In 2018, I interviewed for BarkShop's Head of Marketing position. Naturally, the interview had a pre-interview assignment: http://bit.ly/barkshop18. My completed assignment is below. I hope this helps anyone interviewing at Bark.

1. BARKSHOP MARKETING ASSIGNMENT
JON CHANG + LUCY CHANG

2. 2
ASSIGNMENT PROMPT
Our revenue goals are 164% YOY and 153% YOY for Q3 and Q4, respectively.
We are heavily investing in wellness (CBD & supplements), treats and toys (currently our biggest spend,
but we'd like it to be less of a focus). How would you would grow Shop to meet these goals? What channel
mix (digital, out of home, etc), any non-traditional channels, influencers, etc?
Assume ~$150k-200k media spend monthly.
**To directly answer the prompt, the following plan doesn’t optimize for reducing costs,
such as CPL, CPA, and long-term growth of unpaid marketing channels and SEO.

3. 3
YOY REVENUE GROWTH
Q3
+164% YOY
Expand product offerings: CBD & supplements
Increase AOV and Avg. Cart Size: focus on bundles and collections
Reach new customers: expand marketing mix to new digital, out-of-home, and influencers
Increase customer retention: level up lifecycle and automated email marketing
Optimize on-site conversion rate: test alternative navigation and PDP structure
Optimize Box → Shop conversion rate: introduce drip onboardings and offboardings
Q4
+153% YOY
Brand campaign activation: combine the Q3 efforts in a single, large campaign
New product pricing [just an idea]: increase price of individual items and decrease price of bundles
Expand distribution channels [probably 2019, not 2018]: explore options beyond Target
OVERVIEW OF OBJECTIVE AND AREAS OF OPPORTUNITY

4. 4
MARKET ADVANTAGES
● Credible and strong brand promise
● Market leader for flagship subscription product
● CBD products
MARKET CHALLENGES
● Competing on affordability and low price value proposition
● Competing on volume of product offering
● Competing on size of ad budget
● Current marketplace brand awareness
MARKET ADVANTAGES AND CHALLENGES

5. 5
BRAND PILLARS
BRAND PROMISE
BRAND PROMISE
Helping dog owners be the best dog parents
CURATION LIFESTYLE EDUCATION
Shop BarkShop, instead of
digging through the noise
of other sites
Products for every dog
lover’s lifestyle and
occasions
Advice from expert dog
lovers so your dog can have
the best care
Collections Bundles Help content
All CBD products CBD starter bundle
Understanding your dog’s
anxiety
POSITIONING
PRODUCT TYPE
EXAMPLE

6. 6
↑AVERAGE ORDER VALUE & ↑AVERAGE CART SIZE
CBD & supplements
New dog parent
Puppies
Squeakers
Elderly dog care
Weekend vacation
...and so many more...
EXAMPLE NEW BUNDLES APPLICABLE CURRENT BUNDLES
Destroyers
Puzzles
Park survival
Barkday
Pool party (floaties, et al.)
Increase AOV by increasing promotion of thematic bundles and collections that match user lifestyles and
occasions, requiring new bundles of current products. Ideal lifestyles and occasions address specific user
pain points or aspirations, complementing the current creative- and breed-themed bundles and collections.

7. Understanding that add-ons and recommended items are already part of the checkout process, I suggest
leveling up the automation and testing rigor in this part of the user journey to increase Average Cart Size.
7
↑AVERAGE ORDER VALUE & ↑AVERAGE CART SIZE

8. 8
Newsletters
Box
subscription
Newsletter
signup
Event signup
Content
engagement
Shop
purchase
OFFBOARDING
ONBOARDING
ENGAGEMENT
OFFBOARDING
ENGAGEMENT
OFFBOARDING
ENGAGEMENT
OFFBOARDING
AUTOMATION, LIFECYCLE EMAIL, ONBOARDINGS AND OFFBOARDINGS
Shop acquisition channels

9. Revenue-focused audience segmentation framework
1. Box customers who have yet to become Shop
customers
2. Email subscribers who aren’t Bark customers
3. Social media engagers and followers who aren’t
Bark customers
4. Main competitors’ audiences who aren’t Bark
customers
5. Current dog owners who aren’t yet in the funnel
6. New dog owners and gifters to dog owners
9
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
➤
➤
6.
NEW CUSTOMER GROWTH

10. 10
SEGMENT CHANNELS % OF SPEND
1. Box customers who aren’t Shop customers
Email, push, on-site, print assets in Box,
events
0%
2. Email subscribers who aren’t Bark customers Email, ad retargeting, events 10%
3.
Social media engagers and followers who
aren’t Bark customers
Ad targeting, organic social (live, contests,
AMAs), partners/influencers, events
20%
4.
Main competitors’ audiences who aren’t Bark
customers
Ad targeting, partners/influencers, events 25%
5. Current dog owners who aren’t in the funnel
SEM, paid & organic social,
partners/influencers, events, out-of-home,
direct mail
30%
6.
Brand new dog owners and gifters to dog
owners
SEM, partners/influencers, events, TV 15%
NEW CUSTOMER GROWTH

11. Without the current paid marketing performance data, here’s how I would approach paid marketing.
The $150K - $200K p/month marketing spend is divided into 3 KPIs:
● Direct-to-purchase
● Direct-to-lead
● Awareness and Engagement
Majority of Q3 spend is dedicated to awareness, engagement, and direct-to-lead to develop a repository
of new users and customers for the Q4 holiday season and brand activation. This will increase paid
marketing efficiency during the expensive holiday season. Additionally, the paid social post engagement
creates high quality custom and tailored audiences.
Awareness efforts also include out-of-home tactics (subway station and street) and more traditional
channels (podcast, TV, and direct mail) to increase the reach and user touch points before purchase.
11
PAID MARKETING
Link to budgeting breakdown exercise

12. In Q4, while email converts the Q3 new users and customers, majority of spend is dedicated to
direct-to-purchase on primary channels and activating the brand campaign. At this point, paid social will
convert the custom and tailored audiences of users who engaged with Q3 posts.
Here’s an example of creating custom and tailored audiences:
Example 1
Promote a 30 - 45 second branded video that states the value propositions at 3 seconds, then highlights
product offerings at 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds, and 40 seconds. Depending on each user’s video
view duration, they’ll be retargeted with varying aggressiveness of messaging and CTAs.
Example 2
Partners, influencers, and organic methods drive traffic to on-site educational content. Combined with
user engagement of promoted videos and other social posts, the on-site behavioral data develops the
highest quality retargeting audiences and provides additional insight about the user characteristics, pains
points, and aspirations.
12
PAID MARKETING
Link to budgeting breakdown exercise

13. BRAND CAMPAIGN CONCEPT
13
BRAND CAMPAIGN ACTIVATION

14. Develop a campaign that increases revenue while also achieving supplemental objectives
● Successful promotion of CBD products
● Reduce pressure to promote individual treats and toys
● Maintain lower advertising costs (less than $150K - $200K monthly)
● Can be implemented both short-term and long-term
● Can be executed on all marketing channels
● Conceptually flexible to current and upcoming product offerings
● Both light-hearted and educational
● Reinforces the brand promise (helping dog owners be the best dog parents)
14
BRAND CAMPAIGN ACTIVATION OBJECTIVE

15. 15
Campaign description
This campaign leans into the pains and joys of being a parent, everything from embarrassing outfits for
dog-children to worrying about dog anxiety.
Product considerations
● Bundles for different pains and joys (increases AOV and retention)
● Collections for different pains and joys (increases cart size and retention)
Marketing considerations
● Introduce new brand assets of educational content and creative scenes of dogs acting out famous pop
culture moments (increases awareness and engagement)
● Expand channel mix to reach new customers: placements of current digital channels, out-of-home,
partners/influencers, new content formats of current digital channels, direct mail, and events
BRAND CAMPAIGN ACTIVATION OVERVIEW

16. Example Campaign Component Execution
Weekly posts of dogs acting out famous pop culture moments, each highlighting a different product bundle.
Prompt audience to post UGC re-enacting the same scene with their dog(s). Winners are randomly selected
get free bundles.
Benefits
● Thematic campaign trains users to participate weekly, building total audience size over time
● Post Engagers will be added to custom advertising audiences, increasing advertising efficiency
● Natural way to introduce new bundles, increasing understanding of bundle value propositions
● Floods the internet with Bark UGC
● Provides widespread brand awareness for introduction of educational content and new bundles
16
BRAND CAMPAIGN ACTIVATION EXAMPLE

17. 17
BUNDLE CREATIVE EXECUTION EDUCATIONAL CONTENT AUDIENCES
CBD Pineapple Express, Dazed &
Confused, Half Baked
Understanding your dog’s anxiety Parents of anxious dogs
New dog
parent
Look Who’s Talking, 3 Men & A
Baby, Annie
How to prepare for your first day
as a dog parent
New dog parents
Destroyers Expendables, Kill Bill, Die Hard Destruction as a positive form of
doggie self-expression
Dog parents of dogs that
easily destroy toys
BRAND CAMPAIGN ACTIVATION EXAMPLE CREATIVE CONCEPTS
The creative execution is especially important, because the pop culture moments allow for direct empathy
to nearly every persona type.

18. THANK YOU
JON CHANG + LUCY CHANG