Yahoo Finance Rent the Runway’s new CMO will try to save the struggling clothing rental company that’s fallen out of fashion
Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Olivia Rodrigo announced that a share of her tour ticket sales will go to feminist nonprofits, Levi's new CEO Michelle Gass wants to reprioritize the store's offerings, and Rent the Runway hires a new exec to win back customers. Have a wonderful Wednesday.
- The next runway. Right now, Rent the Runway is a penny stock. More than two years after going public, the clothing rental service stock is down 98%, trading at less than 50 cents. A variety of factors are to blame: the pandemic and its long-lasting effects on how women shop and dress, changing fashion trends, and operational challenges.
But the company has a new plan to turn itself around—and the next step is marketing it. Rent the Runway just hired Natalie McGrath, a marketing alum of the payments platform Afterpay and fashion brands Coach, Boohoo, and Bandier, as its new CMO, it announced this morning. The hire signals the next phase of founder and CEO Jenn Hyman's attempts to turn around the business.
Earlier this year, the company said it had slashed its marketing budget, cut 10% of corporate jobs, and announced the departure of COO Anushka Salinas. In late 2023, it had 132,000 active subscribers, according to the Wall Street Journal. Customers have said they were disappointed with the service's selection of more casual apparel for post-pandemic lifestyles. Meanwhile, competitors like Urban Outfitters-backed Nuuly have gained traction.
But with McGrath's hire, Rent the Runway is ready to invest in marketing again. "The love is there—we just have to remind people," she says. McGrath used to live above Rent the Runway's store in Manhattan and remembers when it was always busy with women browsing and dropping off their rentals. "This is about bringing the power in the brand back to life," she says.
Rent the Runway says that it's spent the past several months solving some of its operational challenges, including inventory availability and a move toward profitability. McGrath's job is to convince former customers that the service has more to offer them than they remember and, at the same time, to woo new renters. The company wants to own the category it invented again. "We have to get that customer excitement back," she says.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
The Broadsheet is Fortune's newsletter for and about the world's most powerful women. Today's edition was curated by Joseph Abrams. Subscribe here.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
