Claire Knebl - Senior Director of Marketing, Ritual

On this week’s episode of Girl Gang the Podcast, we're in Los Angeles interviewing Claire Knebl - Senior Director of Marketing at Ritual.

Shop Ritual's vitamin options (featured below) at ritual.com and receive 25% off your first order with code GIRLGANG.

• Essential for Women 18+, a reinvented clinical-backed daily multivitamin that contains the nine essential nutrients lacking in most diets, in bioavailable forms the body can actually use. 
• Essential Prenatal, for thinking, trying and when it’s time
• Essential for Women 50+, for women post menopause to help support healthy aging from within.

Show us you're listening by taking a screenshot and tagging us on Instagram @ritual and @girlgangthelabel.

Stay up to date on new episodes of Girl Gang the Podcast and shop our merchandise at girlgangthelabel.com - use code GIRLGANG for 20% off your order.

If you'd like to recommend someone for the podcast, give feedback, or just say hi e-mail amy@girlgangthelabel.com.

#SUPPORTYOURLOCALGIRLGANG

Join the girl gang and stay up to date with new episodes @girlgangthepodcast

Email us with any guest recommendations or questions hello@girlgangthepodcast.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Girl Gang the Podcast. I'm your host, Amy Will, and the founder of Girl Gang. This podcast is brought to you by Girl Gangthelabel.com. Read our online magazine, The Edit, for interviews with female creatives, plus tips, tools, and rituals to level up your own career. Shop our line of merchandise, including our signature support your local girl gang collection. For every item sold, we team up with a charity to support women's education, health, and empowerment. Shop today and use code Girl Gang to receive 20% off at GirlGangthelabel.com. Show us your listening by tagging us on Instagram at Girl Gang The Label. Thank you so much for tuning in.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Hi, I'm Claire Canable. I'm the senior director of marketing at Ritual.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Before we dive into your current role, I'd love to know. Um, I mean, you were active in internships when you were younger. This is a really prestigious position to have, especially for your age, if you can kind of walk listeners through your career path leading to this moment before we dive into your current role and what ritual is all about.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Totally. Um, you know, I think that I started off when I was growing up, I was obsessed with fashion magazines. And I've always been someone who um just felt this like real purpose and working. Um, and I think that was really good for me for a lot of reasons. So I ended up going to college in New York. I went to NYU. Um, and I throughout the whole time I was very focused on just throwing myself into internships. So spent a lot of time at Teen Vogue, get Vogue, get the New York Times. Um, but Teen Vogue was really my home base. Ended up um, you know, starting to work full-time while I was actually a full-time college student too, which was definitely a defining and very challenging experience for me. And I think my time in publishing really kind of led me into marketing. I didn't know it at the time. I was kind of going with the flow. And um, I've always been someone who gravitated towards new challenges and in every position and in every day, I try and put myself in situations where I'm learning and challenging myself. So essentially from publishing, I got into marketing because the next company I went to was a content-focused company that turned into a brand, and that brand was Glossier. So joined as a managing editor of Into the Gloss, which is their beauty um website, editorial website. And then over time, as the brand grew, really uh took on marketing responsibilities as well. Um, you know, I think I've always been drawn to startups, which also led me to ritual. Um, and I think an interesting thing is that I don't consider myself to be a startup person in that I really thrive in startups, or I do think I thrive, but I think it's kind of counterintuitive how I do thrive. I think I'm actually someone who's a little bit more comfortable in a bigger workplace or um a slightly more established workplace. And I actually think that that contrast has allowed me to really excel in startup environments because I'm very motivated to um reach our goals, to add structure where it's necessary and where it's helpful to grow teams, to grow my teammates' careers. Um, I get a lot of fulfillment from that. So um between Glossier and Ritual, I think I've really found a home in startups, um, even though it's been a little uncomfortable for me at times to find that home. Um, I'm really happy that I found it. Um, so you know, I think marketing, the transition from publishing and content to marketing was one that was so seamless because um the brands that, you know, I've helped to build are brands that are deeply rooted in content and rooted in an appreciation and an obsession even with the customer. So, you know, it's not like I went to school for marketing, um, but it's something that I've really pushed myself to learn along the way and that um has been a really fulfilling challenge for me and continues to be.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

And I think um my background, it's in search engine optimization, and a big part of that is a good content marketing strategy. So I think like through your career, it's probably this like uh this beautiful time two worlds are colliding because content, which is like the backbone of pub the publishing world, has really become a huge vertical in brands and they're totally utilizing it. So um there is a lot of different ways people can go into marketing now, and I think it's um exciting when you don't know how the dots are gonna necessarily connect. Um, did you ever picture you'd be getting into marketing when you were at the publishing houses, or previously did you really want to focus on like print and magazine and it just organically came together?

SPEAKER_00 4:27

It was a combination of both, I think. I think that it was organic in that I knew that I wanted to be close to brands, and um I get so much um satisfaction and fuel from customers and from really impacting um someone's everyday life in a positive way. You can do that through content, you can do that through a product, you can do that through many different, you know, things. I think it comes down to how are we introducing ideas into people's lives that are actually going to benefit them in some way. Um, and so I like that my current role really combines um the product side with content um in all different forms. So social is part of my team. Um earlier, you know, last year really advocated to bring on editorial content in sort of its own full, fully fledged function, which is something that's been really exciting for us. Um, but you know, I think it was a combination. I think my mom, when I was growing up, was like remembers this one time. I was like, I don't know what I'm gonna be when I grow up, but I know I'm gonna like work really hard at it and you know love it. And whenever I find it, I'm gonna just love it and be obsessed with it. And I feel like I wouldn't have known because I don't feel like my exact job or role really existed at that time. Um, and I think our definition of marketing is always changing and it's a really fluid thing, um, which is kind of the beauty of it.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

What was that transition like from New York coming here and starting with a ritual? If you can take us through those early days before we talk fast forward to today.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Yeah, it was such an interesting and special transition. It was a big challenge for me. Um, it wasn't a move that I was the move from New York to LA wasn't one that I was really looking to make proactively, but it was something I was definitely open to. And I was at a time in my life where I, you know, was really excited about a new challenge and really connected with the ritual team because I was a customer originally and had been living with ritual for a couple years and knew our founder and CEO, uh Kat's story, and had kind of grown up with the brand in my own life, which made it really special. Um, and I decided to take that leap and to really kind of pick up my life and come to LA and work in an environment that was similar but also very, very different and very unique in many different ways. Um, you know, and and work in a brand that's also very different. The two have um from that transition, there's like some similarities in terms of structure and company size, but the products are totally different. And so it was really, you know, interesting for me to start in this new environment where I was like working hand in hand with scientists, um, with our entire team. Um, and I've you know really enjoyed that. I think the transition in and of itself was challenging for sure, but I had a lot of amazing support from other people in my life, um, both on the New York side and in the LA side that really encouraged me to just go for it. And I'm so glad that they that they did and that I did, because I think that it's led me to a place now it's been almost two years. It'll be two years in May. And um, you know, I continue to just remain so excited about what we're building. And I think that in the last two years we've done a lot. We've grown from a place where I think our team was around 30 people when I started. Now we're probably closer to 70. Um, you know, we've launched two products, we have more on the way. And I think that that sense of growth and being part of that is just a really fulfilling thing.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Do you remember when you had first found out as ritual as a customer? And if you can also walk our listeners through exactly what ritual is before we dive more into your career path there.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Totally. So ritual is a health technology company that's entirely focused on habits. Our mission is to turn healthy habits into a ritual. So we've started with the multivitamin, which kind of came out of our founder and CEO's story of when she was pregnant. Um, she couldn't find a prenatal vitamin that she trusted. You know, if you look at the label of any vitamin, you're gonna see of most vitamins, unless it's ritual, you're gonna see all kinds of things that, you know, maybe lead to some question marks in your mind. Um, and her uh interest in that and obsession with finding something that would be best for her body and for her future baby's body was really what started the entire company. And that sort of obsessive DNA has remained in the company as we've grown our team and as we look ahead to new product categories. Um, so that's you know, the the sort of DNA of the company. And I don't remember exactly how I first found out about ritual, but I remember loving Kat's story. And it was pretty early on. I've always um followed female founders in particular and continue to do that and um love using as many of those products that make sense in my own life as possible. So started taking ritual from there because I had grown up with vitamins and um understood the importance of a good multivitamin um to complement a healthy diet. So, you know, had really known about cat and then really went deeper into getting to know the brand. And I totally agree with you. I think it's a when you're thinking about places that you might like to work, it's such an interesting and smart place to start with the products that you actually use every day. So it was kind of this full circle moment for me to connect the dots and be like, oh, it would be amazing to be part of that team and and to help grow the brand around the products that I already love. So I'm starting the role. Um, I have so much excitement for the company and for the opportunity that I see for the brand. And I really channeled that into creating work for Ritual. So um when I first joined, I was in a similar position, but just at a slightly lower level. I was like associate director level, I believe, um, and joined to really head up brand marketing. So was, you know, it was a change in position and team structure for me. I went from having um some direct support in my previous role to kind of being a, you know, a one-woman show for a moment in time. I've grown since then to have an incredible team that reports into me and get so much joy from that. But it all started, you know, for me, just myself and really thinking about how I can make the greatest impact on this brand and how can I really position the brand in a way that supports all of our future goals and hopes and the trajectory, the amazing trajectory that the company is on. Um so, you know, went from a place where I had like previously, you know, a lot of full teams and a full process around how campaigns are developed, um, which is now a place that we're at again for ritual. But in the very early days, it was really focused on like how do I like kind of get this thing started, you know, um, and build off of the incredible foundation that the team has laid in place. You know, I think you mentioned rituals branding and DNA are so incredibly strong. And so it was really for me more about okay, all of that is in place and is and is amazing. Um, but what do we need to do to really help the company grow into the next chapter? So one of the insights that we uncovered at the time was that people were really perceiving ritual to be pretty trendy. Um, and that's not always a bad thing, but it wasn't our ideal for that moment in time because, you know, I think that the incredible backing behind our products and um the depth that goes into our product and its customer, you know, customer experiences was not getting its time to shine. So we as much as it could. So we developed this campaign that was called Proof Over Popularity and was really fun. It was totally local. So we did some like guerrilla marketing and out of home all around Venice and Santa Monica on the west side of LA, which if you know LA, that's kind of like the home base of trendiness or like kind of the capital of trendiness in the whole country, um, which we love and wanted to play into that contrast of ritual being this brand that's the you know, the essentials and the basics that you need nutritionally to support your routine. And if you choose to add trendiness on top of that, that's awesome. Like do your thing. But we wanted to make a statement around what we are and what we're not. So that was a really interesting project for me to execute um with the team because our team was much smaller at the time. It was a new type of project. You know, I was like scouting all the billboards myself and walking around and making sure that each one was perfect for us and being like, oh, there's a tree like on that one, like we're gonna have to move that or whatever. Um, so it was definitely a very gritty time. And I think that resulted in some work that I'm really proud of and um, you know, quickly was able to grow a team that could support those projects at a bigger scale. We launched our prenatal vitamin, um, which was all about um drawing awareness to prenatals um during pre-pregnancy, because about 50% of pregnancies are unplanned, but yet women um don't know, most women don't know when and why to start taking a prenatal vitamin. So the campaigns and moments kind of progressed from there, as well as building out a team that um can build the day-to-day, you know, brand footprint of ritual across brand channels and um supporting the team and in the brand's identity. Yeah, where do you look for inspiration? Mm-hmm. That's a great question. I think it's so hard to remain inspired on an on a daily basis sometimes because we're all incredibly busy. And um, you know, if you're someone like me, it's easy to get wrapped up into like, oh, I need to get things done and like I I need to focus on work. Um, but what I've learned over the last few years is that creating space for yourself to disconnect from work is incredibly important um to, you know, really finding the time to gain some sort of inspiration. So the things that I do um to kind of start small on an everyday basis, it's like I take time to work out, I have great ideas when I work out. I don't know if that's just me or if that's a thing, but it works for me. Um, and I think that at work I try to block off like more significant chunks of time that I can dedicate to actually creating work and creating um projects, working on projects, whatever it is that I'm actually contributing to the team versus the second half of my day or the other blocks in my day will be more focused on meetings or collaborate collaboration. Um, so those are two things that I do that kind of help um with my mindset on a daily basis and that I think are important. Um and then in terms of where I go to actually get inspired, um I like to think about like things in kind of the opposite sense and like understand, okay, what is like everyone thinking about in X area? You know, like if we were launching um a chair company, a furniture company, I would want to understand like what are the common things in furniture today? Um, what are people talking about? What are the problems they have? Because it's helpful for me to think about, okay, like if I were gonna design a chair, I would want to do X, Y, and Z differently because that's what people are, you know, lacking and maybe are interested in, but maybe don't even know it yet. So that actually leads me to spend time on um platforms like Pinterest. You know, like I'll search for a topic and just quickly want to understand like what is the common thread or sort of consensus on this topic and culture and sort of like more mass culture. Um, I love Pinterest because I think it's a really good tool for that. Um, and then I kind of challenge myself to think in the opposite direction or to question or poke holes in what I'm seeing.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Current day, are there campaigns you're working on now that have been like you're the most excited you've been working on them?

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Totally. So we actually just um launched a campaign called Start Small for the New Year, which I love because there's no better way to start in the new year than small, especially because this year it's a new decade. I feel like we're all putting a lot of pressure on ourselves to perform in the new year. So many of us make resolutions, but it's something like 80% of resolutions actually fail six weeks in. And so start small for us was a pretty genius idea that um our one of our creative leads executed, which was placing small reminders to um start somewhere in places where people were hoping to achieve big results. So we put them next to gyms, we put them around LA. Um, and what I'm referring to is um because podcasts aren't visual, and I have to remind myself of that, what I'm referring to is we did these like really tiny micro billboards that said start small, and we put those around LA in those places where people are um working towards achieving big results. And I think that perspective of just starting from a small place and starting with one thing is something that really relates to our um our brand and our products because we see that in our customers, um, a lot of our customers, 70% tell us that ritual helps them keep better health habits overall, which is something that's really encouraging for us to hear as a company that um prides ourselves on turning habits actually into rituals and really elevating them to that place where they're ingrained in your everyday and they're they become special, indispensable um parts of your everyday life. So I really loved that campaign because I thought it was a really amazing collaboration between our creative team and um our marketing teams to bring it to life. Um, but there are so many that we're you know always working on, and I get really excited for the future too.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

One of my favorite books is Zero to One, talking about that first step. It's not about the destination, it's that first step. And I think um, especially nowadays with social media and seeing what everyone else is doing, if we don't focus on that first step and it's just like, okay, just fast forward, here's all the things I want to happen. Now go to your everyday life. Like that's not really um, there's not a lot of longevity in the stat. I think you said it was like six weeks, 80% of people usually. I think that's what it is. Yeah, but I mean like the the concept of just that really like people, it's very hard to stay true to the goals at the beginning of the year. And so I think that's a good reminder for everyone to take away is just yeah, that first step. Let's focus on our first steps and then second step instead of like fast forward to the end of the year accomplishing everything we want to.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

Totally. Yeah, it's 80% of resolutions fail within the first six weeks. We ask a lot of ourselves, I think. And I know that I have asked a lot of myself and continue to do so on an everyday basis. So, some great advice that I was given earlier on in my career was to be okay with just accomplishing three things in a day and to actually not just be okay with it, but to embrace that and to be really thoughtful and strategic about what those three things are. Um, and I think it was really hard for me to adjust to at first because it's so easy if you're someone who really likes to um, you know, always be on to the next thing, to be like three sounds like nothing, you know, but it really is so much. And it's for me, it's been important to do those three things or four things or two things or however many it is for me on a daily basis um really well and to put like my whole heart and mind into them in order to achieve the best results that I'm happy with.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

Well, thank you so much for sitting down and chatting with us today. Um, for listeners that want to try out ritual, can you let us know where to uh purchase and find out more about you and the brand?

SPEAKER_00 20:35

Yes, please head right on over to ritual.com to learn more about ritual. Um, we have three amazing multivitamins designed for every stage of a woman's life, um, starting from being 18 plus through pregnancy and upwards and onwards from there.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

Perfect. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you liked this episode, please take a moment to leave us a review. It helps us out so much. Remember to head to Girlgangthelabel.com to redeem your 20% off discount with code Girl Gang. Take a moment to remind the females in your life that they inspire you and support your local Girl Gang.