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In this episode of OFFBounds, Paula Macaggi chats with Kristen D’Arcy, the first-ever CMO of True Religion, about the brand's remarkable turnaround. After two bankruptcies, True Religion is making a big comeback, and Kristen shares how she’s helping lead the charge. From tapping into the brand's rich history in music and culture to launching the Team True influencer program, Kristen talks about what it takes to stay relevant in today’s market. She also gives us a sneak peek into how athletes, rappers like Drake, and even influencers like Ice Spice are organically embracing the brand. Kristen’s got big plans, and her vision is all about balancing tradition with modern marketing to help True Religion hit that billion-dollar goal.
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00:00 Reviving True Religion: A Brand's Comeback Story
Connect with us on LinkedIn
00:00 Reviving True Religion: A Brand's Comeback Story
03:02 Understanding the Consumer: Insights and Strategies
05:47 Influencer Marketing: Building a Team True Religion
08:53 Digital-First Approach: E-commerce and Social Commerce
12:06 Loyalty Programs: Engaging Customers Beyond Transactions
14:50 Leadership and Team Building: The Role of a CMO
18:04 Women in Leadership: The Importance of Support
20:58 Advice for Aspiring CMOs: Building a Career Path
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Studio: Operation Podcast Studio
Production: Paula Macaggi
Edition: Bicho de Goiaba
Research: Lia Cabrini
Design: Gabriel Fischer
Partnership: Shoptalk Fall
Creators & Guests
What is OFFBounds?
OFFBounds is a podcast where commerce executives share their perspectives, successes, and lessons learned in their careers to inspire other global leaders in their journey and decision-making.
Every week, the host Paula Macaggi meets industry leaders to discuss business strategies, careers, and leadership in one-on-one conversations challenging the limits of borders and boundaries.
Paula unveils the person behind the leader and brings to her audience of commerce executives experiences to relate, motivate, and reflect on decisions that are shaping commerce.
OFFBounds is the first podcast recorded in person with audio and video featuring executives in commerce from around the world.
Today, I am in Los Angeles to talk about True Religion. True Religion is a clothes and accessories brand for men, women, and children. And True Religion was very famous in the early 2000. But in 2017, they filed for bankruptcy, and then they filed again in 2020. Since then, they have been having a very good comeback.
Paula Macaggi:And I have here with me today the brand's first CMO, who is Kristen Darcy, and she has an amazing story to tell us about how it is to bring this brand back to life. She will also be in Chicago for ShopTalk Fall from October 16th to 18th. And if you haven't booked the tickets yet, there are some links in the show notes with 20% discount for Off Balanced listeners. This is Paula Macaggi, and this is the retail innovation series of my show in partnership with Shop. Fall.
Paula Macaggi:Welcome to Offbounce. Kristen, I'm so happy to have you here in Adelaide. Welcome to the show.
Kristen D'Arcy:Thank you. So happy to
Paula Macaggi:be here. I have many questions. So you are the CMO of True Religion, which is a brand that I have I don't know, that I remember when I was very young, that I was wearing with, like, together with other stars, that I was used to see at MTV when it was a thing. And then they went bankrupt, like, twice and now they're leading a comeback and you are the one on the helm of the marketing strategy. What led you to take on this challenge?
Kristen D'Arcy:It's a great question. I think there's a couple different reasons. Number 1, Michael Buckley is our CEO. He's incredible. He's an incredible visionary and operator.
Kristen D'Arcy:You know, you mentioned where we are today. He's sort of the incredible business mind behind all of that. So I was really excited about the opportunity to work for him. And I believe him when he told me during the interview process that we could be a $1,000,000,000 company. I have no doubt.
Kristen D'Arcy:I don't see us having any direct competitors. And it's because of what you said. We've been around since 2002. Even back then, Serena, Venus Williams wore us. Black Eyed Peas and Jim Jones rapped about us.
Kristen D'Arcy:And now today, between late last year and this year, you had Ice Spice and Latto publicly sort of feuding about who loves the brand more between the 2 of them. You have sexy red rapping about us. You have Drake that just released a track couple months ago talking about us.
Paula Macaggi:We were on That was organic?
Kristen D'Arcy:That was all organic. Wow. We were on Ice Spice's most recent album cover. If you zoom in, she's wearing a pair of r shorts with the horseshoe showing. So I think in addition to incredible leadership under Michael, I was really excited to come to a brand that does have such an incredible history.
Kristen D'Arcy:It's a brand that has always sat at the cross section between music, sports, and culture. And I thought there was a way to kind of bring alive all of that magic even more so today as we scale and grow the brand and the business.
Paula Macaggi:And I was reading you are the first CMO of the brand, which is kind of never talked to a first CMO of any brand. That's what they tell me. Yeah. How was that? Like, assuming as a like, just getting there as the new CMO, like, what was the process to rediscover the brand, I'll say?
Kristen D'Arcy:I was lucky in that Michael had just completed a consumer research study right before I joined. So he gave it to me, and it gave us a really great understanding of who our consumer is right now, as well as the white space for who we could go after as we bring new consumers into the brand in the future. Future. So that was sort of step number 1. Step number 2, I started in July of last year, the very end of July.
Kristen D'Arcy:There was not a holiday campaign in the works yet. And I thought, wow, this is a huge opportunity. And also, this is gonna be a sprint. So we immediately, you know, started planning a really big holiday campaign. Obviously, for most people in retail, q4 is like the Super Bowl using a sports analogy.
Kristen D'Arcy:And so I think
Paula Macaggi:The Oscar for our industry and everything that you're hoping for, right?
Kristen D'Arcy:Yeah. The Met Gala, the, you know, whatever analogy. But you really you know, you have to differentiate yourself from the crowd. It's a more expensive time of year to play in media. It's obviously very, very crowded and cluttered.
Kristen D'Arcy:And so we decided, style is a gift. We loved the double entendre of that line for holiday last year. Thought it was really smart. We created or we were sort of known as the gifting destination during the holiday season, and we had 2 incredible stars. Quavo, that I think at the time had about 24,000,000 followers, great, great rapper who also just so happens to be very stylish, and then India Love, an incredible personality and influencer.
Kristen D'Arcy:And they fronted our campaign. So that's sort of how the beginning started. And then, like I said, we were we were off to the races for sure.
Paula Macaggi:It just came in. Yes. It just came in. We're like, alright. So let's do it.
Paula Macaggi:So
Kristen D'Arcy:In a New York minute. Yes. For sure.
Paula Macaggi:Amazing. And what were these discoveries that came from this consumer research that Michael did?
Kristen D'Arcy:Number 1, our consumer is largely black, Hispanic, and then 3rd would be white. Household income of under about a 100,000. We learned that there's about a 110 1,000,000 people in that total addressable market. So lots and lots of opportunity to grow in terms of the new customer acquisition. And then we also learned what they're inspired by.
Kristen D'Arcy:So they are they love rap and hip hop. They look to, you know, both that genre as well as sports, football and basketball in particular, for style cues. And so it's interesting building upon that. And I know there's a lot to talk about in here, but we've created a lot of tunnel moments for the brand leaning into we know we need to be with football and we need to be with basketball. And I think those tunnel moments are now the runways, frankly, for athletes.
Kristen D'Arcy:And we've been lucky enough to get True Religion on quite a few athletes so far this year. Yeah.
Paula Macaggi:I was reading an article a few months ago talking about the importance of sports even because we were talking about the Olympics that just happened. Sports are still one of the only moments where everybody stops and watch the same thing.
Kristen D'Arcy:That's exactly right. Because we
Paula Macaggi:are so, like, used to on demand things that sports are the only thing that we are live watching something.
Kristen D'Arcy:That's exactly right. You know, and not only do our consumers love those sports, but again, they're, you know, athletes are being looked at for their fashion sense. You know, Serena Williams They're
Paula Macaggi:the heroes. Right?
Kristen D'Arcy:They they really are. Serena Williams and Simone Biles both have been on the cover of Vogue. You know, we we joked about this being kind of the Met Gala going into q 4, but you would see next to Zendaya and JLo, you would see Maria Sharapova and other athletes. So they've always
Paula Macaggi:been looked at for fashion, but now I think the the spotlight is
Kristen D'Arcy:on them even more. And retail brand like us then to lean in, given the credibility that we've had for the last 22 years in the space. So you have been working with athletes and musicians as influencers? We have. So we basically have a 3 tiered way of looking at influencers.
Kristen D'Arcy:We have the celebrity tier. So that would be Quavo. That would be India Love. That would be Saweetie. Might be some of our smaller campaign faces like Jada Cheeves, for example.
Kristen D'Arcy:And then we have a mid tier, and those people, you know, are anywhere from, I would say, 500,000 followers to probably 4,000,000, give or take, where the macros are upwards of 20,000,000 plus. And then we have the Nanos, and the Nanos would be smaller reach, but really, really deep engagement. And so the mid and the lower tier, by way of follower size, they are in a program that we just launched in August that is aptly titled Team True, Team True Religion, of course. And there, you see faces that are from sports like the Brooklyn Nets. We have someone who actually just went from the New York Giants to the Las Vegas Raiders.
Kristen D'Arcy:We have NIL athletes in there. We have some WNBA stars from Chicago and from LA. You have people that are stylish. We have we're adding someone who's an NFL stylist, actually. Joe Burrow is one of his clients.
Kristen D'Arcy:So you see this wide range, and it's both men and women. And like I said, we only launched the program last month, and we are seeing tremendous results so far. So we're seeing, about $200,000 in earned media value. We're seeing over 10,000,000 impressions already. Engagement on Team True content specifically is anywhere from 8 to 10%.
Paula Macaggi:Is that the metrics you're looking for, like, when you're doing these campaigns?
Kristen D'Arcy:Exactly. You know, the average in social, at least in on Instagram, is between 1 to 3% engagement. Again, ours is 8 to 10. We're seeing on TikTok, the video view content go from 1% among our followers to actually 14 a half percent. So people are really, really jazzed, but what I'm excited about is the sales potential.
Kristen D'Arcy:So what we're seeing is when we take that social content specifically from Team True and we put it onto our website onto a page where you can select which jeans you want, for example, when we're showing our Team True people in those jeans, people are 80% more likely to add that product to their cart because they've seen it on someone that's a part of Team True. So the sales potential behind this is real, and that is why we will scale the program from about 25 people right now to 100 in the next year or so.
Paula Macaggi:So we're really, really excited. 100 people multiplied to 10,000,000. Right?
Kristen D'Arcy:That's exactly right with all of that amplification. And again, 200,000 in media value right now, while the program is in its infancy with such a small number of people, is pretty incredible, actually. So we're really happy with the results so far and look forward to seeing it continue to take off in the future.
Paula Macaggi:It feels like you found an alternative for the customer acquisition cost that has been so high. Like, you're actually working with the influencers instead of paying 1,000,000 of dollars to the platform to deliver some awareness.
Kristen D'Arcy:I think it's a combination of both. So we have a digital first media strategy in that depending on the platform and depending on where you're at in the funnel, do you need to be aware of the brand because maybe you forgot about us or you haven't thought about us? You don't know how great our products are. There is a set of creative and assets for that. Then there is the mid tier, which is, okay, you know about us now.
Kristen D'Arcy:How do we make you consider the brand further for purchase? And then there's the lower funnel assets, which are buy now. You know, here maybe is a great deal, for example, buy now. And so we use that influencer content, Team True or otherwise, throughout various parts of the funnel. So we're still working with the media platforms for the reach and application in addition to Team True's followers and then also using that content across owned, earned, paid, etcetera.
Paula Macaggi:So you're developing a lot of opportunity for the new social commerce wave that is coming. Right? Like, I don't know. Is TikTok already with, here in the US with the button by it?
Kristen D'Arcy:We have social commerce enabled on Instagram. I think we wanna focus on getting that even better before we open up a new channel with regard to commerce. But TikTok is something that we really just started leaning into from a content and also paid perspective at the end of last year. So we've seen follower increases over 500% year over year. As I said, video views on the Team True content has gone from 1 to 14 a half percent.
Kristen D'Arcy:We are creating content that is unique for that platform, both on our own. There's a lot of BTS content that we get during photo shoots and then also with these influencer partners. So we'll continue to lean into that. We'll continue to improve the Instagram shop feature that we have right now, and then we'll determine when to turn on commerce for TikTok.
Paula Macaggi:I'm excited to I'm gonna be following to see everything.
Kristen D'Arcy:That would be great. Yeah. We love that. One more.
Paula Macaggi:One more. One more. One more. I wanna wear one of those
Kristen D'Arcy:too, you know? That would be great.
Paula Macaggi:I was reading about the brand and I saw that you wanted to become a digital first DTC brand. What does that mean?
Kristen D'Arcy:I think it started a couple years ago when our CEO came back and really started to put a focus on when we look at areas where the business can drive growth, it's with ecom. It's on, you know, you can shop 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at your leisure. We have the full assortment right there, and it also started a couple years ago in 2019 when he came back. I think now from a marketing perspective, how we look at digital first content touches a little bit on what I mentioned earlier, which is we create different content depending on the platforms that are all digital. We create different content depending on where you're at in the purchase cycle.
Kristen D'Arcy:Do you need to become aware of the brand, consider the brand, buy the brand? And then to add storytelling layers with digital first content has also been really exciting. You know, I mentioned Quavo with the holiday campaign last year. And we were That is you don't speak. Yes.
Kristen D'Arcy:That we we sprinted into. And again, we picked him because we thought he was great and stylish. We had seen him wear the brand in the past, which is great because you want to have you wanna partner with celebrities that have an organic love for the brand, which he did. So we put him on set for the holiday campaign, and he rolls up his sleeve. And we're getting all this behind the scenes content while he's doing this.
Kristen D'Arcy:And he has a tattoo on his arm that says true religion. No. And I looked at my team, and I kind of was You couldn't have made it up. You couldn't have made it up. I was like, did you did you guys do this before we got to set?
Kristen D'Arcy:And he's telling this story about how when he was 15, he and his friends stole a tattoo gun, and they loved the brand so much back then that they tattooed our name forever into their skin. And so that content is another example of the storytelling layers that we're able to create and in a digital first way. So that was used on our YouTube channel. That was used on our blog. That was used bits and pieces strategically throughout the entire website ecom experience.
Kristen D'Arcy:So that's what we mean from a marketing perspective about being digital first here is making sure that we're creating content that feels unique to the platforms and that you're not getting absolutely everywhere. We were very strategic about where we put that particular piece of content.
Paula Macaggi:Absolutely. But does that mean that you don't do wholesale at all or
Kristen D'Arcy:just We do wholesale. So the business is about a third, a third, a third right now. It's, e comm. Then it's our owned stores. We have almost 50 of them across the US.
Kristen D'Arcy:And then we have wholesale accounts, everybody from Macy's to Zumiez to PacSun, you know, and everybody in between.
Paula Macaggi:Very good. I found it interesting your loyalty program because it's different than most loyalty programs I've seen. You can earn points by engaging with the brand's social channels, engaging with, like, following and etcetera. That's very unique. What can you tell us about the loyalty program?
Kristen D'Arcy:Well, I'm glad you brought up some of those components about how you earn, which we call non transactional earn. You should be better rewarded if you refer people to the loyalty program and they sign up because it's word-of-mouth that helps drive the credibility. So we reward people for that, as you mentioned, for, you know, following us on social, commenting in social. The loyalty program is in if I take a step back, it's an interesting program. The team before me, the ecommerce team, decided to launch it in q one of last year.
Kristen D'Arcy:And between then and now with very little marketing support, you know, we have almost half a 1000000 people enrolled in the program, which is great. The opportunities, however, I think are, 1, to get even more people, so millions and millions of people to sign up. In an ideal world, you know, 80 to 85% of customers would use their loyalty program number when they make a purchase. And reason being is that the more we know about you, the better and more personalized we can market to you. So we are actually rebooting the program.
Kristen D'Arcy:It will launch relaunch in October. So it has new branding. It has different kind of tier levels and new perks in the tiers that really tie back to who we are as a brand. So leaning into sports and music, you'll see a couple surprises in there. There will be a hidden 4th tier.
Kristen D'Arcy:So that will be, you know, those will be very, very exclusive and loyal shoppers to the brand and lots of surprise and delights in there. And then for the first time, we will be connecting the loyalty program to our our brick and mortar stores. So whether you buy with us online or you buy with us in one of our stores, you can use your loyalty program everywhere, make sure that you're accumulating points, and we have that visibility then from an omnichannel shopping experience.
Paula Macaggi:Absolutely. And then you have all this data. You could also have the opportunity for personalization and understanding about your consumer, for sure.
Kristen D'Arcy:That's exactly right. And it seems like as you came in as the first CMO, I wonder how was it to build a team to do to make it all possible? The team is really what makes everything possible. So, a lot of the folks that I inherited when I joined are still on board. I think they are really, really excited about what we've done together over the last year.
Kristen D'Arcy:And then I did bring in some new senior leaders onto the team. And I think, you know, most of them have come from much bigger companies. One came from L'Oreal. Another one was with Tom's, I think, when they hit a $1,000,000,000 in sales. Another one came from PVH, also a huge company.
Kristen D'Arcy:And so it's nice because they like to get their hands dirty, which is great because we're nimble and we move fast and we're still small.
Paula Macaggi:And they have you that is super fast.
Kristen D'Arcy:And they have me who is super fast. It's it's funny. I remember on my first day I met with the team and I said, here's the thing. I'm from Chicago. I am as nice as I seem.
Kristen D'Arcy:But then I lived in New York for 15 years and everybody was just they leaned back and they looked really nervous. And I said, no, no, no. The thing is, because I lived in New York 15 years, I move really fast, but so does retail. And I think you, you know, like we said earlier about the holiday season, it is so cluttered that you have to have a vision and be strategic, but you also you do need to move fast to make sure that you stay ahead of your competitors. So the team is absolutely incredible.
Kristen D'Arcy:And what we've said recently, given the sales results in total, in large part because of incredible product, great collaboration cross functionally, and really great marketing that the team constantly produces, I have said we are literally living a Harvard Business School case study. I hope that, again, in your career, you are able to experience this rocket ship and see the numbers that you do. I never have. I've seen a lot of green at different places, but never to this degree. So I think they're all just really excited because they understand what they're a part of right now that's really special and unique, particularly what's happening in retail across the board these days.
Paula Macaggi:Yeah. I'm so happy you are from Chicago because I will see you there again.
Kristen D'Arcy:Exactly. Next month. So funny.
Paula Macaggi:I was there. I was just there last weekend. I've kind of fell in love with the city again. That was my 3rd time, but it's been, like, 24 hours. It's never time enough, but I will.
Paula Macaggi:I shall talk now.
Kristen D'Arcy:We need to get you some real Chicago pizza. So Lou Malnati's will be calling your name. I'll be happy to introduce you to it.
Paula Macaggi:Yes, please.
Kristen D'Arcy:You can let me know what you think.
Paula Macaggi:Yes, please. And you you come with me because, you know, you we have to have this picture on my website.
Kristen D'Arcy:That sounds
Paula Macaggi:great. But, one thing that is nice is finally, Shoptalk has a new version which is in fall and in Chicago which is much better than Vegas. I'm sorry. That's the second time I say that I'm so
Kristen D'Arcy:Being my hometown, I totally agree.
Paula Macaggi:Yeah. Well, but it is. Like, everybody was so nice. I was considering moving there. Everybody was so nice.
Paula Macaggi:It was it was such a beautiful city. I don't know if I can handle the winter.
Kristen D'Arcy:Yes. It's tough.
Paula Macaggi:Summertime is beautiful. And Shoptalk is bringing a lineup that is more than 50% women, which is super exciting. It's the first time I'm seeing this in our area. Also, the main stage is all women lineup, which is all women keynote lineup, which is super exciting too. How do you feel about these gender parity program that they are creating?
Kristen D'Arcy:So in preparation for this conversation, this morning, I Googled, which was then
Paula Macaggi:powered by AI, which I just find fascinating.
Kristen D'Arcy:I Googled what percent of men versus women fascinating, I Googled what percent of men versus women are in the c suite, and it said it's 72% men. And I know those numbers kind of change occasionally, but I was pretty shocked to see that it's still 72%. So to answer your question, I think it's incredible. I think it's incredible that female leaders get a light kind of shown on them during this conference in order to be able to talk about all the great work that they're doing. Because seemingly from that stat as of this morning, September, whatever it is, you know, it's still 72% men.
Kristen D'Arcy:So I absolutely love it, and I'm very honored and thrilled to be a part of that next month.
Paula Macaggi:Well, you had a fantastic career, and you were just leading a case study. Right? How was this the importance of women's support during your career?
Kristen D'Arcy:I don't think I would be here without it. You know, all those years in New York, working across incredible brands that I had the very good fortune to be a part of, I learned from incredible leaders about how to behave as a leader. That started with Sarah Gallagher that ran ralphlauren.com, and that was, for me, 14 years ago. Feels like a long time. But she was among sort of the first incredible female leader that I had met, you know.
Kristen D'Arcy:And then there were so many more. Catherine Walsh at Cody was CMO over our luxury division in the US, the epitome of grace and class and just so smart and and so many more. So I had great role models to look up to. But then, you know, through these different moves in New York, I also have worked with side by side amazing women who now I look at what they're doing, and we've stayed friends all of these years. And I lean on them as a confidant for all things regarding life, but then also work.
Kristen D'Arcy:And so I was in New York last week and saw a couple of those friends. And again, I'm so proud of what they've done, and I'm also pretty humbled that we're still friends. You know, Lori Singer from Parlux, she's president at Parlux, was honored by WWD last week as one of the top female leaders in retail in the country. Another friend, Katie Welch, is CMO at Rare Beauty. She was also honored.
Kristen D'Arcy:I ran into, during that event, Tanille Copiaz. We worked together at Coty. She's CEO of Fredrick Fakai. You know, another very dear friend is chief operating officer at Reese Witherspoon's company, Hello Sunshine. Another very dear friend, CEO of She Media.
Kristen D'Arcy:So it's been interesting to build these relationships where, you know, on the one hand, you saw these incredible female leaders to emulate and then working with these other women side by side now to see them all these years later take on these incredible leadership roles. The reason they've had such an impact on me is that I think we lean on each other for support and advice. And then, you know, you're not in it alone despite 72% stat that we just talked about.
Paula Macaggi:Yeah. You got me emotional a little bit. I was like, oh, that sounds like yes. I I mean, honestly, I I felt that way last week. I thought
Kristen D'Arcy:I am just so fortunate to have these people that I can call friends, you know. So, hi everybody. Yeah. And you are
Paula Macaggi:a great inspiration for all of us to inspire to be amazing just like you.
Kristen D'Arcy:That's very nice of you to say.
Paula Macaggi:And you are leading a turnaround of a such a popular brand, a case study that we're gonna see soon at Harvard Business Review. You heard it here first. If you're all listening to it. What is the what it takes from a CMO to lead a transformation? Especially because the CMO has a huge responsibility on the brand vision.
Paula Macaggi:Right? Like in brand marketing. How do you see what what it takes from a CMO? Like, what is a good leader for a transformation?
Kristen D'Arcy:I mean, I think, you know, this transformation was started by Michael, our CEO, back in 2019. I was actually his last hire. So he had made a number of changes with the leadership team and with the way the business worked overall. And then the way he puts it is then we were ready for a new leader, in marketing. And so kind of picking up where he left off, I think it's it's a lot of things.
Kristen D'Arcy:Number 1, it's tenacity. You know, there is a lot always going on, and you need to have tenacity because depending on the day and I try to stay pretty balanced, but there are a lot of highs and lows because marketing is such a big world. One minute you're in with the CFO trying to justify spend and explain the ROI. The next minute you're in with the creative team trying to talk about the holiday campaign this year and how it's gonna come to life differently. And then you're talking with a data science team.
Kristen D'Arcy:And so there's just there's a lot of different variables across this big thing. So I think tenacity is 1. I think the other is vision. So you really need to have an idea of where you're going and then be able to bring everyone along with you. I think the third is an incredible team.
Kristen D'Arcy:You know, all of those cliches are true. If you wanna go fast, go alone. If you wanna go farther, go together. I would argue we do both. We go far and we go fast.
Kristen D'Arcy:I think my team would agree.
Paula Macaggi:Simultaneously, let's do it.
Kristen D'Arcy:Yes. Like, we're all holding hands, but we're all sprinting. So that's true for sure. So number 3 would just be a great team. And then I think number 4, you have to be able to collaborate with other cross functional teams internally.
Kristen D'Arcy:So I'm locked at the hip with our head of, she runs men's and women's design. Same thing with our head of e comm. Same thing with our head of merchant planning. And it just having that alignment at the top, I think, really helps because then when you need to explain the vision to the team and the tactics about how we're gonna get there, you already have buy in from all of the other groups that also need to help facilitate bringing a lot of this to life. So those would be the 4.
Paula Macaggi:And you've mentioned many women, 2 questions ago. And but, like, is there someone, like, one person that we'd admire in your career, could be a CEO or a CMO that you think I should interview one day? There's so many. It's hard to pick one. I know.
Kristen D'Arcy:But I will never forget working with David Lauren, who's Ralph Lauren's son, because we talk about having a vision. He's an incredible visionary. He, I think, even back then, had just such phenomenal ideas that were even ahead of the time. So it felt like they were always first, but in a way that was incredibly elegant, but wow. You know, I remember when I was there when they had built the new mansion store on Madison Avenue, and there was a fashion show takeover, like holograms and so forth.
Kristen D'Arcy:That's probably the wrong word. And, you know, a lot of that was kind of born from him and his team. So I think he's incredible, but he also really cares about the people that work there. I remember I was running the retention team there. He would review every email that went out to the whole database for the week.
Kristen D'Arcy:And so the emails were printed and they were laid out and he held one up and he said, who did this to me? And I said, I don't know, like Billy or Danny or I don't know, whatever the, you know, whoever it was. And he said, please bring him in here. And so Without without you knowing if
Paula Macaggi:it was a good thing or a bad thing? Correct. Okay. So a bunch
Kristen D'Arcy:of us are texting, and we're like, send send him in. Right? And so he walks in, the gentleman that designed that particular email. And David Lawrence said, did you do this? And the gentleman said, I did.
Kristen D'Arcy:And he said, this is great. Thank you very much. And I just I was
Paula Macaggi:shocked everybody. I was like, that was a good thing.
Kristen D'Arcy:It was so my point is, I think he's a great visionary, but he's a great human. And that was one example that I will literally never forget. So clearly, I still love that brand. And as I mentioned, there too, Sarah Gallagher was, you know, she ran ralphlauren.com, a great partner to David and vice versa. So I think there's a lot of Ralph Lauren folks that you could choose from to interview on on one of these podcasts.
Paula Macaggi:And you're not the first one to mention someone from Ralph Lauren. So I guess Wow.
Kristen D'Arcy:Yeah. That gave me goosebumps.
Paula Macaggi:So all
Kristen D'Arcy:of the goodness there has gone viral.
Paula Macaggi:That's awesome. One interview that they said someone from merchandising there because, like, oh, they keep the brand alive, like, for so long, but they don't like, they know. They understand. They're public. So that's nice.
Kristen D'Arcy:They really do. I mean, last I I checked, I think they're what? A $6,000,000,000 public company. They've been around. They've withstood the test of time.
Kristen D'Arcy:So they're incredible, an incredible people too.
Paula Macaggi:Well, let's make a pledge for someone from Ralph Lauren to come to the podcast. I'm excited for that. Definitely. And the last question for this interview, unfortunately, before we see you in Chicago, in your hometown. For someone that is starting now their career and wants to become a CMO or, an executive, a successful executive like yourself, what is your advice to them?
Kristen D'Arcy:A couple of things. 1, be intellectually curious. Read as much as you can across the different industry publications. There are a lot of them. And try to attend conferences.
Kristen D'Arcy:Some, especially if you're on the brand side, are free because there's just a wealth of knowledge to tap into. And what I've experienced in this industry is people are happy to share. So I think that's 1. Number 2 would be, particularly in the early days, figure out what you wanna be known for and what you're really good at. So when I started what feels like a 100 years ago, I was a digital marketer, and I was known for that.
Kristen D'Arcy:And then only after kind of establishing that out in the marketplace, then did I add brand and influencers and creative and everything else in time to get to where I am today. So I think it's important, you know, who do you wanna be in marketing? And ultimately, that's what we all are supposed to do anyways, define for brands who they are for consumers. But you need to do that. You need to figure out who your own personal brand is.
Kristen D'Arcy:You know, and then we talked about the power of having an incredible network. You're gonna meet people when you go to these conferences. And maybe they're the same level as you. Maybe they're a level or 2 higher, and you can look up to them and get guidance from them. But I think having other people around so that you can ask the questions, you can figure out if you need an agency, who's the best agencies?
Kristen D'Arcy:Who are great partners to work with? What, you know, how is this test performing with this media platform? It's really nice to be able to bounce things off of one another. And then the last thing I would say is really know where you're going. I knew at an early age that I wanted to be a CMO.
Kristen D'Arcy:And so I made strategic moves throughout my career knowing that, you know, I think I probably Googled this or whatever back in the day. You know, what responsibilities or what kind of experiences do you need in order to be a CMO? And so what I learned was you need P and L experience. Great. Made a move so that I could run ecom at Oscar de la Renta.
Kristen D'Arcy:Get P and L experience. Great. Check. Probably would need international experience. Okay.
Kristen D'Arcy:An incredible job opportunity came up with Cody. I ended up building a team in York, Paris, and London, and then working with all of the regions around the globe. Had the good fortune to go to Asia for that job. So international experience, check. What else would I need?
Kristen D'Arcy:So if you can figure out at an early age what you wanna do, then between your network and your boss and your mentors and these experiences, you can kinda carve out the right path that gives you the right experience to get there one day.
Paula Macaggi:And it got you this unique perspective that only you have that is suitable for the job you have today.
Kristen D'Arcy:That is true. Very true.
Paula Macaggi:Amazing. Thank you so much, Kristen. This was very inspiring. And see you next in Chicago. Sounds great.
Paula Macaggi:Thank you.