James Varga

James Varga
[email protected]
www.jmsvrg.com
Transitioning a Thai OEM furniture manufacturer to a direct
supplier, required a dedicated U.S. marketing and design
team. My responsibilities included oversight of all marketing, sales support, store audits, packaging, collateral, and
product photography. Launching with zero market penetration, we achieved placement at Walmart, Target, Kmart,
Home Depot, Costco, Sears, Office Max, Office Depot.
packaging
product photography
Furniture Imports
James Varga
[email protected]
Managed the design operations, brand and concept development of the Nate Berkus Collection featured at Linens N’
Things. Result led to the program being expanded to a
600 SKU dedicated space in all stores – the largest brand
launch in Linens N’ Things history. The program launch was
featured on Oprah.
product launched on Oprah
featured in Oprah’s ‘O’ at Home magazine
James Varga
[email protected]
concept baby brand - hang tags
concept perfume
The brand development division, which I helped create
was hired to explore licensing opportunities for Halle
Berry. The goal was to create the esthetic and conceptual
framework that reflected her personality and to explore
potential for later brand extensions. This is the foundation that vendors in all categories use for developing the
individual SKU designs in the line. The inspired packaging
and brand work for her fragrance line won “fragrance of
the year” and sold more than $40M. She has since
launched an additional five fragrances becoming one of
the more successful licenses in the category.
actual ad for licensed fragrance
Halle Berry License
James Varga
[email protected]
Having gone through a series of M&A,
AT&T had a problem with too many
overlapping and competing licensed
products in their assortment. Partnering with the Beanstalk Group, I managed a team that led recommendations to streamline the assortment,
redesigned packaging, store signage,
POP displays and consulted on the
merchandising plan for Walmart.
store concept
James Varga
[email protected]
No Boundaries bedding
young adult bedding
furniture photoshoot
While Walmart was building their internal product development
department, they outsourced the domestics direct import business to
Thinc for a 2 year period. This was an immense volume of work, I
managed design operations for 50+ designers. In addition I tracked
sales via Retail Link, generated royalty reports, conducted research,
store audits, coordinated presentation logistics, implemented
marketing efforts and contributed to the launch of several adult, teen
and kids brands, most notably: No Boundaries, Walmart’s first
year-round teen home brand.
No Boundaries bath
Walmart Domestics
James Varga
[email protected]
display concept
product concepts
Carbon 14, an environmentally-minded outdoor lifestyle
brand, launched in the sport watches category. Led design
direction for the program which included marketing collateral,
identity with brand book, packaging, store fixtures, web UI
design, conceptual brand extensions and voice.
website concept
Korath Wright,
brand ambassador
James Varga
[email protected]
stills from video presentation
Habitat for Humanity partnered with the Beanstalk Group and Thinc to
explore alternate ways to generate outreach and revenue, such as licensing. In addition to contributing marketing research, design management
to the project, James also produced and edited a corporate video which
served as the entire presentation. Efforts resulted in several high-level
meetings at Walmart, progressing to meetings with the Chief Marketing
Officer. Pleased with the progress, Habitat for Humanity has hired a dedicated executive for their licensing efforts.
product concepts
Habitat for Humanity
James Varga
[email protected]
Walmart has great opportunity for positive impact with
organic cotton and sustainable business practices. The
problem: there was not enough global supply to fulfill
the needs of Walmart! The messaging strategy was key,
communicating Walmart’s commitment to the organic
journey, progressing from “organically-grown” to “certified organic” with the goal being continuous improvement. We created an umbrella organic brand that would
span multiple categories from home furnishings to consumer packaged goods. I contributed design operations,
research, strategy and created the presentation resulting
in several meetings with the Chief Marketing Officer and
implementation of many of our ideas. Today Walmart
buys more organic cotton than anyone else.
store concept
packaging
James Varga
[email protected]
Media
Nokia
Textron
ViaSat
Walmart
Licensed Personalities
Halle Berry
Nate Berkus
Sheryl Crow
Retail Placement
Target
Walmart
Home Depot
Sears
Kmart
Office Depot
Office Max
Costco
Safeway
Lowe’s
Best Buy
Bed Bath & Beyond
Dillard’s
Brand Partners
AT&T
Habitat for Humanity
Underalls
Bonwit Teller
Susie Coelho
FUBU
Disney
Ford
Joe Boxer
Client / Brand Overview
James Varga
[email protected]
James Varga
[email protected]
www.jmsvrg.com