Former Adidas marketer Carla Murphy will report into CEO Ije Nwokorie, who previously held the chief brand officer role, before being promoted to lead the business.
Dr Martens has appointed a new chief brand officer, Carla Murphy, who joins from Adidas, as the brand looks to improve performance.
Her predecessor Ije Nwokorie took on the role of chief executive officer at the business at the beginning of the year.
Murphy will join the brand’s global leadership team in July and report into Nwokorie. The company has brought in a number of senior executives across creative direction, product design, category management and marketing recently in an attempt to strengthen its leadership and reverse its fortunes.
These include appointments to roles including creative director for its global brand studio, a category director, and a global brand marketing director.
In recent times, Dr Martens has weathered disappointing financial results. Last year, it told investors that its approach to marketing had lost focus and needed to be reorientated, following a 43% drop in profits.
It has been restructuring its marketing team to support what has been termed a “relentless focus on product”, rather than simply storytelling. Speaking as chief brand officer last year, Nwokorie had said that sometimes marketing can “get in the way” of product, and that his role was “stripping away” anything that stopped customers discovering the product.
Murphy joins from Adidas, where she was senior vice-president and global general manager for the outdoor category. She spent almost five years at the brand, where she was responsible for the end-to-end strategy, management and execution globally of its outdoor category. In this role she reported directly to the CEO.
Dr Martens promotes top marketer to CEO
Previously, she spent five years at outdoor apparel brand Icebreaker, latterly as its vice-president for global brand and product. Before that, she worked at another sports apparel business, Amer Sports Group, holding senior brand and product positions across its brands, including Nikita, Salomon, and Atomic.
Welcoming Murphy to the team, CEO Nwokorie said that he is “thrilled” that she is joining to look after Dr Martens’ brand, its “most important asset”.
“Carla is an exceptional leader with a proven track record for using bold storytelling and fearless creativity to drive growth for world-renowned brands, and she will do amazing work with our immensely talented brand and creative teams,” he said.
Murphy will only be the second incumbent of the chief brand officer role after the now-CEO, as the position was created last year “to pull together [the business’s] product, marketing, sustainability and strategy efforts to drive the brand”.
