180 - Emily Culp of Keds - Made First For Women

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Marketing ladies-first footwear for 100 years with Keds…

Emily Culp, CMO of Keds (footwear company with canvas shoes with rubber soles founded in 1916 which created the first mass-marketed canvas-top “sneaker” (bio)), joins Pavan Bahl, Rob Sanchez, Marc Raco and guest host Lisa Marie Ringus, EVP and Head of Global Sales for 24 Seven (a multi-vertical global talent recruitment firm) on location in Las Vegas for Shoptalk 2017. This episode is powered by Olapic.

A dream job, an iconic brand, and tightening the lens

Culp starts by reviewing her multiple years in fashion/beauty and being on the agency side, and how she could only dream of working on a brand turning 100, celebrating one of the most iconic American brands out there. How Keds started in 1916 as one of the sneakers first made for women, and the spirit of female empowerment, helping women with where they want to go and be who they want to be. The current bit of repositioning, whether it important that the CMO is a woman, why the CMO has to be passionate about the space, tightening the lens, finding the right way to focus the two tent-poles, Taylor Swift, Alison Williams, Ciara, Krystal and the global, ethnically diverse consumer. PRO-Keds as one of first basketball shoes.

Marketing tools and partnerships, being innovative, and the purple squirrel team

How Culp started her career in digital, the discipline of art and science, trying to figure out data inputs and where are the actionable insights that can show ROI, how one has to have fortitude and the ability to keep trying, Demandware, Google Analytics, internal CRM email marketing systems, the crucial power of social media as a learning laboratory, bringing social media audience into the conversation for development, partnerships with companies such as Rifle Paper, what frustrates Culp about the way social media conversations typically happen, and driving the conversation as a brand vs. reacting to what people are talking about. An authentic transparency, what Culp brought over from Rebecca Minkoff to Keds, loving fashion and technology, fitting together, and doing something innovative that delivers business value and for consumer. Building a new culture with a unified commerce system mixing ecommerce and marketing as one team, the purple squirrel team, the importance of fortitude and the support of senior leadership, the importance of diverse teams, and looking at neurotypes, and considering the consumers in creating UI/UX.

Heat mapping, a pod of diversity and excellence, and a coach named Fred

Looking at heat mapping, sensors in stores in Asia, pop-up retail challenges, the value of aligning with stores that exist and focusing on storytelling, looking at talent and putting a pod of excellence together, and the importance of accepting a mission. Off the Grid questions cover how size brought out art and math, not fitting into a mold, the impact of being a redhead, the husband-influence with emotional intelligence, the poodle and the Labrador, the importance of executive coaching, the shoes that resulted from a marketing success impulse buy, why Culp should be a reality show, and a surprising coach named Fred.