Ever wonder how a world-class marketer transitions from managing multi-billion dollar CPG brands to running the food and beverage department of the popular retail giant Target Corporation? Imagine the thrill of going from a government major, to acquiring a JD/MBA, to becoming the CMO of Target, and ultimately, the Executive Vice President of Food and Beverage. This intriguing journey is none other than that of our esteemed guest, Rick Gomez. He opens up about his exciting pivot from CPG to retail, his successful marketing strategies for young audiences, and his notable board roles at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Latino and Wendy's Corporation.
In this deep-dive conversation, Rick sheds light on his rewarding transition from being a CMO at Pepsi to his current role at Target. Get ready to explore his motivation behind this significant career change, his tenacity in overcoming the challenges that arose during the transition, and how he's making a difference working with frontline store representatives across America. Rick also gives us a peek into his aspiration of becoming a CEO and shares the invaluable lessons he's gleaned over the past three years.
We also venture into the unique way Target approaches food and beverage, transitioning from simply selling to celebrating food. Rick discusses how Target harnesses affordability, ease, and convenience to foster communal experiences around food and beverage. We delve into the exciting innovations that Target has introduced, like the ability to order Starbucks via their Drive Up service. Moreover, Rick shares how Target works in concert with vendors, suppliers, and merchants to deliver 'affordable joy' to its guests and the importance of personal branding and authentic leadership in today's competitive market.
Ever wonder how a world-class marketer transitions from managing multi-billion dollar CPG brands to running the food and beverage department of the popular retail giant Target Corporation? Imagine the thrill of going from a government major, to acquiring a JD/MBA, to becoming the CMO of Target, and ultimately, the Executive Vice President of Food and Beverage. This intriguing journey is none other than that of our esteemed guest, Rick Gomez. He opens up about his exciting pivot from CPG to retail, his successful marketing strategies for young audiences, and his notable board roles at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Latino and Wendy's Corporation.
In this deep-dive conversation, Rick sheds light on his rewarding transition from being a CMO at Pepsi to his current role at Target. Get ready to explore his motivation behind this significant career change, his tenacity in overcoming the challenges that arose during the transition, and how he's making a difference working with frontline store representatives across America. Rick also gives us a peek into his aspiration of becoming a CEO and shares the invaluable lessons he's gleaned over the past three years.
We also venture into the unique way Target approaches food and beverage, transitioning from simply selling to celebrating food. Rick discusses how Target harnesses affordability, ease, and convenience to foster communal experiences around food and beverage. We delve into the exciting innovations that Target has introduced, like the ability to order Starbucks via their Drive Up service. Moreover, Rick shares how Target works in concert with vendors, suppliers, and merchants to deliver 'affordable joy' to its guests and the importance of personal branding and authentic leadership in today's competitive market.
I know you're gonna find it. You've got to keep on at it. Hey everybody, this is Bob Goodwin, president of Career Club, and welcome to another episode of Career Club Live. Today's episode is brought to you by a webinar that we'll be hosting on November 17th at 1 o'clock Eastern, called your Story, your Brand. If you're a job seeker and you're struggling to articulate your unique value proposition, this webinar is for you. It's free, it's gonna be about an hour and, again, all you have to do is go to the careerclub website to register. And again, your story, your brand. We really hope that you can make it.
Speaker 1:Speaking of branding, I am over the moon with our guest today because he is an expert, world-class marketer as well as merchant and general manager. Our guest today is Rick Gomez. Rick is the executive vice president of Food and Beverage for the Target Corporation, so if you've been to a Target and you've bought groceries, that's Rick's business. He brings really deep retail expertise and more than 20 years of experience in managing multi-billion dollar CPG brands for Target's Food and Beverage business. Rick joined Target in 2013 as senior vice president of marketing, overseeing branding category marketing, before being named the chief marketing officer in 2017. So Rick was the CMO before taking on his current role. He also serves on the boards of the National Museum of the American Latino at the Smithsonian, as well as serving on the board of the Wendy's Corporation, so with that, rick Gomez welcome.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you. It's good to be here, bob. Thanks.
Speaker 1:No, we had a really good chat a few weeks ago and I'm very excited to weave into our conversation today a number of things between some of the things that you guys are doing and a really, really important department of Target, a fun department at Target. We're going to talk a little bit about some career pivoting that you've done, which I think is fascinating. It will be of high interest to people, and then we're going to end with a little bonus question that I know that people are going to enjoy.
Speaker 1:But before we do that, as we are wanting to do, Rick. Just a handful of a little kind of rapid fire question and answer, just so people can get to know you. Where were you born and raised? Where'd you grow up?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was born in Houston, texas, and family is really all my extended families from Southern Texas along the border there. But then we grew up back and forth between Texas and New Jersey, so I like to say I got a little bit of the best of both. Where in New Jersey, northern New Jersey, madison is where I went to high school.
Speaker 1:So we lived for five years in Maristown. Okay, sure, yes, you were two train stops before me, convince Station, in between Madison and Maristown, so see, that's why we do. This is you find all these little connections when you get to know somebody. Where'd you go to school, Rick?
Speaker 2:I went to college at college at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, liberal arts major, studied government art history. Had a great four years.
Speaker 1:Awesome, awesome. And then how did that? We like to help people just understand your a little bit of your career arc. I didn't list all the things. You've had a very impressive career, but do you mind just sort of walking people through briefly just your career after school.
Speaker 2:Sure, and you know it didn't play out exactly how I planned, but I've been very fortunate in how it did play out.
Speaker 2:At Dartmouth I was a government major Intention was to go to law school. I had applied to law school, got accepted and had this realization that I needed money. I couldn't afford it and so I deferred my law school for two years and went into brand management and was working at the Quaker Oats Company for a couple years. At the end of those two years I was really enjoying marketing, brand management, so in business in general. So I decided to change my JD to a JD MBA and the university was very excited about that and said terrific. And so I asked for one more year, a third year deferral, and at the end of that third year I was the assistant brand manager on Captain Crunch and my job was to come up with what are the toys in the box. This was back when we could do marketing and advertising to kids under 12. So I was doing TV campaigns on peanut butter crunch, coming up with the new colors of crunch berries, going to focus groups with six to eight year olds and I just had this realization that there's no way being a lawyer could ever be this fun. So I lost my deposit to law school, business school, and just kept going down the marketing brand management path and just never look back From there.
Speaker 2:I was a Quaker for a while. We got purchased by PepsiCo. I spent eight years at PepsiCo and was the chief marketing officer when I left. Of all the non-carbonated beverages aquafina, propel sobie, tropicana, dole and then I went and did a brief stint four years in Miller Cores and marketing to that kind of young 21 to 29 year old lots of influencer marketing, social marketing, sports marketing. And then after that I moved to retail, made the jump. I did a bit of a pivot out of CPG into retail target and stayed been at Target now for 10 years and in marketing mostly expanded into e-commerce digital strategy but then made another pivot to lead the food and beverage business and more of a general manager capacity.
Speaker 1:Well, you know we will talk more career pivots. I don't want to go too deep down this, but I just really love how you. You know you had a plan, but you were open to changing your plan based on experience. And so so often when we're working with younger members of career club who are trying to figure out what they wanted to be, it's almost a test for negatives, because you don't know what all was out there until you start trying stuff and you didn't know that you would love marketing until you actually got into it. And the more you got into it, the more you liked it. And you don't know how to say yes to something until you've tried it before.
Speaker 1:So I think this is very cool that you were open minded to doing all that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I'm a big believer in having a plan, even though the plan never goes as you think it will, and just being open to what opportunities come your way. And you know, as I've thought about different moves, different career opportunities, different pivots, different companies. You know, for me, I think about it through really two criteria. You know, is it something that I'm going to learn and build new skills is really important to me. I have high curiosity, I love to learn. Am I going to learn new skills? And then two, am I going to be able to have an impact? That's really important to me. I don't want to just go into a role where I'm going to learn a bunch of stuff but I'm not going to be able to make a difference and deliver results. So if it can deliver on those two criteria, then it's definitely something I'll consider.
Speaker 1:Well, I love the fact that you have a rubric for evaluating stuff like that. Sometimes people have pinball careers. What I mean by that is like you sort of react to the last thing that hit you and you're like well, wait a minute. No, I actually do have a couple criteria. It might be interesting, but if it's not going to help me in both of these things, maybe that's not a fit for me.
Speaker 1:You know, and that's really, really, if we stop the recording right now, rick, that's phenomenal advice. So thank you Real quick at Pepsi. Do you know the ladies that go by the band of sisters Laurie, marcus C Nichols?
Speaker 2:something like that. Yeah, so we had them one year ago. Really, really, I know very well and they're an impressive group of business leaders and had the had the of working with many of them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so anyway. So you have a great legacy here on the Career Club podcast. So last last thing what do we find you doing when you're not changing food and beverage at Target? What are your hobbies or outside interests of work?
Speaker 2:Yeah, gosh, well I'm. I'm big into fitness and I love to work out. I'll take any kind of class, from a Barry's Bootcamp, f45, soulcycle, orange Theory, you name it. I love them all. And then when I'm not in a class, I'm usually in the basement on a Peloton. So that's, that's kind of what I love to do. It gives me energy. I mean, when I was younger I would do more races, but now I'm older and I'm fine just sitting on a bike Running or bike races. I did my erathons and triathlons.
Speaker 1:Geez, pete's right, listen to you. Wow, no wonder you're like Listen, I was.
Speaker 2:I like to say I was an endurance athlete, which just means I was very, very slow and it took me a long time to finish.
Speaker 1:I thought you were going to say too dumb to know when to quit. You just gave me all the time. Oh, but I was fish. That's awesome. All right, let's get into the heart of the topic. But that was fun. That's one of the finest icebreaker sessions we've had in a while. So thank you. So you made a very interesting. You had a job at Target that many people would consider kind of the pinnacle of their career.
Speaker 1:You're the chief marketing officer for Fortune 100 company, major, major retailer, and you decided that you wanted to move into something else. I'm going to kind of blend a little bit of career pivot and food and beverage kind of at the same time. But what motivated the move?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a good question. You know, I, for a long time I had said I wanted to be a chief marketing officer for a large consumer-driven organization and I was at a point where I had achieved the title of chief marketing officer at Pepsi. But there were also about a dozen chief marketing officers at Pepsi and I really wanted to lead the discipline for a company and when I had the chance to do that for Target, it was like this is kind of this is my goal. To your point, use the word pinnacle. This is what I've aspired to do for many, many, many years.
Speaker 2:It's a great brand, it's an iconic brand that I was really proud to be a part of it and to work with really talented, a talented group of marketers. But you get curious and you want to learn more and you want to do more, and so what happened was my job expanded and they asked me to take on our e-commerce business in addition to marketing, and that was great, because e-commerce is another guest touch point, another consumer touch point. So there's a lot of marketing that goes into how to think about the digital experience. And then they added on corporate strategy, which made it a lot of.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:A lot of sense in that corporate strategy is so linked to consumer insights and the brand, and where does it make sense to stretch the brand and where does it make sense not to stretch the brand? And that was good. And I was doing that job and I was still learning. I don't think I really had my sea legs yet at doing all those different things. When Brian Cornell, my boss or CEO, said I want you to take this job in food and veg and I'll be honest with you, I didn't raise my hand for it. I didn't even see, I hadn't even imagined the idea of not being associated with marketing in some capacity. To be honest with you, I mean, that's what I have done my whole career and when your CEO asks you to do something, you do it.
Speaker 2:And I went into the role, not sure if I would like it or if I would be very good at it and my job was to run our food and beverage business, which is about a $23 billion P&L, and I run pretty much everything except for the marketing. So supply chain. We have food distribution centers across the US. We have store operations, people kind of on the ground, on the front line in stores across the US A merchandising team that's thinking about assortment, product pricing, a planning and financial Planning team which is more financially oriented, forecasting, and then an own-brands team which is doing product R&D, product innovation and development, food scientists.
Speaker 2:So it was everything but marketing, and I went into it, not sure, and three years later, I've absolutely loved it. It's been an amazing move for me, and the thing about marketing is what I've realized is you never really leave it, because as long as you're in a consumer-driven business, you're always thinking about the consumer. As long as you're in a branded business, you're always thinking about the brand and what's right for the brand. So, even though I'm dealing with operational decisions, financial decisions, innovation, new product decisions, merchandising decisions, the consumer is front and center, what we refer to it target as our guest. Our guest is front and center in those decisions, and so for me, it felt like a hard pivot to something completely different. But what I realized is it was an evolution that enabled me to use my branding skills, my marketing skills, my strategic thinking skills, just in a different context.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Well, I love what you're saying about just this guest centricity in that mindset, because without the guest there is not a business for all the other stuff. I'm going to make an observation and then I'm going to ask you a question. You do not have to react to my observation. One could argue that you're taking on this role that Brian asked you to step into really positioned you well to be CEO at some point, because then you've got the full experience of the marketing piece, which are extremely deep in, but now you've got the rest of all the moving parts that make the business the business, so I hope that that positions you to be CEO at some point. The question, though, is in the past three years, what would you say is either one of the biggest learnings, the biggest surprises that you've taken from the experience today?
Speaker 2:One of the biggest learnings for me and I didn't think about it when I moved into this role. I thought a lot about finance and I thought a lot about supply chain. I thought a lot about gosh. I got to learn all this stuff.
Speaker 2:It's a different language, but what surprised me is how much I have really enjoyed working with the front line, getting out into our stores as much as I can.
Speaker 2:Quite honestly, I'd love to do it every week.
Speaker 2:I'd love to get out there it was just in stores in Nashville last week, in Florida this week being with the front line and hearing their stories, hearing their feedback, what's working, what's not working, their sense of gratitude.
Speaker 2:Quite honestly, their excitement for the business has been incredibly rewarding and I think what helps me as someone who is trained in marketing is what you learn in marketing is storytelling and to be able to go out now into the field and to be in a store, to be in a back room to listen and then to take those stories and be able to bring them back to headquarters and share the stories that I'm hearing from the front line on what we can do better and what we can do differently. I've really enjoyed that part of my job. We have an incredibly passionate, amazing front line of store team members who love the Target brand and we're going into right now what is the Super Bowl of Retail. It's the fourth quarter, it's holidays and they are pumped and they're excited. And to go out into the stores you just feel that energy and I've loved that part of the job.
Speaker 1:Now I think it's cool too. I think it also definitely touches on your consumer insights, roots and stuff like that, where it's the voice of the customer except in this case it's the voice of the associate and staying very, very close to that and not having so many filters between you and what's really going on with people, I think is awesome. Let's talk food and beverage for a minute, because you're in such a great category or department, however you think about it, because and we talked about this earlier where food and beverage is so experiential, it's not like some other consumer products that are more functional, although there obviously is the functional aspect of it, but there's the social quality, like breaking bread together kind of a thing, trying new things. How are you bringing those category benefits in, kind of overlaying what makes Target special?
Speaker 2:Yeah and I think. Well, first of all, I completely agree with you. I love working in the food and beverage business. But what's interesting, a little bit of context at Target. We haven't always been in the food and beverage business and in fact we started as a general merchant, general merchandiser, and we're famous for apparel and home toys. People talk about Tarjay and the Tarjay magic and that's referring oftentimes to the style and at an affordable price that we offer in apparel, home accessories. We got into the food and beverage business later on and we did it because we wanted to drive frequency. People buy food a lot more frequently than they're buying apparel or home or electronics.
Speaker 2:But there was a little bit of a I don't know almost a stigma around food and beverage. It was thought of as a commodity, very transactional. In fact, we used to use the term you have your wants and your needs. People want apparel and home and toys and electronics. They need food and beverage and I actually don't think about that at all.
Speaker 2:Food and beverage is very much a business that is about people. It's about humanity. I mean, if you think about it, everyone has their favorite meal, favorite food, favorite beverage. What you prepare for your family says a lot about how you care about your family. It's for a lot of us. As someone who is Latino, it's a huge part of my culture.
Speaker 2:Food and beverage is anything but a commodity. It is deeply human, it is deeply personal, and especially this time of year I mean yesterday we had Halloween and candy was front and center part of that holiday we're going into Thanksgiving and the holidays where food is really a catalyst that brings people together to create memories and is the center of bringing those that you love together. So it's an incredible business and I think what we've done at Target is really been on a journey to say you know what food and beverage is different? It's not a commodity. And not only that. We can bring the Tarjay magic to the food and beverage business. And that's really been our journey for the last handful of years is to take that inspiration, that affordability, that trend and bring that to food and beverage. And we like to say that we want to go from being a retailer that just sells food to becoming a retailer that celebrates food. And when we get to that point we will have been successful. And we're still on that journey, but we're making progress.
Speaker 1:I just want to repeat that for people From a retailer that sells food to a retailer that celebrates food, Even the way I said that the question I'm in heated agreement with you that food is, I mean, one of the highest involvement categories you could possibly imagine and to think of it as a commodity, you know, just boxes you into a very small place that doesn't give you much room to play when you think of it, the way that you were just describing it, and all the possibilities that engenders from a guest experience and in brand building, what are you know as a marketer, what are some of the? You kind of hinted at these. But just to dig down in a little bit deeper, what are some of the brand attributes that Target uniquely brings to food?
Speaker 2:There are a couple that I would highlight, and the first is very top of mind for our guests right now, and that is affordability. Right now, food prices, I mean inflation, has been insane and most Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. They're dealing with student loans, coming back unsure about the economy, and they're looking for affordability. But that doesn't mean just cheap, that doesn't mean just low prices. Affordability means it's a good value, and so that's what we try to deliver at Target, and we do that very explicitly with our own brand business Good and Gather, favorite Day Market Pantry. These are our own brands, and I use the phrase own brands and not private label, because these aren't labeled. These are brands that we have built, we innovate on them, we deliver anywhere from two to 300 new items every season behind these brands, and that offers affordability, which is so important to our guests right now. The second thing I would highlight would be ease and convenience. I mean and we've been talking about that in this for years and years and years and it hasn't gone away. It's just what is? The definition of ease and convenience has changed and we need to be able to have our products to our guests anywhere that they need them, at any time that they need them. We've invested really heavily in our fulfillment services, our same day delivery services, whether that is a drive up and we can put groceries in your trunk in less than four minutes, or it can be order online, pick up in store, or we can deliver it to your home. Those kinds of conveniences are really important and we need to continue to bring the Tarjay magic to those experiences. A good example of that is right now we're just launching Starbucks at Drive Up. So when you come to Drive Up at Target to get your groceries on your phone, when you say I'm coming in, we'll say would you like a Starbucks with that? And we can bring you a hot or a cold Starbucks to your car. And it's a way to add a little bit of that magic, that little bit of specialness, to what is a convenient, easy option. And I'll tell you, the funny thing about that is we're national in October and it's been going gangbusters. People love it. But the number two ordered item that we have is a cake pop, because it's not just about mom or dad in the front seat, but it's about the kiddo in the back seat too, and it's just a way for us to bring a little bit of joy to our guests through ease and convenience.
Speaker 2:So talk about affordability One, ease and convenience is two, and then the third one is inspiration and inspiration. Innovation is incredibly important, particularly at Target. A lot of people will say they'll run in and out of Target because they need to get something really quickly. But there's also that trip of going to Target because you have free hour. You have a free 90 minutes, maybe the kids are at camp or wherever, and you just want to walk up and down the aisle and get inspired and see what's new, see what's new for the season, see what's going on in apparel and home decor, and it's just a chance to escape a little bit and get inspired, come up with new ideas. And so that's something that we think quite a bit about in food and beverage, as we're launching new brands, as we're bringing in smaller discovery brands, as we're highlighting new food and beverage trends. So really, that's kind of how we think about it. It's about affordability, ease and convenience, and then it's about inspiration.
Speaker 1:And all of those you're just so tick the boxes.
Speaker 1:Very, very well for the overall brand it's interesting as you took on more responsibility within marketing, you picked up Ecom as part of it. So listening to you talk as an omnichannel marketer right, not just an ins it's like, well, wait a minute, we need to be target wherever she needs us to be target, whenever she needs us to be target. So I think that convenience piece is really cool. And then just even back when you know it's affordability. But, as you said, it's value, and what does value mean to that guest? That's how we want to deliver value. It's not just about being the low price, low cost provider, because it may actually be an unsatisfying experience just because it was the lowest priced item.
Speaker 2:Totally. People can't afford to throw away food. They don't want to cook a meal and have nobody eat it. They don't want to bring something to a party and it's not. You know, people don't enjoy it like, value is more than just price. It includes a lot of other things, particularly you know how does it taste good? I mean, this is the food and beverage business. It's got to be delicious.
Speaker 1:Well, I do want to touch though, because because you kind of beat me to the punch on the discovery inspiration and you know we had talked about emerging brands in an earlier talk and you told the story about McBride sisters do you might share that with listeners?
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure. And let me just step back a second. And you know, as we think about the products that we sell at Target, we kind of think about them in three different categories. We think about the big national brands that everybody loves and grew up with and it's important to our guests it's Tide, it's Oreos, captain Crunch, it's all those brands. The other one are what I've already talked about our own brands Good and Gather, favorite Day, market, pantry. Those deliver affordability and they differentiate us because you can only get them at Target. But then there's a really important third bucket of brands and those are the new emerging brands that we discover and that we curate and that we bring to Target for you to discover.
Speaker 2:And we do that oftentimes with emerging health trends, oftentimes with BIPOC owned or women owned and founded brands. And the example that you brought up McBride sisters is a great example of two black women sisters who have a passion for the wine industry and wanted to make the wine business more accessible to their community and created a wine and we were one of the big retailers to get behind it and to support it. And they've since gone on and done a lot of varietals with us. They've done Black Girl Magic, which is Wine and I Can. It's done incredibly well and they've gone beyond Target and it's sold at a lot of other retailers now. But we're really proud of the relationship that we built with the McBride sisters and that we were able to help them early on and it's a terrific relationship now that we hold up and use as an example of. We need to do more of. This is helping those smaller brands with our size and scale get discovered.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm going to use that as a place to segue into a different topic, but kind of related in the sense that you know, to your point about size and scale, like if I've gotten placement in Target, that's a really big deal. How do you kind of see you know, vendors, suppliers, working with merchants bringing in the title here will be information versus insights and being able to bring a story, a brand story that resonates with you guys that say, yes, this is a story well told, this is a story we would like to help you tell it at a target scale story and just how information versus insights and how that leads to good partnerships with you guys.
Speaker 2:Sure, I mean, we are talking with you know partners, vendors, cpg companies all the time, and you know, one of the things that really sets apart different brands are those that are grounded in consumer insights, that are carving out a white space in the marketplace, that are thinking about how they're not just going to steal share from someone else, but how they're actually going to grow. The category and that's what we want to do is we want to lift the whole category and drive growth, and so having brands that can tell that story and can explain from a consumer insights perspective is incredibly compelling as we're working with smaller brands. The product is important absolutely the leaders and the entrepreneurs and their vision is really important, but it has to have a story behind it. It has to have a reason for being, and I think those brands that can tell a story about why they got into this business are the ones that'll really resonate and connect and we can partner with them on on that storytelling.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now I appreciate it because, as you know, I come from a consumer insights and background and I think that this storytelling and what's the essence of the brand and then how that aligns with, in your case, the target brand and helps elevate, as you say, the category and also the guest experience, that I found something the target that I hadn't seen before and it was amazing, because that's why I go to Target is to go find amazing and I love your expression from earlier affordable joy. You know, I found affordable joy at Target and that's that makes shopping fun again instead of just sort of drudgery and task orientation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it makes it shopping fun again. But I also think right now it's what we all need right now. You know the world's tough place the economy is in a very place right now and people are juggling a lot of priorities. They're stretched for time and their budgets are stretched and they're looking for of what we would refer to as affordable joy, just that moment of a respite from everything that's going on, and we think that that's something that Target can deliver uniquely.
Speaker 2:People will talk about unprompted. People will tell us that Target is their happy place. It's their happy place because they can go there and just kind of forget about everything else for just a little bit and they can discover, they can be inspired, they can learn about new things and they don't feel guilty about it. And so you know, that's as we've been thinking through the pandemic, coming out of the pandemic, thinking about some of the challenges with inflation, that's really been our North Star is how do we continue to bring affordable joy to our guests in light of everything that they've going on in their lives?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, you guys have clearly tapped into I think one might call the zeitgeist of where people are. They're just stressed out and so many things are happening to them, and both Target as a destination, but then food and beverage as categories that bring a little bit of joy. You know, in the moment and you're delivering on something that makes people feel better about their lives, and when you can be that destination, you hold that kind of you know brand in somebody's heart. That's pretty high ground.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's. You know. I'll give you an example of kind of how it comes to life, and a perfect example would be a brand that we launched during the pandemic. It was it's called Favorite Day, and we recognized during the pandemic that people were, you know, we were all kind of at home, we were living in an isolated world, our isolated world, and people were working for, looking for a little bit of happiness, a little bit of joy, and so we created a brand that's all about indulgence it's sweet, it's chocolates, it's cookies, it's savory, it's it's decadent, it's indulgent. This is not about health and wellness, this is about a treat and people during the pandemic needed a treat. You know we've launched that brand. It's over a $600 million brand now. It's growing double digits and we just continue to innovate on that.
Speaker 2:And you know we've taken it to all kinds of places and Halloween we just did gummy eyeballs. That are adorable and kids love them. You know we've been doing ginger red houses. That we've done in the shape of Target stores, where we've taken gingerbread houses to Halloween and to Easter and it just puts a smile on people's face at a very affordable price. And Favorite Day is just. I think it kind of hit the right time when people were working looking for just a little bit of a little bit of happiness. And you know it doesn't. It can be as simple as a you know a caramel dipped in dark chocolate with sea salt. That just kind of tastes delicious, that gives you a little bit of a smile, and you know that's kind of what we need right now.
Speaker 1:Well you're. I cannot agree more. There's definitely a role for a little bit of decadence, and we're not trying to build a lifestyle against you know any of that, but there's a place for it and you know, you guys seem to. Just the fact that you have a $600 million brand after just a few years I mean like it's a billion dollars is always the high watermark, right. So that's pretty incredible.
Speaker 1:Let's move on, because I do want to be mindful of your time around career stuff. You know, at Career Club, a big piece of how we work with our clients is around helping them shape their brand story, because that's what we believe. You are a brand and you have a unique story and unique attributes that you bring to the marketplace. And then the the challenge is is how do you identify what makes you uniquely, you, how that plays out in your career, how you show those qualities in your career and then how that informs where you'd like to go next in your career path. And yours has been really, really interesting because you thought you wanted to be a lawyer, became a marketer and you went from a marketer to a merchant or a general manager, however you want to think about that. I guess you're really the GEM because you've got merchandise under you. How would you, how do you coach people and as you're developing people on your team, to think about their personal brands?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it. Um, I think having a personal brand is important.
Speaker 2:I don't necessarily I haven't used that phrase, but what I do think is but I think it's spot on and I completely agree with it and I think what I tell people is probably the most important thing is self-awareness and kind of understanding who you are, what you're good at, where you have opportunities and, very importantly, what makes you happy and what do you enjoy doing. And chances are what you enjoy doing is what you're really good at doing, and so being able to articulate that I think is really important because it'll help you figure out what are the right next moves, what are the industries to get into, what are the right companies to work for. That'll make you happy. We spend so much time at work. If you don't enjoy it, you're just not gonna be, you're not gonna be happy. So I think self-reflection, self-awareness is a huge part of figuring out what is your personal brand.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you, for me, my perspective has changed as I've gotten older. I think early in my career I was a little misguided and that I thought it was about fitting in. It was about fitting into a stereotype of what makes a great executive, and I looked at the people up in kind of the C-suite and I emulated them and I tried to copy them and that got me far enough for a while. And then what happens is you just are not authentic leader, you're not a vulnerable leader, you're not a relatable leader, and it's not until you can start to figure out.
Speaker 2:Oh, you know what? I do have a different lived experience. I do have different things that I bring to the table, and that's not a weakness, that's actually my superpowers and I can start to leverage that. I can talk about that and I can bring that to the table and to the C-suite table. And that's come later on in my career, as I think I've learned more. But my advice would be the sooner you can figure out what is your unique voice and what makes you special, what are your superpowers, the better off you'll be.
Speaker 1:Okay. So a couple of things. One is, for me, that is the essence of a brand. Otherwise you're a commodity. You have to be unique and different and people to know what makes you unique and different. So one I love that.
Speaker 1:Two is I really appreciate, rick, what you're saying because I think it's very on message for where particularly Gen Z is coming from, but I think it also applies more broadly, which is being vulnerable and kind of being more transparent, more authentic, because the future workforce, a big chunk of the current workforce, but clearly the future workforce.
Speaker 1:This actually kind of goes back to some of the you're all kind of rattled these days and like there's just so much that has been going on is going on, and when you can show some of your humanity to people, that gives them the permission to show their humanity and go. Oh wow, if Rick's feeling that, then I guess it's okay for me to feel that, not only to feel it but to articulate it, and that's real leadership, because it's almost like you're going in, going to the stores and talking to real associates. What's really going on, that's what you want us to truth, what's really going on. Then you can empathize with people, make them know that you're listening to them because people want to be heard. But then it's smart business because then you can develop strategies whether they're workforce strategies, marketing strategies to address what's really really going on. But you only get that way by being vulnerable and being a great listener, I think.
Speaker 2:I 100% agree. I mean nobody wants to work for a robot. I mean people want to work with someone that they can relate to. That's human.
Speaker 2:I was talking to a group of students a couple of weeks ago. It was a group of Latino students and they were asking me about being a Latino in corporate America and what are the challenges that come with that. And there are certain challenges from the perspective of I've never worked for a Latino leader. I've never had that opportunity, unfortunately. Hopefully that will change and the younger generation will be able to work for people who look like themselves.
Speaker 2:But my point was you don't think about it as the challenges of being Latino. Think about it as what you bring to the table as a Latino. There's a work ethic that we've been taught. There's a value system that we've been taught as Latinos about family and hard work and results and education and collaboration and community, and those values are so important in the business world. That's what you bring to the table and so don't try to hide that you're a Latino. That's part of what makes you unique, and so I think that's an important message for everyone to figure out, kind of your lived experiences, what makes you unique, what do you know that you can bring to the table that the person next to you might not understand?
Speaker 2:Yes it kind of takes a little bit.
Speaker 1:I would just go, just to keep going a little bit.
Speaker 2:I wanna build on the vulnerability point that you made. I think vulnerability absolutely is important and it's learned and it's uncomfortable and you practice and you get better at it. But the other thing that I think is just as important as vulnerability is empathy, and I think you learn that early on as a marketer how to be empathetic to who you're marketing, to who your consumer target is. You learn their needs, their challenges and how to better deliver what they're looking for. But actually I think empathy is much bigger than a marketing skill. It is a leadership skill and it's the importance of being able to understand where other people who you are working with are coming from, what's their agenda, what are they worried about, what's on their mind and then how can you help them. Being empathetic with people, particularly who are different than you and have different experiences, but spending the time to understand it and to learn it is so important to being an effective leader. So I would put vulnerability and empathy right up there at the top of critical for success.
Speaker 1:I love it and we just we have a few things together here. We have a lot of chief human resources officers on this program, and so we talk a lot about DEI things and DEI isn't just well, it's nice and we should do it. No, it's like it's good business too, because you're listening and you're hearing other perspectives. And I'm not Latino, so I didn't grow up in a border town in Texas and understand that community the way that you do. Oh, by the way, it's one of the fastest growing segments of the consumer marketplace. Might be a good idea to understand them, because so much innovation, how you message right, like just doing Spanish subtitles, could be like the biggest flop of all time, because the whole context of the spot doesn't resonate, it's not their lived experience, and so there's just so many reasons, just besides being a good human being, for doing some of these things. But I really appreciate what you're sharing, rick. It's a message that people need to hear from somebody who's got the executive authority that you've got.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think it's not just a good thing to do, it's good for business, to your point. The research is very clear when you have people with different backgrounds working together, you get to better solutions. You get to more creative problem solving. I think about my direct report team at Target, and what I appreciate so much about the team is there are people who have long time been at Target, for many, many years. There are people who are new to Target, there are people who grew up in retail, there are people who grew up in consulting, there are people who grew up in the CPG industry, and they all come with different perspectives and that brings a level of diversity and a level of, I think, better problem solving and we're better off for it as a team.
Speaker 1:I want to be mindful of your time. One last question. We had talked about this in a previous conversation. I just loved it. I ask you and I ask you now what's the quality that you look for when you're hiring people or when you're looking to develop your team? And the hint for you is it used to be something around strategic thought, strategic leadership, but you've pivoted from that. Can you kind of build that out for us?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I am. It's changed and you know I used to be about leadership and a track record of leading and strategic thinking, problem solving. But I will tell you, I think what is so important right now is just resilience people to think, resilience, and then flexibility, agility, and so, from a resilience perspective, people who are willing to have the ability, desire the fortitude to work through really tough times, to work through challenges, to sometimes get it wrong but then to pick themselves up and go back at it one more time. That resilience is, that grit is really important, and particularly as things are getting more and more challenging and moving faster and faster in in corporate world, agility and flexibility you have to be comfortable with pivoting. The consumer is changing so fast, technology is changing so fast. You have to be able to To move quickly, and that that means being agile and that means being flexible. So resilience and then flexibility are probably two of the things that I look for the most.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I appreciate you sharing that. And then, for people who are listening, you know we all go through challenges. As Rick said, the world's never going to be slower than it is today and it's just going to keep going and keep going. And so being able to and some of that change is not going to feel like it's working to your advantage. So resilience is going to be a great quality to have within, to is being able to be flexible and be able to adapt to what the reality is. Yeah, so when you're interviewing, being able to draw on past experiences where you have been able to bring those kinds of qualities to the four are going to resonate with employers because it's the exact right recipe for what the world is calling for right now 100%, and it goes back to storytelling.
Speaker 2:I think you can have your personal brand, but you have to be able to tell the stories of what you've been able to deliver and accomplish and how you've been been been able to demonstrate resiliency, flexibility, and so I think that store being able to tell those stories and a very clear, succinct, compelling way is so important.
Speaker 1:Well, Rick, this has been awesome. Is there anything we haven't touched on that you're hoping?
Speaker 2:to that we would talk about before I let you go tonight. No, I mean, I would just reinforce the point about because I do love the phrase and I'm going to use it now your personal brand. I think my, my last bit of advice was would be you know you, be you and figure out what makes you happy and lean into that, because that's how you'll be successful.
Speaker 1:Awesome. This. This has been phenomenal, rick. I knew this is gonna be good. This is better than good. It was great. Thank you so much for your time. For people who are watching this on YouTube, please subscribe like comment really helps. If you happen to be listening to this on your favorite podcast platform rate review, that stuff really helps. But, rick, I just want to say thank you. This has been just very enlightening and I just enjoyed it very much, so thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, bob, I've really enjoyed it as well. Thank you.