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We are working with Indochino in their search for a Director of Marketing based in Vancouver, Canada. Indochino is the world’s premier online custom clothier, making fashion accessible for everyman regardless of size, budget or location. Taking high fashion and making it matter to the general public, Indochino provides stylish suits in fine fabrics, at the best price, with the fastest delivery time.
The company culture is an invigorating and engaged environment with thoughtful and team-oriented colleagues. Indochino was named one of the “20 Most Innovative Companies in BC” by BCBusiness April 2011!
HARRY’S COMMENTS: Indochino began in 2007 after University of Victoria students Heikal Gani and Kyle Vucko decided to challenge the notion that a guy wanting to look like a million bucks needed to visit a tailor and spend a ton of money. With Indochino.com, a man chooses a suit online, measures himself, and orders the suit online – where the suit is then made to measure by Indochino’s bespoke tailors in Shanghai. Two weeks later, the custom-fit suit arrives at the customer’s door.
This is a great idea, and for years I have been buying my suits like this from a Hong Kong-based tailor named Andy who visits umpteen U.S. cities twice a year. When Andy comes to Atlanta, I schlep downtown to get measured and pick my fabrics – and Andy faxes my order to his mill in China. The resulting high-quality suits are affordable, and they fit me like a glove. Now with Indochino, I don’t have to schlep downtown.
The market opportunity for Indochino is massive, and I know at least one other Tier 1 VC who has backed a similar (yet materially different) company in this space.
Think about it: How many guys do you know who own at least one suit? How many guys do you know who own an ill-fitting suit? Like, all of them! And until now, the leading online retailers in the menswear category have relied on the selling theme “Buy online; pick up in store.” This is a broken value proposition, and Indochino has found a better way.
To drive first-time “trial” purchases in its target markets, the company has expanded beyond its roots in men’s custom suits to offer a full line of men’s blazers, outerwear, dress shirts, slacks, and accessories. And it’s working. The company’s revenues hit seven-figures in 2009, and it grew sales 245% in 2010 on less than $1 million in total invested capital.
Today, Indochino has 17,000 customers in 60 countries, and it just raised $4-million to fund innovations in technology, a significant increase in its marketing plans and bringing in senior management to help steer the next phase of worldwide growth. That’s right. This is an international play.
What kind of executive is going to take this company from $7 million-$20 million, then from $20 million-$50 million? Based on my initial interviews with candidates, here’s a partial list of key attributes:
- Track record of success in online / offline branding.
- Solid knowledge of the apparel industry. (Ideally.)
- Incredibly metric driven. “There’s nothing as devastating to an opinion as a number.”
- Excellent at online engagement. Knows how to bring the brand to consumers right where they are in a way that will make customers embrace Indochino’s concept.
- Understands PR and how to use it to build the brand. This is critical.
- Strong understanding of CRM and can build permission based relationships with high-LTV, high Net Promoter customers.
- Ability to get things done in a lean environment.
NOTE: There is a substantial options package included with this strong six-figure base + bonus comp plan. Plus, if you are a total rock star, there is a chance that this role can be based in NYC. But please understand that Indochino will only relocate its marketing function to NYC if a marquee talent emerges for this search. The ideal is that this hire will be in Vancouver, BC. (Which doesn’t exactly suck.)
As always, I’m only sharing ~20% of what I know about the company. My project kickoff call with Kyle lasted 90 minutes, and he was in China at the time! Kyle is great, and I have really enjoyed working with him on this search.
NEXT, @ 3:52, CHECK OUT KYLE’S COMMENTS ON THE NEW POP-UP STORE CONCEPT …
Please Tweet this job, and you’ll be automatically entered into our monthly drawing. Just do it and see what happens: 2010 prizes included $100 Amazon gift certs, Dean & Deluca steaks, and Keurig coffee machines …
Position Description:
Indochino.com is searching for a creative and metric-minded Director of Marketing to lead, guide, and manage the entire marketing umbrella collectively with the management team. The VP/ Director of Marketing will be responsible for growing the marketing presence of Indochino and successfully establishing Indochino as a brand leader in online custom fashion for men.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Brand Communication:
- Guide integrated & consistent brand strategies & frameworks.
- Work closely with management to ensure brand communication is integrated into all marketing efforts.
- Market Strategy:
- Collaborate with management to develop a firm-wide integrated marketing & growth strategy that includes an assessment of the industry landscape including trends, opportunities & threats; driving implementation of the strategy in many regions.
- Identify & exploit scalable, profitable customer acquisition channels.
- Manage & develop existing channels – SEO, PPC (paid search, Facebook, etc.), email & affiliate marketing, & online business development.
- Assess & develop initiatives for growth with existing core markets & using existing marketing channels.
- Assess & guide strategy on potential future offline acquisition channels – retail pair ups, third party partnerships, & other offline opportunities.
- Develop marketing reports & reporting rhythm for the team & CEO.
- Competitive Positioning:
- Define & manage an appropriate & sustainable competitive positioning strategy & manage & leverage competitive intelligence.
- Client Understanding:
- Initiate & develop customer research & insight to effectively analyze customer needs. Use data to formulate targeting strategies.
- Product Marketing:
- Provide strategic consulting & market perspective into new apparel collections, site releases, or new product & service opportunities based on thorough trend, segment & marketing analysis.
- Provide marketing support through implementation, ensure consistent messaging, & manage the execution across the team for all new product releases.
- Advertising and Public Relations:
- Study media alternatives & develop media strategies & programs that deliver maximum impact with the external market & internal stakeholders.
- Establish a platform for messaging strategy that can then be modified regionally as appropriate.
- Leadership:
- Manage, evaluate, lead, & mentor current marketing team members as well as determine & hire future marketing needs.
- Develop an understanding & create a vision & brand centric marketing culture.
- Build a data driven team, determining core metric benchmarks & evaluate against set targets for the entire marketing team.
- Corporate Communications:
- Lead the development & implementation of the internal & external communication strategy.
- Knowledge:
- Evaluate & identify new marketing technologies.
- Work closely with founding team to identify future growth platforms & channels both on & offline.
- Provide company insight on offline & online business growth channels.
Position Requirements:
- Bachelors Degree is required & an advanced degree such as an MBA would be preferred/an asset.
- 10+ years in consumer marketing, with heavy experience in Internet marketing including SEO, SEM, distribution, email, social media & display advertising.
- Experience in traditional marketing including direct mail, PR, promotions, thought leadership, events & branding is ideal.
- Apparel industry experience in men’s professional wear/suiting required.
- Strong leadership capabilities to build out & manage a team.
- Strong business acumen skills.
- Bandwidth, energy & passion to support a 24-hour organization across multiple geographies.
- Excellent communication, interpersonal & analytical skills required along with the ability to work under pressure & deal with all levels of the organization.
- Highly collaborative approach to working within an organization.
- Demonstrated ability to build strong interpersonal alliances at all levels both internally & externally; building solid relationships characterized by mutual respect, openness, & trust.
Applications for this position are being coordinated by Harry Joiner. To apply, CLICK HERE. Candidates, please be sure to ask Harry for packet #1367 of market research and company / competitive intel that will differentiate you in your candidacy. Due to the competitive nature of this search, thorough preparation for these interviews with this proprietary material is strongly recommended. To add your resume to our confidential database, click here.
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