• by Erin Everhart , Staff Writer, March 6, 2026

I was first introduced to this weeks’ brand at the formidable young age of 9. For one week every summer over the course of 4-5 years, I would go visit my 80-year-old Aunt Bessie in Cottonwood, Alabama (yes that is a real town). We would play Rummikub. Fry chicken in a cast iron skillet older than Aunt Bessie. Shell peas on the porch while drinking sweet tea. Quintessential Southern things.

What I loved most of all though on those trips? When we would drive the 20 minutes to the big city of Dothan, Alabama, and we’d spend the day at Bealls. It wasn’t flashy. It wasn’t trying to be something it wasn’t. It was dependable. It was local. And it was ours.

A lot has changed over those 25+ years or so. My Aunt Bessie lived to 98, and the only time I’m in Alabama now is when I’m flying over it.

But Bealls? It’s still thriving in Dothan, Alabama and in 659 other locations. They have been for 111 years. And for the first time in its history, it has a CMO.

For most of their years, marketing wasn’t seen as a growth engine. It was a service department. Order takers. The supporting cast and chorus. But in today’s world, marketing can’t just be the team that makes things pretty. It must own the end-to-end process. Creative to performance. Loyalty to ecommerce. Brand to bottom line.

So how do you modernize first-party data when the foundation was never built for it? How do you turn a loyalty program from a promotional lever into a growth unlock?

We sat down with CMO Leana Less to hear how she’s proving marketing is an investment, not an expense. Listen to the full episode here and catch Leana as our opening keynote at our Retail Summit in Scottsdale later this month.