Cotton On’s global head of marketing and ecommerce has switched apparel retailers, taking up a new customer experience-focused role at Country Road.
Col Kennedy, who had been heading up marketing for Cotton On for the past two years, joined Country Road as its general manager of brand and customer experience in August. The new role is responsible for overall brand positioning and customer engagement strategies, from visual merchandising and creative to online, including ecommerce, and marketing globally.
Kennedy is reporting directly to managing director of Country Road, Darren Todd. While it’s too early to discuss specific priorities, he told CMO he was excited about the prospect of building the Country Road brand.
“Country Road is brand that stood out when I first arrived in Australia over five years ago and with which I feel a very strong connection to,” Kennedy said. “It is an iconic Australian brand with a standout heritage and huge ongoing opportunity. This new role as part of the wider team here will deliver the next part of Country Road journey.”
Country Road is owned by Woolworth Holdings, a South African-based conglomerate that also owns David Jones, Mimco, Trenery and Witchery. In September, the group appointed former Marks and Spencer leader, Scott Fyfe, as its new group CEO. He replaces former chief, Matt Keogh, from early 2017.
Woolworths is also now in the process of acquiring embattled retailer menswear retailer, Politix, a deal being done under the Country Road group for $60 million.
Kennedy was with Cotton On since June 2014. Prior to that, he was general manager of marketing at Target, and also had a brief stint working across Target’s digital efforts. His resume also includes regional and marketing director roles at THQ, The Walt Disney Company, Sony PlayStation and TUI Travel based out of the UK.
One of the highlights of Kennedy’s time at Cotton On has been instilling the retailer’s ‘brand why’ purpose, aimed at making a different in people’s lives. To do this, he employed the Golden Circle model developed by Simon Sinek and has strived to move the brand beyond transactions to become truly engaged with its communities.
In his CMO50 submission in 2015, Kennedy said ‘brand why’ had become the filter by which all departments work to, whether they are a buyer creating the next best seller that will make someone feel great at the weekend, or a store team member going the extra mile to help a customer. This has become the centre piece of the company’s strategy, is at the heart of the brand, and has generated a cultural shift in the organisation, he said.
In the third and final episode of our 3-part CMO50 video series exploring modern marketing and why it’s become a matter of trust, we’re delighted to be joined by Telstra’s former CMO and now digital services and sales executive, Jeremy Nicholas, and Adobe VP Marketing Asia-Pacific and Japan, Duncan Egan.
Flash back to the classic film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Television-obsessed Mike insists on becoming the first person to be ‘sent by Wonkavision’, dematerialising on one end, pixel by pixel, and materialising in another space. His cinematic dreams are realised thanks to rash decisions as he is shrunken down to fit the digital universe, followed by a trip to the taffy puller to return to normal size.
Why is it there is no shortage of leadership development materials, yet outstanding leadership is so rare? Despite having access to so many leadership principles, tools, systems and processes, why is it so hard to develop and improve as a leader?
As a nation united by sport, brands are beginning to learn money alone won’t talk without aligned values and action. If recent events with major leagues and their players have shown us anything, it’s the next generation of athletes are standing by what they believe in – and they won’t let their values be superseded by money.
Enterprisetalk
Mark
CMO's top 10 martech stories for the week - 9 June
Great e-commerce article!
Vadim Frost
CMO’s State of CX Leadership 2022 report finds the CX striving to align to business outcomes
Are you searching something related to Lottery and Lottery App then Agnito Technologies can be a help for you Agnito comes out as a true ...
jackson13
The Lottery Office CEO details journey into next-gen cross-channel campaign orchestration
Thorough testing and quality assurance are required for a bug-free Lottery Platform. I'm looking forward to dependability.
Ella Hall
The Lottery Office CEO details journey into next-gen cross-channel campaign orchestration
Great Sharing thoughts.It is really helps to define marketing strategies. After all good digital marketing plan leads to brand awareness...
Paul F
Driving digital marketing effectiveness