Joan Benson Email & Phone Number

Dallas / Fort Worth, Texas Area; San Jose, Ca

Austin, Tx

• Product Launch: Plan, execute & manage launch of financial and grant products.• Positioning & Messaging: Develop product positioning & messaging that differentiates my products in the market.• Sales Enablement: communicate the value proposition of my product lines effectively to the sales team and develop sales tools that support the selling process.• Market Intelligence: Responsible for being the primary expert on my buyers, how they by and their buying criteria. In house expert on the competition and how to defeat them.• Demand Generation: Develop the strategy and manage the marketing programs that drive demand for my products.

• Lead New Product Development & Innovation initiatives • Licensing/New Product Initiatives• Manage P&L for product portfolio. • Identify and analyze innovation opportunities. Build business case to support investment.• Partner with Supply Chain to ensure successful execution of overseas product initiatives. • Work cross-functionally with Production & Engineering to develop and launch successful new products.• Product/Life Cycle Management for assigned brands/product categories.• Direct and develop business & marketing plans as well as P&L for new products and line extensions.• Partner with Sales to develop successful launch plans and selling tools to ensure new product revenue goals are met• Own the consumer insights and trends function across categories and channels.

Colorado Springs, Co

• P&L responsibility for $20 million product line.• Developed strategy to grow direct channel revenue by 10%. Executed campaigns and managed $1.5m budget.• Created aggressive customer acquisition campaign to revitalize direct database and support brand awareness campaign. • Market research and analysis to determine best ROI opportunities, including revised VBS, curriculum strategy and long-term church resource product investment. • Develop “internal expertise” in the targeted product and market segments introducing Sales force to sales opportunities within the Church resource area. • Managed marketing consumer efforts and web team responsible for website, email campaigns and database.• Led a corporate cross-functional initiative team of key leaders from Marketing, Editorial, Sales, and Finance to research, analyze and recommend solutions for ‘revitalizing Cook’s channels of distribution’.

• Created and implemented Marketing/Business plans to achieve 100% fulfillment of strategic goals and maximized revenue and profitability for $10 million product line across Consumer and Trade channels. • Launched 50 award-winning products per year. • Managed all creative efforts: web, catalog, direct mail, print advertising, and sales support tools that contributed led to an overall 12 % increase in sales.• Worked directly with Sales team to develop and grow key accounts increasing them by 5 %.• Led cross-functional team to maintain most profitable levels of inventory & operational performance while maintaining the highest levels of customer satisfaction

Product/Brand Manager: ArtCarved Class Rings (Austin, TX) 2001 to 2003Tessler & Weiss–Fine Jewelry Manufacturer Consultant, Product & Brand Management 1998 to 2001Director of Operations–ArtCarved Bridal 1996 to 1998 Product Line/Brand Marketing Manager–ArtCarved Class Rings & Bridal Divisions 1993 to 1995 Financial Operations Manager, ArtCarved Bridal Div. 1990 to 1993 Cost Accounting Manager, ArtCarved Bridal Division 1988 to 1990