Bark taps former Nike, Weight Watchers exec as chief marketing officer

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Dive Brief:

• Bark, the company known for its BarkBox and Super Chewer subscription services, named Cindy Gustafson as its chief marketing officer. She will report to Bark co-founder and CEO Matt Meeker.
• Gustafson, who has more than two decades of experience, most recently served as global chief marketing officer of WW International, formerly Weight Watchers, according to a company press release. She also held roles at companies like Nike, American Express, Jaguar/Land Rover, Unilever and Booking.com.
• As Bark’s marketing chief, Gustafson will develop strategies to drive growth for the brand.

Dive Insight:

As Bark looks to future growth, it continues to shuffle its C-suite, tapping many retail executives to fill roles.

Last year, the company named Anil Nair, the former director of global logistics at Amazon, as its chief supply chain officer. That came just one month after John Toth announced he would step down from the CFO position. And earlier this year, Meeker — Bark’s co-founder and executive chairman — reclaimed the CEO role just 16 months after stepping down from the position.

In her new role, Gustafson will be responsible for leading Be Bark and Food, which Meeker identified as “strategic priorities and growth drivers” for the company.

“She will be involved in unifying the BARK brand and customer experience across our product categories, with a focus on growing our presence in food,” Meeker said in a statement. “Cindy is a recognized thought leader and accomplished practitioner in marketing, advertising, and media, with significant experience growing subscription-based businesses and building lasting connections with consumers. Her love for dogs will help continue to advance our mission to make dogs as happy as they make us.”

Bark was uniquely positioned to benefit at the onset of the pandemic by selling both online and in a category that was in high demand. The company, which went public via special purpose acquisition company last year, in its most recent earnings reported total revenue increased nearly 34% year over year to $140.8 million, while active subscriptions increased by 371,000 during the period, pushing its total subscribers to 2.3 million.

Bark over the years has built out its wholesale network as it looks to scale. The company in February announced a partnership with Walmart where products would be sold on the mass merchant’s website and in nearly 2,800 stores. This partnership follows similar wholesale deals with REI Target, Costco, Petco, PetSmart and Amazon.