Marc Walkin: Senior Director of Brand Strategy in Dover, MA

* Brand leadership team was eliminated due to corporate restructuring, references available* Cengage is a leading education and technology company who recently announced a merger with McGraw-Hill. I joined as a key member of the Cengage/McGraw-Hill integration team developing the brand strategy for the new, combined company. • Developed messaging and tactics to broaden the positioning of the corporate Cengage brand • Drove an extensive discovery process as part of the brand strategy work for the combined company including in-depth qualitative and quantitative research • Created the first brand led messaging for the groundbreaking Cengage Unlimited subscription service • Owned the initiative of defining a new corporate vision for the Higher Education business unit, which represents 50% of revenue.

DIRECTOR OF BRAND STRATEGY Stop & Shop I Quincy, MA I 2017 – 2019 Led transformation of Stop & Shop’s brand strategy with the goal of creating an emotional connection with the customer. • Led repositioning of Stop & Shop’s brand identity including segmentation, visual identity, architecture and new store format. • Drove strategy and execution of $200m+ project, piloting new brand and store format in two key markets. The project included a breakthrough brand launch campaign across high impact consumer touchpoints. The campaign received the highest IPSOS scores of any S&S campaign in recent history. • Led high priority cross functional effort to bring the brand to life in store through development and execution of 20+ store remodel. The new store format outperformed the rest of the chain, drove increased households, improved NPS scores and stronger brand perception. The new store format has led to a 10%+ increase in sales.

Developed new brand identity for Popcorners targeting millennials and created marketing system from the ground up through agency/partner selection and brand relaunch strategy to campaign launch. Led brand engagement strategies to include digital and shopper marketing by collaborating with sales and operations, heading detailed, multi-phase consumer insights studies and managing A&P budget. • Reimagined the Popcorners brand and product line into a new better-for-you snack brand with an edge, centered around millennials. • Achieved +18% sales lift among consumers exposed to omnichannel campaign and increased penetration of millennials by 25% and Gen X by nearly 50% in the six months following the brand relaunch. • Created retailer centric deliverables for sales highlighting marketing plans and category insights (e.g.Kroger, Whole Foods). • Worked closely with R&D to develop and sell in new product concepts and line extensions. • Led consumer insights strategy which included extensive, multi-phase consumer insights studies that included A&U, concept test and brand shifting analysis.