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Home Depot Change-Up May Portend Power Shift among Marketers

Published on January 18, 2007 | Email this article

Home Depot’s news last week that the interim head of Home Depot Direct will now report to the merchandising division instead of to the company’s CEO may indicate a broader shift of power from marketers to merchandisers - at least in the retail world - writes DM News.

Harvey Seegers, Home Depot Direct president, resigned last week, to be replaced by Steve Skinner, who will report to the company’s senior vp of merchandising. Seegers reported to Home Depot chairman/CEO Frank Blake. Home Depot’s CEO of six years, Bob Nardelli, resigned just after the New Year.
The company hopes to gain leverage across all of its consumer channels by integrating the direct division with merchandising, but the Home Depot reporting structure switcheroo is not a good sign for marketers, some believe.

That’s because general marketers are losing ground to people with product knowledge and merchandising ability combined with online skills, says Don Libey, president of consultancy Libey Inc. While direct marketers don’t generally report to merchandisers, that may be changing, as multichannel retailing grows in importance.

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