Brand Management Leadership
What:
Kinder’s is one of the fastest-growing retail brands in America (consecutive 100% + YoY growth from 2018 - 2024) with significant distribution across the club, mass, and grocery channels. In 2023, Kinder’s hired me to build the Brand Management function from the ground-up. This included creating Category Strategies, MAPS toolkits, innovation plans, leading account growth planning, and driving organizational transformation from being a channel-led to portfolio-led business.
How:
Through a deep dive into the competitive data (via SPINS and retailer-specific portals), I led the development of:
Category landscape analyses (including strategies to attack key competitors)
SKU prioritization by channel
Pricing and promotion strategies
MAPS toolkits for broker teams
Results:
Through the focus and rigor of the category strategy work, we were able to:
Grow sales for the Liquid portfolio by 188% YoY and the Dry portfolio by 32% YoY
Grew business across all channels, including (in YoY growth):
106% in Grocery
93% in Walmart
66% in Costco
48% in Sam’s Club
Product Development Strategy
What:
Craft sparkling water brand Aura Bora launched in early 2020 with unique flavors as its’ unique value proposition to sparkling water consumers. With SKUs like lavender cucumber, peppermint watermelon, and lemongrass coconut, the brand was seeking ways to get better at producing “weird” flavors that would not only work to retain customers in the direct channels, but also work as potential line extensions and retailer-exclusive flavors.
How:
By analyzing category and competitor sales data via SPINS, and in partnership with internal stakeholders, we took a multi-step approach to:
Develop a formal stage-gate product development process from the ground up
Identify greenfield opportunities for flavor development that would drive incrementality and minimize cannibalization
Map out new flavor innovation for the subsequent 18 months
Develop incrementally stories for category reviews with major natural chains
Develop KPIs to identify which limited edition SKUs would perform well as mainline SKUs
Results:
Aura Bora’s DTC business grew 300% YoY, largely due to incrementality fueled by limited edition “flavor events”
Sprouts went from initially accepting four SKUs for national launch to six because the brand was able to offer a limited edition flavor exclusively, ultimately driving a stronger brand block on shelf and delivering incrementality to the set
Brand Re-launch
What:
Everyone for Everybody is one of the leading natural, mass-distributed personal care brands in the country, with particular brand strength in providing high-quality and safe products for the entire family at a great value. However, the brand had a bloated assortment, low awareness, and room to improve velocities.
How:
We took a multi-step approach to executing the rebrand.
Analyzed sales performance data, margins, and consumer insights to focus in on where the brand was strongest, and then doubled down on those categories while exiting lower-performing categories.
Refined the key value propositions of the brand - from packaging claims to formulations to market positioning.
Repackaged and recommercialized the brand in a whole new look with a more focused assortment.
Results:
Improved gross and net margins and improved velocities in retail.
Press:
Aura Bora Secret Menu
What:
Aura Bora had data showing that “flavor events” (launching new flavors) were the best way to pull consumers deeper into the DTC funnel. The brand was seeking a way to “lengthen the funnel” by creating a hyper-limited edition set of SKUs.
How:
Taking a queue from In-N-Out (one of the Aura Bora founders’ favorite brands), we launched a “Secret Menu,” which was an entirely-gated experience on aurabora.com available only to the consumers in certain loyalty tiers. We incentivized consumers to give us even more first-party data (including opting into SMS messages to be alerted to “drops”) and only produced a limited supply of flavors so they would sell out quickly.
Results:
The Aura Bora Secret Menu sold out the day it launched and proved the concept to the point that Aura Bora is now launching a Secret Menu bi-annually.
Media Coverage:
Pandemic Partnerships
EO Products X Alaska Airlines
What:
Develop a partnership with a mission-aligned brand to help support a “return to normal” in a post-Covid world.
How:
Launched a partnership with Alaska Airlines - every passenger on an Alaska Airlines flight from July through December 2020 received an EO hand sanitizer wipe upon boarding the plane.
Results:
Increased brand awareness and drove over 100M press impressions for the EO brand.
Media Coverage:
Lyft X Everyone for Everybody
What:
Develop a high-impact partnership at the onset of the global pandemic to keep essential workers safe.
How:
Launched a partnership with Lyft to supply drivers with Everyone hand sanitizers at the onset of the pandemic.
Results:
Distributed thousands of hand sanitizers to drivers across ten cities, resulting in media coverage of over 350M press impressions.
Media Coverage:
Testimonials
Rebecca Freschette, CEO, Yummers Pets; former Chief Merchant and Marketing Officer, Petco; former Chief Merchant, 7-Eleven
Not only is Scotty an amazingly creative thought partner, but he also gets things done. He looks around the corners others don’t see, all with a sense of humor and smile on his face.
Susan Griffin-Black, Founder and CEO, EO Products
Scotty was instrumental in guiding and executing our biggest rebrand in company history - from assortment architecture to channel strategy. Scotty’s ability to simultaneously manage complex functions while also building strong cross-functional relationships made him an invaluable asset to the entire business.
Nikki Gryll, Founder and CEO, Knack PR
It’s no surprise with his smart sense of humor that Scotty brings an unmatched level of creativity to the table. Paired with his ability to problem solve from both a branding and operations perspective, Scotty is the secret weapon that every brand needs. Not only is Scotty truly a joy to work with, but each call with him leads to an unexpected, productive brainstorming session that gets everyone giddy for the next big initiative. His brain works in a way that most people’s do not, and his ability to think about a challenge from every team’s perspective is a gift that can’t be replicated. I absolutely loved working with Scotty - he could write the playbook on how to be a fantastic client who sets his partners up for success.
Griffin Spolansky, Founder and CEO, Mezcla (@eatmezcla)
Scotty has a really strong mind for CPG. He has the ability to think critically about a huge range of topics, and has consistently been someone that I go to when I am looking for advice. On top of this, Scotty is a joy to work with!
Ryan Beyer, Founder and CEO, Weirdos Snacks (@snackweirdos)
As an early stage CPG founder, I’ve found myself leaning on Scotty for advice and guidance countless times. He continues to point me and my team in the right direction, and does so with an energy and passion that is almost unparalleled. Any team would be lucky to have Scotty in their corner.