When it comes to marketing portfolios, not many executives have one as robust as Sarah Crockett. Throughout her career she has handled messaging for Von Dutch, Lucky Brand Jeans, Vans, REI, Burton Snowboards, Backcountry.com and Dickies. When we spoke to her on the Retail Remix podcast earlier this year, she was Chief Marketing Officer at DSW, and since then, she’s made another big move over to Carter’s where she now leads marketing for the childrenswear brand.
As someone who’s been around the block more than once with many different types of retail brands, Crockett is a great source of marketing wisdom, and that’s exactly what we asked her for in this episode. Here is a small segment of that conversation; you can listen to the whole episode at the bottom of this article or wherever you get your podcasts, anytime.
Retail Remix: What are your general rules of thumb for connecting with consumers during periods like this, where things feel a little bit chaotic and there’s economic turbulence?
Sarah Crockett: Don’t stop connecting. I think a lot of times the natural instinct can be to bury your head in the sand until this crazy time passes, but don’t stop connecting. It may not be the best time to take huge risks, but it also may be — it depends on who you are as a brand. So I think it’s really important to read the room, know who you are, know what your customers’ needs are and take all of those components into account and act.
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That is the most important thing that I constantly remind myself of on a regular basis — because it frankly seems like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday are all different than they used to be a week ago. It’s important to keep that in mind.
Retail Remix: The marketing ecosystem is also experiencing turbulence right now, particularly on the search side. After years of shifting timelines, Google announced earlier this year that it will now not be eliminating the use of third-party cookies after all. At the same time, the introduction of Google’s AI Overviews and the emergence of shopping functionality on other AI platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity is really shifting how consumers connect with brands. What is your view on this shifting search landscape, and how are you adapting your marketing approach accordingly?
Crockett: Just like everything, search will change. And it’s on a faster change curve today than it was five years ago because there’s now real competition in the market for this space. A lot of the behavior that’s happening [right now] is in response to new forms of competition.
I’m a huge believer in a healthy channel mix as the answer to this opportunity. Even when you’re in a situation where you may be overly dependent on one channel, which many marketers are, you have to work to reduce that dependency, not just for that risk reduction, but also really just to add dimension to how you’re connecting with your consumer.
We’re either fueling an existing consumer journey or we’re intersecting on a customer journey where they’ve already thought about their purchase intent, and we want to ensure that they ultimately transact with us, right? There are different forms of consumer journeys, and no two customers are exactly the same, so diversification within that channel mix is so key, especially when you can couple that with targeting.
That is really where I go to in this time where we see such a prominent channel like search changing in front of us. As long as you have other means to connect with that consumer and you’re a quick study on how these elements are changing, I think you’re going to be able to continuously adapt and ensure that your playbook evolves to the current landscape.
Retail Remix: It must be so hard as a marketer to keep up with that constant change — the pace of technical innovation is just mind-boggling sometimes. How do you stay on top of all of it all?
Crockett: Have children — that’s my quickest answer. I have a 13-year-old son and he is constantly teaching me.
But I think it’s also just a curiosity mindset. Some of the best marketers that I look up to really lead with curiosity. So it is a lot, because the landscape is changing, but you can start to understand what are some of those shiny objects that might be distractions and just kind of come and go without leaving much of a footprint, versus fundamental changes, like AI, in our landscape that you really need to lean into and learn quickly about and adapt within your playbook.
It does depend on the conversation, but honestly, I think the more curiosity you have, the better. I joke about having children, but really it’s a great resource to be able to listen and learn and observe in your everyday life as well.
Listen to the full episode of Retail Remix with Sarah here or anywhere you get your podcasts:
