When Jockey International, Inc., hired Dorothy Wahl ’81 to revitalize sales of its women’s intimate apparel, she knew she’d signed on for a challenge.
When Jockey International, Inc., hired Dorothy Wahl ’81 six years ago to revitalize sales of its women’s intimate apparel, she knew she’d signed on for a challenge. Before a month had passed, she realized the size of that challenge.
Her first meeting as Jockey’s vice president for sales and domestic marketing was with Federated Department Stores, owner of big retail chains that include Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s. “I’d only been on the job for two or three weeks. I had barely sat down and introduced myself when they told me, ‘sorry Dorothy, we’ve decided to discontinue the Jockey bras.’ All I could say was, ‘I’ve just started, but please stick with us. You have my commitment that we’ll make it successful.’”
Wahl, the only member of her URI women’s field hockey team to make it as a walk-on, knows how to convince coaches —and bosses—that she can compete. She convinced Federated to keep stocking Jockey products. Then all she had to do was convince American women to wear them.
Jockey has the largest market share in department stores in both men’s and women’s underwear. The company had hired Wahl away from Playtex Apparel, Inc., to protect and grow their market share, which is not an easy feat when you are already the largest manufacturer of underwear.
Wahl had nearly 20 years experience in women’s apparel, cosmetics, and retailing, but she said much of the knowledge she needed to do the job came straight from her Marketing 101 classes at URI’s College of Business Administration.
“I always remembered the Four P’s,” she said during a recent interview at her office in New York City’s fashion district. “Product, Price, Promotion, and Presentation. A lot of the time, when you’re making a presentation to a customer, it all comes back to that.” Another classroom tidbit that she always remembers when she’s meeting with her advertisers is: “In every ad, a brand name must be mentioned six to 10 times. It’s very surprising how many times people in the advertising business need to be reminded of that.”
Wahl listened to her sales force and her customers. “What we discovered when we started listening to our customer was that we weren’t really talking to her in her terms; we were talking to her in marketing terms.” For instance, the company would refer to its products in textile industry jargon, “a soft-cup bra,” when customers would better understand the product if it was referred to in plain English as a “no-wires” bra.
“Soft cup didn’t mean anything to them, and yet as an industry we’ve used that term for 40 years. It really was like going back to basics, Marketing 101. We updated the assortments, changed the advertising.”
Wahl also worked on changing the way the company related to its sales force. “My favorite part of my position is working with, training, and motivating the sales people,” she said. “Previously, our thought process was a little more regimented. We now try to provide flexibility and empowerment.”
It took a while to turn the ship around, but “we are now perceived as a very successful women’s intimates company.” The job still has its challenges, but they no longer include pleading with major retail chains to just give her more time before they discontinue the product.
Wahl spends 40 to 50 percent of her time on the road, racking up a lot of frequent flyer miles to visit customers. Like everyone in the apparel industry, she must think six to 12 months ahead. On the February morning when she spoke to QUAD ANGLES, Wahl was getting ready for an afternoon meeting with Macy’s to plan advertising for the third and fourth quarter (after back-to-school planning that continued into and through the holiday shopping season).
The responsibilities of an apparel marketer have grown since Wahl started in the business in the 1980s. As department stores have merged and shrunk their staffs to compete with discounters like Target and Wal-Mart, clothing makers like Jockey have had to take more responsibility for moving their product off the shelves.
“When I started in this business, the retailer took more responsibility. Now they call us up and ask us how to do it. In many cases, retailers have stopped being merchants, and we’ve even started offering in-store service. We have a team of in-store merchandisers we manage. Not only do they put out stocks, but they’re also responsible for setting up sales events: tables and towers, in-store displays, signs and fixtures. They also run seminars. All of these things fall under my position.”
When Wahl finally finishes her workday, she takes the commuter train home to Armonk in Westchester County, N.Y., where she lives with her husband, Jay, a corporate attorney at ABB in Norwalk, Conn. The couple enjoys international and domestic travel, golf, Formula 1 car racing, and gardening.
Wahl keeps up with friends from URI, including Tricia Reardon Polson ’81, her roommate at Tri-Delta sorority, who lives in New Hampshire with her husband, Rick Polson ’80, and their three children. They like to reminisce about 1978, when Wahl and her buddies went to every home and away game of the Rams basketball team featuring Sly Williams. This was the team that made it into the NCAA Tournament.
Wahl also keeps in touch with Rob Lindblad ’80, who lives in West Hartford, Conn., with his wife, Denise, and their two sons. Another good friend is her Tri-Delta house mother, Lynthia Tormey of Randolph, Vt. Tormey, an artist, gave Wahl a painting of URI’s Roosevelt Hall, which remains one of her favorite pieces of art.
Wahl likes to pass along the lessons she’s learned, so she started a summer internship program at Jockey. One of her interns last summer was URI student Meaghan Mooney ’06. “We’d like to have another one or two interns this year,” Wahl said. “The curriculum I’ve put together includes a lot of hands-on experience.”
Photos by Nora Lewis
