Insights lead for Sweet Baked Snacks (Hostess brands). I lead the team that drives insight and consumer-led thinking into all aspects of the business to contribute to profitable, sustainable growth. We collaborate with and support: C-Suite, Brand Management, Marketing Communication, Innovation, R&D, Activation, PR, E-comm, Sales and Customer Teams.Hostess Positioning & Messaging: Advancing the growth of the Hostess brand by exploring, refining, and validating human and brand truths in order to optimize brand positioning and creative territories. Hostess Brand and Innovation Research:• Lead and manage all research and strategy initiatives related to Hostess brand positioning and innovation. Project examples: A&U, Brand Positioning Exploratory, BASES Restager, Packaging Redesign, Forecasting/Pricing Modeling, and Activation/Campaign Development. • Guide the strategy for the Hostess brand and Innovation by bridging insights across teams to bring the voice of the consumer into all discussions to help influence decisions. • Lead all product sensory work related to validating formulas across the Hostess portfolios.

Managed DP&E Custom Insights:• Led all custom research projects for the newly created Digital Product & Experience department. Focused on loyalty, delivery, drive thru, mobile app, and data privacy projects.• Commissioned and designed custom customer and crew research initiatives to advise on business requirements and experience concepts across McDonald’s global digital capabilities, products, and channels. Results drove McDonald’s global digital strategy and innovation by identifying unmet needs and pain points in customer journeys that could be mitigated by digital intervention.• Managed the DP&E Market Tracker in the top 11 McDonald’s global markets to provide data and insights that allowed market leads to measure KPIs and identify areas of optimization for McDonald’s DP&E core products.• Partnered closely with Digital Product Leads to develop learning agendas for McDonald’s digital “big rock” projects that are projected to deliver over $7B in incremental revenue for McDonald’s by 2025.

Managed Vehicle Research Studies:• Executed and managed all consumer research initiatives related to Toyota Small, Entry, and Sports Cars. Projects ranged from exploratory product studies to multifaceted marketing clinics. Results helped support marketing and creative strategies for four unique vehicle launches. • Managed research vendor relationships from inception to conclusion, including drafting RFPs, recommending appropriate methodologies, overseeing report development, managing budgets, and establishing timelines. • Provided strategic recommendations for vehicle marketing campaigns (messaging development, creative optimization, and campaign tracking).Managed Custom Research Studies:• Executed and managed consumer research initiatives related to consumer shopping behaviors, Toyota Service Centers, Toyota Certified Used Vehicles, Toyota Rent a Car, and Toyota.com. • Consulted with various teams across the organization to understand their business needs/questions and developed research methodologies that helped inform large strategic directions for Toyota (e.g., Toyota’s Market Based Psychographic Segmentation and Parts and Service Segmentation).• Enhanced messaging development and digital targeting capabilities by integrating Toyota’s Market Based Psychographic Segmentation into Oracle’s Data Management Platform (Oracle DMP).

Managed Primary Research Studies:• Executed all technical aspects of quantitative research initiatives, including questionnaire development, survey programming, data analysis (using SPSS), and reporting.• Managed the design and execution of exploratory consumer studies, including ethnographies and focus groups, to support marketing objectives. Studies and recommendations supported brand & product marketing, direct marketing, strategy, product development, artist management, and curation initiatives.• Managed research vendor relationships from inception to conclusion, including drafting RFPs, recommending appropriate methodologies, overseeing report development, managing budgets, and establishing timelines. • Responsible for listener database integration. Combined internal behavioral data with attitudinal survey results to craft multifaceted stories and distill deeper insights.Managed Brand Tracking Initiatives:• Implemented and socialized brand equity tracking and site satisfaction studies. Developed longitudinal studies that provided insights on emerging consumer needs and industry gaps.• Leveraged data and insights from historic research results to answer business questions.Other Projects:• Assisted with global research initiatives, including advertising testing, product development, industry gap analysis, and emerging market validation. All initiatives supported the strategy team for new market expansion.

Managed Syndicated Research:• Extracted insights on the music industry, competitive landscape, and listeners from various sources and synthesized results for Sales and Marketing teams.Managed all Data Analysis:• Acted as the data processing and analysis expert within the Consumer Insights team. Responsibilities included data storage and integrity, weighting results to represent internal metrics (Random Iterative Method), coding and cleaning data using SPSS syntax, recommending/creating best practices for statistical methods and usage, performing advanced multivariate statistical analysis, and creating crosstabs.• Worked with team members in multiple markets to provide recommendations on data best practices, strategic planning, and analysis recommendations.Other Projects:• Assisted with various other studies such as ad effectiveness, consumer intercepts, and brand equity tracking to clearly convey data-driven findings and provide actionable recommendations to advertising partners.• Assisted with the creation and management of Pandora’s consumer panel, Soundboard. Soundboard has been used to provide quick and cost-effective research to inform strategic marketing narratives. • Assisted Sales Research department with analyzing internal engagement metrics using SQL and Hive.

Managed Sensory Testing:• Responsible for all aspects of sensory testing, ranging from alignment on study objectives, vendor proposals, questionnaire development, project logistics, and analysis. Presented results to a cross-functional team to inform menu innovation and recipe optimization. Standardized Testing:• Standardized sensory and concept testing methodologies by optimizing recruiting, questionnaires, analysis, reporting, and vendor contracts. New testing protocols provided strategic direction on menu development, product optimization, marketing calendar, communication, and promotional strategies.Managed Friday’s Guest Satisfaction Survey:• Collaborated with a cross-functional team to successfully transition Friday’s CX tracking platform to a new vendor. Transition resulted in over 30% cost savings and increased new capabilities in mobile and Spanish surveys• Responsible for ad hoc requests using guest satisfaction data to better understand product and restaurant performance. Information used to inform strategic managerial decisions.• Analyzed and updated weekly and monthly scorecards for the executive team to identify issues that drive or affect corporate and franchise performance.Other Studies:• Assisted with various other studies such as menu satisfaction, attitude and usage, in-store intercepts, focus groups, advertising awareness and effectiveness, and brand equity tracking to clearly convey data-driven findings and provide actionable recommendations.