Dress for Success

Plus, a Q&A with Jennifer Thompson

Author

Ari Lewis
June 28, 2022

Hi everyone! I'm Ari Lewis, the co-founder of Payload. Welcome to my third space marketing newsletter.

In this month's edition:

  • Marketing meetup at AIAA Ascend

  • Diversity and dress code at conferences

  • Interview with Jen Thompson, head of marketing at Stoke Space

  • Five space marketing jobs

  • Three articles to help you do your job better

Before diving in...We still have a bit of inventory in Payload for Q4 and Q1. Join companies like Lockheed Martin, Xometry, and Maxar, which partner with us to amplify their messaging to the space industry. You can reply to this email or book a time on my calendar here. 

Now, on to the main business...

Marketing Meetup

I'll be going to AIAA Ascend and I'm hoping to organize an informal meetup with space marketers. If you'll also be in Vegas for the show, drop me a line by replying to this email. I'd love to get a group of space marketers together!

Ari's View from Space

I attended WSBW and IAC in September. As many of you know, I usually have the same attire at each conference: a Payload hat, Lululemon pants, and a Lulu polo. Everyone else at the conference typically dons suits.

Hear me out...Now, I'm not saying we all need to dress as casually as I do, but if we want to attract the next generation of workers, suits can't be the only clothing choice.

  • In fact, research has shown that a relaxed dress code leads to more productivity: "A study by StitchMine showed that 87% of workers believe adopting a more relaxed office dress code improves morale and that 47% believe it improves productivity as a result."

  • It even saves money, a survey by Randstad found: "33 percent of employees prefer an informal dress code to an extra $5K in salary."

Many of you might be wondering why I'm harping on the dress code. The reality is if we want to recruit the next generation to the space industry, issues like dress code matter. Tech companies' relaxed dress codes make it more difficult for us to compete for talent. If we want to make our industry more welcoming for Gen-Z talent, it might have to start by easing up on its dress code requirements.

Agree or disagree? Any other feedback? Reply and let me know what you're thinking. 

Profile of the Month

Name: Jennifer ThompsonCurrent Job: Head of Marketing, Stoke SpaceContact: [email protected] 

What is one item you'd take to space? Well, my first thought was chocolate, about 60% cacao. Then I thought, black licorice… You see a sweet trend here. But then I landed on bringing my Field Notes and my favorite pen, a Precise V5, because when I see something inspiring I’m immediately flooded with thoughts that I must write down; however, I’m reminded of the Seinfeld episode of the “space pen,” so I’m back to chocolate and black licorice! 

Jennifer, you recently joined Stoke. What attracted you to the company?Like many of us, I felt too much effort was being spent on launch and we needed to focus our efforts on infrastructure and in-space services. But then I met Andy Lapsa, CEO of Stoke Space. When I learned what they were building and how they were building it, it not only caught my attention, but I had to join. Stoke is building the rocket we’ve always needed and wanted: a 100% fully and rapidly reusable rocket designed with Earth in mind. It’s now my job to communicate this with the space community and with space enthusiasts.  

You are the first marketing person the company hired. When you join a company that has no formal marketing department, what do you do to bring structure to the business?Just like in engineering, there is a creative process and methodology. I start by deep diving into the company culture and product (in this case a fully reusable rocket) to create a very robust brand strategy that forms the foundation for all marketing efforts. This is rarely done (or done well) with most companies, and you can tell by how disjointed their marketing feels. Everything done by marketing should feel cohesive and point to the brand strategy, and most importantly it needs to map to company objectives. 

I’d also like to note that a strong brand strategy distills everything down into simple digestible lines, which is actually really hard to do. Anyone can write paragraphs to describe something, but can you do it in one line? That is the objective… What are you building? How are you building it? Why are you building it? What will happen if you succeed? When you boil your strategy down to simple statements, you can’t hide from what your message is. And that’s when the magic happens.  

This is your first internal role at a company. You spent your entire career working on the agency side. What motivated you to make that switch? How does the agency experience help you at your job?I got bit by the space bug. Several years ago, I went to JPL for a tour and realized in a moment that I needed to be part of this industry. I didn’t know how I was going to make the switch, but I became determined to find a way. Then COVID hit and all of sudden all these space conferences were online. I joined as many as I could, listening and learning how I could help. It turns out that the space community desperately needs marketing help. 

Having worked at creative agencies and then running my own until it was acquired last summer, gives me a unique perspective on the intersection of creative and business. I deeply understand and highly appreciate the creative process. I also have a very high bar having worked with incredibly talented people, “creative elites” you could say. From a business perspective, you have to figure out how to make the most out of your budget and smartly prioritize marketing channels and initiatives. Great branding and design goes a long way, so this is where I start. 

Any fun hobbies when you aren't working?Most of us would agree that working in space means you get to do your favorite hobby all day long! Working at Stoke is all consuming right now and that’s just the way I like it. Even if I’m out hiking, I’m devising plans and thinking about the next campaign. 

What is one marketing initiative that you have worked on at Stoke that has been successful and why?It’s not visible yet, but we now have a very strong brand strategy that we’re designing from. We’ll start to unveil everything over the next few months, so stay tuned! 

What are the top three things that all space companies could do right now to improve their marketing? 

  1. Don’t over-market. If you truly understand the space community, you know that you’re dealing with super smart people who get turned off by marketing fluff. Quality over quantity.

  2. Hardware first. If you don’t yet have a real product, be careful about how you show up externally, especially on social media. If you’re posting all the time, you’re probably not focused on the right things. 

  3. Know your vision. It’s easy to stay in the weeds as you build your product, but why are you building it? What purpose does it serve? I like to ask “why” four times. Why are you building this? Answer. “Why that?” Repeat. Repeat. Try this exercise and you’ll find the heart of your mission.

Bonus: Like I mentioned above, branding and design goes a long way. If you’re an engineer, let your marketing and creative team make the calls they need to be successful. This is their best and most useful tool in marketing. 

Curated Space Jobs

Ari's Top Links

Final Thoughts

Apologies for the delay on the third edition. I'm going to ensure this is sent at a monthly cadence moving forward.

And ICYMI, we recently hosted a PR webinar. Watch the recap here (password is oE9Gw9$c).

Please email me your feedback. It really helps me iterate and make the newsletter a better experience for you all. If you have anything to contribute, such as a job, link, interview, or article, email me and I'll work on including it in the next edition.

PS—This is an Editor's note from Ryan, Ari's editor. Today is his birthday. Everyone please wish Ari a happy bday!