As seen in

More than 140 consumer product manufacturer

and retailer executives are represented in

this year’s list of noteworthy merchandising

professionals, all of whom develop in-store

solutions that stand up to the challenges of

today’s dynamic retail environment.

IN MERCHANDISING

LG ELECTRONICS: RACHEL OLSON, Senior Shopper Marketing Manager

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achel Olson has always been a techie in business. In the consumer electronics sector since the early days of shopper marketing, she began her career at Qualcomm, working on product launches, incentive programs, web marketing and

event sponsorships. From there she moved to a few different compa-nies, including Kyocera Wireless and then Motorola, to work on pro-grams for major retailers before landing at LG Electronics in 2010.

What does your role at LG encompass?OLSON: I am in the shopper marketing area of LG home electronics – mainly TVs, but also audio products. I work with our brand team,

sales team and agencies to develop shopper marketing programs for all our U.S. retailers, including mass merchants and warehouse clubs.

Describe the structure of your organization as it relates to merchandising, including how you interact with shopper marketing.OLSON: It’s a three-fold scenario: looking at the overall business plan and business strategy, working with sales on what they want to sell and working with marketing. Then layer on top shopper insights and create key programs that you want to go after. It’s about the brand, sales and shopper objectives, looking at customers and every single retailer, and making decisions.

RPhoto by Chris Bohnhoff

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How does LG define success for its in-store marketing programs?OLSON: First and foremost a successful program will always be based on sell-through. But then you also have to consider whether the larger brand and shopper objectives were met as well.

How has the emergence of the omnichannel shopper influenced your overall approach to merchandising?OLSON: We look at it completely different now. Shoppers for the most part are going to brick-and-mortar later in the path-to-purchase cycle. First they use their mobile phones or go online at home to in-vestigate, looking at price and retail assortment. Later in the journey they’re going in stores and looking at the quality. It’s less education at that point and more about the wow factor. It’s really shifted our dollars to create that wow content with the TVs because that’s where we know the shopper is going to be.

What are the important characteristics of a mutually beneficial merchandising collaboration between a manufacturer and retailer?OLSON: Figuring out what the retailer objectives are, and what as a brand you can do to meet that. Make it exciting for shoppers to be in the store. Really just looking for the win-win situation for the brand objective and the retailer objective.

What are the challenges in collaboration?OLSON: You may not have 100% alignment. It’s a constant work in progress, especially with in-store installation … you sometimes learn as you go, and then next time have the knowledge for better execution going forward. The rules are not always set when you’re working in those categories, you change as you go. That’s the exciting part – it’s never the same.

Has merchandising changed in recent years?OLSON: Yes. You’re getting more real-time data and having to recon-cile with omnichannel and how an in-store display plays into mobile as well as the digital experience. We have to make it so consumers will still want to go and actually finalize a purchase in-store.

What role do your foresee the physical store playing in the future?OLSON: It will continue to be a place where shoppers can show up to experience the product up close. Or to get immediate service needs that you can’t get online.

What’s ahead for you and LG?OLSON: We’re always launching new innovations in our products, so you’re going to see that in shopper marketing as well. And more collaboration with retailers.

CAREER AND RECENT ACHIEVEMENTOLSON: My team won “Best of the Times” at the 2016 Design of the Times Awards competition for the Best Buy TV Experience Wall. The hardest part of that project was working in the time frames and con-straints within the retailer’s guide-lines. We were also working with new technology and digital integra-tion. As soon as the consumer prod-ucts are ready, they hit the market, so there’s very little time to test it. Test-ing was challenging and we wanted to stay ahead of our competition. It’s very competitive out there. Ob-viously it was satisfying to win the top Design of the Times honor. A lot of hard work paid off and it was the culmination of vendors, shopper in-sights and retailer collaboration. We plan to take elements of the Experi-ence Wall and apply them to other channels.

7-ELEVENFareed Siddiqui, Senior Director, Field Merchandising

AACCO BRANDS Gary Lazicki, Retail Merchandising Manager Lazicki manages the strate-gic in-store shopper experi-ence for leading office and school product categories by collaborating brand-based insights with agency design and retailer implementa-tion.

ACE HARDWARELorne Cohen, Category Manager – International Cohen develops, leads and executes the organization’s international category man-agement strategies across its retailers outside of the United States. Ace International has more than 600 stores in 60 countries around the globe.

Andy Voelker, Director of Category Management & Retail Development

ACH FOOD COS.Paul Rearick, Research Packaging Development Engineer Rearick is the primary packaging engineer sup-porting the club and mass merchandise business teams. Most of the work is with growing the business through promotions, multipacks and displays at the company’s key vendors.

ADVANCE AUTO PARTSMike Plum, Director of Visual Merchandising

AHOLD DELHAIZE Tonya Herring, Senior Vice President, Non-Perishable Merchandising With more than 25 years’ experience, Herring leads the non-perishable mer-chandising team for Ahold’s retail brands. She manages multiple portfolios, includ-ing edible grocery, frozen, dairy and fuel. She is the executive sponsor of an Ahold USA business resource group focused on awareness, education and understanding of different cultures.

Melissa Hughes, Director, Format Innovation

Greg Tobin, Vice President of Promotional Strategy and Support Tobin leads the promotional strategy and support team for Ahold USA’s multiple banners. He man-ages the planning and coordination of promotional activity, displays and demos while ensuring connectivity between key stakeholders, including the merchandising and advertising/marketing divisions.

ALCON LABORATORIES Ashley Olson, Manager, Displays & Special Packs

ASICS AMERICACasey Nolter, Director of Retail – Americas Nolter is responsible for the strategic and operational direction for the company’s 100+ regional stores in the Americas for ASICS, with stores, real estate, store operations and merchandising falling under his purview.

AVERY PRODUCTS Kimberly True, Director, Sales Merchandising & Content True leads the strategy for Avery Products’ retail in-store presence and off-shelf display, commercial print and online con-tent catalogs, trade shows and integrated marketing efforts for account-specific mar-keting efforts.

BBACARDI & CO. Eddie Pineiro, Director, Marketing Materials

BARILLA AMERICA Charlie DiGregorio, Packaging Engineer DiGregorio specializes in innovation and in-store marketing. He is also the co-founder of VOCE, Barilla’s LGBT employee resource group.

BAYER HEALTHCARE Peter Davidson, Senior Manager, Visual Merchandising

Michele Smith, Senior Manager, Visual Merchandising Smith is responsible for the design and development of innovative, in-store mer-chandising solutions and secondary dis-play vehicles for food, drug, mass and club accounts across multiple brand categories.

Julian Tan, Director, Visual Merchandising Tan guided the successful device-to-OTC switch of Aleve Direct Therapy TENS, first as innovation commer-cialization lead, then in a sales/total store role, and finally leading development of educational P-O-P and semi-permanent displays for the launch.

BEIERSDORF Kristine Koehler, Merchandising Manager Koehler manages all mer-chandising for the iconic Nivea brand. By elevating the look and feel of displays, fixtures and special packs, she has been able to increase P-O-P visibility, shopper interest and conversion to purchase.

BEST BUYChris Brandewie, Director of Store Design

Toni Engebretsen, Director, Visual Merchandising

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Institute member

ICON KEY

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BLUE BUFFALOCraig Stankevich, Senior Director, Channel Marketing

BOSE CORP.Eric Green, Global Display Category Manager

BURT’S BEESTheresa Champaigne, Shopper Marketing Senior Analyst Champaigne leads the de-velopment and deployment of all promotional displays for Burt’s Bees. She’s responsible for imple-menting breakthrough retail merchandis-ing that maximizes brand impact at the point of decide.

Tiffany Pieja, Merchandising Manager Pieja leads all permanent display programs across the Burt’s Bees business. She has collaborated with an internal cross-functional team driving efficiencies in its P-O-P budget and improved the fix-ture ordering process, having successfully led the development and launch of the company’s fixture web portal.

CCAMPBELL SOUP/PEPPERIDGE FARM Justin Cerritelli, Director, Sales Planning, Communications & Retail Operations Cerritelli provides cross-func-tional leadership to five core teams – sales AOP planning, retail execution, sales communications, display management and trade analytics.

Chris Cogan, Senior Manager, Retail Execution & Merchandising

Leigh Palumbo, Manager, Sales Operations, In-Store Merchandising

Jeffrey Seigel, Senior Manager – In-Store Merchandising and Visibility See profile on page 10

CENTRAL GARDEN & PET Roger Mosshart, Vice President, Retail Sales & Service

CHURCH & DWIGHT Aisha Richmond, Display Fulfillment Specialist

CLOROX CO. Tim Roberts, National Retail Operations Manager

COCA-COLA CO. Pamela Basciani, Group Director, Retail Channel Planning and Commercialization Basciani leads a team in driving the commercial strategy for the large store channel, iden-tifying highest leverage opportunities for category growth and delivering shopper solutions for key consumption occasions and missions.

Karyn Froseth, Group Director, CCNA Shopper Science & Design Froseth has held various sales and marketing roles with The Quaker Oats Co., The Coca-Cola Co., Novartis and Arc Worldwide. She joined Coca-Cola in 1999 and currently leads the shopper science and design team within Coca-Cola North America’s shopper marketing organization. She and her team are focused on shopper merchandising innovation, shopper capa-bilities and digital shopper marketing.

Susan Lazaro, Director, Merchandising Excellence Lazaro has the distinct pleasure of leading a team whose purpose is to turn shoppers into buyers through the creation of best-in-class science and design-driven shopper solutions that are irresistible and easy to execute.

Oliver Merino, Group Director, Channel Planning & Development North America

Mark Rohde, Group Director, Cold Drink Equipment Development and Commercialization Rohde is responsible for the development and commer-cialization of innovative cold drink equip-ment solutions that engage shoppers and increase beverage incidence for retailers, Coca-Cola North America and the Coca-Cola North American Bottling System.

Richard Staten, Director, Marketing

CONSTELLATION BRANDS Andi Carey, Director, Promotions Development Carey has specialized in POS and merchandising for 20+ years in the wine and spirits industry. She is passionate about building brands at retail, meeting creative and production challenges and teaching the craft to the next generation.

COTY US Dimitri Foutres, Vice President, Perfect Store – Wall Strategy and Logistics Group

CRAYOLA Beth Ondush, Manager, Merchandising Ondush is responsible for national account, temporary and permanent merchan-dising program innovation, development and execution, both off-shelf and inline. Her account base includes Walmart, Target, Staples, Office Depot/Max, Walgreens and Michaels.

KEURIG GREEN MOUNTAIN: DON COLLINS, Director, Merchandising & Retail Innovation

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on Collins has brewed up quite a career. He started at Keurig five years ago as a merchandising team of one, after four years at Lindt, four years at Altria and two years run-ning his own sports marketing and entertainment company

that boasted a client roster including Live Nation, Purina, Miller Lite and Spalding Golf. All that marketing followed a career in finance that did not fulfill him.

“As much as I enjoyed the investment banking business, I felt a void,” says Collins. “In college, I had majored in marketing and soon came to realize I was missing the creativity and strategic planning aspect of being part of developing and launching brands. I made the decision to chase that internal flame and ventured into the sports marketing indus-try. Looking back, I knew marketing was where I was destined to be.”

Collins has represented clients like Coca-Cola, Nabisco and the Na-tional Basketball Association, and also helped launch the Coca-Cola soft drink Surge with a promotional partnership with the National Hockey League. He also worked on separate projects with A1 Steak Sauce and the NBA that involved tractor-trailers that converted to a kitchen for cooking exhibitions and a mini Hall of Fame, respectively.

Collins has an MBA with a focus on marketing and finance.

What are your current responsibilities?COLLINS: I lead a team that drives innovation and builds programs to convert consumers at shelf to Keurig. We are unique in that we offer consumers both the coffee maker and the commodities as part of an entire system. This includes a full line of Keurig brewers, more than 80 beverage brands and multiple accessories. In my role, I provide merchandising solutions for all customer channels (mass, depart-ment, grocery, specialty, drug, club, convenience and even our away from home food service and workplace channels).

Our main shopper marketing objective is to build and bring Keurig to life in-store through engaging and inviting consumer experiences. Our strategy is to win at the moment of decision by assisting the shopper and customer with merchandising solutions that always stay true to our brands’ and the retailer’s strategy.

My team works directly with our sales teams and shopper market-ing leads to build custom merchandising solutions that align to our business objectives.

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What are the important characteristics of a mutually beneficial merchandising collaboration between a manufacturer and retailer?COLLINS: For me, partnership, earned trust, credibility and execu-tion are all tied to mutually agreed upon success criteria and goals. Our Keurig brand is strong with our retailers, and this is a result of our successful partnership built together over the years. I’ve had many buyers and merchandising leads call me to walk through an idea or program looking for feedback and input. This doesn’t just happen; this is a result of a positive reputation built over the years.

How has merchandising changed in recent years and what are today’s trends?COLLINS: It’s all about creating unique brand experiences in-store for the consumer. Interactive merchandising displays are becoming more prominent in stores to help differentiate products, serve as educational tools and provide product sampling with the goal of helping consumers find what they want. Interactive displays are now full sensory, which

makes a stronger connection to the overall product user experience.For example, through an eye-tracking study, we learned consum-

ers utilize Keurig P-O-P displays to make purchase decisions at the shelf. Consumers spend 30 seconds at shelf to review our P-O-P and find our displays to be 90% helpful. We call it the “Keurig Hand-shake” when consumers engage with our brewers in stores.

In addition, pop-up stores and mobile checkouts are emerging retail merchandising trends that are helping to improve the overall consumer experience in-store.

What role do you think the physical store will play in the future?COLLINS: I see the future of retail becoming more of a brand show-case and destination where consumers can engage, interact, learn more and make new discoveries. Retailers might hold fewer inven-tories on items, thus allowing for ordering in-store with convenient delivery to homes. Consumers will still go to stores in order to engage with products, to learn and compare models as part of the decision-making process.

RECENT ACHIEVEMENT

COLLINS: Due to strong business relationships with our retail partners, together we have built Keurig Brand Shops within their stores. Our goal is to keep enhancing the consumer experience with Keurig and educate them on the system and its many benefits.

By showcasing the entire Keurig system through presentation of brewers in the portfo-lio, we can create awareness of the breadth and depth of our beverage variety and bring aware-ness to our accessories products that enhance and compliment the entire system. Keurig Brand Shops can be found within several of our retail partners – Target, Kohl’s, Bon-Ton, Meijer, Shop-ko and Macy’s (Herald Square in New York City).

CAREER ACHIEVEMENTCOLLINS: Four years ago, Keurig launched an in-store display called the “Island-er,” which became one of the most influential and incremental category drivers of single-serve coffee. With the goal of driving incremental sales during our key holiday period at Walmart, the original display was designed to be a temporary unit lasting a few months.

The Keurig Islander display over-delivered on its goal and Walmart eagerly asked for a new structure to last longer in stores. This was when the second-gen-eration Islander was born. It included gravity-fed shelving, enhanced shoppabil-ity, educational signage and ease of navigation. This display is now placed near front of store in Action Alley, which extends our in-line coffee aisle and drives awareness and impulse purchases for the Keurig system. With the inclusion of K-Cup pod factices on the top corners and educational signage on system and beverage variety on all four sides, this display is a conversion tool in-store.

The Keurig Islander is still going strong with more units being added to stores. We have extended the Islander displays into multiple retailers and channels within multiple sizes and configurations. Our Islander displays have earned sev-eral industry awards over the years – two gold and one bronze at the Out-standing Merchan-dising Achievement Awards (OMA) and one bronze and two silver at the Design of the Times. It is both flattering and a compliment when competitors and retail partners repli-cate your work.

DDAS COS. Derek Lehman, Director, Shopper & Channel Marketing Lehman develops strategic and insight-driven shopper marketing solutions focused on the convenience and travel center channels. He thrives on creating engaging retail activations that deliver shopper solu-tions, impact behavior and yield retailer and brand KPI results.

DG YUENGLING & SONChris Seigh, Trade Marketing Manager Seigh leads the trade market-ing efforts for Yuengling’s na-tional accounts team focused on activation and customiza-tion. His focus is on utilizing insights-based solutions to ensure stronger connections with shoppers across multiple touchpoints at retail.

DURACELLJoe Cerone, Team Leader, North America Merchandising See profile on page 14

EEDGEWELL PERSONAL CARE Natalie Mallone, Merchandising & Display Manager, Wet Shave Mallone leads Edgewell’s U.S. wet shave in-store merchandising and display initiatives across all classes of trade.

Davi Tash, Merchandising & Display Manager, Suncare

FFOOT LOCKERBrian Landman, Director of Visual Merchandising & In-Store Experience

GGARMIN INTERNATIONALRonnie Lamendola, Senior Manager, Retail Marketing Lamendola conducts a diverse array of creative displays, from temporary to permanent solutions in the U.S., for a multitude of retailers. He also works on key Garmin global POS initiatives.

GENERAL MILLS Bob Myers, Director, In-Store Design & Strategic Events Myers manages a “con-cept to consumer” in-store design team focused on delivering fully integrated cohesive display merchandising capabilities in stores for General Mills brands’ in-store merchandis-ing and category growth initiatives.

GLAXOSMITHKLINE Margaret Farrell, Display Manager

John Hankins, Senior Sales Operations Manager Hankins has more than 30 years of CPG experience with Kraft, Starkist and Glax-oSmithKline. He currently leads the strat-egy, development and execution of GSK’s in-store visual merchandising in support of driving new item launches and category growth at retailers.

GOPROGabriel Mendez, Global Group Leader, Retail Solutions

HHEINEKEN USA Susan Mastrogiacomo, Category Development, Central Strategy and Distributor Manager

HERSHEY CO. Scott Dunkley, Director, Merchandising Center of Excellence

Mike Kautz, Manager, Merchandising – Innovation/Dollar/Club

Rick Price, Senior Manager, Merchandising Center of Excellence Price leads the Merchandis-ing Center of Excellence team, which leverages shopper insights to develop and execute high-impact brand experiences and display spectaculars to create fun, convenient and immersive shopper experiences that drive conversion and build bigger baskets for large- and small-format retailers.

Frank Sheehe, Global Retail & Merchandise Manager

Thomas Szeltner, Senior Manager, National Merchandising Szeltner is part of a team that designs best-in-class, temporary displays with shopper-preferred mixes to promote Her-shey’s iconic brands and enable quick sell-through across all classes of trade.

HUNTER DOUGLAS Maureen Marrone, Director of Visual Merchandising Marrone is responsible for developing customized in-store merchandising programs to help Hunter Douglas retailers create a more professional selling environ-ment. She recently developed a “store of the future” concept that will set a new merchandising standard for selling win-dow coverings.

JJACK LINK’S Kent Oakland, Packaging Engineering Manager

JOCKEY INTERNATIONALMark Fedyk, Chief Merchandising Officer

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JOHNSON & JOHNSON Steven Hecht, Director, In-Store Strategy & Innovation

KKELLOGG CO. Jeanne Figo Comar, Director, Packaging & Merchandising Design and Commercialization

Megan Phelan, Senior Manager, Merchandising Services Phelan develops merchan-dising display solutions for Kellogg’s Kashi, specialty channels, Morning Foods, military and shopper marketing business units. She also oversees Kellogg’s print services depart-ment, producing point-of-sale materials, signage, coupons and communication materials for Kellogg USA.

KEURIG GREEN MOUNTAIN Don Collins, Director, Merchandising & Retail Innovation See profile on page 6

KIMBERLY-CLARK Lisa Hurwitz, Vice President of Global Brand Design

KRAFT HEINZRene Brignac, In-Store Merchandising Lead – Beverage & Snack Nuts Brignac leads the team that commercializes both perma-nent and semi-permanent display SKUs for more than 11 top Kraft Heinz brands. He also supports sales op-erations in on-time delivery of displays into retail.

John Jaffke, Senior Director, Sales Operations

LL’OREALMichael Arecchi, Vice President of Merchandising

Laurie Houlihan, Vice President, Promotional Development & Procurement, Consumer Products Division

Christina P. Ragazzini, Director, Retail Innovation & Promotional Development

LG ELECTRONICS Stewart Henderson, Senior Manager, Home Appliance Shopper Marketing Henderson leads the shop-per marketing team for LG’s home appliance business units and is tasked with developing and executing LG’s omnichannel experiences for the shopper.

Rachel Olson, Senior Shopper Marketing Manager See profile on page 2

LOGITECH Cynthia Bowens, Channel Marketing Manager Bowens is passionate about customers’ experiences, developing merchandis-ing that engages the customer and drives sales. She’s responsible for creating and executing marketing plans across key ac-counts with experience in both the U.S. and Canada.

MMARS CHOCOLATE U.S. Randall Rodriguez, Senior Manager, Display & Equipment Rodriguez leads the team responsible for develop-ing Mars’ semi-permanent and promotional displays. His team has transformed Mars’ approach to seasonal displays, delivering industry-leading focal points that create an outstanding in-store experience and have enabled record-breaking sell-through.

MASCOSarah Furnari, Vice President of Retail Experience Furnari leads visual mer-chandising and retail experi-ence efforts for the compa-ny. In 2015, Masco’s Behr brand launched a new Color Center to help consumers more easily find their perfect color. Further in-novation in the paint shopping experience is a key focus.

MCCORMICK & CO. Brian Eslinger, Merchandising Development Manager

MEIJER Shelly Huisken, Director, Merchandise Presentation

Doug Robertson, Director, Merchandise Presentation Robertson is responsible for leading planogram and floorplan development ac-tivities and processes for Meijer new stores, remodels and category refreshes. He is also responsible for leading space analytics, as well as process and systems improvement agenda.

Adam Whitney, Vice President, Merchandise Presentation and Pricing

MICROSOFT CORP.Jake Olsen-Jacobsen, Senior Retail Demo Manager A 27-year retail veteran, Olsen-Jacobsen previously managed the Xbox and Xbox 360 global video game retail kiosk programs. He is currently responsible for the global consumer retail demo experi-ence on Windows OS devices.

CAMPBELL SOUP CO.: JEFFREY SEIGEL, Senior Manager – In-Store Merchandising and Visibility

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effrey Seigel had several roles en route to his current position. The most consequential were the nine years he spent as director of operations and planning for Leslie Fay Sportswear, where he gained a foundation in business; and 14 years as director, point

of purchase management, at Kao Brands, where he took the skill sets he learned in apparel and applied them to beauty brands. “Once you have good, solid business practices, you can move from industry to industry,” Seigel says. “It’s the terminology you have to learn.”

What are your current responsibilities at Campbell Soup?SEIGEL: I follow the dual mandate for the company, which is protect-ing the core business – generally working the shelving in the aisles – and then expanding the business into new spaces, like the perimeter. We have a cross-functional team for point-of-purchase programs in the U.S. I also manage our IQ Max display programs for more than 20,000 stores. My biggest responsibility is educating folks who work

with me – 60% of them are Millennials. I really enjoy it because you get to see the light go on in their eyes.

Describe the structure of your organization. How does merchandising interact with shopper marketing, with insights?SEIGEL: Shopper marketing provides insights to drive all programs and work streams. Insights drive merchandising aisle flow and lead us to create perimeter displays to drive trial. We come up with a plan to deliver against the insight, which I enjoy. I work with creative and sup-ply chain and logistics. It takes a village to get things done. There’s a lot of interaction and cross-functionalism. It’s all about teamwork here.

How does your company define success for its in-store marketing programs?SEIGEL: My goal has always been execution with excellence – we want to be 100% complete and on-time with our retailers. Programs

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must drive trial, including trial in the perimeter that will get folks to travel back into the aisle. It costs us funds to get things into the perimeter; when we convert them to the shelf, that’s the investment in shopper marketing that we’re looking to capture.

How has the emergence of omnichannel influenced merchandising?SEIGEL: Omnichannel has created for us a more intelligent shopper. They know much more about our products and how they fill their needs. We want to be a solution company that develops real food for real life’s moments. We don’t do as much “stack it high, let it fly.” We need POS displays that are smaller and better educate our customers with a 360-degree strategy. WhatsInMyFood.com is our big trans-parency initiative. Again, it’s about education. That is a responsibility now for companies and people.

How can manufacturers and retailers best collaborate around merchandising for mutual benefit?SEIGEL: It starts with early communication. That means getting our sales group to meet with the retailers to decide, “How do we help you?” Then, trust is very important because you’re going to exchange

ideas and creative goals to collaborate, to see what Campbell’s has to offer and what the retailer needs. It’s about getting folks interested in what we’re selling.

How has merchandising changed in recent years? What trends are happening now?SEIGEL: It’s still about educating and engaging our customers and providing them what they want, when they want and need it. Digital printing has made customization and small runs easier and more economical. Digital will change and is changing how industry will handle printing techniques. Technology has introduced a wow factor, but at the end of the day we’re all still on budgets.

What role do you foresee the physical store playing in the future?SEIGEL: My title has “in-store merchandising.” I am bullish on brick-and-mortar. The internet will make things easier, provide more education and make products easier to find. But especially for food, customers are still going to go to the stores. I still think it comes down to the moment at the shelf. Influencing that decision is the role of the store and the CPG. In-store merchandising will be alive and well for years to come.

RECENT ACHEIVEMENTSEIGEL: I would have to men-tion the displays for Well Yes! (Campbell’s new health-ori-ented line of soups) that we’re doing right now. It was an “A” launch. Folks asked me, “What would you want to do to make this the best launch for Camp-bell’s?” We’ve taken forecasts and shipments for more than 30,000 of the displays. We are in 41 states and eventually will be in all 50. I had so much fun with this, I can’t even tell you – and it’s for a food company. Food is not usually as sexy as John Frie-da and that kind of stuff. Well Yes! let me go back to the old days of my beauty work. The print work is very exciting.

CAREER ACHEIVEMENT

SEIGEL: Brilliant Brunette was my first launch for John Frieda Professional Hair Care after it was bought by Kao Brands. It was a very large launch, and we did $55 million in sales the first year, with displays for ev-ery class of trade – we did it all. It had big, permanent displays for drug, PDQs for Walmart, floorstands for grocery. The challenge was coming up with specific solutions for each of our customers and coming up with the numbers for launch. I led a cross-functional team to develop and execute the display program. We leveraged all the learnings from Sheer Blonde, an earlier product aimed at a smaller segment of the market. Both brands are still very active. We created a prescriptive hair solution section in the drugstores.

MONDELEZ INTERNATIONAL Alice Moore, Merchandising Manager Moore manages the devel-opment and production of unfilled permanent displays. She says the company’s receipt of a Platinum Award at Design of the Times for the SPK floorstand is a testa-ment to the quality and effectiveness of this program.

Kelly O’Brien, Merchandising Manager O’Brien manages the cre-ation and production of POS displays for the most loved brands. Her career is balanced in pragmatism and passion to be relevant and unique. She enjoys working alongside admirable and diverse partners to deliver goals.

Robyn Petroski, Senior Merchandising Manager, Shopper Merchandising Solutions

Steve Zoellner, Director, Shopper Merchandising Solutions

NNBC UNIVERSAL STUDIOSMary Khachikyan, Vice President, Production & Release Planning

NESTLE PURINA Bill Kambol, Senior Merchandising Display Specialist Kambol works directly with the marketing group to design, develop and imple-ment in-store marketing solutions in the form of displays and special packs.

Greg Norsworthy, Director, Retail Presentation, North America Norsworthy focuses on cat-egory reinvention (in-store) with the objective/outcome of an orches-trated shopping behavior through the development of a different structural en-vironment that builds shopper awareness and incremental household penetration.

Pam Venn, Senior Display & Merchandising Specialist

NESTLE USA Thomas Kobayashi, Merchandise Manager, Confections & Snacks Division

NESTLE WATERSSteven Seager, Senior Merchandising Manager

NIKE INC.Kenneth Edwards, Senior Retail Brand Manager

Matt Kelly, Strategy Director, Nike Sustainable Innovation Kelly’s role is to reduce Nike’s carbon footprint via innova-tive solutions. This includes brick-and-mortar locations, where his team seeks to revolutionize environments.

OOFFICE DEPOT Eduardo Souchon, Senior Director, Category Management, Omnichannel, and DMM for Copy and Print Souchon defines the vision, strategic role and intent of product/service categories across all channels based on shopper/market insights.

PPEET’S COFFEE & TEAAdam O’Connell, Director of Visual Merchandising O’Connell leads the design, development and execution of permanent fixtures, tem-porary displays and seasonal merchandising planograms for Peet’s retail locations nationally.

PEPSICO Karl Flowers, Senior Group Manager, Merchandising

Jim Ivy, Sales Strategy & Planning, Merchandising, Frito-Lay

Brian Kelly, Senior Director of Merchandising & Execution Kelly leads the Merchandis-ing Center of Excellence for the Pepsi Beverages Co. His team is responsible for in-store mer-chandising strategies, the development of equipment and evaluation of in-store success.

Robert Taylor, Senior Director, Sales Strategy & Commercialization

PETCORick Neira, Director of Visual Presentation

Tim Swanson, Vice President, Visual Merchandising and Store Design

PETSMART Shane McCall, Vice President, Store Design and Visual Merchandising McCall’s team creates visual merchandise displays for PetSmart stores and designs “test” store formats. In 2016, two “PetSmart Pet Spa” test stores opened, featuring a smaller-than-traditional retail footprint, 6,000 square feet, and heavy emphasis on pet services, a first for PetSmart.

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PFIZER Chris Beley, Display Team Lead

POST CONSUMER BRANDS Steve Collette, Visual Merchandising & Marketing Manager Collette leads all activities at the physical intersection of the company’s prod-ucts and its consumers. In 2016, the team started the transformation of the bagged cereal category by deploying a new, pat-ented merchandising system across North America.

PRICE CHOPPER Blaine Bringhurst, Senior Vice President, Sales, Merchandising & Marketing

Michael Cormier, Vice President of Center Store

Scott Evans, Group Vice President, Merchandising

PROCTER & GAMBLE Andy Monaco, Operations Leader, Health & Well-Being and Beauty, North America

RREEBOK INTERNATIONALJohn Lynch, Vice President, Head of U.S. Marketing & Merchandising

SSABRA DIPPING CO. Pete Loizzo, Director of Sales Planning and Operations

SARGENTO FOODS John Bottomley, Senior Director of Retail Merchandising Bottomley directs key mer-chandising initiatives and manages retail execution across all channels of trade.

Michael Vaszily, Retail Merchandising Director Vaszily is responsible for developing the retail mer-chandising strategic plan as well as providing thought leadership to key strategic merchandising initiatives and new product development. A major ac-complishment was the development of a strategic roadmap to establish best-in-class merchandising competencies at Sargento.

SC JOHNSON & SON Lute Rasavong, Director, Sales Operations

SHERWIN-WILLIAMS CO.Paul Cobb, Director, In-Store Marketing

SONY ELECTRONICS Anne Lips, Retail Marketing, Visual Merchandising Manager

Anthony Shinker, Retail Merchandising Activation and Strategy/ Sound Division Shinker leads all retail mer-chandising strategy and product display activation for Sony’s Mobile and Home Audio categories.

STAPLESCarl Adler, Director, Visual Merchandising Program Implementation

Christine Mallon, Vice President, Retail Marketing

Matthew Setterlund, Director of Visual Merchandising Development

STARBUCKS JENNIFER BERGER, Vice President, Global Creative Studios

Kelly Marsh, Director, Shopper Innovation & Experience Marsh is responsible for bringing the Starbucks experience to life in center store at retailers throughout the U.S. She leads and develops strategies to deliver category growth and build Starbucks brand equity at retail.

Jennifer Quotson, Vice President, Global Creative Studios

TTARGET Sarah Amundsen, Senior Director, Store Planning & Design

Nate Bullard, Director – Space & Presentation Transformation

Erika Rinkleff, Lead Planner – In-Store Marketing, Flexible Formats Rinkleff’s focus is on the planning and implementa-tion of the in-store experience of Target’s smaller format stores and other high-level innovation projects.

Ted Smetana, Vice President, Merchandise Operations

Bill Stafford, Senior Design Lead

TIMBERLAND CO.Jackie Lalime, Senior Director North America Merchandising, Footwear & Apparel

TYSON FOODS Katherine Tai, Manager, Strategic Merchandising & Mix

DURACELL: JOE CERONE, Team Leader, North America Merchandising

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oe Cerone began his CPG career with Gillette in an accounting position that allowed him to get his foot in the door. He quickly moved around the organization. Cerone picked up a variety of skills by working in various roles including customer service,

product supply, demand planning, distribution and sales.In 2003, Cerone joined Gillette’s new retail innovation team as team

leader on the Duracell Battery Lab. “We created the first innovation lab that engaged with retail partners, talking with them about shop-per principles and making recommendations we could implement in-store,” he says.

When the company was acquired by Procter & Gamble in 2005, his successful work in the lab with shopper-based design led to his being tapped to lead the Baby Lab. After a few years, he moved into field sales. Today, he’s back with Duracell (now owned by Berkshire Hathaway) leading its North American merchandising team.

Is there anything that really stands out from all your roles?CERONE: They’ve all played an integral part in my development. The shopper work that I led at Gillette was cutting edge, which helped change our approach to talk about both consumer and shopper trends. This provided us with more opportunities to discuss both the brand- and category-centric strategies.

You’ve done a lot of work around the shopper. How does that influence your current role?CERONE: I’m passionate about it. It’s the work I’ve been in the longest – 10 years. I view it as a competitive advantage for us.

So what’s your day-to-day like?CERONE: About 30% of my job is out with the customer teams. We are talking about ways to drive multiple points of interruption in the store. Where’s the right location for batteries? Where are the potential gap opportunities? Once you have that, then the design work comes along.

And the other 70% of your time?CERONE: Internal processes and process improvement. Determin-ing how do we deliver customer differentiation, but deliver it at the best costs.

What about working with shopper marketing?CERONE: My interaction with the shopper marketing team really helps us to balance our brand equity and retailer’s goals (like loyalty programs, for example) to differentiate programs specific to their objectives.

JPhoto by Mark Conrad

DURACELL: JOE CERONE, Team Leader, North America Merchandising

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With in-store marketing programs, what does success look like?CERONE: Designing a program with our retail partners that op-timizes sales. Ultimately our goal is to be the category leader and position that leadership in a way that drives growth strategies with retail partners.

What trends, or changes, do you see in merchandising?CERONE: A focus on “in-stock” availability and other things we need to become even more efficient at to ensure we’re meeting cost objectives.

Has the omnichannel shopper impacted your merchandising approach?CERONE: The battery category is underdeveloped in terms of e-com-merce as a whole but will be affected longer term. We are working on a platform to better understand this shopper and how we can drive more awareness. We’re still crafting it but we recognize it will be an important element going forward.

In the future, where do you see the physical store?CERONE: More brick-and-mortars will try to tie in to online. Amazon is not going away.

What changes have you seen with in-store shoppers?CERONE: They are more attuned and more educated than in the past. They don’t need a lot of messaging. It’s very clean and simple messag-ing on why they should buy your product that resonates. They expect an efficient retail environment.

And how have retailers changed?CERONE: Ten years ago, it was an uphill climb talking to them about shopper dynamics. They are much more educated today. You need to leverage our knowledge of the shopper to collaborate with our retail partners to meet our mutual growth objectives. Retailers want us to understand “their” shopper, which puts us in a better position of strength to deliver solid in-store merchandising programs that will drive organic growth.

RECENT ACHIEVEMENT CERONE: When buyer Mark Winburn of Southeastern discount chain Fred’s Pharmacy challenged my team and me to make an endcap that created a front-of-store experience as inviting as a Hershey’s endcap did, we were up to the challenge. The Duracell Power Center endcap ex-ecuted in Septem-ber 2016 attracted shopper attention and looked right at home next to its confection-ary neighbor. The endcap is part of a three-tier mer-chandising strat-egy Duracell has with Fred’s as the retailer’s leading national battery brand. A display at checkout grabs that last-minute shopper attention, while a hearing aid counter display was created specifically for the phar-macy area. “Hearing aid shoppers are attuned to the color-coded battery types,” says Cerone, “so all we had to do was put that extra color navigation on the dis-play along with a hearing aid icon. It was an easy way to convey pharmacy as a destination for hearing aid bat-teries.”

CAREER ACHIEVEMENTCERONE: I worked with Walmart in 2002 to pioneer a merchandising change that resulted in a sustainable success story. The Walmart “Holi-day Powerstation” program was a semi-permanent, replenishable dis-play. The pegless, gravity-fed merchandising system made it not only easier to shop but also made restocking easier for store associates. Additionally because it was made with less corrugate, it was more en-vironmentally friendly than past display programs. Results of the initial Powerstation led to four or five years of successful programs by plac-ing multiple brands on the same display. We had significant double-digit share growth. It was a win for us, the retailer and the shopper. The program’s success even led to other brands in other categories, such as Keurig, creating similar merchandising programs.

UULTA BEAUTYElyse Sanneman, Merchandise Operations Training Manager

UNILEVER Tom Gioielli, Team Lead, U.S. Category Strategy Gioielli’s team develops and leads consumer and shop-per insight-based assort-ment and shelving strate-gies for all of Unilever’s categories.

WWALGREENS Jeff Chadwick, Senior Manager, Space Management

Louis Dorado, Senior Director, Merchandising Dorado is the head of space management, visual mer-chandising and capabilities for Walgreens. He and his leadership team have built one of the most recognized, innovative and awarded space teams in retail today.

Mike Hattenschweiler, Director, In-Store Marketing Design Hattenschweiler is respon-sible for leading in-store customer experience related to temporary signage and displays. Focus includes optimizing signage spend, vendor collaboration and supporting monthly cus-tomer plans to aid in-store compliance.

Jim Jensen, Group Vice President, Store Experience & Program Development

Sherri Picchietti, Senior Manager, Space Management

WALMARTMark Brodeur, Director of Visual Merchandising Brodeur is responsible for the apparel, baby, electron-ics, hardlines, lawn & garden, toys and home businesses. He and his team continue to work on improving the shopping experience for customers through exciting department reinventions.

Paul Kilsch, Director, Merchandising PMO (Project Management Office)

Barbara Magstadt, Senior Director, Visual Merchandising

Steve Rogers, Senior Director, Visual Merchandising – Marketing Rogers leads the retailer’s visual merchandising team in marketing to help deliver a better expe-rience for its customers by inspiring her, helping her find the products and services she needs, and by making her shopping experience easier.

Ed Virgadamo, Director, Navigational/Structural Signing, Customer Experience, Marketing Virgadamo is responsible for overseeing the design, development and execution of the navi-gational and interior branded signs and photography for Walmart USA. Activating the Walmart “Save Money Live Better” brand across the chain with his team has been his greatest accomplishment to date at the retailer.

Lindsey Williams, Director, Brand Management

WONDERFUL BRANDSDave Churchill, Vice President, Merchandising

WORLD KITCHEN Chuck Schneider, Senior Director, Visual Merchandising & Marketing Schneider has designed layouts for stores in the U.S. and Canada, and has developed and implemented visual merchandising, marketing programs and standards. He introduced the use of structured plano-grams and entire store resets with more than 2,500 SKUs and floor‐to‐ceiling design responsibilities.

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