Walmart CMO Departing for New Role at Sam's

Determined not to let newly found momentum at Sam’s Club go to waste, Walmart is assigning its U.S. chief marketing officer, Tony Rogers, to a new role at the warehouse club division focused on marketing to its members.

Molly Blakeman, a spokeswoman for the retailer, confirmed that Rogers would depart his current role for Sam’s Club next month. The move was first reported Tuesday by AdAge. Blakeman said Walmart would make an announcement about Rogers' successor at a later date.

At Sam’s Club, Rogers will be assigned a new role as chief member officer, which Blakeman described as “a different kind of marketing” based on developing a deeper understanding of its shoppers and building products and services around that. In an interview published by AdAge, Rogers said he was drawn to the role for the opportunity to work with John Furner, the Sam’s Club CEO who has overseen the chain’s sales turnaround, and to steel the club for battle with Costco, the largest U.S. warehouse operator.

Sam’s in recent years has revamped its private label products, upgraded food offerings and introduced technologies to make shopping easier for its members. It also closed 63 underperforming units in January. Those moves have helped to turn comps positive again. In the recently reported first quarter, Sam’ Club comp sales increased 3.8%, led by comp traffic growth of 5.6%.

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Sam’s operates 597 clubs and did $59 billion in sales in its last fiscal year. Last week Sam’s said it was developing a new store at the site of a former Neighborhood Market site in Texas with the goal of exploring a more convenient membership-club model.

Costco operates 746 locations (519 in the U.S. and Puerto Rico) and with $126 billion in revenue during its last fiscal year had more than twice the revenue of Sam’s Club.

Rogers was named Walmart’s U.S. CMO in 2016. He helped to sell the chain’s sales turnaround by focusing on what he called “busy families” and overseeing the “greatest hits” campaign highlighting the digital and physical integration of its stores. During an address at the retailer’s annual meeting, Rogers spoke of new research indicating that saving time was becoming as important if not more important to consumers, prompting Walmart to develop technologies further aiding in shopping convenience.