Evine Live Inc. has appointed Nicole Ostoya, a veteran of the retail and beauty industries, executive vice president and chief marketing officer.
Ostoya’s new post comes as the home-shopping network is trying to find its footing after managerial turnover in February resulted in Bob Rosenblatt filling the chief executive officer role on an interim basis; earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization declined 29 percent last fiscal year, and name changes from ShopHQ in 2014 and ShopNBC occurred a year earlier. She’s tasked with bolstering the Evine Live brand in the minds of consumers who might be more familiar with its larger competitors QVC and HSN.
“Because Evine Live changed its name twice in the span of three years, I’m walking into a situation where not a lot of people know what Evine is. I tend to look at that as a positive. We have a blank slate to create what we think we should be,” said Ostoya.“I am really defining what Evine Live is, getting the message out and making sure that flows through all the areas our customer sees and interacts with.”
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Rosenblatt and Ostoya, previously Evine Live’s interim chief marketing officer, met a decade ago when she was working on a live-streaming video-shopping platform, and he recruited her to elevate Evine Line. Prior to coming on board at the Minneapolis-based company, she was director of business development at Benefit Cosmetics, a brand she helped launch on QVC; merchandise manager, buyer and full-line store manager at Nordstrom, and cofounder of the beauty firms Gold Grenade and Boldface, formerly the marketer of Kardashian Beauty. She is also the owner and cofounder of The Cocktail Lab, a gourmet cocktail grocery store in Los Angeles.
“Nicole’s nearly 30 years of retail experience, where she drove the development of countless brand and customer acquisition strategies, will greatly enhance our ability to grow our customer base and generate greater awareness of the Evine Live brand,” said Rosenblatt. “The addition of her to the Evine Live team shows our investment in furthering our growth strategies.”
Ostoya will be busy honing Evine Live’s identity as a destination for emerging brands and style at a good value. In the fourth quarter, its sales in the beauty category increased 23 percent and the fashion category rose 3 percent. The network has recently nabbed several fashion and beauty brands, including Sonya Dakar, Active Argan, Paula Deen’s Closet, V. by Vanessa Williams, Fair Child by Karen Fairchild, HRP by Holly Robinson Peete and the Nancy O’Dell Fashion Collection. Evine Live reaches around 88 million cable and satellite television homes.
“We might not have the same amount of volume as QVC and HSN, but we have committed considerable time and attention to emerging brands. So, there are brands considering us now because we’d be willing to give them a little bit more time to nurture them and get them off the ground,” said Ostoya, elaborating about the Evine Live customer that, “She loves fashion. She loves high-end product. We can really sell a high price point to our customer. We have a lot of style and, when we step into fashion at reasonable price that’s not inexpensive, she’s totally responding.”
Another initiative Ostoya will be concentrating on is a revamp of Evine Live’s digital content. “We are going to create a really robust online presence,” she said. “We do a really big business in products that have not been on air. People come and discover us. Once we improve our Web presence — the way it looks, feels and operates — it is a huge target for growth.”
Ostoya is not Evine Live’s only human resources move. The network hired Heather Thornswood, who has held positions at Good People Branding, Lane Bryant, Radiant, Express, Macy’s and Target, as creative director and promoted Lee Goehring to vice president of merchandising for the home and consumer electronics categories. Before his promotion Goehring was director and divisional merchandise manager of the consumer electronics category.