Philosopher of the Self

Former Target vice president Robyn Waters describes herself as an “ambassador of trend,” a “champion of design,” a “builder of brands,” and a “cheerleader of possibilities.” This is how Don King speaks when he’s promoting a big fight. It’s our culture’s shouty language of self-promotion, an idiom that has been a part of who we are since the days of P. T. Barnum. But maybe Waters—sitting across the table wearing silver Navajo jewelry and a vintage Michael Kors jacket, her hair and makeup executed with a precision that would hold up on a fifty-inch plasma—is a new kind of promoter. A modern American philosopher sans toga, who writes and speaks in our common language of retail.

Waters left Target in 2002. After ten and a half years, she had become, in her words, “a respected pain in the butt.” In the nineties, she championed the right side of the brain—creativity and intuition in the age of Jack Welch, six sigma, and process, process, process. During her tenure, Target grew exponentially, expanding from $3 billion to $10 billion to $48 billion in sales—“from Target to Tarzhay,” as she says. “I burned out, frankly. I turned fifty, and it was like, OK, I’m half-way through—what do I want to do? I was the voice of Target for trend for many years, but what do I think? What’s my personal belief and style and philosophy?” She quit, took a sabbatical, and wrote her first book, The Trendmaster’s Guide, spelling out her philosophy—literally—in that favored genre of the marketeer, the A-to-Z guide. She quotes the greats—Lao Tso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Proust, and Yogi Berra—but she really makes her point by using the success stories of what she deems “products with soul,” products that resonate beyond function and serve as important vehicles of personal expression for the people who buy them. Products such as the iPod, Jones Soda, and the Mini Cooper. Like Sigmund Freud, Waters extrapolates theory from case history—for example, her “3H Design Theory,” posits that the head, the handbag, and the heart are equal arbiters of what works.

Her new book, The Hummer and The Mini, explores the phenomenon of the countertrend. In our buy-anything-to-differentiate-ourselves-from-the-rat-pack culture, where the individual is defined through his or her own finely calibrated formula of store-bought expression, be it discount worn with couture or high technology coexisting with retro style, Waters says that for every trend, there’s an equal and opposite countertrend. Like the ancient Hellenic thinker Pyrrho, Waters explores the idea of paradox, but in its modern expression: marketer’s slogans such as “mass customization” (personalized M&Ms); “counterfeit authenticity” (custom-built caves for the home); and “extreme relaxation”(laughter yoga clubs).

So Trendmaster, fine, but Philosopher? Well, if Starbucks is the contemporary version of the ancient marbled salon, where we gather to read, talk and share ideas, then Waters has earned her Platonic laurels—she’s made it onto the grande cup as #110 in its current series:

The Way I See It #110
“Trends are signposts pointing to what’s going on in the hearts and minds of consumers. These days, if you want to be “on trend” it’s more important to figure out what’s important, not just what’s next. “ —Robyn Waters