Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, BRUNSWICK CORP
Brunswick Corporation's Lauren Beckstedt In The C Space Studio – CES 2023
Brunswick Corporation's Lauren Beckstedt joins James Kotecki in the CES C Space Studio to discuss her brand refresh that was ...
About Lauren Beckstedt
Lauren Beckstedt, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Brunswick, has discussed the company's efforts to modernize its brand and marketing approach. In a 2023 interview at CES, she described Brunswick's "most comprehensive Innovation strategy in its history," centered on autonomous, connected, electrified, and shared (ACES) technologies, and noted a brand refresh aimed at highlighting the company's technology story. She stated that the company has introduced electric propulsion options and a new boat brand, Veer, and emphasized making boating more accessible through initiatives like the Freedom Boat Club membership program. Beckstedt also said that hybrid workplace flexibility could lead to more time on the water and influence boat design. In a 2025 podcast appearance, Beckstedt addressed the perception of marketing as "fluff" and said her role involves redefining marketing as a "sales engine." She stated that Brunswick has set targets for sales attributable to marketing, with a goal of 50 percent of revenue supported by digitally assisted or marketing-attributable sales. Beckstedt described the company's use of a "digital thread" to gather consumer data and an always-on test-and-learn program to build belief in marketing's impact. She also discussed a "shadow P&L" model where marketing and business units jointly own revenue targets, and noted that tighter budgets made it easier to build a stronger marketing function when the business needed demand.
Transcript (27 segments)
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James Kotecki0:11
Hey, we're back. It's the Sea Space Studio here at CES 2023. I'm your host James Kotecki, and right now I'm joined by Lauren Beckstead, the CMO of Brunswick. Welcome to the Sea Space Studio.
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Lauren Beckstedt0:22
Thank you for having me.
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James Kotecki0:25
Okay, so Brunswick, a long and storied brand, but we are here to talk about the present and the future. So can you first start by defining for me what the Brunswick brand means in 2023?
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Lauren Beckstedt0:33
Well, Brunswick, you may not be as familiar with what Brunswick is today, but you probably know many of our brands. So we're the leader in recreational marine. We've got all the leading brands in boating: Sea Ray, Boston Whaler, Mercury, Lawrence. And what today, what we're doing, we have introduced the most comprehensive innovation strategy in our company history. And it is storied, as you say, but this is really kind of a next era for us. And the brand that you are describing, we, it was just time to level up. We've done a lot of work over the last three years to advance what our technology strategy is. And here, it's a nice moment to do kind of a comprehensive unveiling because we've got all the proof points and products all together, and we're finally in person again.
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James Kotecki1:18
So tell me some of the details of what that means from a technology perspective. What are some of the innovations that Brunswick is and will be known for?
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Lauren Beckstedt1:26
Well, a lot of our strategy is based on the tenants around ACES. We call it our ACES Innovation Strategy: autonomous, connected, electrified, and shared, which are really just key themes generated from next-generation consumer, what they need. And so what we're introducing at CES are aspects of our strategy that fulfill those tenants. So we've introduced electric propulsion options, new bolt, new boat brand Veer, which was a multi-use fishing vessel. And then the heart of the story is how everything connects. We've got aspects of the entire ecosystem in boating, so seeing how all those pieces fit together and how you can give consumers more options of how they experience boating is really kind of the heart of the story here.
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James Kotecki2:11
We talk about connectivity. Are we talking about I have an app on my phone and I can basically control everything, just like I can control an electric car with an app on my phone? I can control everything with my phone. Are we talking about boats connected to each other in some sort of a fleet situation? Or maybe both?
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Lauren Beckstedt2:24
All of it. I think the great thing about technology is there's no rule, so you get to create all the rules. But so we do have apps like you're describing. We do have connectivity that helps autonomous mode helps you kind of master boating even if you maybe aren't the best boater or maybe you've never done it. It's easier than ever now. There's too many knots. I think there's too many knots in nautical situations. I look very impressive as a captain. I'm not as good as it looks. It's the technology that helps. So the connectivity helps you master connect with your own boat, but between boats and also with others. So there's a lot of connecting the boating community, which is really powerful. So we have different aspects of all of those different types of connections.
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James Kotecki3:04
When you talked about the S in ACES, which was shared, does that mean it's kind of like an Uber or a Lyft? And if I just want to have a fractional experience on a boat, I just pull it up and take the boat out for the afternoon? I don't have to own it?
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Lauren Beckstedt3:17
Exactly. So I think one of the things about boating that we're just getting into is more flexibility in how you experience boating, better access. And so you described it compared to kind of an Uber Lyft. We have Freedom Boat Clubs. So we're the largest boat club operator, and Freedom Boat Club lets you buy into a membership program and then you can try many different types of boats. We have the fleet. We will help you. We can offer captain services. We do a lot of training and education. But then you can try different types of boats. And you do, yes, you share boats with your kind of your community in your local marina.
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James Kotecki3:50
I want to also talk about that A in ACES: automated, autonomy. How autonomous can boats be right now? And where are we going in the near future? Do I need a captain at all? Can I water ski with no one else in the boat? Where are we right now?
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Lauren Beckstedt4:05
The technology itself can do a ton. There's a difference between what we can actually do and we really are out ahead in all of what you're describing, and then what is affordable and you can bring to market. Because we really want to make sure that as we're bringing these new innovations to market, that everyone can experience boating. That's a huge priority for us, that we're reaching new audiences. So we can do auto docking, we can do waypoint finding, we do have kind of push button wake making to what you were describing. So yeah, it is pretty autonomous. Boating is easier than ever before. I always tell people, whatever you have in your head about boating from the past, look again. Because it's, I mean, my husband and I had very, we had extensive training but very little experience previously. He was a sailor, so it's very different. Now we're speed boats. Picked it up right away with all the advanced technology and autonomous features that we have.
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James Kotecki5:01
Tell me about this broader brand transformation that Brunswick has gone through. I believe you know, you're such a storied brand. I date back to the 1800s, I believe. People might remember the name Brunswick on bowling pins and bowling lanes. Obviously the brand has totally transformed. And what's so interesting about that is there probably are other people here at CES who are going through maybe similar transitions or considering whether to do that. Tell me about some of the lessons that you take from this transition and why it was important to do.
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Lauren Beckstedt5:30
Well, the tagline that we introduced, Next Never Us, is so deeply authentic to our culture. We are always working to push ourselves to what's next. So you mentioned the transformation. We are just such a different company today than we were even three years ago. And we've spent a lot of time reshaping the company in our priorities, our portfolio, our business. We've talked about Freedom Boat Club. And so the brand update was really just the next step on an evolution of our underlying business strategy. But I think in terms of the transformation and what it's about, it's really trying to focus on our technology story. That's the heart of our company, our innovation culture. So Next Never Us as a tagline just felt super authentic for us.
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James Kotecki6:18
And I guess one theme I'm just coming up with this on the fly is it's all about fun, right? It's always been about helping people have fun on some level.
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Lauren Beckstedt6:24
Fun for sure. It's definitely fun. There's a lot of adrenaline rush with it. But it's also, we're a for-profit company, but it does, being in the water does feel altruistic sometimes. You just connected with nature. It's like you're giving people a next dimension almost. It's the best.
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James Kotecki6:42
Does global warming shape the way you think about the future of the boating industry in terms of where the water is, where it will be, if it will be higher or more people are going to need boats? Do you think about that in terms of long-term planning?
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Lauren Beckstedt6:54
Yeah, oh yeah, of course. Weather in particular, especially in boating, is a very big dynamic. So we spend a lot of time making sure we're staying ahead of the curve on sustainability, working with specific materials to continue to advance our sustainability strategy. But then we also do a lot of aspects of our sustainability strategy are also relevance with our communities and people enduring relevance as a company. But we do spend a lot of time on all those topics.
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James Kotecki7:22
It's kind of in accordance with the overall theme of CES this year, which as you may know is Human Security for All, which is talking about human security in all these different dimensions: health security, environmental security, personal security, food security, all these different things. It sounds like that's something that resonates with Brunswick as well.
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Lauren Beckstedt7:40
Yeah, so Brunswick has a portfolio of brands and we reach the broadest base of consumers in marine, period. But we're a partner brand. We partner with a lot of other OEMs, dealers, distributors. Because we have such a broad access to consumer and because we've got the scale that we do, we can invest a lot in protecting our consumers, their information, their data, so that they can be connected in a way that feels safe to them and encourages them to kind of open up and connect more. So yes, that's very high on our priority list.
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James Kotecki8:12
When you think about the future, is there a question that you're asking yourself about the future right now?
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Lauren Beckstedt8:20
I always ask, we have a community of consumers called Ripple that we, they help us stay on top of trends. We ask them all the time, what are you thinking about? What matters to you most right now? I think for boating, for our industry, as I think about what's next in the future, hybrid workplace and all the flexibility consumers have today or individuals have today could really be a huge unlock to more time on the water, more access to water. So I spent a lot of time thinking about what might that mean for us, for even the types of boats we design, for the technology they need. Working from your boat, we had a ton of people during COVID working from their boat, which was really fun to see. So I spent a lot of time thinking about how might that change how we use boats.
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James Kotecki9:03
So it's kind of like the evolution of the car, right? So like what a car is and means and represents could actually fundamentally change what you're doing.
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Lauren Beckstedt9:10
Yes, what you're doing on a boat, how you want it connected to all your other devices, your work life.
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James Kotecki9:16
Absolutely. Well, Lauren Beckstead, CMO of Brunswick, thanks so much for joining us here in the Sea Space Studio.
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Lauren Beckstedt9:21
Thank you. Nice to meet you.
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James Kotecki9:22
We really appreciate it. And we really appreciate you watching us here in the Sea Space Studio, sponsored by Salesforce, here at CES 2023. I'm James Kotecki, and more great conversations are just ahead.