a key foundation which I am excited about—and I want to extend an open invite for like-minded professionals and market leaders to get connected with this movement.
We asked: How do you think PriceSpider is propelling brands into the next generation of ecommerce?
Brett answered: PriceSpider is the market leader in the space, offers the only end-to-end brand commerce platform, has the largest retailer network and partners with more brands than any other provider—so we have a huge opportunity to share our experience, our data and the customer insights we’ve collected over two decades. I have been in the B2B tech and data space offering a SaaS platform my entire career. From my experience, brand manufacturers have the most fragmented teams, data, strategies, etc.
You can point to many reasons why this is the reality but more often than not, it’s that the left hand isn’t talking to the right hand. This is a discussion I have with our customers regularly and they consistently reinforce this challenge. But this has to change—and we’ve seen clients use technology, data and new organizational goals and structures to help bridge the gap. The impact and progress from brands leading the way is inspiring!
PriceSpider helps brands identify and bridge these gaps to ensure they can adapt, evolve and stay relevant in the industry. We want to help brands do more with less and make smarter decisions to enable a seamless consumer experience, stronger channel partnerships and deep data insights that lead to more sales, profitability and market share.
We asked: What piece of advice would you give to companies that want to build a bigger, better brand?
Brett answered: It sounds simple but I believe the starting point is that brand leaders need to communicate more to align on strategy and ensure teams are built to deliver on their core function in addition to the overarching strategy and objectives.
It starts with getting the right stakeholders at the right organizational levels to work cross functionally. When selling through the channel, you need to talk about the optimal consumer journey and what technology, data and teams you need to make that a reality. Whenever possible, prioritize consolidation into platform solutions as that enables a more consistent journey and data set.
Once you’ve established the optimal consumer journey, you need to develop your channel strategy. Consider how your approach in enabling the consumer journey can benefit the channel. What can you measure and how do you build a channel program that balances expectations with value-add? I have seen that a strong, holistic channel strategy also serves as a way to unify brand teams cross-functionally.
Because there are so many different teams and touchpoints in the consumer journey and channel equation, you need to establish common objectives or metrics that can serve as a north star so individual department goals don’t compete to the detriment of the whole. This also needs to be shared with your service partners that have a vested interest in the success of the programs. Too often, a good strategy isn’t executed because there isn’t clarity on the strategic objectives or there are competing interests internally. Find what can unify teams today and start collecting data to build new KPIs that can further unify in the future.
Want even more insights from Brett on how to build a bigger better brand? Connect with him on LinkedIn to keep the conversation going.
