Case Study

Reforge Empowers HP’s Marketers for Growth

Use cases: Org-wide transformation, establishing shared language

Erin Spira

Global Head of HP Marketing Lab, HP

Tara Agen

Global Head and VP, HP Marketing Effectiveness, Operations, and MarTech, HP

Key Points:

HP’s marketing lab has equipped 300+ global marketers with Reforge membership over three years.
The collaboration with Reforge has allowed HP to embrace a unified language across the growth marketing organization.
Reforge and HP partnered to develop a marketing job architecture that maps to Reforge content so marketers have a clear career growth path.

Background

HP's Marketing Lab is an internal training, learning and career path development program dedicated to cultivating the skills and capabilities of 1000+ global and local marketers to adapt to the changing landscape and positively impact their career path growth at HP.

Reforge has partnered with HP’s Marketing Lab for more than three years, equipping a large portion of their marketers with access to Reforge content and community including private applied learning cohorts, to elevate and improve growth marketing capabilities. The partnership together, and HP’s implementation of Reforge, is a strong example of how Reforge’s programs and training content can be effectively deployed across a larger organization.

To understand how HP’s Marketing Lab uses Reforge so efficiently, we talked to Tara J. Agen, the Global Head and VP of HP Marketing Effectiveness, Operations and MarTech,, as well as Erin Spira, Global Head of HP Marketing Lab. Their passion for helping both Marketing employees and the business growth challenges to reach new heights was inspiring.

This case study delves into:

The role of HP’s Marketing Lab and the partnership with Reforge
The adoption of Reforge across the marketing team
The impact on HP's marketing growth and performance.

Why HP Selected Reforge

Deepak Masand, Global Head of Growth Marketing COE, originally identified the need to refocus their marketing organization around more growth frameworks and tactics. HP sought a solution like Reforge, specializing in education and training for modern marketing teams, to help elevate and train HP Marketers around growth and advanced growth.

The goal was to not only empower marketers to think more broadly and deeply about customer needs, but also modernize HP Marketing’s approach to growth marketing around a subscription product.

Reforge stood out among other learning solutions HP researched due to its expertise in teaching subscription-level marketing and its ability to address the specific challenges of marketing subscription-based products, such as Instant Ink and Consumer Services.

In the evaluation process, Reforge immediately emerged as the solution HP was looking for because of a few main differentiating factors:

The structure of the programming
- Erin said, “Your training modules are very digestible and easy to follow.”
Growth Marketing language
- Tara said, “Reforge has a unified approach to the language of growth, and you’ve built capability maps to create a common language we needed to speak as an organization.”
The partnership
- Erin said “Our relationship has continued to grow and scale because Reforge has really adapted to working with a larger matrix organization, whereas your core customer previously was an individual or smaller organization.”

Reforge reframed HP Marketers' thinking, enabling them to target specific markets, experiment, and make better decisions, thus making them more future-ready Marketers.

Implementing Reforge at HP

During and after implementing Reforge's solutions, HP witnessed positive outcomes. Over 300 marketers engaged with the platform, undergoing growth marketing training. The marketing team at HP found the content and structure of Reforge's training modules valuable and adapted quickly, especially with the help of Reforge applied learning specialists to coach HP Marketers towards more performance.

Reforge's methodology empowered employees to tangibly impact metrics and demonstrate their contributions to the growth needs of HP’s 166 countries where HP does business. While some found the journey overwhelming at first, superstars emerged, making a significant difference in their roles, impacting the global business, sales, and categories while elevating and transforming their careers.

Additionally, the partnership algined Reforge's offerings with HP's marketing capabilities, skills and job architecture framework, providing a growth-oriented path for their marketers' career development. HP marketers who engage with Reforge's programs can enhance their skills and knowledge while applying their learnings to drive revenue and make a substantial impact. The direct application of growth models and applied learning has become integral to the career growth of HP's marketers.

HP expresses enthusiasm for continuing to utilize Reforge's solutions in the future. As HP scales and focuses across the organization, Reforge's programs will remain essential to its marketing initiatives. HP sees value in the immediate impact, continuous learning experience, and community-driven approach that Reforge offers, and plans to leverage these benefits to drive further growth and success for its future ready Marketing goals.

Reforge’s Impact

HP considers Reforge “110% worth the investment”, particularly for organizations seeking to demystify growth marketing. Reforge's comprehensive curriculum and expertise position them as the first choice for marketers looking to enhance their skills and drive growth within their organizations.

Erin said, “If you look at where we were at, we started on this journey two years ago. Now, over 300 marketers are engaged with your platform who have fully gone through your growth marketing program and are experimenting in other content.”

Additionally, the team has started to notice a trend in the marketers who are impacting the global business units in a way that stands out. Tara said, “You can see that there's such differentiation in those marketing leaders versus those that dabbled in it or kind of participated.”

By the numbers

3+

Years of partnership with Reforge

300+

Global marketers equipped with Reforge access

How Reforge has impacted HP’s view on marketing roles.

Tara and Erin also highlighted how HP’s leadership appreciates Reforge's founder mentality and its ability to provide immediate impact through education and learning. Reforge's approach enables individuals and teams to quickly learn, apply their knowledge effectively, and foster community and collaboration within the greater organization.

For organizations embarking on a similar venture, HP recommends securing executive support and identifying super users to spearhead the implementation process.

Organizations should showcase their own growth models, start applying learnings, measure attribution success, and build use cases to create excitement within the organization. It's crucial to establish executive support and a core group of enthusiastic users while recognizing that the journey may require time and commitment.

Conclusion

HP's Marketing Lab and its partnership with Reforge have transformed the marketing employee experience within the organization. By providing comprehensive growth training, learning, and career development opportunities, HP empowers its marketers to navigate the complexities of growth marketing successfully.

The collaboration with Reforge has allowed HP to embrace a unified language across the growth marketing organization and leverage applied learning to impact business results. With continued support and utilization of Reforge's solutions, HP's marketing team is poised for ongoing success in an ever-evolving digital landscape.

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