Lara Bryan Email and Phone Number

A marketing and communications professional with experience collaborating closely with senior leadership to develop and execute impactful campaigns. As a collaborative team player, I have successfully planned, managed, and overseen comprehensive external and internal communications and marketing strategies that deliver results.• Strategic Leadership: Worked alongside Leadership to spearhead strategic planning for PR, advertising, social media, and interdepartmental communications efforts.• Project Management: Proficiently managed project budgets and timelines, ensuring on-time and on-budget project delivery.• Content Strategy: Supervised social media content strategy, crafting and managing content calendars to maintain a consistent College brand image and distribute timely information.• Creative Copywriting: Conceptualized, wrote, and produced compelling copy for diverse campaign elements, including advertisements, annual reports, press releases, and publications.• Data-Driven Insights: Leveraged analytics from social media, websites, and surveys for market research and assessment projects, informing data-backed strategies.• Crisis Management: Responded adeptly to crises and challenging situations, upholding professionalism and safeguarding the College’s reputation.• Stakeholder Engagement: Cultivated and nurtured relationships with media, publications, and vendor partners, ensuring precise and consistent College communication.• Tourism Marketing: Developed a strategic marketing and communications plan for promoting the Frank Lloyd Wright Visitors Center.

Promoted to Senior Divisional Buyer due to high performance, business acumen, commitment to excellence, and exceptional relationship building skills. Achieves sales, gross margins, and profit goals for 2 large departments of a prominent retailer through the skilled selection, pricing, and promotion of merchandise for 77 stores with assets of $7 million. -Develops and drives strategy, analysis and appropriate reaction to consumer and sales trends to maximize business. Makes focused decisions based on brand integrity and company values.-Assesses the competition with respect to the financial condition, trends, marketing, and product strategy; react accordingly to ensure market leadership. Performs research analysis of markets and identifies trends and opportunities that can be applied to the customer, identifying opportunities to ensure customer satisfaction.-Manages balanced assortments by strategically selecting and purchasing products from vendor lines to create and enhance assortments based on trend and market data. -Develops and executes seasonal merchandise plans and pricing strategies. Sources and monitors the delivery of products and quality control. Manages the selection of merchandise timely to ensure the distribution to maximize sales. Negotiates proposals for products, based on trend, price, delivery time, quality, and vendor performance. -Monitors sales program indicators by style and color to identify actions for future development.

Cultivated strong and effective internal and external partner relationships that promoted collaboration and business effectiveness in the purchasing of products. Selected merchandise that could attract customers and maximize sales.

Promoted to Shoe Sales Manager responsible for leading a $2 million Ladies, Men’s and Children’s Shoe Department. Collaborated with Buyers to increase product selection and increase volume, designing events that promoted Dillard’s as a valued brand. Trained and managed Sales Associates to provide excellent customer service, increasing shoe sales by 9% in under 6 months.

Managed and trained 30 Beauty Advisors and Sales Associates to provide outstanding customer service that increased cosmetic sales 10% and accessories sales 7%.

As Support and Brand Manager, led the Lingerie team to achieve an increase of 8% in sales and all customer service goals.

Increased department and store business and promoted the Antonio Melani brand in the areas of Women's Clothing and Accessories.

Served as the liaison for communication and coordination for academy events and community outreach opportunities. Researched potential donors and grants and developed and maintained relationships with donors to meet academy goals.