here’s what I “do”

Gracie Ziegler
gracieziegler@gmail.com

Accomplishments

• Introduced the first new Dinner Meat club item in over 2 years – Member’s Mark London Broil reaching benchmark velocity goals within 4 weeks of launch
• Launch of redeveloped Corporate and Consumer Tyson.com, EmbraceDinner.com and Weaver.com as well as the purchase research and implementation of a Content Management System that will save over $2 million in the next 5 years
•  “Item Merchant of the Year” Award – Take and Bake Pizzas – Walmart team recipient 2007
• PLMA Award for 2 new innovation items – Entrée Category – Sam’s Choice Backyard Gourmet Black Angus Beef Patties; Menu Innovations category – Sam’s Choice Take & Bake S‘mores Dessert Pizza – Walmart team recipient 2007

Professional Experience

TYSON FOODS, Inc Springdale, AR

Sales Development Manager – Convenience Stores
March 2012 – present

Associate Product Manager – Private Label
September 2011 – February 2012

Associate Product Manager – Convenience Meats: Dinner Meats & Meal Kits
February 2010 – September 2011

• Support regaining profitability through accurate financial and volume forecasting, influencing costs of goods and implementing appropriate ordering guidelines for retail and club sales force for a $50 million assortment of fully cooked, center of plate protein items
• Manage critical age inventory for 30+ skus by developing a daily tool to track commitments against warehouse inventory
• Oversee key aspects of Club business – accurate volume forecasting, weekly cost, production and sales analysis and owning the relationship with the sales team
• Implement strategic marketing plans for Convenience Meats including national and regional partnerships, in-store promotions and sampling, digital campaigns and a dedicated website delivering unique and appropriate messaging to consumers
• Lead strategic partnerships with Bob Evans, King’s Hawaiian and AARP to distinctly reach our core market
• Establish tactics and initiatives with cross-functional collaboration in innovation, consumer/customer marketing, retail account teams, brokers and consumer insights to develop new products through concept, scale up and launch
• Conduct continuous research efforts to evolve retail packaging to execute the packaging component of new category offerings and further define cost saving initiatives currently saving over $0.05 per unit for an anticipated annual savings of $580,000
• Work directly with our plant management team to determine forecast and weekly production schedules, and identify cost saving opportunities in production and product formulation
• Achieve and retain customer and consumer expectations for quality service and value through constant product monitoring and analysis
• Appointed to the National Sales Meeting Planning Committee, leading the plan and execution for the Dickson St. Scavenger Hunt and Iron Grill Competition Closing Ceremony

Associate Brand Manager – Consumer Products Marketing, Digital/PR/Advertising
August 2008 –Feb. 2010

• Led collaborative creation and development with a cross functional team of IS, agency, corporate and food service team members for a new structure and face for Tyson.com and a digital strategy for consumer retail products – online partnerships, banner ad campaigns, guided and organic search, landing pages for CP groups, on-line recipe/meal solutions and continuous updates with all CP marketing initiatives
• Managed $50 million corporate marketing budget across 6 business units with monthly accounting true-ups, reporting to business owners and planning analysis
• Orchestrated Advertising, Media and PR planning and execution for COP, Snack, Convenience Meats and Wright Brand Bacon leveraging multiple internal and external agencies, BU team involvement and national spokespeople – Robin Miller, Aaron McCargo, Robin Flipse, Leigh Ann with Meijer Foods, and Olympians – Mary Lou Retton, Hannah Kearny, Nastia Liukin
• Led social media tactics including the start up of YouTube channels, Facebook and Twitter accounts for Wright Brand Bacon and Tyson Recipes as well as intense blogger outreach and monitoring
• Onsite execution of in-studio interviews, satellite media tours and desk side tours to promote new launches and consumer favorite Tyson products
• Produced on-site video shoots for recipe how to segments “Bacon Bytes” and “Recipe Minute” as well as the national infomercial “In the Know”
• Led creative development of a successful series of radio ads for Wright Brand Bacon and determined appropriate market reach as distribution expanded across the country
• Built analysis toolkits to measure success of marketing campaigns and to measure overlapping and heavy up test areas for combined  efforts
• Partnered with external media agency to bring all digital reporting in house and created specific code tags for each digital ad on individual servers and search engines to improve organic search results, click thru rates and consumer traffic to Tyson.com
• Managed all new and legacy corporate sponsorships with USOC, USAG, US Track and Field and US Skiing for the Beijing and Vancouver Olympics, Tyson Track Meet and Tyson America’s Cup (gymnastics) including running logistics for delivery of 3,000 pounds of protein to 5 different training facilities through Canadian customs for 2010 Winter games

WALMART STORES, Inc
Bentonville, AR
Brand Manager – Sam’s Choice Food
August 2006 -July 2008

• Supported $120.4 million in new Private Label item launches FY08 across fresh, frozen and dry categories
• Managed product development process with a team of Product Developers, Suppliers, Designers and Senior Leadership
• Implemented timelines for each product launch
• Worked directly with merchant teams to plan category changing products and events
• Tracked trend data and competitor items, perform merchandise deep dive studies to better understand our arena
• Coordinated package design and development by working in tandem with the Walmart Packaging team and multiple design agencies and printing resources
• Tracked and analyzed sales data through Retail Link for all products for a monthly Private Brands Score Card
• Planned and organized Year Beginning Meeting demos, booths and set design for Private Brand umbrella

Brand Coordinator – Packaging
August 2004 -August 2006

• Directly responsible for packaging that supports private brand sales for Food and Commodities including Sam’s Choice, Walmart Bakery and Deli, Equate, Spring Valley, Parent’s Choice, Ol’Roy and Special Kitty
• Coordinated with suppliers, merchants, brand teams, packaging resources and design teams – both internal and external, to ensure packaging was ready for production to meet all modular dates
• Created a proofing process to track steps and approvals throughout the review process in conjunction with product specifications, style guides and legal standards
• Managed packaging and art  file retention, ensuring the packaging resources and internal teams had accurate style guides, 100% mechanicals, tool kits and packaging samples

CROSSMARK
Plano, TX
Retail Sales Representative
January 2003 -July 2004

Maintained retail objectives for over 300 CPG clients by obtaining and analyzing Retail Link data to develop marketing strategies and successful selling displays. Implemented modulars, kept up with the distribution of all product lines, as well as submitted accomplishments and proposals to current and prospective clients.

Civic Leadership Activities

• Junior League of Northwest Arkansas – VP of Communications & Board of Directors member, 2011-2012; Chair of both Marketing and Internal Communication committees 2010-11
• Komen Ozark Race for the Cure – Pink Trash Ball committee member since inaugural year 2008, Walmart corporate team chair 2005-08
• M&N Augustine Foundation – Annual Easter Feed committee member since 2009, volunteer since 1999

Education

Bachelor of Arts, English, Creative Writing, December, 2002 – University of Arkansas at Fayetteville

For more information, please check out my profile on link in:http://www.linkedin.com/in/gmterrell or email me directly at graciemterrell at gmail dot com