Julie Byerlein Consulting

• Challenge: SanDisk®, a global brand, had no unified look and feel-consistency across product lines, which led to confusion for both channel customers and consumers who purchased items from the different categories.  Each SanDisk product team viewed and optimized their individual product lines without regard to other in-house products, and the brand suffered from lack of consistency and product unification.
• Solution:
  • Leveraged brand insights to the whole product line: The SanDisk brand stands for quality, reliability, trust, performance, engineering innovation/invention, personal empowerment.  Its products provide the fuel for one’s digital life across a range of digital memory products.  These common brand attributes extended to all its products.
  • Created consistent brand look and feel, so consumers can instantly recognize any communication from SanDisk.
  • Extended new branding to all major touchpoints, including packaging, online, advertising, in-store signage, investor and internal communications.
  • Leveraged visual icon element ownable to the brand.
• Results: Creating a better, unified-packaging communication significantly improved shop-ability at the retail level and led to increased profits. 4Q2009 retail sales grews by+41%.

Partner Comments, Excerpts and Testimonials:

• Coming soon.

• Challenge: Chef America created Hot Pockets® and Lean Pockets® sandwich brands.  These products had acceptable sales, but they competed against many large food companies that had deep financial resources.  Also, no category-definition section existed for this product.  (1989)
• Solution:
  • Created a successful destination category.
  • Worked with major retailers to generate a place for the ‘handheld foods’ section – away from entrees and near the frozen pizza section, where high consumer overlap existed.  This created probe-out performance and the product’s brand recognition expanded nationally.
  • Became category captain by providing analysis and insights for the category.
  • Launched steady stream of product and brand extensions, including line pricing and effective merchandising.
  • Created persuasive advertising.
  • Expanded distribution outlets.
  • Optimized shelf assortment.
• Results: From 1989 to 1997, annual sales increased from $100MM to over $400MM.  Nestle purchased the company in 2002 for $2.6Billion.

Partner Comments, Excerpts and Testimonials:

• “Julie is the strongest marketing person that I have worked with in my career, with skills on par with presidents of billion-dollar divisions of food companies. Her insight, consumer knowledge and passion for creative solutions to grow businesses is absolutely one of the best.”
  David Smith, VP R&D, Chef America
• “Julie is truly an exceptional marketing executive.  Her individualized approach to understanding the consumer’s wants, needs and fears puts her in a unique position to drive consumer awareness while energizing them to buy increasingly more of our products.  Her knowledge of multiple aspects of the business give her the ability to look for and create solutions that are both financially sound, and consumer relevant.”
  Glenn C. Lee, Chief Financial Officer, Chef America and Nestle Prepared Foods Company

• Challenge: The Democratic National Convention was coming to Denver.  Art community leaders posed the question: How can we showcase Denver’s talented, vibrant art scene to this broad audience?
• Solution:
  • Created new brand from concept to market in 60 days.
  • Launched “Dems Do Denver” line of local artist-created buttons (Donkeys in Denver!).
  • Worked with 9 local artists to license their works.
  • Achieved strong press coverage, including product pictures posted in the Sunday New York Times 10 days prior to the convention.
  • Provided venue for the collector buttons, some still available online and at select local retailers.
• Results: During the convention, the buttons sold out in leading local retailers and online.

Partner Comments, Excerpts and Testimonials:

• “By achieving strong local press coverage, Julie was able to get customers to visit the store specifically for the timely buttons. Julie was highly responsive to peaks in demand. We were proud to be associated with this highly creative concept.”
  Shelley Minyard, Buyer, Tattered Cover Bookstore

• Challenge: Strong trends grew in the natural and organic foods and for all-vegetarian feed for poultry.  The client had infrastructure to deliver against this trend but needed to create a distinct brand.
• Solution:
  • Created an ‘ultra-natural’ segment and new brand from initial concepts through marketing plans.
  • Identified a range of highly differentiated positioning options and names.
  • Recommended communication strategies, including authentic voice.
  • Crafted story for proper in-store placement and merchandising.
  • Developed road maps for distribution and product growth.
• Results: The regional brand delivered over $60M in year two sales, having the strongest margins of its parent company.

Partner Comments, Excerpts and Testimonials:

• “Julie is always our “go to” person when it comes to brand innovation. Whether a new brand from the ground up or an existing brand that needs a jumpstart, Julie always delivers fresh ideas and positive energy.”
  Ron Wilkinson, Principal, NishWilk Design

• Challenge: Mrs. Fields cookies sales were stagnant in mall locations, driven by overall mall traffic trends.  The brand needed new approaches to drive growth of its product line.
• Solution:
  • Developed new approaches.
  • Created 10-second advertising spots and a national test to drive the ‘Valentine’s Day Decorated Cookies’ sales.
  • Provided comprehensive, store-level, go-to-market kits to grow their ‘Business Gifting’ programs, which licensed the brand into new, relevant, premium-quality categories such as boxed chocolates, ice cream, and ready-to-eat cookies.
• Results: ‘Decorated Cookies’ and ‘Business Gifting’ remain core products for both stores and online sales.  Licensed products continue to grow in the marketplace.

Partner Comments, Excerpts and Testimonials:

• “Across all of Julie’s responsibilities, she regularly offered new creative solutions to our business challenges and brought a fresh perspective to the business.”
  Pat Knotts, SVP Operations, Mrs. Fields Concepts

• Challenge: The Perfect Bite Company achieved excellent sales of their signature creation ‘Pastry Kisses,’ across a range of competitive retail outlets.  How should they grow amidst the crowded and competitive retail frozen desserts case?
• Solution:
  • Launched The Perfect Bite Company brand as a representative of great taste, fine caterer quality, scrumptious appetizers, as well as ‘meals to enjoy and serve to impressed guests.’
  • Selected products where the brand offered a distinct twist to encourage customers to get to know the brand via the product range.
  • Expand the products into new outlets to match the brand’s audience, including Dean & Deluca and Williams-Sonoma.
• Results: New business was created from scratch and continues to grow at +30% for 3 consecutive years.

Partner Comments, Excerpts and Testimonials:

• “Julie is someone that is always thinking about new ideas, better procedures, interesting contacts, etc.  Julie advised us during our start-up on marketing our brand.  Julie thinks on her feet and always has our best interests in her advice. Her passion is contagious, and she is a pleasure to work alongside.  Did I mention she is the smartest business person I have ever encountered?”
  Teri Valentine, owner, The Perfect Bite Company