Richard Dickson on How to Recapture the Magic of Gap

The Business of Fashion Podcast

The Business of Fashion

Fashion & Beauty, Business, Arts

4.6 • 770 Ratings

🗓️ 22 December 2023

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This year, Barbie-mania swept the globe. A key architect of that phenomenon was Richard Dickson, who served as president and chief operating officer of Barbie’s parent company, Mattel, for almost a decade. There, he revived Barbie, a name that had lost its cultural relevance, and brought it firmly back into the zeitgeist. Now, Dickson is taking his talent for revitalising fading icons to Gap, where he was appointed CEO in July 2023.

“Evolution keeps the brand relevant, but purpose makes a brand immortal,” says Dickson.

This week on The BoF Podcast, Dickson joins BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed to discuss the power of brands and his vision for rebooting Gap in a live conversation from BoF VOICES 2023.

Key Insights:

When Dickson arrived at Mattel, the Barbie brand was at a low point, with lagging sales and diminished relevance. Dickson pushed the brand to embrace dolls with different body types and ethnicities. “The process itself was really going back to the roots, going back to the purpose … What made it so great to begin with? The origin story of the brand was that it was designed to inspire the limitless potential of girls,” he explains.

Determining purpose is what fuelled his work at Mattel; now, he’s applying the same mindset at Gap. “There can be nothing more inspiring than taking that cue and figuring out how to create that cultural conversation today, using our brands as a platform to actually create a better world.”

Dickson recognises that Gap needs a stronger point of view. “We're not going to get to where we want overnight. But we have extraordinary people. We have a culture that is going to be unlocked with extraordinary creativity… and I am privileged and honoured to be the leader at this particular time,” he says.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Imran Ahmed, founder and CEO of the Business of Fashion.
0:08.1	A welcome to the BOF podcast. It's Friday, December 22nd.
0:12.8	This year, Barbie Mania swept the globe. A key architect of that phenomenon was Richard
0:18.5	Dixon, who served as president and chief operating
0:21.6	officer of Barbie's parent company Mattel for almost a decade. At Mattel, Dixon revived
0:28.1	Barbie, a name that had lost its cultural relevance, and brought it firmly back into the zeitgeist.
0:34.6	Now, Richard is taking his talent for revitalizing fading icons to the gap, where he was
0:40.6	appointed as CEO in July 23.
0:43.3	Evolution keeps a brand relevant, but purpose makes a brand immortal.
0:51.4	This week on the B.O.F podcast, I'm pleased to share this conversation with Richard from
0:56.4	BOF Voices, 23, where he discusses the power of brands and his vision for rebooting
1:02.6	the gap.
1:03.8	To watch the full talk, head to the link in the episode notes.
1:07.8	Here's Richard Dixon on the B-O-F podcast. There's a lot of pressure. Well, your role has a
1:18.7	lot of pressure, no? It's a lot of pressure. Yeah. First of all, this is, this is an extraordinary
1:24.1	forum. And thank you so much for inviting me.
1:28.2	It really is fascinating.
1:29.2	It's my first voices session, but I'm an addict already, and the lessons I'm learning and
1:36.7	the inspiration is truly incredible.
1:38.8	So thank you so much for creating this and inviting me to speak. Well, Richard and I had our first interaction over Zoom very shortly after your new...
1:50.0	Days.
1:51.0	Yeah. I was thinking it was a few days in.
	...

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