Ian Stewart

You started as CMO at TOMS two years ago. What's the backstory of the brand?
‘TOMS is one of the first brands to launch with purpose in mind from the beginning. Blake Mycoskie started a footwear company 16 years ago and said: ‘For every shoe I sell I'm gonna give a pair to children who don't have any.’ So he pretty much invented the 1-for-1 model. The shoe itself, the Alpargata, was inspired by the South American slip-on shoes and was on trend as well. So it was that perfect intersection of purpose, cool style and Blake’s incredible personality. The brand went from 0 to nearly 500 million dollars in a really short space of time. And before you knew it, brands like Warby Parker and Bombas followed. Now, the 1-for-1 model is absolutely ubiquitous. And Blake was happy to guide, coach and advise any brand. He figured: the more brands doing good, the better the world will be.’

TOMS quickly became an iconic brand. What happened later on?
‘The company grew to massive heights and then it declined. Two or three years ago it went into near bankruptcy, a variety of ownership changes, and Blake exited to do a different purpose-driven business. It was an opportunity to come in as footwear people, take a look at the brand and reset it. The first thing we said was: ‘What caused it to go up and what caused it to go down? And what's left of its brand image and product reputation?' The brief we were given by the new owners was: go for the overhaul, don't leave any stone unturned. And that's what we did.’

Let’s take one step back; what makes a brand iconic?
‘I've been really fortunate to have always worked with brands that are regarded as iconic. You don't have to explain who Coca-Cola is, or MTV or Nike. Some brands remain iconic for a very long time and there's a reason for that. I joined at the absolute height of MTV; it was the coolest brand in the world. 10 years later it wasn't the same brand. It had lost the thing that made it iconic, which was the music. It’s crucial that a brand really knows what makes it iconic, and sticks with that. Then, it can refine that to remain contemporary.’

TOMS had just the one hero product, the Alpargata shoe. Wasn't that the problem?
‘The brand was famous for giving 1-for-1. for Blake, and for the Alpargata. But the world had changed. The 1-for-1 model is now ubiquitous, more brands were becoming purposeful. Fashion trends change all the time, so you need to evolve your product portfolio. The pandemic was a time for reflection. We said: TOMS might be famous for 1-for-1 but what it's actually iconic for is doing good. So, we made a bold move to modernize the way we give: instead of buying a shoe, giving a shoe, we now take a third of our profits and give it to charity.’

How did people react?
‘The response was unanimously congratulating us. We didn’t change our DNA, which is all about giving, we just changed our expression. There was already a big amount of trust in TOMS being a brand that truly was born out of doing good. So, if we were evolving it had to be for a reason. It worked, we refreshed that giving model, it spoke to the times that we're living in. And it also spoke to how the younger generation want a different sort of giving - giving into communities that aren't represented, such as people of colour and LGBTQ.’

When did you realize you were on the right track?
‘Straight away. We did a lot of press announcements and outreach to our wholesale products, the industry and consumers through April 2021. We've had a lingering few people in the depths that say: 'Why walk away from something you're famous for?' But as I said, 1-for1 is not our DNA, that's just the tactic. The DNA is giving.’

So, even though you've diversified into coffee, clothing, and eyewear, you feel you're true to the company values?
‘Yeah, the other part of the overhaul was the product portfolio. The company was only a one-style brand and the Alpargata went out of fashion. Our wonderful CEO, Magnus Wedhammar, is a multi-decade veteran from brands like Nike in product creation. He updated the iconic silhouette to make it modern and more comfortable.’

Is brand building about a consistent concept, rather than an idea?
‘Consistency leads to repetition and repetition leads to memory. Therefore, a brand that's always changing will never sink its story in. But it's knowing what you have to be consistent with and knowing what you can change.’

What's your advice for building an iconic brand? Where to start?
‘The starting point for any brand, whether you're selling shoes or cement, is knowing who your consumer is at a deep level. Because that's where you can speak with authenticity. For TOMS our core audience is 25 to 34. So yes, we might sell shoes to people who are 18 years old, and we definitely sell shoes to people who might be 55 years old.’

It sounds quite niche; 25 to 34 only covers a nine-year age period.
‘That's the marketing target. The commercial target is all the people that buy you. And you can't confuse who buys you with who you're speaking to. Because if you speak to your core group, and you do it in such a way that's not off-putting younger or older audiences, they'll come along for the ride.

After working with so many brands, perhaps you reflect on your career sometimes. What do you want your legacy to be as a CMO?
‘I'm not ready to throw down a legacy but I do believe in being consistent, in uncovering the brand's DNA, and in representing what the consumer wants. And always leave your brand in a better place than where you found it. That's important because it makes you respect your role as a temporary guardian of that brand. And your role is to evolve, grow it, and leave it in a better place.’

What's your advice for future CMO’s?
‘My CMO at Converse, Geoff Cottrill, was a really great mentor and teacher about the importance of establishing what your marketing philosophy. And it's not one philosophy, there’s a bunch of things you believe that marketing does. It takes deep thought and probably takes a mentor to help guide you. But the importance of having those principles in your head helps you create a playbook and when you go to the next job, you take this with you. I have come to believe in a brand’s DNA, and how can we be useful? Another important thing in marketing is: nothing happens overnight, you need to be patient. That's one of the things I spent a lot of time on with TOMS’ current owners; it's one thing to have a strategy and it's one thing to then execute it, but it's not gonna turn the whole thing around overnight. Impressions are also important. You need to hit somebody with a message multiple times for it to sink in and for them to realize it's important; that's why it's important to be consistent. The science of marketing says you need to deliver a message at least eight times, if not 10, and ideally 15 times before it really sinks into somebody and for them to then recognize and register it, and decide if it's relevant for them. So, the importance of consistency and repetition to land your story, and then be patient, those are the things that I've learned.’

Does purpose come before customer service in building a global brand?
‘Not many people think deeply about where purpose fits in a brand's narrative. It's important to be very purposeful, but people don't wear purpose. People wear shirts and pants and shoes. You need to lead with product. At TOMS the believe was that purpose was gonna carry the brand forever, that you didn't need to evolve the product because people wanted to line up with the purpose. But fashion trends change and people didn’t want to wear those shoes. I do think that purpose is a differentiator. If I'm looking at two similar products and one has a purpose message I support, then I'm gonna pick that one - assuming it's not 10 times the price. So we've turned the TOMS story around and put product first. Make sure we're fashionable, relevant, and then we have that additional bonus of a brand that does good.’

Marketers like to embrace purpose, but isn’t it important that you live and breathe it, that it has to be part of your core being?
‘Yeah, absolutely. You hear of greenwashing, purpose-washing, and now there's pride-washing too. You've got to be careful, particularly in this social media age. Younger consumers are very savvy; there are whole Instagram feeds based around calling brands out. We can all smell BS but the younger generation have more tools to discover the truth. They can go hunting and finding and, more importantly, they have the broadcast tools to call a brand out.’

So, it’s product before purpose. How about best price versus best service?
‘Marketing's not just pretty pictures, it's about growing a brand and a brand's business. It's PnL (Profit and Loss), both top and bottom line, and you need to be accountable for that. You need to be thinking about the economics of your business model, which is why if we get to the growth versus profits. It is both; there's no point in growing a company that's not profitable. At the end of the day, profit is the output, but I think price is the ultimate reflection of whether a brand is gonna make it in the marketplace.’

Marketing and advertising often get confused, right?
‘Advertising is a part of marketing, but marketing is creating a brand that sells products. And then, if you're a responsible businessperson, you can contribute to making your company profitable.

So, how is TOMS doing after two years of you at the marketing helm?
‘We're doing really good. The brand has reset itself and is growing at the top and at the bottom of the PnL. We've reengaged our wholesale partners who grew with us in the early days and had warned us to modernize the product. E-commerce was fantastic for us during the pandemic. We're now buckling into the potential of a recession which is giving a lot of people anxiety. But in a recession, there are two types of products that tend to do really well: the really expensive and the relatively cheap. If you can still afford a $3000 handbag, there is no recession for you. And if you're a $50 shoe, a lot of people will come your way. Which is why I said price is so important because it will ultimately dictate your perceived or actual value. Nevertheless, we're gearing up for a really tough two years ahead, I'm not gonna lie.’