NIC+ZOE turns a five-month tryout into a CMO job
The Boston women's wear label promoted its interim brand lead to chief marketing officer after she helped launch its younger line, nz.
NIC+ZOE has named Donna Tobin chief marketing officer, converting a five-month consulting assignment into a permanent seat at the top of the brand.
Tobin joined the Boston label earlier this year as interim brand and marketing executive, and spent the engagement on the unglamorous work: sharpening awareness, rebuilding the integrated marketing plan, and resetting the brand's creative imagery and messaging. She also helped launch nz by NIC+ZOE, the company's collection aimed at a younger customer, across digital and print.
In the expanded role she owns brand strategy, creative, website content, public relations, social, events, partnerships, and product collaborations across retail, wholesale, and digital, along with every agency relationship. She reports to chief executive Avra Myers, a colleague from their years together at J.Jill.
The interim-to-permanent path is worth noting on its own. Mid-size apparel brands have spent two years hiring fractional and contract marketing leaders because a full CMO search is slow and expensive, and because the job description keeps changing. Running the role as a five-month audition gives both sides evidence instead of references, and it means the strategy Tobin now has to deliver is the one she wrote.
The task is the familiar one for a brand known for prints and easy versatility: modernize without alienating the customer who already buys, while giving nz enough distinct voice to recruit a new one. Those two jobs pull in opposite directions, and they are usually what a marketing chief in this segment is actually hired to reconcile.
Kyle Duford, Founder & Editor, BRNDWIRE. More from Kyle →
