Good American has tapped Jamaal Layne as chief marketing officer.
The title is a new role for the brand, launched in Los Angeles in 2016 by Emma Grede and Khloé Kardashian.
“I’m the first one in the seat,” said Layne, who exited Calvin Klein in October of last year after about 10 months as executive vice president, global brand and North America marketing, as reported by WWD.
“Honestly, what drew me in was speaking to Emma, speaking to the team,” he went on. “She’s so passionate.”
Before joining Calvin Klein, Layne was head of entertainment marketing at Sonos Inc., the home audio company. He’s also held positions at Nike, Microsoft, Converse and Adidas. But his career began in publishing, working in marketing for magazines like Fader and Urb.
“Before lifestyle marketing was known as lifestyle marketing,” the executive said. “That’s where I learned how to connect brands to culture.”
Working at Calvin Klein, similar to his experience at Microsoft, gave him “the grounding of how to navigate a matrix, complex matrix, a really big organization,” he continued. “It’s cool to be in really big organizations, but as I see marketing and how it’s changing, you have got to be nimble and be able to move and pivot if something’s not working. And it’s just really hard to do that with a big corporation. It’s just really hard. It’s just a lot of people, and there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s just a lot of cooks in the kitchen, and you’re all trying to make decisions, which is completely fine, but I knew from my heart that I needed to be in a smaller place where I could just be, like, ‘Is this working? If it’s not, then let’s pivot.’”
At Good American, he aims to connect with the younger consumer by “organically leaning into culture” and showcasing what it means to be an inclusive brand today, beyond featuring plus-size models.
“The groundwork has been laid, so what I want to do is continue to tell the stories that Good American has been telling their audience, but I also want to expand that audience,” Layne said.
“Why can’t we show up at Coachella in a cool way…or awards shows?” he added. “There’s just really interesting things that we can do.…Consumers like to identify with brands that actually identify with them and their ethos….That’s what I’m going to push us to do. Our ethos needs to align with our consumer. And I feel like we can do that, because our product does, right? We are one of few brands that can go from double zero to 32 plus. That’s incredible.”
Source: WWD