Circuit City and Motorola Reorganize as CMOs Exit

NEW YORK The latest chief marketing officer exits -- Circuit City's Peter Weedfald and Motorola's Casey Keller -- came amid poor operating results at each company, both of which find their stocks trading near their 52-week lows. Each executive left after roughly 1 1/2 years in the role, supporting the oft-cited statistics for the short tenure of CMOs.

Circuit City (whose stock closed Friday at $3.84) is in the midst of a turnaround, and Motorola (which closed at $9.82) has talked about spinning off or selling its handset division. Each company also has been fending off criticism from major shareholders.

Wattles Capital Management, which holds about 6.5 percent of Circuit City's outstanding shares, last month proposed to replace the company's entire 12-person board with its own nominees, and Motorola investor Carl Icahn (whose holdings represent 6.3 percent of the company's shares) has urged the company to shed its handset unit. Icahn also intends to nominate a slate of four new directors for the board.

Complicating the companies' performance issues are consumer fears of a recession, which have caused some to pull back in spending, particularly in the retail sector.

December same-store sales at Circuit City fell 9 percent worldwide, compared to the same month the year before, and that swoon was driven by a 10 percent decline in the U.S. alone, according to the Richmond, Va.-based company. Motorola's once-hot Razr line, meanwhile, has been overshadowed by Apple's successful iPhone launch last year.

Motorola, whose lead global creative agency is WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather, does not intend to fill its CMO post. Rather, the Schaumburg, Ill.-based company has redistributed Keller's duties to two corporate vice presidents: Jeremy Dale, who oversees marketing for mobile devices, and Eduardo Conrado, who leads business-to-business marketing of networks and cable products, enterprise devices and public-safety equipment.

A Motorola representative attributed the exit of Keller, the company's CMO since October 2006, to "streamlining" and a quest for "operational efficiencies." In a statement, the company said: "Marketing is vital to Motorola and this restructuring will ensure that our marketing efforts are even more closely aligned with our businesses."

Motorola's annual global ad spend is estimated at $400 million.

Circuit City intends to fill its CMO opening, though not immediately. In the meantime, Weedfald's duties will be absorbed by a team of executives, both inside and outside the marketing department, said a company representative.

Weedfald joined Circuit City in the summer of 2006, initially as an svp and general merchandise manager for entertainment and content, and became CMO in September 2006.

The rep characterized Weedfald's exit on Friday as an "organizational change," adding that "it's not surprising for a company of our size, especially in the midst of a period of transformation, to have changes in its management. We are making and will continue to make the organizational decisions that we feel will best further our turnaround, our strategies and our shareholder value."

Havas' Euro RSCG in Chicago is Circuit City's lead creative agency in the U.S., where the brand spent nearly $200 million in major measured media last year, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus.