Inc.

Rashi Kacker is an experienced leader with an entrepreneurial spirit who thrives at the intersection of digital marketing, technology, data, and analytics with demonstrated success over 12 years. She has established bold strategic visions, delivered consumer-first marketing experiences powered by strong MarTech expertise, and driven digital transformation, change management, while developing high-performing teams that bring forth innovative solutions for a sustainable future.

As Sr. Director, Marketing Technology Innovation at Constellation Brands Inc., Rashi Kacker oversees a team that is responsible for the strategic development and execution of marketing technology initiatives designed to build brand awareness, engagement, sales, and accelerate digital engagement with our consumers and customers alike across the Constellation Brands, Inc US portfolio.

Prior to Constellation Brands Inc., Rashi worked at Adobe Inc., TubeMogul, Apple Inc., and Digitas all focused on delivering expert technology and digital services to brands and clients alike. She holds a BA from University of California Los Angeles, and an MBA from Duke's Fuqua School of Business.

Following is the conversation that we had with her.

As the Sr. Director, Marketing Technology Innovation, what are some of your key roles and responsibilities that you take while serving at Constellation Brands, Inc.?

First off, thank you very much to your team for including me amongst so many talented, distinguished leaders, it truly is an honor, and I am humbled by the nomination.

I lead a team that is responsible for the strategic development and execution of marketing technology initiatives designed to build brand awareness, engagement, and sales across CBI’s US Wine, Spirits, and Beer Portfolio. In 2020, we focused on developing the strategy CBI’s MarTech strategy, gaining the support, advocacy, and investment from our Leadership Team and Board of Directors. In 2021, we built and launched the company’s first-ever marketing technology stack. In 2022, we are focused on 1) accelerating our personalization and marketing optimization efforts, 2) developing our technology partner relationships to continue to evolve our ecosystem 3) building near-real time analytical models to identify new pockets of growth 4) improving processes to achieve organizational efficiency and effectiveness. The team and I feel continually honored and privileged to work alongside more than 12 cross-functional internal business teams and three external partners to bring this vision to life.

In the last 10 years, the rapid growth of marketing technology suppliers has brought exciting new ways to connect with customers and grow brands. While some businesses thrive in this new context, others struggle to see the value in technology. Your views on this?

Today's consumers expect seamless and relevant experiences from brands, and this is table stakes for attracting new consumers and retaining loyalists. To do so, leading organizations connect with their consumers via data-driven marketing and leverage a MarTech stack that can house the data and deliver these unique experiences at scale.

“The continual innovative spirit of marketing technology empowers brands with the knowledge and where withal to engage consumers like never before”

Digital technology unlocks exciting ways for brands to come together to deliver memorable moments for consumers throughout their purchase journey and thereafter. Digital platforms, both long-standing and emerging, help extend reach beyond traditional channels while providing the ability for brands to customize their consumer experiences and optimize their messages throughout their digital touchpoints more deeply. In the same vein, privacy safe data collection policies, aggregated and democratized datasets that can be enriched through data clean rooms, and near real-time data visualizations and analytical models highlight business opportunities that were previously unknown. The continual innovative spirit of marketing technology empowers brands with the knowledge and where withal to engage consumers like never before.

As the disruption of 2022 continues into 2023, what are some of the challenges that need to be addressed in digital marketing and technology, ranging from recovery to resilience and reinvention?

There are two critical areas of disruption modern marketers will need to navigate within Alcohol/Beverage. First, datasets are fragmented, and we must stitch together traditional and digital touchpoints to understand each consumer's journey but also their behaviors, likes, dislikes, and desires.  Second, we must find innovative ways to measure the success of our touchpoints amidst the decay of legacy identifiers like cookie and Mobile IDs, this means we will need to re-learn how we determine marketing success and addressability.

What would be your piece of advice for your fellow peers and leaders?

We unlocked success by partnering with as many cross functional stakeholders as we could early on in our digital and marketing technology journey. To us, the engagement brought a deeper understanding of their business challenges and what they have been keen to solve. From there, we leveraged tangible examples to showcase potential viable solutions and inspired them to join us in building this evolved digitally enabled future together. I have found that the more folks who believe in the shared vision, the greater likelihood it will be in becoming a reality.