As seen in

Our eighth annual report spotlights

more than 200 marketing professionals

who are leading shopper marketing

efforts at some of the most beloved

CPG companies and leading retailers.

IN SHOPPER MARKETING

CRAYOLA: MIMI DIXON, Leader, Customer Development & Activation

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imi Dixon has always had a creative side. But it wasn’t until she landed at Campbell Soup Co. that she found her career calling. Starting out as an engineering major at Rutgers University, she also studied sociology and

political science before getting her master’s in public administration, which included an internship in the Delaware State House of Repre-sentatives. Seeking a new path, she joined Campbell and spent the next 16 years in integrated marketing. In June 2014, she moved to Crayola to serve as its leader of customer development and activation. “I’m innately creative, and shopper marketing allows me that, but in different ways,” Dixon says. “It’s not at all where I thought I’d be, but I get to think about big ideas, partnerships and everyday interactions with shoppers – that’s the part that I love.”

What was the draw for you to join the team at Crayola?Dixon: Crayola has a history of partnerships and retailer activation, but the science of the discipline and building those relationships with the retail community is why I was brought here.

Has your role changed in the past two years?Dixon: I started here in charge of shopper marketing and mer-chandising. Now it’s changed to shopper marketing and national

Photo by John Kish

activation. As we’re working on bigger promotions, I can tie that in to a shopper marketing leg for our retailers and build it from the outside in.

What projects are you working on now?Dixon: We just announced a partnership with Minor League Base-ball that will be starting in January. It’s the first relationship of its kind for Crayola, and we’re working on many different ways we can engage our brand in a fun, unique and organic way.

How did that partnership come about?Dixon: We were looking at ways to add more fun and interrupt our shoppers in surprising and delightful ways. It was a natural, strate-gic fit. We’ll have national activation as well as some local-market activation. The games are focused on fun and family, but we’re add-ing to that with our colors, energy and a greater focus on kids.

How do you and your organization define shopper marketing?Dixon: It’s targeting and directly engaging the shopper with this lens of retailer customization. When you add that layer and start to look at those unique programs by retailer, that’s where it’s now shopper marketing.

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3M Keith Albright, Global Shopper Leader Focused on driving global adoption of key shopper principles, Albright has elevated the role shopper insights has in developing conversion-driven shopper marketing programs. He is recognized as a creative and collabora-tive problem-solver, and emphasizes the importance of meeting needs across the entire path to purchase as a way to drive sustainable growth.

AAHOLD USA Linda Crowder, Senior Director, Peapod Interactive Crowder is responsible for leading all of the third-party partnerships for Ahold USA’s Peapod online grocery service. She works with manufacturers and media partners to deliver strong values and engaging con-tent to Peapod shoppers.

Jeff Sigel, Vice President, Brand and Marketing Planning Sigel is responsible for cal-endar planning, brand posi-tioning and customer mes-saging for the Ahold banners. He joined the Ahold team in August 2015.

Greg Tobin, Vice President of Promotional Strategy and Support Tobin leads the promotional strategy and support team for Ahold USA’s multiple banners. He manages the planning and coordination of promotional activity, dis-plays and demos while ensuring connec-tivity between key stakeholders, including the merchandising and advertising/mar-keting divisions.

What was your biggest professional challenge? Dixon: Moving into shopper marketing after my years of experience in consumer promotions and integrated marketing.

Why was that? Dixon: I’m not going to say that work was easy, but when you add in shopper marketing, it takes it to a whole differ-ent level. Now there are four stakehold-ers that we’re looking to understand and integrate into one solution that pleases everyone. I also had to realize that in the retail landscape, you aren’t a big fish no matter what company you’re with.

What motivates you most in your current position? Dixon: Crayola has this awesome brand essence of “freeing the what-ifs.” Kids’ imaginations can go crazy, and we can ap-ply that same philosophy to shopper mar-keting and our relationships with retail-ers. As we continue asking the questions and pushing the envelope, that’s inspiring to me.

What about shopper marketing keeps you up at night?Dixon: I love that it’s ever-changing, but it’s a double-edged sword. It’s always excit-ing and there’s always something new, but that also makes it hard to stay on top of or get ahead. And, of course, measurement and ROI continue to be a challenge.

Where do you see retail and shopper marketing heading?Dixon: More toward customization and personalization. I love having this one-to-one relationship with shoppers and customizing our messages for them, but how do we scale that and how do we measure it? We’re going to go down the path, but we’re prepared for a lot of trial and error, and the measurement needs to come with it.

And shopper marketing’s greatest need today?Dixon: To create solutions that fit into shoppers’ lifestyles and meet their needs. There’s a never-ending pursuit of who our shoppers are, and understanding them at every step is crucial. From there it’s build-ing innovative programs and products that fit those needs versus innovating just for innovation’s sake.

ALBERTSONS COS. Kendal Callender, Director, Shopper Marketing Callender focuses on gro-cery categories and national events. She uses relevant insights to move customers through the path to purchase via a plethora of pre-shop, in-store and post-shop tactics to drive sales, engagement and transactions.

Michele Lauer, Director, Shopper Marketing

Angela Moore, Director, Shopper Marketing Moore is responsible for driving all of Albertsons’ large national programs, including Monopoly, which impacts more than 2,300 stores, 162 ven-dors, more than 1.3 billion game tickets and 37 million game boards, and delivers significant sales increases for the company and participating vendors.

Andrea Olguin, Director, Shopper Marketing, Strategic Planning & Sponsorships

Neal Ryan, Director, Shopper Marketing Ryan’s primary focus is on sports marketing. He is most proud of delivering Albertsons’ first series of live, behind-the-scenes racing content with NASCAR drivers Brian Scott and Richard Petty on Facebook.

Karen Sales, Vice President, Marketing and Shopper Sales leads all national mar-keting initiatives, shopper marketing vendor negotia-tions, strategic planning and marketing execution for the 2,300-plus Albertsons Cos. stores.

Institute member

ICON KEY

ALCON Shawn Millerick, Head of Marketing, U.S. OTC Millerick oversees consumer, professional and shopper marketing, as well as market strategy and operations, for Alcon’s eye-care business. When he joined Alcon in 2012, he was responsible for start-ing up and leading shopper marketing, category management and market strate-gy, as well as the development of THEeye-SOLUTION shopper marketing platform.

ANHEUSER-BUSCHMitch Louch, Director, Category Leadership – Great Lakes Region Louch currently leads the category and space man-agement team that sup-ports Anheuser-Busch’s retail and whole-sale partners throughout the Great Lakes region.

Jim Tietjens, Senior Director, Trade MarketingTietjens’ responsibilities include develop-ing strategy and managing off-premise retail partnerships, developing and managing the integration of Ibotta into Anheuser-Busch’s off- and on-premise re-tail programming, and working day to day with the Kroger sales team to develop and implement a winning game plan.

BBACARDI & CO. Renate Juengling, Shopper Marketing – Rums Juengling leads the de-velopment and execution of innovative, insights-endorsed marketing strategies for the Ba-cardi rums portfolio. The goal of her team is to drive customer engagement, in-store conversion and brand relevance for the company’s shoppers and retailers across distinct channels by linking consump-tion occasions with shopper missions and needs.

Jordan Krawll, Director of Shopper Marketing Krawll is driving the com-pany’s efforts to bring more value to its customers by creating more impactful programs and solutions. He leads the team responsible for developing programming across the company’s portfolio of brands, including Bacardi rums, Grey Goose vodka, Bombay Sapphire gin and Dewar’s whiskey.

BAI Kat Haddon, Director of Shopper Marketing

BARILLA AMERICA Debbie Zefting, Director, Shopper & Customer Development Since joining Barilla in 2012, Zefting has built a shopper marketing/shopper insights team. Her team has been recognized for creating innovative approaches to shopper marketing at Barilla, driving increased vis-ibility and category performance at retail.

BAYER CONSUMER HEALTH Mary Fitzgerald, Senior Manager, Customer and Shopper Activation – Walgreens Team Fitzgerald leads the co-cre-ation, activation and evalu-ation of insights-based shopper marketing programs and partnerships for upper respiratory, pain, heart health, nutritionals, foot health, digestive health and suncare products. She is a liaison to brand market-ing, sales and Walgreens.

Jeff Howren, Vice President, Customer & Shopper Development

BEAM SUNTORY Michelle Cater, Senior Director, Commercial Marketing Cater leads a team of 26 commercial marketers who work across the entire Beam Suntory portfolio, developing the strategic national programs and materials for all channels of trade, including its largest na-tional customers.

BEIERSDORF Andrew Kingery, Director, Shopper & Customer MarketingLeading shopper and customer market-ing efforts, Kingery says the most valuable work accomplishment is always seeing people change their behavior to become more effective at being their best self.

BIC Patricia FitzSimons, Team Leader – Category Management/Shopper Insights In a newly created position, FitzSimons has a goal of building a best-in-class shopper insight and category management team that will support the company’s growing retailer partnerships. The team focuses on shop-per marketing programs, customer-centric research and basic category management projects across all channels within the wet shave, stationery and lighter categories.

BIGELOW TEA Missy Hackett, Product Manager, Channel & Market Development

BIMBO BAKERIES USA Maureen Sticco, Director of Marketing

BLOUNT FINE FOODS Ann Green, Senior Brand Manager Green leads the brand and shopper marketing initia-tives for Panera, Legal Sea Foods and Blount fresh soups across all retail channels.

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BOAR’S HEAD BRAND RuthAnn LaMore, Director of Retail Marketing

BUMBLE BEE SEAFOODS Corliss Collier, Senior Director, Category Development & Insights – Center of Excellence Collier leads a team of dynamic professionals in engaging shoppers and retailers alike through innovative research, insights and marketing programs. Seeing insights drive action and come to life in the marketplace while delighting shoppers and consumers is her greatest satisfaction.

BUTTERBALLKyle Lock, Senior Director, Retail Marketing A 23-year marketing veteran for companies including Ty-son, Hillshire Farm and But-terball, Lock is responsible for defining and growing powerful brands, leading strategic planning and founding departments around initiatives such as innovation and insights.

CCAMPBELL SOUP Yin Rani, Vice President, Integrated Marketing

Joseph Vizcarra, Shopper Marketing – Walmart, Sam’s Club Vizcarra has nearly 20 years’ experience working with some of the country’s top brands, reaching both the general market and Hispanic consumer through innova-tive advertising, shopper marketing and promotions. He joined the company in 2014 and is responsible for all shopper marketing strategy, planning and execu-tion for Walmart and Sam’s Club.

CANON Chris Sedlacek, Senior Director, Digital Marketing Services

CARL BUDDIG & CO. Robert Gay, Director, Marketing

CENTRAL GARDEN & PET Lisa Barnes, Shopper Marketing & Sales Strategy & Planning Lead Barnes’ leadership brings Walmart shoppers to the forefront of sales strategy. Utilizing shopper insights, she creates strategies and programs designed to drive conversion in traditional shopping envi-ronments as well as in the e-commerce channel.

Kevin Smith, Senior Director of Marketing Operations

CHATTEM David Holliday, Director, Sales Planning & Development

CHOBANISonia Dalvi, Senior Brand Manager, Shopper Marketing

CHURCH & DWIGHT Dan Bracken, Director, Digital Strategy & Shopper Marketing

CLOROX David Cardona, Director of Shopper Marketing, CAS & Multicultural Capabilities

COCA-COLA Drew Allen, Assistant Vice President, Shopper Marketing – Central Region Allen is responsible for lead-ing all shopper marketing programs for Coca-Cola’s Central region customers. His background includes leadership roles in sales and marketing at Coca-Cola, marketing at Walmart, and con-sulting at Accenture.

James Beck, Global Director, Marketing – Walmart International Team Beck leads the company’s marketing relationship with Walmart International and consults on marketing strategy with Coca-Cola teams that work with Walmart in Latin America, the United Kingdom, Africa, Canada and Asia.

Nicole Hutcheson, Director, Shopper Strategy & Innovation

Stacy Jackson, Assistant Vice President, Shopper Marketing Jackson leads the shopper marketing team for Coca-Cola’s Kroger team, the company’s second-largest national retail team. She is responsible for ensuring ho-listic integration within Kroger’s marketing programs while also balancing the respec-tive Coca-Cola brand equities.

Lynwood Mallard, Vice President, Shopper Marketing Mallard leads shopper mar-keting for Coca-Cola North America including areas of shopper science; design and merchandis-ing; digital/proximity; national shopper programs and occasion platforms; and strategic alliances.

John Mount, Vice President, National Retail Sales, Customer Marketing Mount was inducted into the Shopper Marketing Hall of Fame in 2013.

Jim Rogers, Director, Strategic Retail Alliances Rogers leads the Strategic Retail Alliances team. This team is focused on driving shopper solutions through insights-based partnerships with comple-mentary brands. He is a founding member of both the M&M’s/Mars and Kimberly-Clark shopper marketing teams.

GLAXOSMITHKLINE CONSUMER HEALTHCARE NORTH AMERICA: MARY BETH BARRETT, Director, NA Shopper Science Lab

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What does the lab provide?Barrett: Qualitative insights around key business questions such as merchandising layout, segmentation, adjacencies, in-store point-of-sale, website assessment and more.

And how does this push collaboration deeper?Barrett: We have an opportunity to partner with retailers on the full journey from collectively unfolding insights in technologically ad-vanced ways, to creating strong action plans together that will drive our relationship in the industry forward.

What is your team’s focus?Barrett: Unlocking and accelerating joint business planning oppor-tunities and delivering shopper insights that drive category growth. To influence and accelerate the speed of decision making both inter-nally and externally by leveraging our technology.

How does GSK define shopper marketing?Barrett: A discipline that develops insight-based activation plans, providing mutual benefits to the shopper, retailer and manufacturer.

What’s a concern with shopper marketing?Barrett: The lack of an industry-wide standard for measurement. We’ve put a lot of rigor into this area and are making great progress within our organization.

Shoppers today need … Barrett: Control.

ary Beth Barrett has worked in many differ-ent roles during her 21 years at GSK, all of which

have helped shape her business un-derstanding and approach for driv-ing solutions. She earned a degree in marketing and spent her early career in sales and analytics.

Along the way, she’s gained experi-ence in category management, busi-ness development and both local and global shopper marketing. Today, she leads GSK’s North American Shopper Science Lab, which opened in June in Warren, New Jersey. GSK’s first Shopper Science Lab opened in London in 2013.

“[The lab] is one of our largest evolutions for GSK,” Barrett says. “We’re invested in delivering meaningful, insight-based solutions to our shoppers, consumers and retailers.” The high-tech lab aims to better understand consumer, shopper and retailer needs to ultimately provide consumers with the products they want.

“It’s great to be working in the field I studied in,” says Barrett, “and even better to be involved in cutting-edge technology to help deliver validated insights and understanding around the path to purchase.”

What’s the goal of the lab?Barrett: To drive a deeper level of collaboration with our retail partners and deliver insights based on health-and-wellness solu-tions through custom research.

Photos by Steve Hockstein

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COLGATE-PALMOLIVE Marie-Agnes Daumas, Director, Shopper Marketing Center of Excellence, N.A.

Barry Roberts, Director, Retail Shopper Solutions & E-Commerce Roberts was inducted into the Shopper Marketing Hall of Fame in 2016.

CONAGRA FOODS Tekisha Harvey, Director, Shopper Marketing, Kroger Harvey leads the ConAgra Kroger shopper marketing team with a collaborative, strategic approach. Her keen vision is the foundation in the development of pro-grams beneficial for both ConAgra and Kroger, maximizing shopper engagement and conversion.

Aaron Newhouse, Director, Shopper Marketing Newhouse leads the team responsible for driving link-age between ConAgra’s brands and platforms with its key grocery channel retail partners.

Matt Pabst, Director, Shopper Marketing

Bob Waibel, Senior Director, Shopper Marketing With more than 25 years of CPG experience, Waibel leads a team of 15 and ConAgra’s shopper marketing agency that focuses on understanding how the com-pany’s consumers behave as shoppers in different channels, formats and categories and leveraging this intelligence for the benefit of all stakeholders.

How does GSK respond?Barrett: Delivering on the ability for shoppers to customize their own needs with the tools and/or technology to ac-celerate the seamless shopping experience and ultimately sales.

Where is the industry headed in the next decade?Barrett: Digital, social and mobile will continue to change the way people shop. Given the “endless aisle,” having increased brand presence through all mediums will be key. Data collection will help deliver relevant information, insights and solu-tions that shoppers will ultimately de-mand.

And retail?Barrett: Seamless shopping whether on-line or on the go will be mainstream and include an increased focus on personal-ization.

Where has shopper marketing made strides?Barrett: Toward shopper solutions ver-sus individual brand platforms.

And where are the opportunities?Barrett: To better integrate a digital/om-nichannel approach. Evolving the reliance on analytics to ensure personalization is fully leveraged.

What currently motivates you?Barrett: Learning new technology that enables enhanced omnichannel engage-ment and creates seamless shopping expe-riences. Helping to fundamentally deliver on the needs of shoppers through research and state-of-the-art technology.

Technology such as …Barrett: Eye tracking, facial biometrics and skin biometrics. Integration of bio-metric tools provides a more comprehen-sive perspective of shopper behavior. 

What has been a professional challenge?Barrett: Transitioning from an individ-ual contributor to a manager and leader. It’s a shift.

What makes it work?Barrett: Having a strong team that’s built on trust and respect is the key to success.

To you, leadership is …Barrett: The ability to drive performance of others through honesty, trust, inspira-tion and motivation.

CONSTELLATION BRANDS Jason Alving, Shopper Marketing Director Alving is responsible for the strategy, development and execution of shopper marketing programming, leveraging insights to drive retailer col-laboration and promotional opportunities. He has been successful in connecting Albertsons’ national needs with the local banners’ needs and creating consistency in promotional activity.

Tracy Frisbie, Shopper Marketing Director Responsible for developing shopper marketing capabili-ties and relationships with national retail accounts, Frisbie fosters strategic partnerships with other CPGs to bring shopper solutions to retailers. She is most proud of the work and relationships the team has developed in just two years, seeing positive results and ROI.

Theresa Sandhu, Shopper Marketing Director Sandhu is responsible for the strategy, development and execution of shopper mar-keting programming for Kroger and all its banners, leveraging insights to drive retailer collaboration and promotional opportuni-ties. She has been successful in creating programs that drive adult beverage cat-egory growth across wine, beer and spirits.

COTY Brad Bock, Director of Category Management & Shopper Insights

Jessica Kalinger, Senior Director, Category Management & Shopper Insights

CRAYOLA Mimi Dixon, Leader, Customer Development & Activation (See profile on page 2.)

CVS HEALTH Christopher Almeida, Senior Director, Shopper Marketing & Experience

Grant Violanti, Senior Director, Loyalty & Personalization, Category Growth StrategyViolanti is responsible for the management and implementation of personalization plans for all front store categories. This in-cludes receipt marketing, digital and email engagement, direct mail and more.

Peter Bond, Senior Director, Loyalty & Personalization Bond leads a team of pro-fessionals dedicated to connecting CPG suppliers to shoppers through omnichannel person-alization vehicles using behavior insights produced by the more than 70 million active cardholders shopping at CVS retail stores. He also oversees using shopper insights and collaborating with suppliers in building shopper-centric business plans.

Jim Hallock, Director, ExtraCare Customer Conversion Marketing

Amy Schroeder, Director, Loyalty & Personalization

DDAS COS. Charles White, Vice President, Brands & Marketing White leads the proprietary RoadPro Brands and parent company DAS Cos. to mar-ket, devising marketing strategies, shaping shopper marketing plans, building strong brands, crafting marketing communica-tions, and designing shopper merchandis-ing systems.

DEL MONTE FOODS Jennifer Reiner, Senior Director of Marketing Activation & Shopper Marketing Reiner oversees the inte-grated marketing com-munication process, shopper marketing, creative services, agency relationships and Del Monte Kitchens. She has been actively engaged in shopper marketing since 2001 and has led a variety of breakthrough cus-tomer initiatives including category rein-vention, 360-degree media integrations and Hispanic strategy and execution.

DELL Dan Seymour, Director, North American Retail/ Shopper Marketing

DIAGEOCalvin Burwell, Senior Director, Consumer Planning

Catherine Moffatt, Vice President, Global Shopper Planning & Customer Marketing Center of Excellence

DIAMOND FOODS Sara Sabin, Director, Shopper Marketing

DOLE FOOD Kellee Miller, Director, Shopper Marketing Miller leads a dedicated shopper marketing team to partner with retailers and their shoppers with a key focus on loyalty, retention and education.

DR PEPPER SNAPPLE GROUP Sheila Bonner, Vice President, Shopper Marketing

Richard Moulton, Director, Shopper Marketing – Walmart, West Grocery & C-Stores

Alysia Ross, Senior Director/Shopper Marketing Manager

DRISCOLL STRAWBERRY ASSOCIATESChuck Sweeney, Director of Category Development Sweeney’s focus is on in-novative merchandising in the berry category with Driscoll’s key retailers. Foundational to any of the programs he develops is consumer and shopper data. This merging of shop-per data and merchandising gives a sharp edge to the strategy of any point-of-pur-chase program.

EE. & J. GALLO WINERY Robert Ruijssenaars, Senior Director, Shopper Marketing Ruijssenaars is responsible for the company’s national shopper marketing efforts, using actionable insights to build best-in-class shopper solutions in partnership with Gallo’s retail customers.

Jamie Williamson, Creative Director – Shopper Marketing Williamson is the creative lead over Gallo Shopper 360, the internal shopper market-ing agency serving the E. & J. Gallo portfo-lio of wine and spirits brands.

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EDGEWELL PERSONAL CARE Michael Law, Senior Director, Customer Strategy & Planning Law has led shopper-centric programs across a wide range of categories includ-ing confection, OTC, beauty and personal care. He is driving thought-leadership initiatives with key retailers to challenge category conventions and unlock long-term growth.

Beth St. Raymond, Director, Shopper Marketing and Merchandising and Display St. Raymond is responsible for working with a talented team to seek insights, set strategies and execute with excellence action against the path to purchase. Her team works with its retail partners to engage the shopper on-line or in-store.

ELIZABETH ARDENGreg Griffin, Vice President, Customer Marketing, Global Mass & Mid-Tier With more than two de-cades of experience, Griffin leads the development and execution of the commercial channel and customer marketing strategies and programs for Elizabeth Arden’s fragrance portfolio.

ENERGIZER HOLDINGS Thu Bang, Senior Manager, Americas Shopper Activation

Mike Lampman, Vice President, Trade Marketing

FFAMILY DOLLAR STORES Matthew Martin, Vice President, Marketing

Gail Mercer, Director, Marketing Planning & Strategy

Donald Smith, Vice President, Marketing

FERRERO Mark Kendrat, Director of Trade Marketing

FIRST QUALITY ENTERPRISES Kip Olmstead, Chief Marketing Officer – Store Brands

GGENERAL ELECTRIC Jason West, General Manager Merchandising & Marketing, GE Appliances West leads a team that activates the company’s advertising campaigns, promotions, and commercializes product launches. The team drives creative and execution for brand communications, shopper marketing, trade advertising and product marketing. West led the develop-ment and launch of a shopper marketing team, moving the organization from inter-nally focused push tactics to an externally aligned pull strategy, redefining channel funds for more impact.

Rochelle Hartigan, Marketing Manager, Retail Branding, GE Lighting Hartigan’s primary respon-sibility is to enhance the shopping experience for the lighting consumer at the point of purchase. This includes merchandising, signage, dis-plays and other key brand touchpoints.

GENERAL MILLS Tiffany Carver, Director, Customer & Shopper Marketing – Canada

Jay Picconatto, Marketing Director, Shopper Marketing Picconatto leads the shopper marketing teams in the field as well as the company’s central shopper capabilities team.

GEORGIA-PACIFIC Douwe Bergsma, Chief Marketing Officer Bergsma was inducted into the Shopper Marketing Hall of Fame in 2016.

Laura Knebusch, Vice President, Marketing Activation Knebusch is responsible for communication strat-egy and planning, content development, promotions and shopper marketing efforts supporting all Georgia-Pacific consumer brands.

GIANT EAGLEAshley Downey, Marketing Manager, Grocery Downey develops and ex-ecutes shopper marketing programs across grocery, dairy, frozen, health & beauty, beer and wine in collaboration with category lead-ers and CPG partners.

Adam Golomb, Director of Marketing Golomb is responsible for leading the overall devel-opment and execution of marketing strategies and shopper marketing programs for the Giant Eagle brand and its own brand portfolio.

RB: CHERYL POLICASTRO, Shopper Marketing Team Leader

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the role of the shopper marketing investment within the marketing mix before we develop the shopper strategy and tactics. We also determine projected short-term ROIs and other KPIs like number of units moved or trialists.

What does this look like externally?Policastro: Carefully chosen tactics with messaging that is cus-tomized for the shopper versus consumer messaging.

How does this differ from what previously happened?Policastro: We were just investing in a list of 360-degree shopper tactics to show support for the initiatives without utilizing shopper insights. 

What do today’s shoppers care most about?Policastro: Their lives being made easier. For many, saving time and share of mind while still finding the right solution is as impor-tant as saving money.

How does RB respond to this?Policastro: Our guiding principles are rooted in catering to the shortest attention span and focusing on the right engagement and dialogue versus just pushing claims and communication.

What’s a concern when it comes to shopper marketing?Policastro: Our ability to influence behavior is getting more and more difficult. Autopilot behaviors already exist in several catego-

heryl Policastro had a calling for the marketing industry from an early age. As a child she would “invent” new prod-ucts and use a tape player to record commercials. After col-lege, Policastro joined Liz Claiborne for a position in co-op

advertising, coordinating retailer-specific direct mail programs and working with buyers on co-op ads.

From there, she held positions in insights, analytics, sales and marketing working across many categories including apparel, OTC, pharmaceuticals and lighting. The variety made her adept at quickly learning new businesses. “Each area helped me build a different skillset and develop a deeper understanding of the various stake-holders, both internally and externally,” Policastro says. For the last five years, she’s been able to put that knowledge to use developing shopper marketing programs, first for Novartis and now at RB.

You’ve been working at RB to evolve shopper marketing from a “cost of doing business” into a strategic investment with a defined role within the marketing mix. What does that look like internally?Policastro: Clearly identifying brand and retailer objectives, the shopper target, the behavior we’re looking to change and the key barriers to doing so.

How does that help?Policastro: By identifying these critical elements, we can define

Photo by Steve Hockstein

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GLAXOSMITHKLINE Mary Beth Barrett, Director, NA Shopper Science Lab (See profile on page 6.)

Cara Kahaly, Director, U.S. Shopper Marketing With 17 years of experience in the industry, Kahaly is responsible for driving col-lective leadership of the U.S. shopper marketing and NA shopper science lab team, advancing the transfor-mation of retailer engagement, shopper research and omnichannel approaches.

GOJO INDUSTRIES Kathleen Leigh, Marketing Director, E-Commerce and Digital Content

HHALLMARK CARDS Patrick Gahagan, Vice President, Category Management

HANESBRANDS Cindy Johnson, Senior Marketing Manager Johnson manages shop-per marketing initiatives at several key retail accounts including Target. In-store displays, advertising and promotions are her key focus, with growing emphasis on digital and social media. Strengths include insight-led shopper strategies and effec-tive cross-promotional campaigns with other major CPG brands.

HASBRO Jeff Taylor, Vice President, Sales & Customer Strategic Marketing

ries, and it is being reinforced and ex-panded by the many forces competing for the shopper’s attention and share of mind.

What can the industry do when it comes to shoppers on autopilot?Policastro: There is significant opportu-nity for Decision Science to play a big role in how shopper marketing evolves.

What excites you about this?Policastro: How research will evolve to make Decision Science actionable and the innovative ways we will connect with shoppers and provide solutions they love but never knew they needed.

What’s next for you at RB?Policastro: Working to ensure we’re ag-ile enough to be ready for the future.

You helped develop five guiding principles for the company. Can you talk about those?Policastro: They are rooted in trends and insights. One is “cater to the shortest attention span.” They are fairly aspiration-al and will live on into 2017 and beyond with some adaptation.

Leadership came early for you, right?Policastro: Yes, when I was 25 I had a team of six analysts reporting into me. I started to build leadership skills early.

What about the times you didn’t have direct reports?Policastro: Those instances were valu-able years. I was able to reflect and grow for my next leadership position.

Prior to the creation of your position at RB what did the structure look like?Policastro: The existing shopper mar-keting managers reported into three dif-ferent VP-level positions.

And this wasn’t the first time you stepped into a brand new position?Policastro: No. I’ve been fortunate as I’ve had the opportunity to work in four po-sitions that were new roles charged with building or transforming a capability.

And that is stimulating?Policastro: I’m most inspired by creat-ing new pathways by changing mindsets, developing new approaches and making them a reality.

H-E-BChris Cecchine, Director of Targeted Marketing and Shopper Loyalty Cecchine joined the strategy and loyalty team at H-E-B earlier this year. His previous 17 years with the company include various positions such as director of merchandis-ing and marketing, director of operations, director of customer service, and store leader. He is currently focused on evolving targeted marketing efforts to further en-hance shopper loyalty.

Twyla Lusk, Director, H-E-B Strategy & Shopper Loyalty Development Lusk has been with H-E-B for 18 years with experi-ence in grocery and general merchandise procurement management. She began the strategy and shopper loyalty team at H-E-B in 2006 and has led the team that has created targeted shop-per marketing as a viable platform for the retailer.

HEINEKEN Dean Williams, Senior Director, Commercial Marketing, National Accounts

HENKEL Michele Bene Delaune, Brand Manager, Shopper Marketing Delaune manages shopper marketing for Henkel in the hair care, styling and color categories across all channels of trade. She successfully launched four new brands into retail this year while continuing to build base business.

Karen Crova, Director, Shopper Strategy Crova leads the shopper marketing and category management team for Hen-kel’s U.S. hair business. She recently returned from Henkel’s headquar-ters in Germany, where she ran global proj-ects and strategy for its laundry business. Her current focus is to use insights with her team to help retailers, shoppers and con-sumers have a good hair day.

Adam Eagon, Director, Shopper Strategy Eagon has 20-plus years of CPG industry experience bringing insights to action across all major trade chan-nels. He currently leads the headquarter- and field-based shopper marketing and category management team at Henkel for the laundry and home care division.

Laura Hyland, Vice President, Shopper Strategy & E-Commerce In a newly created role in Henkel’s North American consumer goods office, Hy-land is leading the category management, shopper marketing and e-commerce teams to maximize sales by addressing shopper needs in the changing retail land-scape.

HERSHEY Oscar Herrada, Director, Shopper Engagement, Large & Small Format Herrada leads the shopper engagement team across key strategic large- and small-format customers for the company’s brand portfolio. His team develops and executes insight-based shopper solutions for category platforms and new item intro-ductions, as well as promotional program support to drive conversion and loyalty.

Jenni Pustinger, Director, Shopper Engagement Walmart/Club Channel Pustinger is responsible for engaging shoppers in Walmart and the club channel, converting them to buy Hershey brands. Her team leads shopper marketing strategies and plans and is responsible for creating and delivering custom items.

HORMEL FOODS Mark Thompson, Director, Category Management & Professional Development

Scott Weisenbeck, Director, Integrated Marketing

HYDE TOOLSCorey Talbot, Vice President of Marketing & Product Development

IINTEL Lisa Bader, Director, Shopper Marketing

Renee Novello, Director of Shopper Marketing and Global Retail Marketing Manager Novello leads a team fo-cused on developing shop-per-centric retail strategies and executing insight-driven programs that influence the path-to-purchase, meet business objec-tives and positively impact sales conver-sions.

JJACK LINK’S Jeff Kjome, Shopper Marketing Director Kjome leads efforts in driving profitable volume growth and building brand equity for Jack Link’s by partnering with key retailers across the grocery, mass, club, c-store and dollar channels.

J.M. SMUCKER Liz Mayer, Director, Shopper Marketing Mayer leads a passionate team whose trusted retailer and brand partnerships bring families together for memorable meals and moments. The team’s focus on collaboration, shopper solutions and omnichannel strategies drive brand conversion and category growth.

JOHNSON & JOHNSON Heather Campain, Director, Shopper MarketingCampain’s proudest moments have been inspiring teams to come together cross-functionally in ways that maximize exper-tise and efficiency and seeing that con-sistently produce award-winning results with the company’s customers and deliver innovative solutions that shoppers love. 

Melissa Fandrich, Shopper Solutions Senior ManagerFandrich is passionate about uncovering transformational insights that represent the voice of the shopper and creating insights-led customer strategy that drives loyalty for both J&J brands and Walmart.

Lori Kangas, Senior Manager, Shopper Marketing

Pia Kelly, Senior Manager, Shopper Marketing & Insights

Kim Viccaro, Director of Shopper Solutions Viccaro has been with the company for 21 years and is passionate about creating differentiated shopper mar-keting campaigns that put the shopper mindset first while driving J&J brand love and retailer loyalty. 

JOHNSONVILLE SAUSAGE Stephanie Plehn, Shopper Marketing Manager

JUST BORN Keith Domalewski, Director of Marketing Services

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KKELLOGG Analia Benedetti, Director of Shopper Marketing and Multicultural Commercialization Benedetti leads the shopper marketing regional team, responsible for partnering with retailers to engage and inspire shoppers through insights-based programs to drive sustainable, organic growth with an increasingly diverse shop-per and consumer base.

Jen Carter, Senior Director, Shopper Marketing Carter is responsible for leading shopper strategy rooted in strong insights for her retailer teams. She has significant expe-rience in the shopper marketing industry and has built a strong track record of deliv-ering customized programs rooted in the retailer’s shopper segmentation, delivering on both the brand and retailer objectives driving business results.

Mike Clifford, Associate Director, U.S. Shopper Marketing Clifford applies his 18-plus years of shopper market-ing experience toward the development of strategies designed to help Kellogg’s business units and its iconic brands elevate their shopper and custom-er engagement.

Aaron Elleman, Senior Director, Shopper Marketing

Scott Hamric, Vice President, Sales Strategy

Terrae Schroeder, Director, NA Shopper and Wholesome Snacks Schroeder leads the North American snack shopper insights group supporting shopper marketing, customer marketing and store-back design. She leads insight solutions for in-store activation, shopper behavior and experience, and scale pro-motions. 

KEURIG GREEN MOUNTAIN Amber King, Shopper Marketing Manager King is responsible for partnering to link customer strategies with category insights to develop shopper marketing programs that deliver on the shopper’s needs.

KIMBERLY-CLARK Anne Jenkins, Director of Shopper Marketing, National Accounts Jenkins leads a talented team focused on develop-ing shopper marketing strat-egies and tactics across K-C’s largest group of customers in the U.S. The team’s mission is to deliver insights-led programs that drive category growth for its retailers.

Sara Gilbert Leonard, Director, Shopper Marketing, Walmart U.S. Team Gilbert’s greatest work ac-complishment is building her team’s talent and career paths. The team leads with insights, cultivates strong customer partnerships and drives mean-ingful business results for the customer and K-C.

Liz Metz, Senior Director, Shopper Engagement/ Customer Development North America Metz leads Kimberly-Clark’s shopper marketing and category management for all of its brands. She is accountable for accelerating and driving insightful sustainable category growth that delivers on K-C’s promise of essentials for a better life.

Jill Weinkes, Senior Manager, Shopper Marketing COE

KIND Jenny Busby, Senior Manager of Shopper Marketing Busby works closely with the sales, business develop-ment and marketing teams at Kind to drive performance of the brand and customers’ business through the development of integrated shopper solu-tions.

Jon Israelite, Vice President, Business Development

KOHL’S Brian Dennis, Vice President, Customer Experience

Penelope Smiley, Director, Category & Brand Marketing

KROGER Jeff Talbot, Corporate Vice President, Customer Loyalty Marketing, Relationships and Insights

LL’OREALLouise Horgan, Vice President, Shopper Marketing, MGe Division Horgan leads a dynamic shopper marketing team for the Maybelline, Garnier and Essie brands at L’Oreal USA. She focuses on growing the beauty category by develop-ing omnichannel brand platforms and best-in-class point-of-sale at retail.

LEBANON-SEABOARDDeb Balcerzak-Wilson, Senior Marketing Manager, E-Commerce

LG ELECTRONICS David VanderWaal, Vice President of Marketing, Consumer Electronics & Home Appliances

PFIZER CONSUMER HEALTHCARE: HEATHER STORMS, Director, Shopper Marketing

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So that’s a big focus right now?Storms: Yes, there are several initiatives across various retailers that center around that theme of personalized, customized, data-driven digital programming. Even internally we’re helping to shape our organization’s digital strategy to reflect the digital shift we’re seeing enabled by mobile technology – and making sure it’s fully encompassing of this omnichannel environment that our shopper lives in.

What does that consist of?Storms: Not just digital marketing, but e-commerce and how the shopper navigates the landscape through digital as well as the physical stores. We’re working closely with key retail partners to create similar programs with them as well, as we’ve seen retailer data partnerships evolve.

How do you and your organization define shopper marketing?Storms: Shopper-centric marketing that effectively leverages in-sights to drive capital growth for PCH brands and our retailers.

How is it evolving? Storms: Global technology has really changed the way shoppers shop and the way we need to be thinking about how we can ef-fectively communicate with them. The discipline didn’t exist when I started here.

What was your biggest professional challenge? Storms: The Rx-to-OTC switch of Nexium. There were such high

he activity surrounding Nexium’s Rx-to-OTC switch in 2014 made Heather Storms want to do shopper marketing day in, day out. As a senior project manager at the time, she worked closely with the shopper marketing team to develop

customer-specific launch plans. Up to that point, her decade-long tenure with Pfizer consisted of a variety of brand marketing and product management roles. But her growing interest in the nuances between different shoppers and retailers and executing tailored approaches – as well as the opportunities she saw in the discipline – made her realize that shopper marketing was where she wanted to be. “I’m driven by a curiosity to learn about people and the world around me,” she says. For the last year, Storms has been at the helm of the company’s efforts as director of shopper marketing.

What does a typical day look like for you? Storms: I’m responsible for defining and driving the overall shopper marketing strategy, our processes and our programs across all the PCH (Pfizer Consumer Health) brands. I manage a field-based team and act as a liaison between brand marketing and the field teams to develop customized marketing programs with our retailers.

Are you working on any big projects?Storms: The theme of a number of different projects revolves around using purchase-based targeting to develop personalized, customized digital programs that intercept shoppers along the path to purchase with relevant messaging and offers to drive conversion.

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Photo by Steve Hockstein

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LOGITECH Jonathan Johnson, Senior Director of Trade Marketing and Worldwide Merchandising Projects Johnson has pioneered pro-grams in both e-tail and re-tail marketing in the consumer electronics space. His shopping studies have revealed how people shop for computer acces-sories in-store and online, resulting in new approaches to merchandising in physical retail like Best Buy as well as online sites such as Amazon. Recently he has added worldwide merchandising projects to his responsibilities.

MMARS Susan Barkalow, Director of Shopper Marketing Barkalow leads a team of nine shopper marketing professionals at Mars Choco-late. Her greatest accom-plishment is in building and empowering her team to create insight-based shopper programs that drive the category, Mars brands and meet retailer partner objec-tives.

MCCORMICK & CO. Donna Bressler, Shopper Marketing Senior Manager

MEAD JOHNSON & CO. Chad Marquardt, Director of Customer Development

Shawn Mulroney, Director of Customer Development

MEIJER Lanny Curtis, Director, Customer Marketing In 26 years with Meijer, Cur-tis has long been engaged with both shopper insights and the use of digital ca-pabilities. He currently oversees targeted promotions, managing digital content; multiple communication channels, and business intelligence tools.  

Michael Ross, Vice President, Digital Shopping & Customer Marketing Ross leads customer mar-keting, loyalty, marketing analytics, payment solutions, marketing, digital/mobile marketing strategies and emerging technology for the Grand Rap-ids, Michigan-based chain.

MEYER Ingrid Ellerbrock, Senior Director, Consumer & Shopper Marketing

MIKE’S HARD LEMONADE Tracey Sivak, Senior Director, Key Accounts

MILLERCOORS Jim McNellis, Director, Channel Marketing

Daniel Warhaftig, Senior Marketing Manager, C-Store Commercial Center of Excellence Warhaftig, with 18-plus years in the industry, focuses on driving growth across MillerCoors’ largest class of trade by partnering with brands to develop shopper-focused solutions that build their brands at retail and drive cat-egory performance.

Jovina Young, Director, Channel Marketing, C-StoresYoung was instrumental in driving a shop-per marketing mindset by redefining how marketers brief and review creative with the company’s agency partners. Her work with the brand team shifted the organi-zation to simplify, and better engage its shoppers, retailers and distributors.

expectations of that launch, both inter-nally and externally with our retailers and other stakeholders.

How did you as an organization overcome that?Storms: With collaboration and commu-nication, and really working with all the different parties that were involved, get-ting them engaged early and developing programs that were more individualized than they’d ever been in the past.

What motivates you most in your current position?Storms: The continuous opportunity to learn in this space. The shopper dis-cipline is always evolving based on the tools and technology available. Gaining new skills, sharing them with the orga-nization and actually building programs that I can see in the marketplace in the short term is very exciting.

What keeps you up at night?Storms: There are always new things out there, and some are going to work but some won’t. There are so many choices and options, and we need to be able to ad-vise the brands on the best ones. It’s excit-ing and overwhelming at the same time.

What’s your vision of retail in five to 10 years? Storms: I see retail continuing to show signs of blurring between the physical store and e-commerce. Physical stores need to have that experience, giving peo-ple a reason to go into their stores. It’s go-ing to blur and then further separate.

And shopper marketing? Storms: Traditional marketing, digital marketing and shopper marketing will have to be reimagined. They can’t func-tion as silos any longer and as the retail landscape evolves and how shoppers shop changes, we’ll see those divisions break down. It’s become an essential component of go-to-market planning.

What still needs to be done?Storms: There’s an inclination to stay more in the trade marketing mindset that’s very promotionally focused ver-sus really anchoring around insight and building any program out that way.

MIZKAN AMERICA Sigrid Garavito, Shopper Marketing Manager Garavito built and leads the company’s shopper market-ing capability, overseeing 14 pasta sauce customer business teams and consulting for all oth-ers. She spearheads annual objectives, initiatives, KPI direction, insights and path-to-purchase development. She also led the development of its custom shopper marketing measurement model.

MOET HENNESSY USA Kyle Yearick, Vice President, Trade Marketing

MONDELEZ INTERNATIONAL Stephen McGowan, Director, Shopper Marketing McGowan leads the shop-per marketing function for the company. He has more than 20 years of brand and sales experi-ence, and his team creates programs in collaboration with its retailer partners and brands to develop insight-driven category enhancing programs.

NNESTLE NUTRITION Glenn Deutsch, Director of Shopper Solutions Deutsch leads the shopper function, setting vision and insight-based strategies to drive profitable growth with key customers.

NESTLE USA Brigid Gilmore, Director of Shopper Marketing, Nestle Sales Division

Joe Radabaugh, Division Vice President, Category & Shopper Excellence Radabaugh was inducted into the Shopper Marketing Hall of Fame in 2011.

NEWELL BRANDS Chris Gurchiek, Director of Business Development

NICE-PAK PRODUCTS Patricia Raggi, Vice President, Marketing Services

OOFFICE DEPOT Carolina Raineau, Senior Director, Marketing Strategy

Ivan Reed, Director, Integrated Marketing

Eduardo Souchon, Senior Marketing Director, Category Management Omnichannel Souchon defines the vision, strategic role and intent of product/service categories across all chan-nels based on shopper/market insights.

ORGANIC VALLEY Kelly Gibson-Wolff, Director, Relationship Marketing Gibson-Wolff oversees con-sumer promotions, shopper marketing and e-commerce integration across the Organic Valley line of organic dairy products. In her role, she drives strategic relationships to benefit both the brand and sales teams.

PPARAMOUNT HOME MEDIA DISTRIBUTION Loran Helin, Vice President, Retail Marketing, North America Helin oversees the retail marketing team for Para-mount’s new movies and catalog, as well as Viacom partners Nick-elodeon, CBS, Showtime, Comedy Central and MTV.

PEPSICO Janelle Anderson, Vice President, Shopper Marketing Anderson leads the 65-per-son shopper marketing function for PepsiCo’s three business units: Frito-Lay, Quaker and Pepsi beverages. She is responsible for building shopper marketing strategies, programs, brand and digital experiences for the larg-est retail customers.

William Langford, Senior Director, Shopper Marketing Langford leads a team in the development of PepsiCo national shopper marketing programs and initiatives for 7-Eleven and Dollar General. He also leads the strategic joint business planning process, leverag-ing consumer, shopper and marketplace insights to develop effective shopper mar-keting plans, initiatives and programs.

Katie Schiavone, Senior Director, Shopper Marketing, PepsiCo North American Nutrition Brands

Esperanza Teasdale, Senior Director, Shopper Marketing Teasdale is a transformational marketing leader who accelerates business per-formance among top U.S. retailers and brands. Under her leadership, PepsiCo was awarded marketing vendor of the year for Dollar General, 7-Eleven and Hess. Teasdale is recognized for being passionate, creative and a champion of people.

PERNOD RICARD Scot Henderson, Director, Customer Solutions Henderson has been in his post for nearly five years since he joined the com-pany. He came from Dean Foods, where he headed up that compa-ny’s category and shopper insights efforts. His past experience also includes time at PepsiCo, Frito-Lay and The Pillsbury Co.

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PFIZER Heather Storms, Director, Shopper Marketing (See profile on page 14.)

PHILIPS Kelly Downey, Vice President, Digital and Shopper Solutions Downey is responsible for the vision, strategy and ex-ecution for Philips Personal Health North America digital, consumer care, creative services and shopper market-ing.

PINNACLE FOODS Kelly Annis, Director, Marketing Activation Annis brings creative vision, passion and leadership to deliver multitiered and sales-driving promotional campaigns. Her brand-building experience includes Nabisco, Kraft and Post Foods pri-or to her current position. She architected the promotions and shopper disciplines at Post Foods after the business was spun off from Kraft.

PRESTIGE BRANDS Andrea Bouwman, Shopper Marketing Director

PROCTER & GAMBLE Matt Barresi, Brand Director, North America Selling & Market Operations Barresi oversees all brand building at retail span-ning all brick-and-mortar, brick-and-click and pure-play retailers across Procter & Gamble’s $30 billion, 10-category North America portfolio. Prior to his current role, he held a variety of assignments across multiple businesses in North America and Europe, including a successful tenure in P&G’s oral care division.

Carrie Birth, Brand Manager Regional Team/ISC/Military Team Birth manages all marketing activations for P&G’s region-al grocery, wholesale and military businesses from coast to coast. Her team is dedicated to driving P&G’s biggest initiatives, marketing assets and strategic priorities through scale and/or custom marketing programs.

Jillian Cohn, Senior Manager, Shopper Marketing – Food for Duracell Cohn supports the food segment sales team as it generates insight-based shopper market-ing executions for grocery and conve-nience retailers across North America. She works with the team to leverage retailer knowledge to deliver business plans and shopper learning plans, and develop new approaches to drive sales on behalf of the brand.

James Illingworth, Associate Brand Director, Target Team Illingworth is responsible for the development of industry-leading shopper marketing capabilities and the implemen-tation of all P&G programs executed with Target in-store, online and in partnership with strategic digital partners.

Michael Kirtman, Senior Brand Manager, Crest North America

Joy Mead, Associate Brand Director Mead is responsible for delivering marketing vision, strategy and digital exper-tise for shopper marketing campaigns. She oversees a large diverse team covering NA grocery. She created alliance partnerships with Disney, National Football League, Major League Soccer, Ma-jor League Baseball and Universal Studios, to name a few.

Nick Patterson, Associate Marketing Director

RRB Cheryl Policastro, Shopper Marketing Team Leader (See profile on page 10.)

SSAMSUNG Andrea Lorenzo, Director, Omnichannel Marketing

SARGENTO FOODS Nicole Pavlica, Senior Brand Shopper Marketing Manager Pavlica leads the integra-tion of shopper insights into marketing programs, which are designed to influence shopper behav-ior, build brand relevance, and deliver nat-ural cheese category growth for Sargento and its strategic partners.

SC JOHNSON & SON Amy Dragland-Johnson, Director, Shopper Marketing Dragland-Johnson leads all of the shopper marketing and national consumer pro-motions marketing teams at SC Johnson. She was inducted into the Shopper Mar-keting Hall of Fame in 2015.

Jay Lefforge, Director, Shopper Marketing, Walmart & Club

STARBUCKS Tiffany Huey, Director, Shopper Marketing Huey’s role is to ensure the Starbucks customer teams are set up to successfully grow its channel customers’ business and bring the Starbucks experi-ence to life down the aisle.

TOM’S OF MAINE: MATT SMITH, Senior Shopper and Customer Marketing Team Leader

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marketing or shopper solutions tailored to their shoppers and their needs. We didn’t have a team to focus on just that, so I was asked to create the capability here.

What’s a major project you’re working on currently?Smith: A first-of-its-kind, back-to-school program went in this fall called “Green Your School for the Greater Good.” It’s wrapped around the idea that, by choosing Tom’s of Maine, shoppers are helping to create a million-dollar Green Your School fund through DonorsChoose.org to help make schools more sustainable.

Since 2011, how has shopper marketing evolved at Tom’s of Maine?Smith: Our Green Your School program is a platform based on insights, not a product launch as we would have done in the past. We didn’t have shopper marketing-driven platforms when I started here; it was a more tactical approach. We’re a lot smarter now in how we deliver our brand story and product messages to our con-sumer when she’s in that mindset as a shopper.

What was your biggest professional challenge and how did you overcome it? Smith: Making the leap and being open to the idea that maybe shopper isn’t all about shelf talkers, but something completely dif-ferent. I needed to understand the full scope of it and some of the

four-time All-American as a diver at Amherst College, Matt Smith has always jumped in and gotten the job done. The English major had plans of attending law school after college, but the blending of creativity and business that

he’s always been drawn to won out. Smith entered the advertising world in New York City, finding his niche developing campaigns and initiatives targeted toward underserved markets. After earning his MBA at Boston College, he made the leap to the client side, join-ing Procter & Gamble in 2006. He held various brand management positions during his nearly five-year tenure before assuming a senior brand manager position at Tom’s of Maine. Today he is the senior shopper and customer marketing team leader, a post he has held for the last three years.

What does your current role entail? Smith: I oversee a team of shopper marketers as well as our in-sights and analytics team. We develop and execute, in partnership with agency partners and our customers, the brand’s shopper mar-keting activities for both conventional customers and natural chan-nel customers.

Has your role changed? Smith: Just over two years ago we had requests from customers to partner more closely to develop equity-building natural category

Photo by Fred J. Field

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TOM’S OF MAINE: MATT SMITH, Senior Shopper and Customer Marketing Team Leader

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SUN PRODUCTS Ellen Greenfield, Senior Manager, Shopper Marketing Greenfield joined Sun Prod-ucts in May after having spent many years in agency client leadership roles. She is responsible for the development and implementation of strategic shopper marketing programs and initiatives, including scale partnerships and brand equity-driving campaigns, across multiple retail customers and channels.

TTARGET Michael Ashling, Director, In-Store Marketing

TEMPUR SEALY INTERNATIONAL Marcus Baffoe-Bonnie, Director, Retail MarketingBaffoe-Bonnie leads retail marketing strat-egy and activation at Tempur Sealy. His team leverages shopper insights to drive adoption of co-branded advertising, store traffic and helps retailers win in-store. He previously worked at Michelin and Whirl-pool Corp.

TIME INC. RETAIL Christine Austin, Customer Marketing Director Austin leads the strategy and program development of customer marketing pro-grams that support Time Inc.’s portfolio of content brands including People, InStyle, Real Simple and more. Her specific focus is on Walmart, Target, Kroger and Albertsons.

Eric Szegda, Vice President, Marketing Szegda oversees the Time Inc. retail marketing team, responsible for all shopper and consumer efforts in support of the Time Inc. portfolio of maga-zine brands including multimedia market-ing/advertising campaigns in support of People magazine.

cutting-edge strategies and capabilities that exist today. Once you look at your shoppers more holistically, it’s exciting to see the potential of what shopper can be.

What motivates you most in your current position?Smith: Being able to do what I do here. It’s an amazing company with brands that have strong values, a rich history and strong equity. It’s emotional-based marketing as we engage with the heart and mind of our consumer, aligning our messages with her values and connecting with her and what she cares about.

What about this discipline keeps you up at night? Smith: Quality of execution. Another aha moment for me was the resource intensity of executing things flawlessly. I learned early in my career that the only strategy a shopper or consumer really sees is the execution. It all comes down to that.

How has shopper marketing moved forward in the past decade? Smith: It’s way more digitally driven, data-driven and personalized. Certainly we weren’t thinking about leveraging so-cial media or bloggers that have an affin-ity with a specific retailer with our brand as a means to advertise our product in the past.

How has it remained the same? Smith: We depend too heavily on old-school tools to deliver our communica-tions. We don’t see the full embrace of technology in brick-and-mortar at the mass scale today. But hopefully we’ll get there.

What is shopper’s greatest need today? Smith: Personalization and simplifica-tion. In-store is more cluttered than ever, so personalizing assortments and our marketing messages will help us bet-ter connect with the consumer and the shopper.

How is your team or organization working to meet that need? Smith: With a very targeted approach to our packaging and our messaging. It doesn’t make sense to deliver messages to that consumer who doesn’t care about natural. We want to ensure we’re being hyper-targeted with our messaging and our product stories.

TOM’S OF MAINE Matt Smith, Senior Shopper & Customer Marketing Team Leader (See profile on page 18.)

TYSON FOODS Christopher Witte, Vice President, Shopper & Category Development Witte is responsible for leading and developing cat-egory leadership, shopper insights, shopper marketing and shopper activation functions. He is also responsible for the creation of Tyson/Hillshire shopper and trip engagement in protein and rede-veloping Tyson’s industry-leading suite of category leadership platforms.

UUNILEVER Kevin Flagg, Senior Director, Shopper Marketing

Carla Malin, Shopper Marketing Director, Supermarkets Malin is responsible for the strategy and development of all shopper marketing pro-grams within supermarkets. She also helps build the measurement, analytics and digital capabilities within the national shopper mar-keting team.

WWAKEFERN FOOD Steve Henig, Vice President, Corporate Merchandising and Marketing Henig began his career at Wakefern in 1991 in the gen-eral merchandise division. He has been in his current post since 2011 and is responsible for the company’s corporate sales and market-ing programs, private-label sales, shopper marketing department, and loyalty market-ing efforts.

WALGREENS Kelly Baranko, Director, Brand Strategy & Loyalty Marketing Baranko is responsible for defining and deploying the Walgreens retail master brand strategy across the organization as well as marketing Balance Rewards, the company’s loyalty program.

Crystal Fouchard, Retail Marketing Director

Mindy Heintskill, Vice President of Loyalty and Personalized Marketing Heintskill is responsible for the retailer’s Balance Re-wards loyalty program, cus-tomer insights sharing and personalized activation. She is a new breed of industry leader that possesses brand, solution pro-vider and retail experience.

WALMART Matthew Parry, Senior Marketing Director – Customer Experience & Shopper MarketingParry leads the retailer’s shopper marketing and in-store customer experience/engage-ment efforts. He also leads shopper strat-egy and customer insights, digital, technol-ogy and omnichannel in-store integration. His goal is to build a customer experience innovation team to deliver multiple in-store experience and technology pilots.

Jamie Sohosky, Vice President, Marketing, Customer Experience Sohosky leads a team that spans a number of disci-plines from store innovation and technology to visual merchandising, shopper marketing and “retailtainment.” She brings these disciplines together to make Walmart’s 4,500-plus stores a bet-ter place for customers to shop – simpler, more engaging and more seamless.

WHITEWAVE FOODSJim Blumberg, Director, Integrated Marketing

WILTON INDUSTRIESAllyson Martin, Senior Director, Shopper and Channel Marketing

WORLD KITCHEN Ken Bausch, Vice President, Global Digital Marketing Bausch and his team have delivered demonstrable growth in market share and consumer awareness across the brand portfolio with a content-driven, channel-agnostic, customer-engaging and tech-nologically agile approach. A highlight last year was its award-winning Pyrex 100 campaign, increasing sales for this mature brand by more than 20%.

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