Val Shields - Strategic Marketing Specialist

1. Introducing Val Shields

2. Val Shields • Worked in highly competitive, national, listed companies • Work in medium to large companies ensuring marketing spend delivers return on investment, working closely with Finance to ensure profitability • Consumer focused - ingraining a “customer first” ethos throughout the organisation • Shift organisations from inward to outward looking – competitor awareness and market focussed • Sharpening and simplifying marketing messages • Identifying, segmenting and targeting customers for growth potential • Delivering market share and business growth • Digital transformation – collaborating with Operations, IT, Finance, HR - prepare businesses for the future

3. My Specialties • Strategic Thinking / Big Picture Marketing • Business & Marketing Plans • Growth Strategies – and the importance of market share • Curiosity – applying a mix of curiosity, instinct and experience, to explore ideas and build strategies • Interpreting data to form strategies and competitive advantage - Big Data / Insight / Analytics • Communications – print, digital & internal • Research • Customer experience • Brand positioning • ROI of marketing spend • Mentoring • Collaboration

4. Sector experience Sport & leisure Education Services Distribution Foodservice • Food • Drink • Retail • Manufacturing • Media

5. Experience gained in:- • Argyll Stores Ltd - £778m turnover (1983) • ASDA Stores Ltd - £4.3bn turnover (1992) • The Victoria Wine Co (1,000+ branches nationwide) • Regional Independent Media – £450m turnover (1995) • Moorland Foods – manufacturing subsidiary of Hillsdown Holdings • Trusty Crust Organic Bakery – manufacturing, wholesale & retail • East Lothian Council - public sector finance and budgeting • Enjoy Leisure Ltd – CRM, database & digital marketing • McSence Communications - social enterprise and services

6. Marketing Courses – Developed & Delivered • Marketing Planning for Regional Newspapers • Marketing Planning for Editors • Marketing Planning for Advertising Sales • Marketing Planning for Newspaper Sales • Marketing Planning for Newspaper Promotions • Business Planning & Marketing Planning (for Senior Managers) • Sales Master Class (for national sales team) • Marketing Support for Sales Success • New Product Development • Customer Journey / Customer Experience (developed for Enjoy Leisure)

7. I could support your business growth if: • You are looking to enter a new growth phase • Your current marketing is too short term, or tactical • You have not got a marketing plan which is aligned to your business KPIs • Your Marketing Plan is not rigorously challenged at each management meeting • You are not achieving ROI on your marketing spend • Your marketing personnel lack all-round marketing skills • You’ve not got a consumer champion within your organisation • Your marketing operation does not have the gravitas of other functions like Finance or Operations • Your marketing operation is currently organised in silos and no one is looking at the bigger picture • You need a marketer who understands profitability and commerce

8. Data transformation • Are you maximising data? • My experience of using data to transform organisations: • Big data development at Argyll Stores – exploiting first bar code data to identify best and poorest products across multi facia (Presto, Liptons, Templetons & Galbraiths), nationally. • ASDA – identifying with IT how to access sales data, by line, by store. Applying this to aid supplier negotiations, range, store layouts • ASDA – identifying market share / market growth by sector – strategy building and implementation • ASDA - collaborating with largest UK research agencies (Kantar / Nielsen) to set up till roll data project – opening up unprecedented access to consumer purchase behaviour • RIM – instigated market share / growth for benchmarking group-wide – using this to build newspaper content, advertising platforms, new product development • Enjoy leisure – collaborated with IT to gain access to EPOS database - leading to segmentation & targeted advertising, product packages, membership growth & retention; introduced Management Info Dashboard – management access to trends at a glance in graph format for planning fitness classes, gym memberships, significantly increasing website traffic, segmenting audiences for email marketing

9. Leveraging data to: • Reduce range - savings on stock holding, range rationalisation, space re-allocation, 7 figure improvements in sales and profits (Argyll Stores) • Improve margin, better data for supplier negotiations; sharper advertising and communications through market segmentation (ASDA) • Prioritise growth sectors for own label development, store layouts, press and TV advertising (ASDA) • Equip sales force with professional, factual sales data to increase sales and profitability through initiating biennial readership surveys and introducing use of TGI / FES (RIM) • Change editorial emphasis on content and strengthen advertising platforms (RIM) • Develop customer relationships, targeted advertising – less wastage & identifying new sports activities to increase revenues and user numbers x4 (Enjoy Leisure) • Forecast future usage of sports facilities & plan capital investment (Enjoy Leisure)

10. Business & Marketing Planning • Aligned to business KPIs • Ensure, or identify KPIs that deliver results • Researching, preparing and implementing marketing / business plans to increase sales – ASDA, RIM, Enjoy Leisure • Introduced marketing planning in large organisations – RIM • Implementation of plans – regular reporting to senior management, linking marketing activities to business performance and profitability • 7 fold growth in turnover and significant margin improvement in new sectors - Bakery • Despite reduced budget, still delivered services and came in below budget – East Lothian Council

11. Contact me - Val Shields: • For help with business growth • To lead organisational change and digital transformation by exploiting untapped information • To tap into my experiences gained across varying sectors and company sizes • To leverage your data to give competitive advantage • To work with someone who is naturally curious and thinks “big picture” • A commercial marketer who understands the whole business – across Finance, Operations, IT, HR • Someone who challenges the status quo and current thinking • val_shields@hotmail.com