BRAND & MARKETING EXECUTIVE · 10+ YRS CPG AND CONSUMER
Most brands are marketing to a consumer who doesn't exist.
No artificial personas. No demographic buckets. I find the real buyer, prove it with evidence, and rebuild the brand around them. Ten years doing it at P&G, Pilgrim's, and Foster Farms.
Findings · Who they targeted → who actually buys → what happened
Three brands. Three wrong consumers. Three turnarounds.
The pattern · How I work
The findings above aren't luck.
They're a method I've repeated across four companies.
Consumer rediagnosis
I start by asking whether the brand is talking to the right person. Three times the answer was no, and the evidence changed the strategy.
Dashboard to decision
Where there's no data, I build the tracker myself, then use it to force a specific call: a promo strategy changed at Walgreens, a planning system adopted company-wide, a weekly velocity view that guided buyer sell-ins.
Spend discipline
Every dollar has to prove itself. I've redirected media spend that couldn't, from a streaming placement returning cents on the dollar to a paid budget that organic growth had quietly made redundant.
Teams built past their job descriptions
Five times I've developed people into roles they weren't hired for: a creative executor into a brand guardian, a category lead with no category background into a syndicated-data operator.
Work · Open a case
CASE 01
Foster Farms
Head of Marketing · Full 4P turnaround, 8 launches
OPEN +
The situation
A 90-year-old poultry brand bleeding distribution with no agreed-upon cause. I was the top marketing seat, owning brand strategy and the marketing P&L, leading a commercial org of 11 through four function leads.
The finding
A full 4P diagnostic showed the brand was positioned and priced premium while its actual buyer was value-driven. Nearly every downstream problem traced back to that mismatch.
The rebuild
Presented a pricing restructure to the executive team. Restructured promos around the real buyer. Redirected investment to the digital shelf and the West Coast. Built the company's first innovation process and launched 8 new SKUs, taking one from brief to shelf 3–4x faster than category standard. Pioneered AI video that revived a legacy campaign at roughly 2% of traditional production cost.
What happened
+12% quarterly velocity in distributed accounts. +8% realized margin from the promo restructure. New shelf placements gained at two national retailers, and shelf held everywhere else. Retail media rebuilt on verified incrementality, with a third-party-measured +32% lift.
CASE 02
Pilgrim's
Brand Director · The Kidult pivot
OPEN +
The situation
A national brand launch was missing its velocity targets. The strategy was built around a "Family Pleaser" mom insight developed for fresh chicken, but the product on shelf was frozen fully cooked.
The finding
The real buyer was a younger, multicultural, mostly male consumer who wanted bolder flavor and louder design. Nostalgia plus convenience: the Kidult.
The rebuild
Rewrote the target, the problem, the reason to believe, and the channel plan. Moved influencer spend from macro names to a nano-and-micro model. Took the brand to the X Games with a Tony Hawk limited-edition co-brand. Reversed a renaming decision by proving Popcorn Chicken buyers were a distinct segment.
What happened
+18% quarterly velocity after the pivot. +40% unaided awareness, the largest gain our research agency had ever recorded. Share grew double digits and distribution more than doubled. 6M+ impressions from the Tony Hawk partnership.
CASE 03
P&G Always
Senior Brand Manager · $1B+ brand, commercial and forecast leadership
OPEN +
The situation
A $1B+ brand in a declining category, with forecast accuracy loose enough to cloud commercial decisions and a sub-brand, Maxi, everyone assumed shared Ultra's consumer.
The finding
The first 5-year growth analysis ever run on Maxi showed a distinct buyer with her own behavior, needs, and price logic, including an overlooked Night segment.
The rebuild
Took over the brand's annual forecast and the Sufficiency business-planning process. Rebuilt the planning model so each sub-brand manager owned their own forecast. Built a distribution dashboard that caught a retailer promo change slowing velocities, and got the strategy reversed.
What happened
Forecast accuracy improved threefold, into a ±1% band. Maxi's daily run rate grew +23%, against a four-year average near 4%. +2% shelf share. Multimillion-dollar marketing spend efficiency delivered while hitting the brand's targets.
CASE 04
Hyperconnect
Marketing & Brand Manager · Founding-era growth, a ~$1.7B story
OPEN +
The situation
A 24-person startup with a video social app growing fast everywhere except the markets I was hired to build: North America and Oceania. No brand strategy, no GTM, static-only creative.
The finding
Organic acquisition was already covering subscription growth, meaning much of the paid budget was buying users who would have arrived free. And the category's creative was static in a product built on live video.
The rebuild
Authored the global brand strategy and presented it to the founder. Cut the redundant paid spend, saving seven figures annually while subscriptions grew. Persuaded leadership to test video creative filmed for free with coworkers, then scaled it across every market and language.
What happened
Regional profitability multiplied. Installs grew 300%+ globally after the video strategy rolled out. The company grew from 24 to 120+ people during my tenure and was later acquired for approximately $1.7B.
Now taking cases
Fractional, for teams not ready for the full-time hire.
I run a fractional practice for founders and leadership teams who need executive-level marketing without the executive headcount.
About · The person behind the case file
Every consumer is an individual, not a demographic bucket.
Ten years running consumer brands, from founding-era startups to the world's largest CPG company. One lesson holds everywhere: brands win when they know who actually buys them.
I've held the top marketing seat. Owned the brand P&L. Managed eight-figure budgets and built marketing functions from scratch, twice. Turned around a 90-year-old brand and helped scale a startup that sold for ~$1.7B. I hold an MBA, taught graduate-level brand strategy, and produce AI-driven creative at roughly 2% of traditional cost.
Based in Colorado. Remote-first. Open to relocation for the right role.
Contact
Full-time
VP Marketing, Head of Marketing, Senior Director Brand or Marketing. CPG, tech, AI, mission-driven.
Fractional
Ongoing advisory or project engagements for consumer and services brands.