• What is the strength or “natural style” that you bring to a team?  Describe a specific situation and how your style affected the team’s decision.

​

I feel I am a natural communicator and storyteller. One of my instructors in a communications class for Writing for Mass Media used to say “Give me facts and I might listen, tell me a story and you have my attention.” One of the products developed for the Eureka brand was a very small and lightweight vacuum that when brought to consumer testing received poor marks against the competition. Consumers viewed it as “too small and light to get the job done”. During a brainstorming session with marketing, I suggested that we “own the objection, switch the narrative.” We needed the story to change from “It’s too small” to “It can do the job.” We created a campaign around the objection that “small is mighty” and “size isn’t everything”. When we went back to consumer testing, we added point of purchase materials with this message. Consumer preference to the competitive vacuums went from 30% to 70%. Turning the narrative, and changing the story is what made that campaign successful.

​

​

• What are the most important skills you have learned that you would utilize in this position?

​

The skills of listening, and letting go of ego are some of the most critical skills that help me collaborate with others, and bring out the best in myself and my team. I firmly believe that good ideas can come from anywhere, and learning from others is massively important to my own professional growth. 

​

​

 

• What techniques do you use the measure the quality of your work?  What steps do you take to ensure the desired quality is achieved?

​

Quantitative and qualitative consumer insight testing can be extremely important in understanding messaging that is impactful. Understanding the audience is paramount to making quality work. At times my visual communication team has been referred to as “the art department”. While aesthetic concerns and the critical view of a artist is important in visual communication, “art” is self-expression and that is not often what is needed. Communication is making sure the intended audience receives the intended message. Testing messages with representational receivers or consumers is very important to delivering quality messages. 

 

 

I also frequently use eye tracking simulation software developed by 3M to help make sure that hierarchy of messaging is brought through the visual medium. Understanding how viewers respond to color, contrast, and other aspects of design within the first critical 3 seconds of seeing a communication is useful in creating messaging that breaks through the cluttered landscape.

​

​

 

 

• (If relevant) Tell me about a marketing campaign you conducted that wasn't successful. What did you learn from that?

​

We engaged in consumer packaging testing that mimicked a “cleaner, less cluttered” style of one of our competitors. When our group had seen the competitive packaging, we absolutely loved the clean, bright look that the packaging had. But when we tested our current, revised and the competitive packaging, we found that while we liked the clean, minimalist style, consumers felt it didn’t give them enough information to make an informed decision. The packaging that we already had easily won consumer preference testing. We learned that it’s ultimately the consumer that makes the choice on what communicates best to them, not people sitting around in a conference room who “know better”. 

​

​

 

• What is your communication style with your team?

​

My style is that of a collaborator and consensus builder for the teams I represent and work with. Conflict is sometimes inevitable, but understanding stakeholder’s goals is critical to ultimate success. One of my designers was visibly upset at the feedback she had received regarding assets that she had created for a product marketing manager that was new to the role. Instead of discussing her objection to the feedback, she let resentment build while she made the revisions that she felt were inappropriate. My designer expressed to me that this sort of change would lead to the ultimate rejection of the asset when it was sent to the web developer. She was reluctant to talk to the marketing manager to explain the issue, and thought that “she’ll just have to learn this the hard way.” I stopped her and held a very brief face to face meeting with the new marketing manager and the issue was resolved very quickly. I feel almost everyone is motivated to do great work, a lot of misunderstanding around an office can happen when we fail to engage each other on a personal level.

​

​

 

• How do you ensure that your project is on schedule to meet the deadline?

​

Project management is a big part of my current role. Backdating a project with milestones, and cross-checking with stakeholder’s calendars is important to ensure delivery of a single project. I have instituted software at my current job that is now being used throughout the North American organization. Some projects are built with traditional waterfall style project management and others are built using Agile methodology. Creating repeatable process streams and approval flow creates confidence that certain types of projects take a predictable path and an understandable amount of effort from a team. Consistent process creates constant results. I am a big believer of established process. 

​

​

 

• Give me an example of something complicated within marketing that you have had to explain to others.  What were the results?

​

We had developed technology that when a vacuum brushroll became tangled with hair, the consumer could press a button with their foot causing a blade to come down on the tangled hair, removing it, and being sucked into the dustup on the vacuum. Every solution for demonstrating this technology had been like a filmstrip, 3 images were used. One showing the tangled hair, one showing the press of the button, and one showing the brush roll now clean. Text accompanied the images… it was effective in explaining, but wasn’t particularly quick to understand. I was challenged that we needed one single image to be printed very large as a backdrop for an endcap display at Lowe’s Home Improvement. My solution was a single image of a brush roll tangled with hair with scissors stuck in the tangle. The headline read “Why we invented the self-cleaning brushroll”. It tested well and went into production. Sales of our vacuums increased by over 150% with the backdrop which was featured as a success story in Retail World magazine. Lowe’s was so pleased they extended our placement of the endcap for an additional 3 months at no charge to Electrolux, resulting in over one million dollars in additional sales.