Kristin Barclay has been named vice president of product marketing at DiJiPOP LLC. She has 16 years of e-commerce and retail, publishing and digital media leadership experience. Her most recent focus has been in the lifestyle digital media industry, where she held positions of director of marketing for The Knot Inc. and director of commerce for BabyCenter LLC, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson Consumer Co. At both publishers, she led teams specializing in direct commerce, product management, digital marketing and media sales. She has a B.S. in textiles and merchandising from the University of Maryland.
PBN: What are you looking forward to in your new position at DiJiPOP?
BARCLAY: I feel honored to be in a position to bring to market and help shape an emerging technology in Rhode Island. [We’re changing] the way point-of-purchase advertising, and shopper marketing, is done online. I’ve had the luxury of managing established brands and products in my tenure, so launching a brand-new technology and seeing it benefit clients immediately is incredibly exciting.
PBN: How would you encourage traditional businesses to participate in cutting-edge marketing tactics that might be perceived as a risk?
BARCLAY: In all businesses, calculated risks are vital for growth. Especially in the world of marketing and communications, the ways that messages are distributed are changing and evolving every day. As a stakeholder in any brand or business, the best way to move the needle is to earmark part of your budget to test new ways of reaching and converting your audience.
PBN: From a perspective of someone in the business, and aside from advances in technology, what would you say is different about marketing today than in the past?
BARCLAY: How consumers spend their time and therefore receive marketing messages is … different than in previous years. If you can believe it, online gaming has just surpassed e-mail in time spent online (social networking is No. 1), so it’s important for companies to think creatively and ensure marketing strategies include the “new convention.” •
