Tableau chief marketing officer Elissa Fink believes that effective brand messaging hinges on positive customer experiences. She stopped by theCUBE at last week’s Tableau Customer Conference to discuss how she applies this principle in her work.

Fink and her team take most of the credit for organizing the event, which theCUBE co-host Dave Vellante named “one of the top two conferences that we’ve been to in terms of alignment” between messaging and customer priorities. The executive highlights that she chose the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Washington, D.C. as the venue for the gathering because it can accommodate a large number of attendees while still providing an “intimate” experience. The fact that there are several hotels nearby is another major benefit from a community engagement standpoint.

Asked about the impressive roster of customer speakers at the conference, Fink says that “it’s very difficult and and we take it very seriously when we’re deciding” who to feature. She and her colleagues spent many hours reviewing candidate applications because “we want our customers to come here because they say ‘this is worth it, I learned something that [will help me] be better at what I do and what my organization does when I get back to the office.’”

Fink credits the success of her marketing strategy to a number of factors, first and foremost Tableau’s offering. As she puts it, the quality of her company’s data visualization software lets her focus on delivering value instead of “dodging potholes.” She names the firm’s goal-driven approach to hiring as another driver behind its rapid growth.

See the video below for the full highlights from the interview, including more on the importance of empowering customers to interact with each other.