A small group of DISH Network marketers and technologists traveled to rural Indiana to pursue a potential growth opportunity. Patti Fries, head of customer insights, led the effort after joining in 2011 without a team, budget, or champion. Patti conducted one-on-one meetings with senior leaders, reviewed company financials, and analyzed subscriber data to identify core problems. DISH had grown rapidly to 14 million subscribers by 2010 but then encountered the emerging "cord-cutting" trend and rising competition. Those forces slowed subscriber growth and increased the cost of acquiring new customers.
A cold wind blew across the fallow Indiana cornfields as the small group of execs stood in the hotel parking lot. Spring would be late this year. The execs were a long way from their home base in Denver. They were marketers and technologists for DISH Network, one of the fastest-growing satellite TV services in the country. More than a few of them looked out of their element. But they were here following a hunch.
When Patti first joined DISH Network in 2011, it had never had an insights leader. She had no team, no budget, and no real champion. Her first day on the job, she learned that the CMO who hired her had quit the day before. This was going to be interesting. If she was going to succeed, Patti needed to start adding value quickly.
Patti set up one-on-one meetings with senior leaders to figure out what was keeping them up at night. She immersed herself in the company's financials. And she dug into existing subscriber data. That's when she found the problem. DISH had been going like gangbusters in the early 2000s, amassing 14 million subscribers by 2010, closing in on DirecTV, the market leader. But by 2011, the emerging "cord-cutting" trend and intensifying competition had slowed the juggernaut, and subscriber growth was coming at an increasing cost.
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