Carter’s seeks a VP, Growth Marketing (Atlanta, GA)

🔥 RESEARCH & INSIGHT 🔥 :

Company Overview: A Legacy Brand in Strategic Transition

Carter's, Inc. is North America's largest baby and young children's apparel retailer, operating 800+ stores under the Carter's, OshKosh B'gosh, Skip Hop, and Little Planet brands. Based in Atlanta, the company generates approximately $2.8 billion annually, with 85% from U.S. operations split between retail stores (~49% of sales) and wholesale partnerships (~37%), plus a growing international segment (15%).

The Q3 2025 results reveal a company in active transformation rather than steady-state operations. Sales held essentially flat at $758 million, while adjusted earnings per share declined 55% from $1.64 to $0.74 year-over-year. Reported operating income was $29 million (approximately 3.8% margin), down from $77 million in Q3 2024. Year-to-date operating margin stands at 3%, compressed by tariff impacts, higher product costs, and investments in organizational restructuring.

Management has announced significant structural changes: termination of the legacy OshKosh B'gosh pension plan, elimination of approximately 15% of office-based roles (saving roughly $35 million of a targeted $45 million in gross annual savings), and closure of up to 150 stores—nearly one-fifth of the retail footprint—by the end of 2026.

The company also adopted a stockholder rights plan (commonly called a "poison pill") in September 2025 after Roseman Wagner Wealth Management acquired approximately 17% of shares, adding a layer of corporate governance complexity.

CEO Doug Palladini, now seven months into his tenure, has characterized the company's efforts as a "business transformation" focused on eliminating costs, enhancing productivity, reducing complexity, and driving consistent revenue and profitability growth.

For a marketer considering this role, the context is clear: you're joining during a period of deliberate organizational change aimed at restoring profitability and competitiveness, not a period of steady growth optimization. The marketing leadership reports to a CMO who reports to a CEO implementing a significant strategic pivot.

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Market and Industry Context: Navigating Demographic and Cost Pressures

The baby and young children's apparel category faces a fundamental demographic reality: U.S. birth rates have declined approximately 15% over the past two decades, stabilizing around 3.6-3.7 million births annually. Unlike adult apparel categories, where immigration can offset declining birth rates by adding adult consumers, baby apparel receives minimal demographic support from immigration flows. This structural dynamic limits organic category growth regardless of execution quality.

Carter's competes in a category that is not expanding naturally, meaning growth must come from market share gains, increased wallet share from existing customers, or expansion into adjacent categories. Management has noted progress in regaining market share in the Baby and Toddler segments, with Baby posting growth for five consecutive quarters. However, the company is essentially competing for a larger slice of a relatively static pie.

The tariff environment represents the most significant near-term financial headwind. Carter's sources products primarily from Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and India—countries now subject to tariffs that have pushed the company's effective duty rate from approximately 13% historically to "the high 30% range," according to CFO Richard Westenberger's Q3 2025 earnings commentary. The gross annualized impact is estimated at $200-250 million, with a net impact on 2025 operating income projected at $25-35 million after mitigation efforts.

Management's mitigation strategy includes three primary levers: pricing increases across the assortment (particularly in U.S. Retail, where the company has more control), supply chain optimization including production shifts to lower-tariff countries, and vendor negotiations. The company has realized meaningful duty reductions through supply chain actions, though the specific dollar amount was not disclosed. Q3 results showed mid-single-digit average unit retail (AUR) increases in the U.S. Retail segment, though this came with lower unit volumes, indicating consumer price sensitivity.

The broader retail apparel market remains highly promotional and competitive. Target, Walmart, Amazon, and Old Navy all compete aggressively in value-oriented kids' apparel. When a retailer raises prices while competitors hold steady or increase promotional intensity, market share pressure typically follows. Carter's is working to maintain its value proposition—a balance of style, quality, and price—while absorbing significant cost increases.

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The Role: Understanding the Strategic Context Behind the Posting

The job posting describes a Director of Growth Marketing role with responsibility distributed across media strategy (30%), personalization (30%), email and SMS marketing (20%), and loyalty, app, and credit card marketing (20%). The position manages 3-5 direct reports, partners with external agencies, oversees enterprise media investment, and drives traffic and customer acquisition across all channels. The language emphasizes innovation, data-driven strategies, and integrated marketing planning.

The strategic context adds important nuance. Carter's is simultaneously reducing corporate headcount by 15% while signaling intent to increase investment in demand creation and marketing. Management has indicated plans to increase marketing investment in 2026, with a focus on driving traffic, building consumer loyalty, and moving away from purely promotional messaging toward brand and product storytelling. CEO Palladini noted on the Q3 call that Q4 media spend is up 11% from the prior year, and the company plans to "increase demand creation spend" in 2026 while carefully managing return on investment.

This investment increase occurs against a backdrop of cost discipline elsewhere in the organization, suggesting leadership views marketing as a critical lever for driving growth despite the challenging environment. The company has been "under-indexed" relative to peers in marketing spend according to management, and is now correcting that positioning.

However, the role operates within several constraints. The U.S. Retail business, where this role will have the most impact, is operating at under 2% operating margin for the nine-month period. The company is closing stores, which reduces convenient touchpoints for customers. Product assortment is being reduced by 20-30% to decrease complexity and improve inventory efficiency. And the wholesale channel—historically the highest-margin segment at 17.4% operating margin for 9M25—is under pressure, particularly from the strategic realignment with Amazon around the Simple Joys private label brand.

Simple Joys, which launched in 2017 as Carter's exclusive brand on Amazon and grew rapidly when Amazon treated it as a quasi-private label, is now being de-emphasized in favor of Carter's core brands (Carter's, OshKosh, Little Planet, Otter Avenue). Amazon has changed its approach to brand management, and Carter's sees a larger opportunity with its owned brands on the platform. However, this transition creates near-term wholesale revenue headwinds, as Simple Joys was reportedly the smallest but still material part of Carter's exclusive brands portfolio (which represents about half of the wholesale segment).

The person in this role will be expected to drive measurable traffic and customer acquisition growth while the business simultaneously raises prices, closes stores, reduces SKU count, and navigates wholesale channel complexity. Marketing must deliver results within these constraints, not in spite of them.

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What Success Looks Like—And What Failure Looks Like

Success in this role means:

You drive measurable traffic increases to both retail stores and e-commerce properties while maintaining or improving customer acquisition efficiency despite rising media costs and competitive intensity. You demonstrate clear incrementality in your media mix—proving that investment in upper-funnel brand building and demand creation actually drives profitable customer acquisition and retention, not just awareness metrics or vanity engagement numbers.

You build a personalization infrastructure (CDP implementation, audience segmentation, journey orchestration) that increases conversion rates and average order value enough to meaningfully offset declining foot traffic from store closures. Your email and SMS programs generate predictable, repeatable revenue streams that become reliable components of quarterly forecasting. You help the company acquire and retain Gen Z families—identified by management as a critical growth demographic—at scale, not just in percentage terms.

Most critically, you help the business maintain pricing power by building brand equity and emotional connection that justify premium positioning relative to mass market competitors like Target and Old Navy. This means moving beyond promotional messaging toward product storytelling, brand differentiation, and community building that give consumers reasons to choose Carter's beyond price.

🟥 GET UNSTUCK: Book an hour with Harry. (Includes a 3-month membership to NEXTgig™)

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Failure looks like:

Marketing investment increases, traffic remains flat or grows slower than investment, and the organization concludes that incremental marketing spend doesn't generate sufficient return. Leadership redirects budget back to promotional tactics or cuts spending entirely. Or alternatively: traffic increases but doesn't convert into profitable sales because pricing increases have moved the brand outside its value perception window, store closures eliminated convenient locations, or product assortment changes confused core customers.

A more nuanced failure mode: your digital metrics show success (higher engagement, improved email performance, growing social community, increased app downloads) but comparable store sales decline because store closures reduced the base, wholesale partners reduced orders, or pricing increased faster than brand equity could support. Finance looks at EBITDA, not your marketing dashboards, and concludes the investment isn't yielding business results despite strong marketing KPIs.

The most challenging scenario: you inherit attribution and measurement systems that cannot accurately capture cross-channel impact, and leadership evaluates your performance using last-click models that systematically undervalue upper-funnel brand work. You're asked to prove ROI using methodologies that ignore the complexity of omnichannel customer journeys where consumers research online, visit stores, and ultimately purchase through wholesale partners or return to digital channels later.

Based on the timing of this search—concurrent with organizational restructuring—the position may be newly created as part of the transformation, or may represent a backfill following departures during the reorganization. Either scenario is plausible given the scale of corporate headcount reduction.

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What This Company Really Needs From This Role

Carter's doesn't need solely sophisticated personalization strategy or innovative loyalty program architecture right now. The company needs three things urgently:

First: Traffic to physical retail locations. The company is maintaining approximately 650-700 stores after closures, and those locations carry high fixed costs including rent, labor, and inventory. Store productivity is fundamental to profitability in retail. The marketing leader must drive cost-effective foot traffic, likely through localized digital tactics, strategic partnership marketing, community engagement, and targeted awareness campaigns that create compelling reasons to visit physical stores rather than purely transactional online shopping.

Second: Evidence that brand marketing generates measurable return. Management is increasing marketing investment because data suggests the company has historically under-invested relative to competitors, and results have suffered accordingly. CFO Westenberger noted on the earnings call that "we clearly under-indexed the peers relative to what we spend on marketing" and that early indicators show "some good returns" from increased investment. However, management also stated they will "manage the spend carefully to ensure maximum returns" and measure rigorously.

This creates a critical dynamic: leadership wants upper-funnel brand building (moving beyond pure promotion), but will measure results through lower-funnel business outcomes (traffic, conversion, sales). Navigating this tension—investing in brand equity while demonstrating short-term business impact—is central to the role. You'll likely have 2-4 quarters to prove the model before budget assumptions are reconsidered.

Third: Customer data infrastructure that enables true personalization. The job posting's language about "building out a full personalization vision and technical solution amongst diverse stakeholders" and partnering with "external vendors leading the CDP and personalization engine implementations & integrations" suggests current capabilities are in early stages. This isn't refinement of existing systems; this is foundational buildout of data infrastructure, platform implementation, cross-functional stakeholder alignment, and technical integration across email, web, app, store, and media channels.

This represents a multi-year strategic initiative being executed on a compressed timeline because the business needs results quickly. You'll be simultaneously running day-to-day marketing operations, proving ROI on increased spending, and implementing enterprise martech infrastructure. That's three full-time jobs compressed into one leadership role.

🟥 GET UNSTUCK: Book an hour with Harry. (Includes a 3-month membership to NEXTgig™)

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Questions You Must Ask During Interviews

• "Can you help me understand the context for this position—is this a new role created as part of the transformation, or a backfill following a departure?" This establishes whether you're building something new or inheriting existing work and relationships. If it's a backfill, understanding the transition circumstances provides valuable context.
• "What percentage of the marketing budget is already committed to existing programs, media partnerships, retail obligations, and agency relationships versus available for new strategic initiatives?" If 80%+ is locked into retail media networks, promotional partnerships, and contractual commitments, budget flexibility is limited despite headline investment increases.
• "How does Carter's currently measure marketing effectiveness, and what attribution methodology is used across channels?" If the answer is vague, inconsistent across channels, or relies primarily on last-click digital attribution, you'll spend significant energy building measurement infrastructure before you can properly optimize spending.
• "When leadership discusses increasing marketing investment, where specifically should incremental dollars be deployed, and what business outcomes are expected over what timeframe?" This reveals whether strategic priorities are clear or whether you'll be expected to develop strategy, secure buy-in, and execute simultaneously.
• "How does the organization currently think about the relationship between marketing investment and comparable store sales performance, particularly given store closures and wholesale channel dynamics?" This exposes whether leadership understands that marketing drives traffic and engagement, but conversion depends on product, pricing, inventory availability, store experience, and factors outside marketing's control.
• "What does the company's customer data infrastructure look like today, and what CDP and personalization platforms are currently being evaluated or implemented?" If they can't articulate current state and near-term roadmap clearly, the implementation challenge is larger than the job posting suggests.
• "How is success defined for this role in the first 90 days, six months, and one year?" Explicit expectations about early wins versus longer-term strategic deliverables help calibrate whether the organization has realistic timelines for transformation work.

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How to Position Yourself

If this opportunity aligns with your career goals and risk tolerance, emphasize these dimensions of your background:

Transformation and turnaround experience. Carter's doesn't need someone who scaled a high-growth DTC brand in favorable market conditions. They need someone who has fixed underperforming marketing operations in complex, challenging business environments. If you've driven marketing effectiveness during store rationalization, cost reduction, organizational restructuring, or margin pressure, that experience is directly relevant and differentiating.

Retail measurement expertise. Specifically, experience proving marketing incrementality in omnichannel environments where customers research online, shop in stores, and purchase through multiple channels—including third-party wholesale. Carter's sells through owned retail, owned digital, and wholesale partners (Amazon, department stores, off-price retailers). Attribution is inherently complex. If you've built measurement frameworks that accurately capture cross-channel impact and can demonstrate business causality rather than correlation, you'll immediately establish credibility.

Traffic generation at scale in competitive categories. The company needs profitable customer acquisition in a highly competitive, value-sensitive category. Experience driving traffic growth in CPG, value retail, or other categories where consumers are price-conscious and alternatives are readily available matters more here than experience with premium brands or less competitive categories.

Martech implementation and data infrastructure. Given the CDP and personalization buildout requirements, experience selecting, implementing, and operationalizing customer data platforms, personalization engines, and marketing automation at scale will be critical. If you've led similar implementations at comparable organizational scale, emphasize the change management, stakeholder alignment, and cross-functional coordination dimensions—not just the technology selection.

What NOT to emphasize: Don't position yourself primarily as an innovator or creative visionary. Carter's needs disciplined execution more than bold experimentation right now. Don't emphasize experience rapidly scaling marketing teams; they're reducing headcount, not expanding it. Don't lead with examples of unlimited-budget brand campaigns; demonstrate resourcefulness and efficiency.

The language that will resonate: "accountability," "measurable business impact," "omnichannel attribution," "customer acquisition efficiency," "traffic and conversion optimization," "disciplined testing and learning." Reference specifics from the Q3 earnings (the Gen Z engagement success, the positive retail comps, the inventory quality improvements) to demonstrate you've done homework and understand current momentum.

Salary and Negotiation Reality

The posting lists Atlanta as the primary location with an expectation of four days on-site weekly. Market compensation for a Director of Growth Marketing with 15+ years of progressive leadership experience in retail marketing in this geography typically ranges $180,000-$240,000 base salary, with 20-30% target bonus and equity compensation.

Given the company's current financial performance—compressed margins, declining earnings, significant restructuring charges—budget flexibility exists but may be constrained. The company needs to attract strong talent during a transformation, which may support competitive base salary positioning. However, equity compensation faces headwinds from stock performance (shares trading around $32 in late October 2025, down significantly from 52-week highs) and uncertain near-term outlook given margin pressure and restructuring execution risk.

Consider negotiating for guaranteed first-year bonus regardless of company performance, recognizing that you cannot control tariff policy, birth rates, or wholesale partner decisions. Front-loading cash compensation and minimizing reliance on equity makes sense given business uncertainty. If the organization resists guaranteed compensation or pushes heavily toward variable pay, it may signal concerns about budget flexibility or confidence in near-term performance.

Request clarity on budget authority, decision-making autonomy, and timeline expectations before accepting. Understanding whether you'll have genuine strategic authority or will be executing a predetermined plan significantly impacts role satisfaction and career value.

🟥 GET UNSTUCK: Book an hour with Harry. (Includes a 3-month membership to NEXTgig™)

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Bottom Line: Is This the Right Opportunity?

This is a substantive leadership role at a recognized national brand during a period of significant organizational transformation. Carter's faces genuine challenges: structural demographic headwinds in the core category, meaningful tariff-driven cost pressure, retail store rationalization, wholesale channel complexity, and organizational restructuring. Marketing is being asked to drive growth within these constraints while proving return on increased investment.

However, there are legitimate reasons to pursue this opportunity:

Meaningful transformation experience. If your career goal includes turnaround leadership, restructuring experience, or proving marketing impact in challenging business conditions, this role offers authentic learning at significant scale. The challenges are real, not manufactured, and success here builds credible transformation credentials.

Increased marketing investment during cost reduction. The company is cutting costs broadly but increasing marketing spend, signaling that leadership views marketing as a critical growth driver rather than discretionary overhead. This positioning creates opportunity for a marketing leader to demonstrate strategic value and business impact.

Strong brand equity foundation. Despite current challenges, Carter's remains the market leader in baby and young children's apparel with significant brand awareness, emotional connection with consumers (particularly around life moments like new parenthood), and established distribution. The company isn't building from zero; it's working to unlock existing brand equity more effectively.

Clear strategic priorities. Management has articulated specific focus areas: Gen Z family acquisition and engagement, reduced promotional intensity in favor of brand storytelling, personalization infrastructure, omnichannel experience optimization. Strategy isn't ambiguous; execution is the challenge.

Supportive compensation for the market. Atlanta offers lower cost of living than coastal markets while this role likely commands competitive director-level compensation. The financial equation may be favorable depending on your personal circumstances.

Realistic risks to consider:

The business must successfully execute multiple simultaneous transformations: cost reduction, store rationalization, wholesale strategy pivot, organizational restructuring, pricing increases, and marketing model shift. Success requires many variables aligning favorably. If tariff pressures worsen, consumer spending weakens, wholesale partnerships deteriorate faster than anticipated, or store closures disrupt customer access, marketing results may disappoint despite strong execution.

The role requires building measurement infrastructure, implementing new technology platforms, driving day-to-day marketing operations, and proving ROI on increased investment simultaneously. This is genuinely a multi-job role that requires exceptional organizational skills, stakeholder management, and ability to context-switch rapidly between strategic and tactical priorities.

Leadership is approximately seven months into a transformation strategy. Some strategic priorities may still be emerging, and organizational clarity may be evolving as the restructuring progresses. Ambiguity tolerance is essential.

The thoughtful approach:

Engage deeply in the interview process to understand strategic priorities, measurement expectations, budget authority, technology roadmap, and timeline assumptions. Ask the hard questions about attribution methodology, success metrics, decision-making authority, and organizational dynamics. Evaluate whether the CMO and CEO articulate a clear, compelling vision that you believe is achievable.

If you proceed, negotiate compensation structure that reflects the risk profile, secure clarity on expectations and authority, and enter with realistic timelines for proving impact. Transformation takes time; ensure leadership expectations align with operational reality.

This is a "lead marketing during purposeful business transformation" opportunity, not a "scale proven growth playbook in favorable conditions" role. For the right leader at the right career stage with appropriate risk tolerance, it's a meaningful challenge with genuine upside if execution succeeds. Go in with clear eyes about the complexity, ensure your skills match the true requirements, and structure your engagement to support success.

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