This week, Shop.org talks with Smart Destinations CMO Rob Schmults, who has been a member of the Shop.org community for many years. Before heading to Smart Destinations in January, Rob was a Vice President at GSI Commerce. His initiation into the online world took place in 1994 after receiving degrees from Yale, Cambridge and Harvard. Here are some of his insights on how retailers can market to the new customer, the most overused word in the industry, and where to travel this summer:

From a marketing perspective, it seems many retailers are trying to get their hands around how our current economy has changed consumers and how to connect with them in a more meaningful way. Do you have any suggestions on how to accomplish that?

I am inclined to agree with some of the view that the world is changing. That “consumer” is yesterday’s term. People are no longer going to be “consumers” not only during the course of this recession, but afterwards they will continue to behave in a more restrained fashion when it comes to buying wants and needs. Think about people you know who came of age or were already adults during the Depression. Very different attitudes towards banks, debt, savings, etc. We may very well see the same thing here. Granted, the Depression lasted far longer than even the most pessimistic forecasts of today’s recession, so it may be everything bounces back before a different world view can take hold. But I think at a minimum, the bounce will not be to the same level as it was before.

As for suggestions, the same stuff that separated the winners and losers before will continue to do so. Superior execution will win and there will be less room for poorly-run companies to stick around on the back of a rising tide. One big change I think that we’re going to see is an accelerated shift from budget-based marketing to ROI-based marketing. In other words, instead of marketers spending $X per year, more and more companies are going to spend as much – or as little – as they can under a given cost of sales that provides a positive return on those sales.

Last year, you left GSI Commerce, where you oversaw business efforts for several major brands and retailers, and became the CMO of Smart Destinations. Tell me about the biggest adjustment in your transition.

It has been a lot of fun. What’s been nice about Smart Destinations is I have more time to get my hands dirty. We have a great team and I’m lucky to be able to be working with them on some of the day-to-day things that previously I had to stay removed from. And I’m getting to do it with a business that’s already at a meaningful scale. We were number 78 on the most recent Inc. 500 list and our online business is already larger than some much better known brands I previously worked with.

In terms of specific adjustments, my previous travel experience was limited. So I’ve been learning a ton about the broader industry over the past few months. There are some great companies in this space doing amazing things in terms of incremental revenue streams, SEO, etc. So while I think my retail background fits with much of what we’re doing, I am also seeing a lot of things that are new and that I probably could have leveraged at my previous jobs.

As a result of the recession (and, in previous years, rising gas prices), many consumers have been pulling back on travel and vacations. How has this affected your business?

I was extremely pessimistic in Q4 about what 2009 was going to look like. We saw the same shockwave in early October that everyone else did. But we’ve had extremely strong growth so far this year – and our year over year comps are accelerating as the year progresses. I’d like to take credit for all of it, but not only do we have folks who really know their business, but we also have a product well-aligned with the broader trend of people looking for how to stretch their budgets. So even in travel markets that have been hammered in terms of a drop in visitors, we’re seeing some strong comps as the people still going to those markets work harder to travel smart.

Your company offers “Go Cards” to more than a dozen popular U.S. destinations. Any recommendations on the best places to visit this summer?

I definitely need to personally sample all our destinations and am slowly making the rounds. I’ll probably need to test our Wine Country Explorer product repeatedly. But also on my list is the newly-reopened and vastly-expanded California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco that’s getting rave reviews. Here in Boston I’m planning on hitting a Whale Watch with my girls in a few weeks. And I am looking for an excuse to try out our Go Chicago Card. I’ve been there on a lot of business, but have never visited Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum, and the many other world class sites in Chicago.

If you could spend a day with any retail executive, who would you choose and why?

Scott Silverman. Assuming he’s busy, I’d go with Mike George at QVC. I love QVC because they are clearly a brand, but they are also completely metrics-driven. Too often those are seen as being in conflict – and usually for invalid reasons. I also like what QVC does around leveraging their assets. Because of the metrics emphasis, they understand what they have that’s valuable to their customers and they do as good a job as anyone out there at stretching what they have that creates value for customers across their sales channels. That’s just smart execution.

Did you always see yourself in retail, or did you end up on this path by chance?

I landed in the Internet by chance – it was 1994 and all I knew was I was getting into something telecoms-related. Initially I was focused on “3-D multi-user environments” and when that shockingly didn’t pan out, I spent some time in Internet media. Retail came later. In some ways I was just following the tide of the evolution of the Internet. What’s really interesting to look back on is how initially the e-com crowd was telling all the traditional retailers how they knew nothing, there was a paradigm shift, that they were all going to be “Amazoned.” What we’ve seen since is the e-com crowd did have a few things to teach in terms of direct marketing sensibilities and a focus on customer experience, but maybe the paradigm hadn’t shifted so much as it seemed. We needed to learn as much from the old school retailers around disciplines like inventory management, product assortment, pricing and promotion and so on.

You have an incredible educational background. Were your years in higher education a means to an end or do you just love being a student?

I love being a student. I still read history more than anything else and most of my travels usually sneak in a history component. “Oh look honey, who knew our beach vacation would bring us to the Alexander Hamilton birthplace!”

Finish this sentence, “I couldn’t start my day without…”

Coffee

In your opinion, what is the most overused word in retail?

Right now it is “Web 2.0.” In a few months it will be something else.

Tell me the most unexpected thing in your office.

I have a die cast Jimmy Johnson NASCAR. Souvenir from my GSI days.

Finish this sentence, “The older I get, the more I appreciate…”

Knees