A former marketing executive with
experience at Avon, Citi and American Express, Barry Herstein said he's excited about the prospect of being PayPal's first chief marketing officer, having watched it grow as a consumer-to-consumer
online payment system from the outside.
"We all watched in awe of the phenomenon of PayPal," Herstein said. "After it sprang up several years ago, it has developed into a sizable
portion of e-commerce."
Despite its prominence as the first consumer-to-consumer e-commerce payment system (used primarily on its parent, eBay), Herstein calls PayPal a "true challenger brand
where the consumer has taken control of the brand."
As an example, Herstein references a PayPal user who built a home-based business on eBay using PayPal transactions. The user, who was
recently brought to an all-company PayPal meeting on the company's dime, said he couldn't have turned his small business into a multimillion-dollar operation without PayPal, Herstein said.
"It's a brand people are passionate about, which is strange for the marketing space," Herstein continues. "We're still in the early part of the first chapter. Most of our history is yet to be
written."
The San Jose, Calif. company began in 1998 as a place where consumers using online auction sites could transact safely and quickly with each other without having to send checks or money
orders through the mail. eBay bought the brand in 2002.
Herstein joined the company last December, along with three other top managers: SVP/strategy and new ventures Jack Stephenson; VP/sales
Mary Anne Gillespie, and VP/development Robert Mansell.
While Herstein said PayPal will not look to distance itself from eBay, it will look to create its own identity that extends beyond its
parent.
"We need our own distinct path going forward," Herstein said. "We are fortunate we got to this place, but we can't be complacent."
The first step will be to develop a better
understanding of PayPal customers through improved customer relationship management programs. "We are going to invest in understanding our customers and their behavior," he said. "We need to be
learning what our customers are doing and where they're going. And we need to apply that into more precise marketing."
That includes following people beyond eBay's boundaries. "People who shop
on eBay shop and sell off eBay," Herstein said. "We need to follow them."
That may also include developing new products and transaction processes, including the possibility of transacting
through mobile phones and other devices, which has become common in countries such as Japan. Herstein admits those possibilities are a ways off, however.
"I think mobile is an interesting
space for a digital brand," he said. "As a brand and a business, we're only limited by our own creativity."