CarMax just promoted a longtime employee to CMO. She tells Insider how she went from search analyst to marketing chief.

• CarMax’s new CMO is its longtime employee Sarah Lane.
• She has a plan to make CarMax an ‘iconic’ brand.
• Lane started as a search analyst and led some big projects that propelled her rise.

Sarah Lane, CarMax’s long-time employee and VP of marketing, was recently promoted to CMO and SVP.

Lane joined the company as a search analyst at the age of 22 and in the early aughts, when the company was only in a few markets. According to Automotive News, it is now the largest used-car retailer in the United States.

Lane takes over for Jim Lyski, the company’s top marketer since 2014.

Making CarMax a ‘iconic’ brand

CarMax has grown significantly since its humble beginnings as a Circuit City side project in the early 1990s, but Lane hopes to make it a “iconic” brand.

“We haven’t permeated culture in the way that brands today want and need to, in order to leave a lasting legacy,” Lane told Insider. “I don’t want to be one of several candidates in a consideration pool. “I want to be the only place you think of when buying a used car.”

Lane claims that CarMax has already made strides toward this goal through high-profile partnerships. It began a multi-year partnership with the National Women’s Soccer League in 2022, and it renewed its partnership with the WNBA in May. CarMax has recently partnered with athletes such as Candace Parker, Sue Bird, Steph Curry, and Usain Bolt — and plans to do more of these types of advertisements to ensure the brand is part of the cultural conversation.

“You’ve seen us use female athletes in our commercials, and we’ve gotten a lot of value there,” Lane said. “It helps drive sales, but it also connects the brand to something bigger and more important.” It’s more important to be in people’s hearts.”

Updated messaging

Lane is also developing messages for a slew of new CarMax products, ranging from taking advantage of trade-in incentives to assisting with financing. As electric vehicles gain popularity, she hopes to help customers understand them so they know what to look for when purchasing a used one.

“A big consideration with a used car versus a new car is how mechanically it breaks down over time, and how to think about repairs,” Lane explained. “Everything changes when you change the car type.”

She’s also keeping an eye on the United Auto Workers strikes to see how they might increase demand for used cars. “Anything that disrupts the new car supply chain works its way down to us,” she explained.

Ascending

Lane has to do a lot of big-picture thinking as chief marketer, which is much more expansive than when she started at CarMax nearly two decades ago as a search marketer and analyst. Those roles, however, prepared her for what was to come.

“That’s the most incredible training ground for a lot of business roles,” Lane said. “Everything has become so data-driven, and it’s a luxury to have grown up around analytics and what drives the business.”

While data science provided a solid foundation, Lane was later assigned to larger projects that gave her more responsibility and a broader understanding of CarMax’s various facets. She led a massive effort twelve years ago to modernize CarMax’s brick-and-mortar stores, which were these massive warehouses from the big box era.

“We brought more warmth into the space,” Lane said. “We had a greeting station pushed back versus a traditional dealership where you feel attacked once you walk in.” It was noticeably different.”

Lane had to leave marketing and work across CarMax’s various operations for this position. “I learned a lot about our retail experience and what our associates do every day during our process,” Lane said.

Lane then oversaw CarMax’s digital transformation a few years later.

These projects helped Lane prepare for the CMO role, and she attributes her success to the support of a high-level executive, then-SVP of marketing Joseph Kunkel.

“He was one of the first people who saw something in me and believed in me, long before I felt ready,” she said. “He put me in some different seats and advocated for me.”