Executive VP & Chief Commercial Officer, Target Corporation
Top of Mind | Rick Gomez, Target
Target's Rick Gomez says making the shopping experience easier and more personalized is his No. 1 goal in 2020. Just elevated ...
About Richard Gomez
In a September 2020 interview, Gomez discussed his expanded role as chief marketing, digital, and strategy officer at Target, noting that the e-commerce part of the role was the newest for him. He described the challenge of using data from Target’s loyalty program, Target Circle, which had over 50 million sign-ups in its first four months, to create personalized communication and offers for guests at scale. Gomez said the company refers to its customers as “guests” to reinforce the idea of Target as a generous host, and he emphasized the importance of using consumer data responsibly and transparently. He also mentioned an internal media agency called Round Owl that leverages first-party data to place targeted ads for vendors, calling it a profitable incremental revenue stream. Gomez also voiced support for the #SeeALL movement, describing it as a call to action for advertisers and marketers to better reflect multicultural consumers in their work. He stated that prioritizing the multicultural consumer is “no longer a nice to do, it’s a must do” for long-term brand growth, citing the diversity of Gen Z as a key reason. Gomez acknowledged that Target had made progress in this area but said there was more the company and the industry could do.
Transcript (21 segments)
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Stephanie Patrick0:00
Hi, I'm Stephanie Patrick, executive editor of Adweek, and I am here with Rick Gomez from Target. He's joining us for our CMO Summit in New York and was on stage earlier this morning. Rick, welcome. Thanks so much for being with us.
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Richard Gomez0:23
It's great to be here.
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Stephanie Patrick0:24
I'm not even gonna attempt to say your title because you were just elevated and it's a lot. Maybe it sounds more complicated than it is, but the role is Chief Marketing, Digital, and Strategy Officer.
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Richard Gomez0:36
It's one of the things I'm really excited about as we think about 2020 is seeing the CMO role evolve and expand beyond just marketing communications. What we're recognizing is there's so much synergy between insights, innovation, strategy, marketing, digital. And when those disciplines come together, that's where we can get some really big ideas. So I'm excited to see that evolution and I'm excited to lead that evolution.
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Stephanie Patrick1:03
What part of the role is going to be newest for you or what are you leaning into more?
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Richard Gomez1:06
For me personally, the e-commerce part is the newest. E-commerce is a big business for us, a growing business. We just saw over the holiday the growth was accelerating as consumers are looking for more convenience and easy options. But e-commerce is a new world for me, so I'm still learning. What I'm realizing in the world of e-commerce is there's so much data. The trick is to understand what data is most important.
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Stephanie Patrick1:33
Who do you lean on or what resources do you go to when you are trying to learn this new aspect of the business?
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Richard Gomez1:39
First and foremost, I'm really fortunate to have a really talented team of experts. So I spend a lot of time with them and I ask a lot of dumb questions, and they have a lot of patience with me. I think it's important to recognize you don't have the answers, you need to ask questions. And they've been really terrific helping me to onboard and really teaching me.
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Stephanie Patrick2:03
What are you most excited about at Target right now?
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Richard Gomez2:05
The way we are thinking about how to deliver personalization at scale. I think what's happening is consumers, or what we refer to as our guests, they want to have communication, they want to have offers that are personalized and unique to them. That's hard to do when 78% of the American population shops at your store. So we launched a new loyalty program called Target Circle in October, and in the first four months we had over 50 million guests sign up. That's great, but that's not the reason we give high fives, because now we have to take all of that data and start to create communication, content, offers that are personalized for everyone and really get to one-to-one at scale. That's a capability we're building, it's a multi-year dream, but I think we can crack that nut of doing personalization at scale.
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Stephanie Patrick2:58
I love, by the way, that you said not consumers but guests. I feel like consumers is this word that we overuse and it sort of depersonalizes things. So for you as a CMO, how important is language and sort of studying the right mindset?
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Richard Gomez3:13
It's really important. Words matter. We think about what some might call customers, we refer to them as our guests because we want them to think of us as a generous host. And we want them, when they come to Target whether it's online or in-store, we want them to have a great experience and we want them to want to come back.
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Stephanie Patrick3:33
What is something that keeps you up at night or a problem that you're trying to solve for?
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Richard Gomez3:37
Talent. We've had success at Target for the past few years and we have a really talented team who's been driving that success. I really believe that that's what differentiates us versus the competition in a lot of ways. And so I want to make sure that we're doing everything we can to grow and retain and reward our talent so they stay with us.
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Stephanie Patrick4:00
What's an innovation coming down the pike that you think will most change your business?
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Richard Gomez4:04
Let me talk about an innovation that I think will have impact on our business and is currently having impact, and that is Roundel, which is basically an internal media agency that we have created at Target. What we're able to do is leverage first-party data to work with our vendors to put targeted ads to our guests. That is something that we're able to then sell to our vendors, it's become a profitable incremental revenue stream. I think we as marketers need to continue to make sure we're using the data in a very responsible way, but then think about how we can leverage that data to create better experiences for our guests.
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Stephanie Patrick4:45
It seems like it was a priority for you to own that data too, in terms of bringing that in-house, right?
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Richard Gomez4:49
It is. We think about consumer data as something that we manage very, very carefully. There's a trust between our guests and us. They know that we have this data, they want us to use it responsibly, and we try to be transparent about it and protect it. That's something that we take very seriously.
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Stephanie Patrick5:11
So Rick, my last question for you: what is the best piece of career advice that you've either given or received?
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Richard Gomez5:18
I've received a lot of good advice over the years. I've had a lot of people who have invested a lot of time. But the one thing that sticks with me was an old boss named Polly Kowalik, and what she would tell me is: be you, and be unapologetic about being you.
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Stephanie Patrick5:31
I love that. Thank you so much, Rick, for being with us today. And thank you for tuning into Top of Mind.