Profile of Success: Tailor-Made for Growth

What Got Him Here: Direct marketing education in college. Noting that it’s an uncommon trait in the direct marketing business, Scott Drayer prepped for his future career as a student at Penn State University. “I took some direct marketing classes in college,” he says, “which I guess is kind of a rarity.”

Upon his graduation, Drayer saw his first opportunity at Paul Fredrick. “I applied for, and was hired as, a circulation assistant,” he says. In his eight-plus years at Paul Fredrick, Drayer has been promoted several times, including to his current position as director of marketing in February 2006.

What’s Made Him Successful: Modest in nature, Drayer responds, “I guess you’re making the assumption that I am successful.” But it’s his inquisitive and curious nature that he says serves him well.

“I like to think that I’m not willing to take something at face value,” Drayer says, “especially based on being able to really find data to prove or disprove things. I’m very willing to ask a question and then go find an answer for it. I’m probably better at asking the questions than I am finding the answers, but I do try.”

What He Enjoys Most About The Catalog/Multichannel Business: Studying customer behavior. Drayer says understanding why consumers purchase via catalog/call center, Web or retail is one of the biggest challenges facing not only Paul Fredrick, but the whole catalog/multichannel business.

“Did they make the purchase online because they got the catalog and then went to Google and searched on our brand term, kind of cutting through all that clutter of data?” he asks. “I [like] trying to figure out what the true answer behind that behavior is.”

What Most Surprises Him About The Catalog Business: How very measurable everything is. Stressing the fact that all business decisions at Paul Fredrick are based upon analysis of hard data, Drayer says the ability to correctly measure and analyze data is vital to making sound decisions — something he was initially unaware of.

“There’s accessible data you can analyze and gain quantifiable answers from,” Drayer says. “Recognizing that was my biggest surprise.”

What’s Made Paul Fredrick MenStyle Successful: Surviving the Internet bubble and what it meant in terms of the more dress-down, casual look in the workplace has helped Paul Fredrick gain greater clarity of purpose, Drayer says.

“We recognized our model wasn’t going to work when people were wearing khakis and polo shirts to the office,” he notes. “We moved away from some of the other things we were doing that didn’t fit into that void. The clarity there got us moving in the past few years and helped us succeed.”