Tara McRae, global chief marketing officer at Clarks, is no stranger to the brand. She held several senior marketing roles at the company before departing the brand to become TB12’s first-ever CMO.
After a year at TB12, McRae has returned to the chief marketing role at Clarks. She comes back to Clarks as the company is under new leadership. Last fall, private equity group LionRock bought a 51% controlling stake in the company along with Chinese Olympian Li Ning. The company has plans for a global expansion for the iconic British brand.
“I have a very deep love for this extremely iconic brand, which is nearly 200 years old. It has a very exciting and rich history,” says McRae. “I think what pulled me back was the new ownership structure and direction of the organization. I was really intrigued with our new owners in LionRock Capital, who came in to purchase 51% of the company. I was really intrigued and excited by what they were going to focus on moving forward, so that really pulled me back in. And it wasn’t that much of a pull, if I’m honest with you, because I love the brand so much and missed it while I was away.”
Most recently, the company revealed that Jonathan Ram was appointed CEO. Ram will join Clarks later this month from his role as Group President Global Activewear at Hanes Brands. Prior to Hanes, he served more than 15 years at New Balance, most recently as executive vice president, North America.
“He’s well known in the industry, with his years and New Balance and Hanes and Champion and a bunch of other amazing places,” explains McRae. “We are really excited for him to join the organization with his background, both brand wise and commercial wise. Also, he’s lived in multiple places around the world, which happened to be our key markets, and he’s driven businesses and brands. He’s a brand builder. So we’re very excited for him to join the organization.”
Part of the Clarks’ brand building efforts comes through strategic collaborations. Clarks’ Originals’ Wallabee Boots have been an iconic product through the decades worn by everyone from The Beatles and Oasis to Run DMC the Wu Tang Clan. The company has plans for collaborations this year, plans for further digital innovation, as well as ideas on how to experiment in Web3 channels.
“2021 was a very exciting year for the brand and business globally, with new owners and a new strategy,” comments McRae. “And a lot of what we did within marketing was extremely innovative that we hadn’t done historically. And that’s the baseline of the direction that we’re going. And it’s exciting to be able to work on a nearly 200 year old brand and to keep it exciting and focus on the future of it.”
Brand Innovators caught up with McRae from her home in the Boston area to talk about the new management, the brand’s customer-centric approach and how the brand is preparing for the metaverse. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
You have a background in performance marketing with almost a decade at Puma. Can you speak about how this shows up in your messaging at Clarks?
A lot of sports marketing brands that play in performance marketing, do it best when it comes to product marketing. So if you think about the tech features and benefits for the consumer, the sports brands do it really well, whether it’s Nike or Adidas, or my old brand of Puma. Working with Puma for 10 years on that side of the business, I have learned how to be a stronger product market, and built on that benefit when talking to the consumer about all the amazing technologies we use. Clarks is a brilliant, brilliant shoemaker. It has a super innovative, comfort casual proposition. And there’s a lot of amazing technology that goes into it. I don’t think we’ve always talked about that to the consumer. That’s what I’ve been really focusing on. And also speed and innovation is something I think the performance and sports side of the business has taught me.
Can you talk about how your approach to retail has shifted due to the changes in consumer behavior over the last few years?
Everything that we saw was already in play, it just got dramatically accelerated, especially during 2020. For us, that means that we have to dramatically accelerate all of our innovation. At the end of the day, it’s all about being consumer centric – what matters to the consumer matters to us. People used to talk about omnichannel for so many years and omnichannel really truly flourished. At the end of the day, the consumer doesn’t care where they purchase a product. When they purchase from a brand they want that seamless experience. So for us, we are really focused on new innovative technologies and solutions to deliver a consumer-centric proposition.
Are there any channels where the brand is investing more now versus pre pandemic?
I would definitely say we were focused on the digital channel pre-pandemic like everybody else, but I will say now it’s a greater focus. We are spending more for sure within the digital channel and within digital marketing as a whole.
Can you talk about Clark’s brand mission and how that shows up in messaging?
Our recently evolved mission is to empower everyone with the freedom to move comfortably. To me, that’s the filter by which we put everything we do through. If it doesn’t ladder back up to that, then it’s most likely not right for the brand or for the business. So that’s one thing that we view as the halo to everything that we do. If you just listen to those words, ‘empowering everyone with the freedom to move comfortably.’ It’s all about movement. It’s all about comfort, freedom, community-based support, which is what the brand foundation has been built on. Those words really, really come into play when you think of Clarks, that comfort proposition to help move you through life is quite amazing.
Is there a role for emerging technologies like the metaverse and NFTs for Clarks?
Yeah, absolutely. This is the most exciting time to be a marketer in many, many years. Some are calling it web3. But all of these new and exciting aspects of how to reach the consumer through the metaverse, NFTs, gaming, reminds me of when social media exploded when I first started in the industry. And it makes people feel really uncomfortable, who don’t understand it. People who understand it, it gets them really excited. So it’s a great challenge. For us, we have a couple of really exciting initiatives in this space that are launching this year. I won’t get into too much detail, but definitely in the space of the metaverse and NFTs and some of the other areas. We are working on some internal propositions as well. So long story short, 100% major focus for the team. I have the team really focused on digital and social innovation within this space as a top priority for us.
Can you talk about Clarks’ commitments to sustainability and DE&I and how those have manifested in your work as a marketer?
I think both sustainability and diversity and inclusion are extremely important to us as a brand and as a company –it has infiltrated through everything that we do. I tell my team, just because you don’t have digital in your title, doesn’t mean that you’re not a digital marketer. Everybody is a digital marketer, because the consumer is so savvy. It’s the same thing with sustainability and diversity and inclusion, just because you don’t have those two items in your title doesn’t mean that that’s not infiltrated through everything that we do. Yes, of course, we have sustainable products that we promote, and we have diversity and inclusion initiatives that we support. But to me, we have to look at everything that we do and how these two extremely important things show up. We did have a couple great initiatives last year in both these spaces, and you’re going to see that take shape in a much greater way moving forward for the brand.
Can you talk about how your past experiences have helped shape your approach to leadership and how you lead your team?
Growing up an athlete, and being part of a team, I only know one way to win, and that’s through a team mentality. I really try to promote that within the marketing organization. In addition, I’m such a sponge. I study leaders, and I study leaders that I want to be like, and I also study leaders that I may not be a huge fan of. You can learn equally from those leaders, as well. I try to drive a team mentality and empowerment. I’m not a big fan of micromanaging. I like to set people on the direction and then empower them to lead the way. If they stumble along the way, I’ll get involved and roll up my sleeves and get in for sure. But for me, it’s all about winning as a team. If there are some times that we fail, I tell the team, let’s fail fast. Let’s learn from it and let’s move on quickly. You’re definitely you’re not going to learn unless you fail. One thing that I do promote is taking the risk. And making sure that when you make mistakes, just learn from them, everybody’s going to make them.
And speaking of working as a team, the brand has done a number of collaborations. Can you talk about what the strategy is behind doing collaborations with others?
It’s two-fold for us. It is to bring our amazing iconic brands to a new audience. So we’ll find and work with brands that are like minded, like us and open us up to a new audience. And then the second is, if there’s something that we can bring to our consumer base to really excite them, and enhance the product proposition. So any partner that we collaborate with needs to ensure that we have shared values, that it does fit the criteria, but we’ve had some pretty amazing collaborations over the past, I’d say 12 to 18 months. And I’m really, really excited about some of the ones that are to come this year.
What are you most excited about for the remainder of 2022?
A lot. I’m excited about John joining the organization with his amazing background. We have a lot of very exciting product initiatives. And I spoke about our metaverse program we’re gonna bring to life and then I mentioned some of the collaborations. We had a stellar 2021, we had a lot of excitement with the brand in the marketplace. And I do believe that 2022 is even better than 21. I’m definitely excited.
