It has long marketed each individual brand, but CMO Bob Sherwin recently shared how the company changed its approach. Speaking at the CommerceNext conference, he said the company had been structured “around each major channel,” considering each as a center of excellence. They were treated like an agency, each led by a marketer who functionally served as a general manager.
“During the pandemic, some of the things we realized we have to change with this model is the quality of communications and processes,” Sherwin said, according to the article. “We realized how important it is that general managers have to be in touch with their teams.”
Wayfair also added more employees with specialized skills in brand, creative and technical roles. “We’ve evolved from more generalists to more specialists,” he said.
Sherwin also said the company was “very deliberate about carving out a lot of space for diversity and inclusion in the marketing group, thinking about both the consumer and how we’re going to market to them, and also within our organization.” He said those efforts include a number of rubrics to help make sure it is depicting diverse consumers in its spots, doing so in a respectful way, and avoiding being stereotypical “so everyone could see themselves in our brand.”
