Communicator spotlight: Kim Chappell, chief brand officer of Bobbie

What she's saying: "There's a reason why we decided to build our company on the back of a brand," Chappell told Axios. "We truly believe that everything we do is rooted in our purpose as a company — and I don't mean that in flighty terms. It is truly how we pull celebrities into our brand to help move the needle on a policy or drive awareness for an issue that we know is impacting our customers."

Zoom in: Bobbie recently partnered with professional tennis player Naomi Osaka for a campaign around paid parental leave and worked with singer Meghan Trainor to address postpartum mental health.

• Chappell and her team also take a more aggressive approach to communications, she says.
• "An absence of comms allows the conspiracy theories to swirl, it allows people to create the narrative, or it looks like you're avoiding something, and I just think it's always best to get out in front of it," Chappell says.
• "For example, during the 2022 infant formula shortage crisis, Laura [Modi] was the only CEO of an infant formula company to talk to media during that crisis. She's also the only mom-founder in this industry in the U.S. and she continues to speak to that crisis in a way that I don't think anybody else in our industry can."

Catch up quick: Chappell worked in local news for more than a decade before pivoting into communications and marketing.

• She led communications at Weebly — which was acquired by Square in 2018. She then joined Square's product and brand team before taking a role at Bobbie in 2020.
• Chappell found out she was pregnant with her third baby two days after Bobbie's first product was launched in January of 2021: "It was really awesome because I was the customer. I was living and breathing the experience of going back to work, turning to formula and subscribing to the product."

Context: Chappell reports to Modi and oversees the team responsible for creative content, impact and nonprofit work, communications and publicity, marketing, social media, and partnerships.

• "I lean into my background as a reporter and run the team a little bit like a newsroom," she says. "What is the story that we need to be ahead of? How are we turning out content every day? How are we getting to the emotion and making sure that we're telling the stories of our customers in the way that no one else in our industry is doing?"

What she's watching: Chappell is paying attention to disruptor brands like Graza and Ladder, mission-centered brands like Perelel Health, and those with strategic celebrity partnerships like Pvolve.

• She's also paying close attention to the evolution of search and how it might change how brands are discovered.
• "Google AI has changed the game. People are not clicking on links anymore. What is AI saying about your company or your brand? And furthermore, people aren't just Googling. They're using TikTok, Instagram and Amazon to search and understand products."

Best career advice: Remember that no one is great at everything.

• "There are a lot of smoke and mirrors, egos and pomp and circumstance around the marketing industry — and what I've realized is no one is actually that great at everything, and that's OK."
• "We have to go into these roles with a bit of humility, lean into our strengths, learn everything we can and hire great people who can round out our expertise."

More on Axios: Infant formula maker Bobbie raises $70M, acquires production plant