In this episode of The Future of Consumer Marketing, host Brett Stapper interviews Patrick Buchanan, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Lulus. Patrick shares how he’s building a brand focused on empowering women through authentic storytelling and community-driven marketing. From his early days in product placement working with celebrities like Zac Efron and Kobe Bryant, to scaling marketing teams of nearly 50 people, Patrick reveals the strategic approach behind Lulus’ recent momentum – including their current Globetrotter campaign that’s driving all-time high brand equity scores across billboards in New York, Nashville, and Miami.

Topics Discussed:

• Scaling from product placement to brand marketing leadership across multiple celebrity-backed brands

• Building and managing marketing teams of nearly 50 people across brand, creative, and go-to-market functions

• Creating campaigns that drive measurable brand equity while maintaining authentic community connection

• Balancing performance marketing with creative brand work to maximize efficiency and results

• Developing clear KPIs and post-campaign scorecards to measure success and extract learnings

• Leveraging storytelling backgrounds from journalism to create marketing that transports audiences

• Managing celebrity partnerships and product placement in an evolving influencer landscape

Lessons For Consumer Marketers:

Start Every Campaign with Crystal Clear KPIs

Patrick emphasizes that great campaigns begin with defined success metrics, not creative concepts. He implements post-campaign scorecards where teams collectively score performance across different areas, ensuring both accountability and continuous learning. Without clear KPIs upfront, teams end up confused about what constituted success or failure.

Treat Your Marketing Team Like a Diverse Performance Group

When building teams, Patrick looks for his “Spice Girls” – diverse personalities and skill sets rather than hiring the same character repeatedly. He adapts his communication style to each team member’s needs, focusing on effectiveness over personal preference. This approach requires leaders to become chameleons, adjusting their management style to get the best from each individual.

Use Customer Feedback as Daily Strategic Input

Patrick reads exit surveys every single day to stay informed about customer sentiment and brand perception. This constant pulse on customer feedback directly informs marketing strategy and campaign development, ensuring authentic connection rather than assumption-based marketing.

Balance Performance and Creative Through Strategic Partnership

Rather than viewing brand and performance marketing as competing functions, Patrick treats them as complementary forces that must work in harmony. He emphasizes cross-functional partnership between teams, noting that when brand and paid teams collaborate effectively, they see increased efficiency, better results, and higher customer acquisition.

Create Campaigns That Generate Headlines and Conversation

Patrick specifically designs campaigns with “stickiness” – content that people want to talk about and share globally. He draws from his experience with celebrity-backed brands that know how to generate headlines, focusing on creating marketing moments that become cultural conversation starters rather than just product promotion.

Lead with Radical Clarity and Coaching

Patrick’s leadership philosophy centers on being extremely clear about expectations and assignments, treating internal presentations like agency pitches. He encourages team members to come with suggestions rather than questions, helping them develop independent thinking while remaining available for guidance. His approach combines being a “hype man” with honest, direct feedback.

Ground All Strategy in Community-First Thinking

Every marketing strategy starts with understanding the community and customer first, then building outward. Patrick emphasizes providing value, aspiration, and entertainment to customers rather than focusing on what the brand wants to say. This customer-centric approach requires marketers to become “Academy Award-winning actors” who can adapt to different brand personalities based on audience needs.