Richard Mendell

Marketing & Branding, Marketing and Advertising

Richard Mendell - A Retail & Consumer Branding Expert with Moxie

Richard Mendell's Bio:

Richard Mendell's Experience:

• Quizmaster at Geeks Who Drink

  December 2012 - July 2013

  I asked ALL the questions for the Geeks Who Drink pub quiz at Oskar Blues' Homemade Liquids and Solids in Longmont, CO. As host to a rip roaring good time, I got to practice both my extemporaneous public speaking skills and my people skills.

• Marketing Strategy Consultant at Customer Innovation Factory

  August 2012 - July 2013

  Offering a full range of consumer marketing and brand strategy services to businesses across Colorado and Wyoming, I created marketing plans, analyzed current marketing efforts and delivered targeted tactical marketing programs.

• Marketing Strategy Consultant at Customer Innovation Factory

  September 2009 - June 2012

  Customer Innovation Factory provided strategic, targeted marketing services for small to mid-sized companies, with expertise in multi-unit restaurant and retail business. o Created a new and successful vertical for a training software company by writing and executing a marketing plan that specifically targeted the needs of companies in the hospitality industry. o Led a program to unbundle a multi-concept restaurant operator's web presence, establishing unique consumer sites for each of their brands and ensuring that consumers were able to quickly find these sites by using SEO tools such as site mapping and adjacent domain redirects. o Contributed, pro bono, to both a significant net increase in donations and a measurable increase in local media exposure for a local charitable organization by developing a "start doing/stop doing" analysis of their marketing efforts. o Delivered a 20% year over year improvement in sales, paired with a 15% jump in traffic and a net decrease in advertising expenses for an Oklahoma City area multi-unit, multi-brand operator with a first ever brand strategy and marketing calendar.

• Director of Consumer Engagement at Sonic Drive-In

  January 2009 - July 2009

  Appointed to newly created role leading a cross-functional group focused on improving the delivery of marketing messages to guests both on and off premises. Assumed many roles previously led by the Operations, Purchasing, Information Services and Store Design teams. o Redefined the organization's view of how consumers use the brand by leading a series of qualitative and quantitative shopper marketing research projects, the learnings from which have been used to transform the entire brand's on and off lot messaging strategy and reinforce key brand touch points. o Delivered nearly $1 million in savings by developing and implementing the brand's first ever centralized database of marketing attributes such as stall count, signage restrictions and local menu customization. o Led the "re-launch" of Tots, the brand's signature side item, with product improvements, new packaging, a new market positioning and a multi-channel ad campaign that included web, mobile, social and traditional marketing efforts aimed at reestablishing the product with consumers. o Successfully planned, designed and launched new packaging to support new product news in a number of new and existing product lines. o Working with product line managers, planned the marketing calendar and allocated channel resources to products and promotions based on their impact to strategic business goals and seasonal applicability. o Developed and executed programs that led to franchisees investing more $30 million in a previously stalled digital signage program.

• Director of Marketing Channels at Sonic Drive-In

  October 2007 - January 2009

  Recruited to lead digital marketing and sports marketing efforts, the role quickly expanded to include acting as brand gatekeeper, allocating promotional and product messages across the marketing calendar and, further, ensuring each message used the best possible communications vehicles to connect with the target audience. o In tandem with the Brand and Sr Management Teams, delivered Strategic Marketing and Promo Calendars with tiered media, on-lot, social and local store messaging. o Strategic development of and execution of the 1100 unit plus digital signage network, including real-time changes to on-screen messages, customized on the corporate, local and franchisee levels yet maintaining brand continuity, identity and standards. o Introduced more than $100,000 a year in cost savings by completely redesigning store level marketing communications, moving most materials to digital distribution. o Delivered nearly $1 million in cost savings by engineering changes in process, sizes and materials used for point of purchase communications. This was done while raw material costs increased nearly 20% versus prior year.

• Sr. Manager, In-Store Experience at Subway Franchisee Advertising Fund Trust (SFAFT)

  January 2006 - October 2007

  Recruited for a newly created role with the global brand and tasked with leading innovation in the arena of customer experience. Work included marketing communications, visual merchandising, digital marketing, brand identity and both social and mobile marketing. o Delivered both record growth in same-store sales and in beverage and side unit volumes while leading the both multi-organizational and cross functional 2007 Subway Menu Team in creating and deploying new menu boards for more than 23,000 locations in 5 countries (US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand). o Working directly with both the internal Consumer Insights team, outside consultants and syndicated market research sources, determined unmet consumer needs and trends in terms of product and menu board use. Partnering with these same groups, as well as the internal Analytics team, determined the efficacy of innovations and changes before launching new menus. This was the first time this kind of systematic, shopper marketing, approach had been used at Subway. o Launched dynamic mobile marketing initiative using a combination of mobile web, WAP, and SMS to create real time customer interactions with POP and dynamic couponing tied to inventory, weather and other external metrics. o Successfully launched, in concert with multiple partner organizations, the "My Subway Card" gift and loyalty card program, which grew sales by an estimated $2 million in its first year. Program was designed to execute as solely a gift card program in some markets, with an added loyalty component in selected DMAs.

• Manager, Brand Merchandising at Carl's Jr.

  June 2002 - December 2005

  Moving with the company to the Santa Barbara area, took on wider responsibilities in a new role focused on all aspects of brand marketing, with a special focus on bringing new products to market and delivering a cohesive experience across all customer points of contact. Within this role launched well known products such as The Six Dollar Burger and created, from scratch, an entirely new brand called Channel Islands Roasting Co. o Re-launched the carlsjr.com and hardees.com websites with complete redesigns featuring immersive content and leveraging relationships with Hollywood studios, video game producers and technology companies to create cross-promotional content, all of which drove site visits and increased view time, helping to deepen consumers' relationship with the brands. o As architect of the brand's strategic marketing calendar, led cross-functional teams, including Operations, Product Development, Logistics and Training staff, in addition to marketing, to drive new menu items through their life cycle, from ideation and planning, onto product development, testing and, finally, system wide launch. o Used social media, rich content web advertising and public relations to create "buzz" around new product news, including the infamous Paris Hilton campaign supporting The Six Dollar Burger line and the Webby nominated Chili Burger launch campaign. o Led the creation of a new menu program from strategic planning to in-store implementation. By re-focusing the chain's menu items and the physical appearance of the menuboards to complement the overall brand strategy, optimize menu mix and drive highly profitable beverage sales, store level profitability increased by more than $10,000 per store, per year, ongoing.

• Merchandising Manager at Carl's Jr.

  June 2001 - June 2002

  Recruited to join the iconic burger brand and leveraged experience in agency management, creative oversight, calendar planning and print production to deliver immediate savings while improving the brand's "go to market" ability. o Delivered $2 million in cost savings to both franchisees and the corporation while improving service to operators in the field by creating and implementing new systems for the production, fulfillment and billing of Point of Purchase materials.

• Marketing Services Analyst at Taco Bell

  September 2000 - June 2001

  Promoted within existing role to better represent the scope of projects being handled, including new efforts to streamline POP procedures and continuing efforts to successfully deploy a multi-million dollar menu board system. o Saved more than $3 million in lost time, wasted production and vendor lawsuits by successfully rescuing a troubled new menu system through the creation of a system to identify and correct manufacturer defects before hardware was delivered to stores. o Recognized with a "Taco Bell Way" award for creating and implementing a completely new franchise POP subscription system that successfully decreased costs while improving order accuracy.

• Field Marketing Coordinator at Taco Bell

  April 1997 - September 2000

  Joined the Field Marketing team to ensure store level marketing needs were being met. o Traveled throughout the system to troubleshoot franchisee challenges in POP. o Led a strategic analysis of POP usage & efficacy which changed the way the brand used POP in promotional modules.

• Field Marketing Assistant at Taco Bell

  March 1996 - April 1997

  Joined the brand to act as liaison between Field Marketing staff in the field and the rest of the corporate marketing team. o Put together new communications procedures to ensure timely flow of information to and from field team members, ensuring that corporate staff had a better understanding of franchisee needs/concerns, enabling more efficient sell-in of marketing programs.

• Director of Local Restaurant Marketing & Catering at Fazoli's Restaurant Management, LLC

  July 2013

  In this newly created role, I lead catering and trade area marketing strategy for the 200+ unit Fazoli's Italian fast casual brand. My work includes efforts in marketing, operations, training and business analytics, all focused on growing catering as a profit center for the company and its franchisees, as well as on helping individual restaurants better understand and market to their specific trade areas.

Richard Mendell's Education:

• Utsunomiya Kita High School

  1900 – 2016
  Certificate

• California State University-Long Beach

  1989 – 1996
  BA
  Concentration: Political Science

• Long Beach Polytechnic High

  1982 – 1986
  Medallion w/Honors
  Concentration: Marketing

• Utsunomiya Kita High School

  1985 – 1985
  Certificate
  Concentration: Japanese Language & Culture Immersion

Richard Mendell's Interests & Activities: