A Chat With September’s Profile, Scott Drayer, director of marketing, Paul Fredrick MenStyle

CS: What factors help set Paul Fredrick apart from its competition?
SD: I think we’ve got a very sound value statement — the combination of price, quality and presentation works for us. I think the customer recognizes that they’re getting good quality, especially at the price that they’re purchasing it for. And I think we just generally fill a niche for a group of customers that, in terms of style, maybe not all of our competitors are doing.
I think we’ve got a fairly unique take on traditional, classic dress. Yeah, we do it, it’s classic, but we try to update it a bit. And I think we kind of fill in that hole. I also think there’s just generally some nichey things that we offer that people can’t find anywhere else, as well as the selection and the breadth of the selection that we have, even in terms of dress shirts. Just the amount of SKUs and collars and cuff links, things like that that put us at an advantage.

CS: What things are done at Paul Fredrick to keep a fun and light environment for employees?
SD: We make the attempt, both departmentally and corporately, to get together and have some team-building activities — whether it be something as simple as a picnic or an out-of-office event. Yes, we attempt to do it. Do I feel as though we’ve done anything that really is a great time, we have a lot of fun? No. We can probably do a better job of that. But we’ve tried to do some small things to help morale, and I think we’ve done a decent job at that. But we don’t have a comedian come in here every Friday or anything like that.

CS: If you hadn’t gotten involved in the catalog/multichannel business, what do you think you would have done for a career?
SD: I have no idea; I just don’t. I’ve never thought about that before you just asked me, to be completely honest with you.