Steve Willinger Email & Phone Number

Westlake Village, Ca

Worked in close collaboration with the Product Merchandising and Marketing teams, focusing on timely marketing introductions of products, ensuring adherence to the standards established by both Guitar Center and the Musical Instrument Industry.• Project Manager for new product launches and marketing partnerships, worked and coordinated with Category Marketing Managers and Creative team on execution of web assets, emails, article postings, etc.• Managed catalog and direct mail print production for multiple brands – Projects included monthly four-color buyer’s guide; micro-marketing direct mail pieces designed to reach specific customer segments and print ads for specific markets, resulting in both maintaining the existing customer base while reaching out to new customer segments.• Executed and monitored paid vendor marketing, ensuring adherence to compliance and quality control standards. This includes regularly evaluating vendor performance, addressing any issues related to product quality, and ensuring that vendors meet the rigorous standards expected.

Westlake Village

Led team responsible for implementing strategic product marketing roadmap, in order to gain maximum benefit from each branded product line. Oversaw aspects of product life cycle from creation of SKUs to customer awareness.• Managed catalog and direct mail print production for four different brands. Projects included monthly four- color buyer’s guide, mailed to over one million customers; micromarketing direct mail pieces designed to reach specific customer segments; print ads for specific markets and events, and foldout mailers. Increased production output while decreasing need for freelance staff.• Led production team responsible for design and layout, product presentation, informational and pricing accuracy in all direct mail marketing tactics.• Collaborated with senior management regarding direction for creative tactics, including creating pagination for mailers, creating product and brand messaging, and creating page templates in order to develop more effective marketing outreach.• Areas of responsibility included Marketing Copywriting team for Product Display Pages (PDPs), ad copy, catalog copy, etc., Digital Asset Management team (DAM) and Product Information Management team (PIM) during implementation of a new PIM system (Riversand).• Maintained communication with Merchandising team and outside vendors to improve presentation and descriptions of products and ensure proper co-op coverage.

Westlake Village, Ca

Executed and participated in comprehensive, dynamic marketing strategies, including managing catalog and direct mail print production, collaborating with key stakeholders including Product, Content, Marketing, and Customer Acquisition to achieve company goals.• Managed team that performed design, layout and copywriting, resulting in increased productivity and accuracy for marketing tactics.• Collaborated to bring pre-press process in-house saving the company expenses and time associated with pre-press preparation services.• Instrumental in creating advertising product database of products advertised with Creative Services team and IT group to ensure improvement and optimal solutions for information management and distribution, including product database structures, layout importing systems, etc.

Bachelor Of Arts - Ba, Communication Studies

M.A., Radio, Television, Film

Newhouse School Of Public Communication