Customer Success Playbook S3 E43 - Cairo Marsh - Empathy is the New ROI

This episode of the Customer Success Playbook welcomes Cairo Marsh, Founder and Executive Partner of Relative, for a thought-provoking conversation on empathy-led marketing. Cairo shares his top tip for organizations seeking to harness empathy as a competitive advantage: focus on value at every touchpoint. From Patagonia's purpose-driven branding to the basics of transactional incentives, Cairo offers real-world examples of brands that resonate by placing customer needs front and center. It's not just marketing—it's relationship building at scale.

Detailed Analysis: In this crisp yet powerful episode, Cairo Marsh challenges traditional marketing mindsets by reframing empathy as a strategic asset rather than a soft skill. He lays out a pragmatic approach to empathetic marketing that begins with a deceptively simple question: "What does your audience need right now?" It's not about gimmicks or grand gestures but about delivering meaningful value at every interaction.

Using brands like Patagonia as a compass, Cairo underscores how value can transcend the transactional. Patagonia's commitment to sustainability offers customers purpose beyond product—a model for values-driven engagement that earns loyalty. On the flip side, Cairo doesn’t shy away from acknowledging that even simple sweepstakes or incentives can serve as valid forms of value, as long as they're designed with the customer's benefit in mind.

The conversation also touches on the psychological shift needed within companies. Empathy isn't a campaign—it's a culture. And it begins with a genuine interest in your customer’s world. Cairo likens this to personal relationships, where curiosity and attentiveness build trust. Businesses should behave less like sociopaths (his words, not ours) and more like thoughtful partners.

Whether you're building a brand or fine-tuning your customer journey, this episode is a potent reminder: empathy scales. It informs marketing, strengthens loyalty, and enhances every element of the customer success playbook.

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Transcript

Kevin Metzger: 0:10

Customer success.

Roman Trebon: 0:15

Hi everyone, and welcome to the Customer Success Playbook podcast, where we bring you actionable insights for driving customer engagement and success. I'm your host, Roman Reon, joined by me as, uh, as always, is my co-host Kevin Metzger. Kevin, hope you had a good weekend. Happy Monday.

Kevin Metzger: 0:32

Happy Monday. Excited to be here. Excited for today's guest. Today we're joined by Cairo Marsh. Founder and executive partner of Relative Cairo is passionate about building relationships, relationship driven customer experiences through innovation marketing strategies. Cairo, welcome to the show.

Cairo Marsh: 0:50

Kevin, thank you for having me on Roman as well. I appreciate the opportunity to be here and super excited to share what little insights I have.

Roman Trebon: 0:58

Oh, little. Yeah, I always say that, Kyra, you're gonna knock it outta the ballpark. I'm excited to have you on. We've been looking forward to it. So let's get into it. Kyra, what is your number one tip for our audience and for businesses out there looking to harness empathy? As a superpower in marketing,

Cairo Marsh: 1:13

the number one tip that I would suggest is it's related to empathy. It's around what does your audience need, right? Empathetic actions are really related to figuring out or caring about the other person or the other body, not yourself. And so the way that. We look at that and the way that we advise like our clients to look at that is through the lens of value. What value can you offer at this point of interaction, this point of engagement, this point of experience? So the the one, the one key tip that I would, that I would offer clients or anybody is really focused on in any engagement, in any touch point, in any marketing communication, any service, communication. What's the value you're putting out there for that other person? That would be the one thing I would say.

Roman Trebon: 2:00

Yeah, value is King Cairo. Do you have, uh, an example of any companies that are actually doing this pretty well in, in, in highlighting the value and, and having like this empathetic marketing?

Cairo Marsh: 2:10

Well, I, I think a lot of companies do it differently, right? Because I think the value that you. Our offering really depends on the context of what the consumer's looking for or on how you engage. So some value may be in, in, in, um, and, and I don't mean this in a, in a superficial way, I'm trying to find a, a non, a nonpolitical word to deri to describe it, but in, in, in the, the, the, like let's say if you're a Patagonia, when you talk about the things that you stand for and how you offer. The ability to recycle, uh, uh, clothing and garments. You're offering a sense of value beyond the purchase. You're offering a sense of value and the purpose, and I think that's one way to do it. Other types of value may literally be like, you know, in a more transactional sense that says, Hey, you know what, if you check out our newest offer, we have a sweepstakes opportunity. I mean, that sounds really transactional and there's nothing wrong with that, but at least it goes like, okay, well I wasn't looking to engage with you, but now it's worth it for me to check out what you might have to offer because you're putting something out there. I think the contextually, like if you're thinking about it from a performance marketing or a brand marketing, this ranges of values that you can actually offer, but the key part. In the context of your brand, your business is, what is it that's gonna be meaningful to my audience that I can stand by and just putting it out there? I think sometimes, like, I always joke actually, I'm not joking, but I think that we, we oftentimes, we oftentimes engage in a, in a sociopathic kind of way, like where it's all about me. It's all about like, here's what I need to get out of this deal. So hey, come check me out. Come do this for me. Buy this from us. Which I think ultimately is, to me, it does feel kind of sociopathic, even though I know that's an extreme word. Yeah. Um, value and as we, as you started this out, empathy is about, no, no, I'm starting with you and making sure that this is worth your time. And I just think that's so critical.

Kevin Metzger: 3:58

Do you have any, I'm gonna ask for a second to Yeah. Tips or suggestions for how to kind of get in that mindset as a company so that you're really looking at this from the customer's perspective. Well, I,

Cairo Marsh: 5:38

that's a great question. I, I wish I knew had a, a great answer for that. Like, honestly, my start in marketing when I was, uh, you know, I started working at this small company in, in New Jersey and I was. The admin assistant, you know, so I did all the filing for, for the, the founder and CEOI was going through his expenses, whatever, whatever, whatever he needed me to do is what I did. And honestly, great guy, brilliant guy. Still has the, the same company. He's grown it considerably obviously since then. Um, but I. When I wanted to make the move into marketing, empathy is one. The one thing he told me what's so critical, he's like, look, all you need to be is a good market, is be able to put yourself in someone else's shoes. If you can do that, you can add all the tools, bells and whistles, creativity, data, whatever according to it. But the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes is so critical. So I've always taken that to heart for my very first job. Yeah. I, I don't know if I know the right tip to put yourself in that mind, but I, I, I think if nothing else, it does require interest, right? It requires you to study your audience. It does require you to imagine their life, and you have to have an interest in that person in order to do that. It, it's, it's almost like. You know, I always make this comparison as well. It's almost like any relationship, if you have an interest in a person that you wanna build a relationship with, you gotta go like, well, what are they like? Like, what, what do they wanna talk about? Yeah. It's, it's no different, to be honest. It's simply no different. It's just different, different scale in different commercial terms, but it's really no different.

Roman Trebon: 7:11

It's, it's not all about me. It's not all about my company. It's about what others. So it's not just a marketing tip. We're also giving dating tips on here, so hopefully both hope of this conversation. Kyra, this was awesome. I'm glad you joined us for our, our, our one big tip. You're coming back on Wednesday. Where we have our one big question segment, we're gonna dive deeper into really how, uh, companies and brands can integrate empathy and value into their marketing strategies across regions, et cetera. So we'll dive into this topic even deeper, but appreciate you joining the show today. For our audience, make sure you subscribe like the show, you'll get notifications, so as soon as Cairo's Wednesday episode comes out, your phone will let you know you can listen to it. Uh, we appreciate you listening. Keep sharing, keep connecting with us. And Kevin, as always, keep on playing.