in merchandising - Path to Purchase Institute

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IN MERCHANDISING
The 200-plus individuals listed in this section
have been identified as notable figures at their
respective companies that represent leading brands
and retailers within the global merchandising
community. Their continued achievements have
earned them inclusion among this latest installment
of our Who’s Who series, which recognizes the top
performers in shopper marketing, digital shopper
marketing, insights and merchandising.
7-Eleven Inc.
American Express
n Tom Burkemper, Senior
n Suzanne Burg, Senior Manager,
Director, Merchandising
Burkemper’s responsibilities include leadership for
7-Eleven’s merchandising
initiatives for energy and
functional beverages, coffee, juices and
other beverages in the U.S. His more than
20 years of experience includes roles
within the CPG, pharmaceuticals and beverage industries.
Marketing & Communications
Burg focuses on communications for the
small merchant segment, including P-O-P
signage placement and cardmember
engagement for marketing efforts such as
Small Business Saturday and digital offers.
American Greetings Corp.
n Rebecca Frechette, VP, Merchandising
Frechette has been VP of merchandising for 7-Eleven since 2012, leading all
aspects of the center of store, services
and private brands businesses. She builds
and executes strategies and solutions for
a broad range of businesses, including
candy, snacks, health and beauty, general
merchandise, wireless phones, prepaid
cards, lottery and tobacco, and also leads
all product development for 7-Eleven’s
private brands.
ACCO Brands
n Chris Cunningham, Global Design
Director
n Gary Lazicki, U.S.
Marketing, Retail
Merchandising Manager
Lazicki uses category management and researchbased brand strategies to
activate merchandising platforms across
office product categories.
n Ryan Tesiero, Senior Leader,
Visual Display & Merchandising
Ace Hardware
n Mike Berschauer, Director,
Retail Operations
n Lorne Cohen, Group Category
Manager, Consumer Insights &
Shopper Marketing
n Elyse Sanneman, Store Design
& Planning Manager, Retail
Development
Advance Auto Parts Inc.
n Kevin Conniff, Director, Inventory
Management and Visual
Merchandising
Brown-Forman Corp.
n David Dorsey, VP, Director, Global
Licensing & Sales Promotion
Burt’s Bees
n Spencer M. Blaker,
Global Director, Retail
Marketing
and Experience
Apple Computer Inc.
n Rachael Weiss, Retail Merchandising
Manager
n Theresa McDonald, Merchandising
Manager
n Tiffany Pieja, POP
Merchandising Manager
Asics America Corp.
n Sarah Booth, Director of Retail
Marketing
n Casey Nolter, Director of Retail
Avery Products Corp.
n Kimberly True, Director,
Visual Merchandising
A
Manager
n Don Batson, Director of Retail Design
n Rob Chumley, VP, Retail/Business
Innovation
n Eric Green, Global Display Category
B
Bayer HealthCare
n Ben Barra, Manager, Merchandising
Services
Beam Global Spirits & Wine
n Jim Dionne, Senior
Manager, Marketing
Procurement
Dionne leads the Americas
marketing procurement
team, providing direction
for effective category management of
Beam’s marketing spend including agencies, media, print, POS, display logistics
and warehousing.
n Jeanette Koklamanis, Senior
Purchasing Agent
C
Campbell Soup/Pepperidge Farm
n Susan Bell, Director,
In-Store Merchandising,
Pepperidge Farm
Bell leads the in-store merchandising team at Pepperidge Farm, which partners with sales and marketing to deliver
merchandising vehicles for customers.
n Justin Cerritelli, Senior Customer
Development Manager – Innovation
n Chris Cogan, Senior Manager,
Merchandising
n Jeff Lee, Director of In-Store Execution
Church & Dwight
n Dan Bracken, Director, Marketing
Services
The Clorox Co.
n Jill Kettelhodt, Sales Merchandising
Manager
Best Buy Co.
n Chris Brandewie, Director of Store
Design
The Coca-Cola Co.
n Jeff Busch, Director,
n Toni Engebretsen, Director,
Visual Merchandising
Bose Corp.
n John Devine, Senior Manager,
Merchandising
2
Foodservice & OnPremise Equipment
Commercialization
WALGREENS
Louis Dorado, Director of Space
Management
Louis Dorado oversees a team that brings to life planograms,
floor-plan execution and promotional space at the more than
8,100 Walgreens stores in the United States and Puerto Rico
that are visited by more than 6 million shoppers a day.
Such a wide scope requires skills in operations, logistics,
customer service and efficiency. “I think like an industrial engineer, have the heart of an operator, and I have a passion for
people and their development,” says Dorado, who came to
Walgreens in 2007 from United Parcel Service after previously
working as a Certi-Saver store manager.
At Certi-Saver he learned daily store operations and how to
treat shoppers, while in his seven years at UPS he focused on
spatial planning and operations. “I began running the industrial engineering group responsible for process engineering,
time studies, labor forecasting, space optimization and utilization plans,” says Dorado. “Managing space, people and productivity is no different across industries – every inch of space
has a cost and opportunity associated to it. The success and
differentiation of every team and operation in any industry is
determined by the people, technology and processes.
“Capabilities, process and technology are core in all that we
do [at Walgreens], enabling us to run and change the business
simultaneously.”
Dorado’s team deals with resets and revisions as well as the
opening of flagship locations, interacting with clients as well
as several departments within Walgreens. “We are a central
hub for source data that feeds more than 90% of the company, including marketing, e-commerce, pricing, insights, supply
chain, operations and even finance,” he says.
As the needs of the company and its clients change, Dorado and his team try to anticipate and act by hiring top talent,
building efficient processes and using best-in-class tools. The
Photo by Brian Morrison
“Capabilities, process and technology are core in all that we do,
enabling us to run and change the business simultaneously.”
So, what is Dorado’s view of
the role of merchandising in
shopper marketing? He likens
every inch of each planogram
in Walgreens stores to a massive billboard, seen by 12 million
eyes daily. He says his team wants to respect clients’ investments in the value message, brand perception and visual cues
of their “billboards.”
“The fact that shoppers sometimes do something very different than what they think and say they do opens up the door for
retailers and brands to drive purchasing behavior,” he says. “The
role of merchandising, in collaboration with marketing, should
be to manage the quantity while driving the quality and effectiveness of each message. Everything we visually present to the
shopper has to have a role and drive expected behavior.”
duties of his team evolve to drive efficiencies, capacity, accuracy and compliance, he says.
“At times, we consider ourselves a capabilities development
department that just happens to build planograms,” Dorado
says. “This evolution has provided a more relevant seat at the
table and has allowed us to design a structure that embraces technology, automation, business process outsourcing,
vendor collaboration and, most importantly, career progression. What I’m most proud of is the continued efforts across
marketing and merchandising to deliver a cohesive message
in our stores.”
3
HENKEL NORTH AMERICA
Henry Hendrix, Director, Shopper
Marketing & In-Store Merchandising
Henry Hendrix has watched Henkel become a more effective player in the marketplace since he joined the company
10 years ago. He credits the integration of his two functions
– shopper marketing and in-store merchandising – with some
of that success. “Both are all about marketing to the shopper,”
he says. “We thought of them traditionally as separate pieces,
but there were times that our shopper marketing campaigns
and the merchandising on the floors weren’t telling the same
story. It has become really important for me to bring that together wherever we can in a seamless execution.”
Hendrix never would have predicted he could be where he
is today. From a very young age, he dreamed of being a corporate pilot. He attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
in Prescott, Ariz., where he eventually shifted his focus slightly
to aviation business. His first job out of college was with an
airport authority in Tucson, Ariz.
After earning his MBA with a concentration in marketing from
the University of Arizona, he went to work for Minnesota-based
Northwest Airlines as an international strategy manager. But
Hendrix, like many others in the aviation industry, changed paths
after 2001. He became a marketing manager for a regional restaurant company in Arizona before taking a neighbor’s suggestion to put his marketing background to use in the CPG world.
Joining the Dial Corp. in 2003 as a brand manager was his
first step. Following a few brand manager roles and the acquisition of Dial by Henkel, he moved into the parent company’s
Winning-In-Store group. By mid-2011, he was promoted to his
current position, which is based in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Hendrix says that sometimes the strength of a trade program alone will warrant the type of merchandising he and his
six-person team wants to see on the floor. “If the objectives
of the retailer and the objectives of our sales team are covered through traditional trade selling, then a shopper market-
Photo by Tracy Rasinski
the company’s agency of record for shopper marketing and
merchandising, RockTenn. His team works most closely with
its marketing groups, sales planning team and supply chain, as
well as with the field teams for its in-store merchandising work.
Hendrix says his team works with retailers on general merchandising needs for both the beauty care and laundry care
sides of its business. It offers a national menu of
standardized floorstands, PDQs, pallets, etc., that
fit the needs of most retailers. “We’ll also do customized work, which could be changes in product mix so the structure will be the same but the
product mix is different,” while other times it
may be changes to the creative or even custom
structures, he says.
Hendrix points to the company’s partnership with Dollar
General as a success. In 2009 the partners began a literacythemed stock-up program that works across all of Henkel’s
brands and gives away 30 computers in 30 days. This year’s
effort awarded 30 e-readers. “We get all of the product groups
on the shelf because we know from basket analysis that these
products tend to be in the cart at the same time when people shop,” Hendrix says. “We were trying to find a way to get
people to come to Dollar General looking for these items and
buying them all in one location.”
“But for those times when more is needed to
communicate the equity of the products being
sold, that’s when the shopper marketing overlay
becomes an important piece of what we’re doing.”
ing component isn’t necessary,” he says. “But for those times
when more is needed to communicate the equity of the products being sold, that’s when the shopper marketing overlay
becomes an important piece of what we’re doing.”
The three shopper marketing managers who report to Hendrix generally divide by channel and cover all the brands under
the Henkel umbrella. On the merchandising side, two managers are responsible for working with the sales and brand teams
to scope projects, and an engineer serves as project manager,
pushing all projects through the development process with
4
n Karyn Froseth, Director,
Shopper Marketing
Capability
n Dimitri Foutres, Director, Wall
n Karl Flowers, Senior Manager, Small
n Spicer Khakoo, Manager, In-Store
n Denis Gibney, Director,
Strategy
Design and Development
Format Merchandising Innovation
Merchandising
Innovation & Design
n Dana Ocampo, Manager, Visual
Merchandising/Space Planning
n Ron Hughes, Director,
Shopper Experience
Innovation
Hughes works at Coca-Cola
Refreshments across multiple retail and foodservice
channels. He has developed a robust strategic innovation process and built a “state
of the art” multichannel shopper experience innovation center. Hughes has been
leading the Front End Focus Consortium
work at Coca-Cola since 2006. He has more
than 18 years of experience, including
director of marketing for Sara Lee Branded
Apparel where he developed retail and
marketing programs.
Coinstar Inc./Redbox
n Joseph D’Adamo, Senior Manager,
User Experience
Columbia Sportswear
n Adrienne Moser, VP of Global Apparel
Merchandising and Design
ConAgra Foods Inc.
n Rene Brignac, Manager, In-Store
Experience
Brignac creates and manages all merchandising display vehicles, from concept
to commercialization, for ConAgra’s grocery brands.
n Scott Faragher, In-store
Experience Manager,
National Accounts
Faragher develops and
implements custom secondary display and semipermanent display initiatives for ConAgra
brands.
n Dean Kubiak, Director, Category
Leadership – Snacks, Specialty &
Refrigerated
Coty US LLC
n Michael Curella, Senior
Manager, Wall Strategy
Crayola
n Beth Ondush, Manager,
Merchandising
n Jim Ivy, Manager, Large Format
Merchandising Innovation
n Aracely Moreno, Director, Marketing &
Emerging Channels
n Clay Sharp, Manager, Core Temporary
Merchandising
Crocs
n Sophie Bundalo, VP of Retail,
The Americas
G
Garmin International
n Ronnie Lamendola, Manager,
D
Retail Marketing
Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc.
n Rick Neira, Director, Visual
Presentation and Store Environments
Dollar General Corp.
General Mills Inc.
n Brian Kittelson,
Director of Integrated
Shopper Marketing
n Bryan Wheeler, VP, Merchandising
Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc.
n Laura Bailey, Manager, Merchandising
Strategy
Ghirardelli Chocolates
n Aaron Sims, Director of
Sales Merchandising
E
E&J Gallo Winery
n Laurence Peters, Design Director,
Key Accounts
Energizer Holdings Inc.
n Davi Tash, Merchandising & Display
GlaxoSmithKline
n Randy Easterly, Senior
Team Leader, Retail
Category Solutions
Manager
Esselte Corp.
n Lisa Miller, Retail Channel Marketing
Manager
n Gary Glew, Director,
Retail Category
Solutions
F
Food Lion LLC
n Karen Fernald, SVP of Merchandising
Foot Locker
n Dan Pasqualucci,
Senior Team Leader,
Retail Access
n Brian Landman, Director, Visual
Merchandising In-Store Experience
Godiva Chocolatier
Frito-Lay Inc.
n Chelcie Bailey, Senior Manager,
Merchandising Commercialization
5
n Jose Padron, Director of Visual
Merchandising
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.
The Hershey Co.
Kimberly-Clark
n Arndt Haddenbrock, Manager,
n Steve Moore, Senior Manager,
n Dayton Henderson, Senior Director,
Category Management & Retail
The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea
Co. Inc.
n Vince Nolan, Director of Space
Planning Optimization
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters
Don Collins, Senior Marketing
Manager, Merchandising & Retail
Innovation, Keurig
Collins leads the merchandising & retail innovation department, including strategy
for in-store set designs across U.S. & global
markets. Key is the Keurig system brand
equity at point of influence and creating
the perfect shopping experience in-store
through branding, visual merchandising,
displays and in-store activation for retail
impact.
Front End Experience
n Frank Sheehe, Global Retail and
Merchandise Manager
Hewlett-Packard Co.
n Tinesha Freeman, Senior Manager,
n Steve Kram, Associate Director,
n Paula Steenstra, Director, Creative
n Diane Rogers, In-Store Merchandising
Space & Assortment
Development
n Katherine Tai, Manager, Space &
Assortment
n Christopher Witte, VP,
Customer Development
n Maureen Marrone,
Director of Visual
Merchandising
Marrone is responsible
for developing in-store
merchandising programs,
including a variety of display systems and
P-O-P materials available to retailers that
are designed to accommodate different
showrooms and different budgets.
n Kurt Kozacek, VP – Visual
Merchandising, Mass Channels
Kozacek leads a cross-functional team responsible for developing merchandising
strategies across all big box, chain drug,
and grocery customers.
n David MacConnie, Visual
J
Jockey International
n Mark Fedyk, VP, Retail
Johnson & Johnson Sales and
Logistics Co. LLC
n Steven Hecht, Director, In-Store
Strategy & Innovation
K
Kao
n John Sullivan, Senior Director,
Henkel North America
Kellogg Company
Marketing & In-Store Merchandising
See profile on page 4
BU Lead, Oscar Mayer/Cheese and
Dairy/Planters
n Craig Schisler, Associate Director,
In-Store Merchandising
n Jeff Waterman, Senior Manager,
In-Store Merchandising
L’Oreal
n Michael Arecchi, VP of Merchandising
n Nancy Hafter, Assistant VP,
Promotional Development &
Procurement, Consumer Products
Division
n Laurie Houlihan,
VP, Promotional
Development &
Procurement, Consumer
Products Division
n Gail McCahery, Director, Promotional
Development & Procurement,
Consumer Products Division
n Christina P. Ragazzini, Director,
Promotional Development &
Procurement, Consumer Products
Division
LG Electronics
n Bill Thomas, Director,
n Richard Meyerkopf, VP, Merchandising,
n Henry Hendrix, Director, Shopper
In-Store Merchandising
L
Hallmark Cards Inc.
Hannaford and Sweetbay
Director, In-Store
Merchandising
Hillshire Brands
Hunter Douglas Inc.
Hannaford Brothers Co.
Kraft Foods Global Inc.
n John Jaffke, Senior
n Ray Carlin, VP, Retail Solutions
H
Director – Mass Channel
Visual Merchandising
MacConnie leads the visual
merchandising design studio across multiple creative
disciplines (product presentation, graphic
design and industrial design) for Hallmark
Cards. He is responsible for strategic and
conceptual development of merchandising initiatives throughout mass-channel
customers including store/brand environment and consumer-facing market
support.
Global Design
Strategies & Effectiveness
n Jeff Woods, Director,
Merchandising &
Print Services In-Store Marketing
Thomas heads in-store
marketing for the electronics marketer. He honed his
category management
skills at Whirlpool, and now at LG he oversees all in-store marketing assets developed across all channels in the U.S.
Logitech
n Cynthia Bowens, Retail Marketing
Manager
6
Photo by Alan Abramowitz/Abramowitz Studio Inc.
MICROSOFT
or any new titles, we provide the graphics for the windows, the
power aisles and the endcaps, and also the product-holding
displays for preorder and launch,” he says. “Anything Xbox at
retail comes out of our portfolio of assets and guidance.”
Floyd and his five-person team (with an additional three
vendor contract positions) work closely with the company’s regional marketing teams. “We design the strategy, look and feel,
and the assets they should use, and then we work with them
as they customize for their retailers around the world,” he says.
He believes his work on the retailer side goes a long way in
guiding the strategy and approach his team takes for the consumer and shopper. “I like to think my experiences help us get
closer to what the retailers need as well as understand the differences in our shoppers by class of trade,” he says. His team
pays close attention to creating in-store signage and materials that not only help the consumer and shopper but also the
store associates who are selling the products.
The team works with retailers
through its global channel partners as “they evolve or modify because every retailer has a unique
set of standards,” Floyd says. “We
can’t just go in and drop unless we buy that space and say we
own it. We have to adapt to their requirements, so we almost
become a consultant role for the globe. We modify by retailer
by class of trade as the requirements fit, and will work to accommodate our own requirements within that as well.”
His team relies on the marketing team to design the overall
brand strategy for any product, provide research and analytics, and also indicate how the brand should appear above and
below the line. “Once they provide the foundation, tools and
understanding, as well as the story and proposition,” he says,
“we take all of that data and turn it into a strategic merchandising program for retail.”
Jason Floyd, Group Manager,
Worldwide Visual Merchandising
When Jason Floyd was recruited to join Microsoft just over
two years ago, he felt he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to
work on a brand like Xbox. Proving himself right, Floyd now
has a significant notch in his career belt. He describes the recent launch of Xbox One as “by far the biggest thing I have
ever done in my life.”
Considering Microsoft only rolls out new consoles for Xbox
every 10 years or so, Floyd joined the company at just the right
time. He had previously worked his way up into Blockbuster’s
corporate office for visual merchandising, and then moved
on to executive visual merchandising positions at RadioShack
and GameStop.
“Every retailer has a unique set of standards. We can’t just
go in and drop unless we buy that space and say we own it.”
Soon after Floyd joined Microsoft, his team got to work on
the Xbox One launch by gaining an understanding of the retail landscape and the company’s business objectives. The
team designed all of the visual merchandising and brand assets, creating all category management guidance for retailers
around the world, and managed execution in the U.S., which
entailed custom work with various retailer partners.
Leading the worldwide visual merchandising team, as well as
more recently the interactive design team for Xbox, Floyd oversees merchandising strategy and category management at retail. His team also develops and provides all of the navigational,
shelf and promotional signage. “For any campaigns we launch
7
MONDELEZ INTERNATIONAL
Steven Zoellner, Director of Shopper
Merchandising Solutions
Steven Zoellner has spent the last seven years creating merchandising solutions through the many positions he’s held
at Cadbury, Kraft Foods and now Mondelez International. He
credits his early career in retail management with giving him
a unique perspective.
Having worked for both Walmart and Best Buy, Zoellner is
trained to look at every program from the perspective of the
store manager and the person responsible for placing, stocking
and maintaining a display, as well as of the shopper. “I’ve seen
literally millions of shoppers walk through stores,” he says. “I
saw what they liked, what they didn’t, what they ran their carts
into and what they decided they would walk around. Combined with my account management, sales planning, project
management and analytical experience, it allows me to look at
merchandising programs in a very holistic, 360-degree way.”
Zoellner leads a 14-person team responsible for bringing
Mondelez merchandising-related strategies to life in-store. “As
we’re developing merchandising solutions, whether a redo of
an inline display or developing secondary display solutions, POS
or shopper marketing materials, I have the ability to look back
on my career and draw on what actually happens in-store.”
His team’s daily tasks include developing and providing
executional solutions for off-shelf filled displays as well as all
thematic, fold-flat displays that the company’s direct-storedelivery force uses to build displays. Additionally, all permanent racking solutions that support ongoing brand strategies
come through this team.
In Zoellner’s mind, seldom is there a universal solution at retail anymore. “All the major retailers need custom solutions for
their shoppers and their shopping environments, and we’re
more than willing to support that,” he says. Often those specific solutions address universal issues. “We try to work with
the industry to identify these universal issues, and then we’ll
Photo by Steve Hockstein / Harvard Studio
that ran this past summer in which the company leveraged
its partnership with the band One Direction to generate increased in-store activity and display placement. He says his
team was “very well linked” to the 360-degree campaign.
Another highlight is the “Oreo Cookie vs. Creme” brand campaign that was executed in the first quarter of 2013.
Zoellner believes that not every piece of merchandising
needs to be linked directly to a shopper marketing program,
but the “best and biggest” shopper marketing programs are
typically linked to equally sizable POS programs. “It’s critical
that they’re linked together as part of the planning process,”
he says. “Not only do our internal teams need to be linked, but
we have to be connected with our retail customers where we
want to execute these programs. The mistake a lot of companies make – and we do, too, but we’ve
gotten better about catching ourselves – is
planning in a vacuum only to find in the real
world there are a lot of road bumps along the
way and things don’t seem to play out. We all
need to be on the same page.”
Mondelez’s Nabisco Holiday Traditions
Spectacular display recently won a platinum
Design of the Times award. Zoellner says the colors, shapes
and modularity of the ice castle-themed display allowed for
large and very intricate structures in-store. The true beauty of
the theme, he says, was that it allowed the company to support retailers beyond the holidays. “It didn’t have to come
down immediately,” he says. “Retailers could generate a lot
of impulse, basket-building sales off those displays, even after
the Christmas timeframe ended.”
“The mistake a lot of companies make is planning in a
vacuum only to find in the real world there are a lot
of road bumps along the way and things don’t seem
to play out. We all need to be on the same page.”
provide the appropriate solutions to the appropriate retailer.”
His team sits within the larger customer business development team at Mondelez and is closely connected to sales
planning, shopper marketing and brand marketing, as well as
product supply, logistics and a team of global merchandising
colleagues that studies trends impacting the company – with
the goal of bringing global insights into the U.S. market.
Zoellner points to a biscuit-wide promotional campaign
8
n Bill Brownell, GM, World
M
Wide Retail Services
Mars Chocolate U.S.
n William Kambol,
Merchandising Center of Excellence
Manager, Merchandising Center of
Excellence
Mattel Inc.
n Jason Floyd, Group Manager,
Worldwide Visual Merchandising
See profile on page 7
n Jake Jacobsen, Senior Retail Display
Manager
n Daryl Finley, Senior Manager,
Visual Merchandising
Maybelline Garnier
n Sean Johnson, Director, Global
Merchandising
McCormick & Co. Inc.
n Sarah Bankert, Senior Merchandising
n Joyce Courtney, Senior Display &
Merchandising Specialist
n Christopher Cuello, Director of the
n Adrienne Mattar, Merchandising
NestlÉ-Purina
MillerCoors LLC
n Brian Dirks, Point of Sale Manager
Mondelez International
n Rosa daGraca, In-Store Merchandising
Coordinator
n Greg Norsworthy, Director,
Retail Presentation, North America
NestlÉ-Waters
n Pam Mashman Venn,
n Joan Hernandez,
Packaging Engineer
Innovations Manager
Senior Display and
Merchandising
Designer
Kambol oversees NestléPurina’s shopper marketing
efforts at retail, including sales, marketing,
display structure and graphics. He works
on several brands including Beneful,
Fancy Feast, Pro Plan and Tidy Cats.
Marketing Manager,
Point-of-Sale
Mead Johnson Nutrition
n Beverly Hughes,
Customer Marketing
Manager
n Stephen Spaner, Associate Director,
Merchandising
n Steven Zoellner, Director of Shopper
Merchandising Solutions
See profile on page 8
Meijer Inc.
n Shawn Buckner, Group VP of Foods
Merchandising
NBC Universal Studios
Creative Marketing
Development
n John Pender, Director, Visual
Merchandising
n Michele Smith, Associate Director,
Visual Merchandising
Michaels Stores Inc.
Manager
n Mary Khachikyan, Production
Planning & Purchasing Manager
N
Merchandising
Director, Retail
Nintendo of America Inc.
n Heather Burton-Garcia, Senior Retail
NestlÉ USA
n Thomas Kobayashi,
Merchandise Manager,
Confections & Snacks
Division
Marketing Manager
See profile on page 11
Novartis
n Margaret Farrell, Manager, Displays/
Special Packs, Pain Category
Merchandising Strategies, Canada
Microsoft Corp.
Nike Inc.
n Matt Kelly, Global Procurement
n Chris Jernstrom, Director,
n Karyn Abrahamson, Director of Visual
Manager, Packaging &
Merchandising
Stapleton leads packaging
and merchandising globally for the writing segment
at Newell Rubbermaid.
n Kenneth Edwards, Senior Visual
Menard Inc.
Merck Consumer Care
n Becky Stapleton, Senior
n Elizabeth Bishop, VP,
n Dave Clark, VP, Brand & Product
n Scott Mueller, Senior Store Planner
Newell Rubbermaid
n Steve Kamp, Associate
n Cory Wofford, National Retail
Merchandising Manager
Wofford is the team leader for the Western half of the U.S.
9
Director, Displays/Special
Packs
Kamp and his team handle
displays and special packs
including samples for OTC
brands.
O
Price Chopper Supermarkets
Sargento Foods Inc.
OfficeMax Inc.
n Blaine Bringhurst, SVP, Sales,
n John Bottomley, Senior Director of
Merchandising and Marketing
n Chuck Luckenbill, VP,
Visual Merchandising
Procter & Gamble
n Jane Geiger, Package Engineer
Manager
n Andy Monaco, CMS Category Manager
n Daniel Sorvig, Director, Visual
Merchandising
n Don Overton, Pet Care Display Leader
n Bill Smith, Senior Category Account
Executive, Duracell NA FMOT
P
PepsiCo
n Brian Kelly, Senior
Director of Merchandising
& Execution
Part of Kelly’s role as senior
director of merchandising solutions for Pepsi
Beverages includes knowing which nonalcoholic beverages pair well with meals
like chicken and pizza, based on the fact
that a shopper’s trip mission is the best
predictor of in-store behavior. Kelly’s team
interacts with brand marketing, field sales,
shopper insights and shopper marketing
personnel.
n David Lothian, Senior Director,
Merchandising Center of Excellence
R
Reckitt Benckiser
n Shannon Durham, Director,
Category Management
Reebok International Ltd.
n John Lynch, VP – Head of U.S.
Marketing & Merchandising
Temporary Merchandising, Frito-Lay
of Alternate Channels & Strategic
Merchandising
Sephora
n Maureen Watson, Senior
VP, Merchandising
Watson oversees the color,
skincare, fragrance and
Sephora Collection departments. She has worked for
Lucky Brand Jeans and Babies “R” Us.
The Sherwin-Williams Co.
n Paul Cobb, Director, In-Store Marketing
Skullcandy
n Jeff Chuh, Director of Visual
Merchandising
Revlon Inc.
n Michael Bastian, Senior Art Director,
Merchandising
Sony Computer
Entertainment America
n Susan Karbaf, Senior Director,
Roll Global
Retail Activations
n Dave Churchill, National Director,
Merchandising
n Keith Romere, Manager, Pre-packed
Retail Merchandising
n Michael Vaszily, Marketing Director
S
n Millie Steury, Senior Director Channel
Marketing Sony Playstation
Sony Electronics
PETCO
Sabra Dipping Co. LLC
n Scott Blazer, Senior Buyer
n Gladys Hernandez,
n Pete Loizzo, Director, Sales Operations
n Linda Lampman, Senior Manager,
Director, Visual
Merchandising &
Store Design
Hernandez is responsible
for all P-O-P, institutional
messaging, fixture development and
store design.
n Tim Swanson, VP, Visual Presentation
Pfizer
n Chris Beley, Display Team Lead
Philips Consumer Lifestyle
Retail Marketing
Sam’s Club
n Anne Lips, Retail
n Brian Graham, VP, Merchandising
n Heather Mayo, Vice
President, Grocery
Mayo has more than 19
years of operations and
merchandising experience
in the retail club channel.
She has held responsibility for more than
14 different categories, and was honored
as divisional merchandising manager of
the year for Sam’s Club in 2009.
n Trish Carollo, Merchandising Manager
Samsung Electronics
Pinnacle Foods
n Ronald Elowitz, Director, Visual
n Andrew Kohler, Senior Manager,
Trade Marketing
Merchandising & Operations
n Parisa Zander, VP, Retail Marketing
10
Marketing Lead
Lips is responsible for retail
marketing functions that
drive consumer awareness and sales via in-store
merchandising solutions such as POS and
retail promotion materials, displays, collateral, packaging and online assets. She has
developed merchandising programs for
some of Sony’s most important product
launches like Blu-ray, 3-D HDTVs, sound
bars and 4K Ultra HD TVs.
n Naila Sfeir, Director of Retail
Merchandising, Brand Activation
NINTENDO OF AMERICA
Heather Burton-Garcia, Senior Retail
Marketing Manager
A common thread runs through every step of Heather BurtonGarcia’s career path: she has always tried to find ways to reach
consumers and encourage them to experience something.
From the days when she owned a hospitality design firm to
now as a marketer of video games, portables and consoles,
Burton-Garcia has always thrived on creating experiences.
Even during a nearly seven-year stint at the Beeline Group,
“a lot of my touchpoints were interactive or integrated marketing displays where consumers actually engaged with product directly.”
Burton-Garcia did some work with Nintendo while at Beeline, then joined the gaming company to get her own experience marketing a specific brand and to become “more closely
linked to the strategy behind why decisions were being made
at the retail level.” She joined the company in 2007 in merchandising development, then assumed her current role as
senior retail marketing manager last June and is now focused
on marketing products to consumers through retail channels,
whether online or in traditional bricks-and-mortar.
“We’re focused on finding a way to market our products for
the right consumers,” she says. “Whatever that audience segmentation is, we’re driving new and innovative opportunities
for them to experience the product at the store level or to be
intrigued enough to convert from a shopper to a purchaser.”
Burton-Garcia leads a team of seven that is vertically focused
by portables, consoles and general retail marketing. The team
engages with Nintendo’s consumer marketing teams, retail sales
teams, public relations and corporate affairs, product marketing
teams, design team, engineering services and its 140-personstrong national field force that takes the displays and marketing
programs and installs them and/or manages them at retail.
Photo by Timothy Shonnard
that might enhance that experience,” she says.
Depending on the product being launched, Burton-Garcia’s
team will create custom programs based on the consumer segments it has identified. “Our intent is to make sure we’re providing
very solid experiences for consumers and shoppers at
particular retailers,” she says. “It doesn’t help us or the
retailer to not be aligned on a product offering for that
particular audience segment within their store.”
Customization of programs and campaigns is
based on retailer restrictions as well as the team’s
knowledge of the audience segment. “It’s also important for Nintendo to maintain the brand integrity overall, so
we won’t customize to the point where it jeopardizes what that
experience would actually be or what that product is all about.”
That’s where the strength lies in Nintendo’s 2013 Design of
the Times award-winning Wii U Interactive display program.
“This program was thought through strategically to create a
unique and retail-customized experience that was right for
the shopper in that particular retailer or environment,” Burton-Garcia says. “The overall brand integrity and architecture
was very critical. We wanted to make sure that in every retail
location the overall impression of the brand remained consistent, yet the retailer-by-retailer experience and how customers engaged with the brand in each location varied.”
“It doesn’t help us or the retailer to not be
aligned on a product offering for that particular
audience segment within their store.”
She was heavily involved in the development of the Wii U
console and has had responsibility for retail-specific events
and remodels, including the remodel of the Nintendo World
Store in the fall of 2010. “I was able to bring in my interior design experience as well as understanding the overall engagement points in retail displays development that I had done at
the Beeline Group,” she says.
Her team spent a year developing a retail shop-in-shop for a
partnership with Toys “R” Us. Currently testing in eight stores
in the U.S., the program includes dedicated Nintendo associates to help with the customer experience. “We have the opportunity to help each customer make the right purchase, not
only with the hardware, but also offering different accessories
11
n Tony Shinker, Retail Channel
Marketing, Display & Packaging
Implementation
Shinker leads in-store merchandising
activities for Sony’s personal and mobile
audio categories. He oversees the retail
and channel marketing teams and stays
current with brand strategy, packaging
development and display/fixture implementation.
n Natalie Zimny, In-Store
Marketing Strategy
Manager
Zimny drives large-scale
strategy, guidelines and
long-term innovation for
storewide marketing.
The Timberland Co.
n Jackie LaLime, Director,
North American Merchandising
Staples Inc.
n Robert Madill, VP, Visual
Merchandising
n Christine Mallon, VP, Retail Marketing
Time Inc./Time Warner Retail
Sales & Marketing
n Troy Stratton, Director, Retail Display
U
n Michael Dunigan, Merchandising,
Unilever
Operations Management
Visual Merchandising
n Karin Summersett, Displays Manager
Supervalu
n Pat Hildebrand, Shop ‘n
Save VP, Merchandising
Merchandising Strategy and
Development
n Mike Wiltgen, Senior Space
Management Manager
Walmart Stores Inc.
n Chad Henderson, Senior Design
Manager
n Cedric Johnson, Design Manager,
Visual Merchandising Services
n Noel Knecht, Director, Visual
Merchandising
Visual Merchandising
n Steve Rogers, Senior Director, Visual
Merchandising Services at Walmart
n Paulo Philip Atienza,
Senior Global Marketing
Manager – Retail
Atienza is head of global
brand development for
face care in Unilever. He
is responsible for delivering global visual
merchandising design, global beauty
consultancy program development, innovations on digital POS and global gifting
and sampling strategy.
n John Coyle, Director,
n Bill Lipsky, Director of Merchandising
Implementation & Space Planning
n Don Whetstone, Senior Director,
n Barbara Magstadt, Senior Director,
Starbucks Coffee Co.
n Jennifer Quotson, Director,
n Jim Jensen, VP, Daily Living
In-Store Visibility
n Kenneth Siemens, Design Lead, Senior
Manager Visual Merchandising
Walt Disney Studios Home
Entertainment
n Renee Richardson, VP, Integrated
Retail Creative
WhiteWave Foods
n Jim Blumberg, Director,
Integrated Marketing
T
T-Mobile USA
n Jeanette Keblish,
Director of Marketing,
CRM Strategy and
Planning
Target Corp.
n LeAnna Pierson, Senior Specialist,
In-Store Marketing Strategy
n Erika Rinkleff, Senior Specialist,
In-Store Marketing Concept
Development
n Bill Stafford, Senior Design Lead,
Fixtures
n Kathee Tesija, EVP, Merchandising
n Tom Gioielli, Category Strategy
Manager – Deodorants & Male
Grooming
Williams-Sonoma Inc.
n David Jimenez, SVP, Visual
Merchandising & Store Experience
W
WalgreenS
World Kitchen LLC
n Rachel Bishop, VP, Global
n Chuck Schneider, Senior Director,
Merchandising and Own Brand
Expansion
n Louis Dorado, Director of Space
Management See profile on page 3
n Mike Hattenschweiler,
Senior Manager, Visual
Merchandising &
Creative Services
n Jen Theisen, Senior Fixture Designer
12
Visual Merchandising
Y
Yankee Candle Co.
n Jodi Villani, Director of Visual
Merchandise