Marketing With Purpose Kit: Aligning Marketing with Business Growth
In this episode of The Bliss Business Podcast, Chris McGee, VP of Marketing at Batteries Plus, explains why treating marketing like a marketing investment portfolio protects brand building from short-term demand pressure, and how franchise marketing agility turns weather-driven demand into revenue.
Marketing performs best when creativity and analytics work together, and few people think about that balance like a marketing investment portfolio, brand building and demand generation as two asset classes that need each other to compound.
In this episode of The Bliss Business Podcast's Marketing With Purpose Kit, Chris McGee, VP of Marketing at Batteries Plus, joins host Stephen Sakach to explain how she protects long-term brand investment inside a franchise system built for near-term revenue pressure.
In this episode we explore:
• Why marketing needs to be treated as an investment portfolio, not a single bet
• How franchise marketing agility turns weather-driven demand into revenue
• Why empathy for franchise owners shapes decisions during a downturn
• How customer feedback rewrote a national ad campaign
• What consolidating 700+ stores' local budgets unlocked
Brand and Demand Are Not at War, They're a Marketing Investment Portfolio
Chris rejects the idea that brand building competes with short-term demand marketing: "the very first thing you have to do is disprove or reject the idea that your brand building...and your demand and short-term marketing is at war with each other, like it has to work together." Batteries Plus treats its marketing budget "more like an investment portfolio," protecting upper-funnel spend even when leadership wants an instant revenue spike.
Franchise Marketing Has to Move Like a Pirate Ship
Batteries Plus doesn't plan around a holiday season, it plans around weather. "When it's very hot in the summer and then it gets very cold in the winter, your battery dies," Chris says, which means the marketing team has to react in days, not quarters. Her boss's line has become the team's identity: "we're a pirate ship," fast enough to turn before the aircraft carriers do.
Customer Feedback Rewrote the Campaign, Not a Focus Group
When Batteries Plus dug into consumer comments on a new creative campaign, they found a blind spot: "people were asking, what is a battery store? What do you sell?" That feedback became the Battery Pack campaign, built around the stores and associates instead of the product alone, an idea partly sourced from watching franchise associates compete in Plus Games at the national convention.
That same discipline, using real franchise-owner and customer signal to decide where marketing dollars go, is the same lens Zero Company brings to performance marketing for multi-location and franchise brands.
Key Takeaways
• (6:03) Why brand building and demand marketing aren’t at war: “it has to work together,” and brand awareness is what keeps demand-gen cost-efficient
• (12:33) The “pirate ship” mindset: reacting to weather-driven demand in days, not quarters
• (16:50) How customer feedback (“what is a battery store? What do you sell?”) rewrote the Battery Pack campaign
• (21:22) Consolidating 700+ stores’ local budgets unlocked 40% more impressions without new spend
• (25:59) The pivot to cable TV: a projected 25% higher reach and the brand’s first full year of always-on TV
FAQ
Why does Chris McGee say marketing should be treated like an investment portfolio?
Because brand building and demand generation aren’t competing priorities, they’re two asset classes that make each other work. Chris McGee, VP of Marketing at Batteries Plus, says “if no one knows who you are, your cost per click...is always going to be higher,” so protecting upper-funnel brand spend is what makes lower-funnel demand campaigns efficient.
What does franchise marketing agility look like at Batteries Plus?
Reacting within days to weather, not planning around a holiday calendar. Batteries Plus doesn’t have a big Christmas season, it has heat waves and cold snaps that make car batteries fail, so Chris McGee’s team stays ready to shift spend the moment demand spikes, calling themselves “a pirate ship” rather than an aircraft carrier.
How did customer feedback change Batteries Plus’s marketing campaign?
It revealed a basic awareness gap. When Chris McGee’s team reviewed consumer comments on a new campaign, they found people asking “what is a battery store? What do you sell?” That insight led to the Battery Pack campaign, which puts real stores and associates front and center instead of just the product.
Learn more about Chris McGee and Batteries Plus on her guest profile.
🎙️ Hosted by Stephen Sakach
🎧 Produced by Martha Huerta
Watch the video on franchise marketing agility, or explore more Marketing with Purpose Kit conversations.
VP of Growth Marketing at Batteries Plus
Chris McGee is VP of Growth Marketing at Batteries Plus, where she leads data-driven strategies that connect brands with the right audiences in meaningful ways. Her background includes leadership roles at Bank of America and agency work with brands like PayPal, Disney and AT&T. She specializes in aligning analytics, creative and media to drive purposeful, measurable growth.
