The retail industry has a particular fondness for the second act, and sometimes the third, and Michael Francis has now been given another opportunity to demonstrate his.
Old Navy, the value-oriented chain that is part of Gap Inc., announced on Tuesday that it had appointed Mr. Francis to the newly created position of chief customer officer, a role that will have him overseeing brand strategy, marketing, and what the company described as "customer experience strategies."
Mr. Francis, who has been serving as an adviser to the chain, will report to Haio Barbeito, the president and chief executive of Old Navy. He will also take on responsibilities across Gap Inc.'s portfolio of brands — which includes Gap, Banana Republic, and Athleta — overseeing media strategy and what the company called its "shared influencer platform."
(One imagines the influencers will be pleased to learn they have been organized into a platform.)
The appointment represents something of a homecoming to mass-market retail for Mr. Francis, whose résumé reads like a tour of American consumer culture over the last two decades. He served as chief marketing officer at Target during the years when that chain successfully convinced shoppers that a discount store could also be a design destination. He later became president of J. C. Penney, in a tenure that was notably brief, and then moved to DreamWorks Animation as chief global brand officer.
Richard Dickson, the president and chief executive of Gap Inc., called Mr. Francis "one of the most respected brand builders in retail," which is the sort of thing one says in a news release but which also happens, in this case, to be largely true.
Old Navy has been in the midst of what the retail trade likes to call a turnaround, a word that implies both motion and optimism. Whether Mr. Francis can supply both remains, as always, a matter for the quarters ahead.
Original story published in adweek.com: "Old Navy Appoints Michael Francis as Chief Customer Officer Amid Turnaround"