Gregg Hollander Email & Phone Number

Chicago, Il, Us

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Highland Park, Il

Ancestral Foods™ LLC produces small-batch, artisanal frozen dumplings for specialty food markets. Co-founder of this manufacturer and distributor of small-batch, artisanal frozen dumplings for the specialty food markets with overarching responsibilities for manufacturing, sales, distribution, and strategic marketing levers, including brand targeting and positioning, channel management, and product formulation, recipe development, packing and packaging, as well as all integrated marketing, advertising, and public relations programs• Develops comprehensive, integrated sales and marketing plans in support of strategic brand objectives in light of target, brand image, competitors and marketplace factors to maximize equity and loyalty among target customers• Establishes the firm's Brand Strategy roadmap and develops marketing strategies to take the brand message to market• Leads all Marketing initiatives and relationships to increase industry awareness and reinforce the corporate branding• Plans and manages the development of diverse integrated marketing tactics, including print and online advertising, sales collateral, website, press releases, and public relations

Lake Forest, Il

Contributed to efforts to drive increased sales with a cross-functional panel of stakeholders including Product Management, Digital Channel Management, Search Optimization, Operations, and Marketing Teams. Together we built a Product Information Management (PIM) roadmap founded on an understanding of user behavior and focused on continually improving the user experience• Translated strategic analyses into compelling and actionable insights that helped inform senior management’s brand decisions• Applied analyses of search data (site-specific search behaviors, as well as Oracle Endeca rankings and Google Search analytics) to improve category sales by identifying the highest value products and optimizing their attributes for categorization, search, and filtering• Analyzed 3rd party data from vendors to improve product information and increase the accuracy of site search and product display powering increased sales• Implemented changes to the product data structure including changes to product taxonomy; revised product categorization for more than 10,000 products across dozens of categories improving sales for lower volume products by making them more readily

Waukegan, Il

Led a team of people who developed engaging content featuring the 1,600+ ingredients sourced from all over the world that we supplied to food manufacturers, restaurants and food service operations as well as food retailers who sold our products to consumers. Led programs focused on improving our digital customer experience. Worked with internal stakeholders and external partners to build digital experiences to drive brand awareness, accelerate purchase decisions, improve customer loyalty and satisfaction and drive sales• Launched and managed the WoodlandFoods.com e-Commerce site for this distributor of 10,000s of specialty natural food products including mushrooms and truffles, chiles, herbs and spices, grains, and heirloom beans selling to the foodservice, consumer, and industrial marketplaces• Planned and launched the “Manitou Trading Company” e-Commerce website• Designed UX• Built Product Taxonomy; created Product Information Template and oversaw content development; managed loading content into PIM database• Used a combination of creativity, innovation, and practical marketing knowledge to deliver promotional messages and campaigns, increase customer awareness and drive brand recognition• Developed the product launch roadmap for every category enabling a staggered roll out as required by Operations Team• Initiated review and standardization of sales and marketing collateral used as standard presentations ensuring accurate and thorough presentations resulting in fewer returned products and stabilizing recurring orders when account managers changed • Prepped departments and documentation for an annual food safety audit, achieving three straight A ratings from BRC auditors (one of the highest standards of review under the Global Food Service Initiative) enabling company to become a preferred vendor with global customers such as Nestle and Unilever and with national accounts such as SYSCO and U.S. Foods

Lincolnwood, Il

Served as the Senior Editor and creator of custom published cookbooks and magazines featuring products of Fortune 500 CPG companies including KitchenAid/Whirlpool, Campbell’s Soup Co., Hershey’s Foods, multiple Kraft brands, appliance manufacturers represented by Oster, and Crock-Pot• Designed and executed multi-year, multi-product publishing projects creating millions of brand impressions annually and driving increased sales by providing consumers additional use case scenarios for products• Created project management tools and reports that were adopted as a standard across the company allowing for resource optimization and shortening the project completion cycle saving money and improving client relations• Initiated a custom content management system enabling faster, more accurate storage and retrieval of content enabling better usage of existing content thereby reducing demand for expensive custom content development• Vetted, hired and managed freelance producers of written content and photographs for publicationsSignificant Projects: Led the content team which created a recipe mobile app called “iCookbook” that ranked among the Top 10 apps in its category of the iTunes App stores within 3-months of its release Developed the recipe content for KitchenAid/Whirlpool Use & Care Guide that was distributed in the packages of 4½-quart, 5-quart, and Professional Series Mixers that were sold throughout North America (including Canada & Mexico), Central America and parts of the Caribbean:

Lincolnwood, Il

Planned and managed publications such as cookbooks and recipe magazines

Bannockburn, Il

• Developed and edited magazine content for a number of magazines including Core Sports, To the Maxx, Scott Fine’s Great Grilling Magazine, Mary Beth’s Beanie Baby Magazine, and Pojo’s Pokemon News & Price Guide Monthly• Planned stories and issues; managed and hired freelance workers; performed copy editing, proofread; managed editorial calendar; and led discussions of story ideas with the editorial staff Created and implemented planning tools across multiple publishing teams to improve project management, speed product development and allow greater resource planning

Bannockburn, Il

Chicago, Il

HealthUnits was one of the largest suppliers of durable medical equipment in the 11 states in which it had offices before it was purchased by one of its competitors in 2000. During my tenure there I developed and coordinated the use of all marketing and training materials for use in-house and by our clients. I reported directly to the Chief Operations Officer, and therefore I developed insights into all aspects of the business before choosing to refocus my career more directly on writing and editing for consumer publications.

B.A.

Professional Development Certificate