Vic Carlson

Classically trained marketing leader with over 25 years of expertise, demonstrated in a variety of industries such as consumer durables, luxury home decor, CPG, architectural products, and technology. Known for driving business growth through strategic vision, brand building, and operational excellence. Strong believer in developing teams and fostering high-performance cultures to deliver exceptional results.

Hunter Douglas, Inc., New York, NY

Chief Marketing Officer | December 2013 – Present

Marketing leader for the company’s $1 billion luxury home furnishings brand with additional oversight of Carole Fabrics – a $36 million B2B2C fabric and custom drapery fabrication company. Lead a team of 50 marketing professionals, including an in-house creative agency.

1. Lead planning and execution of annual, integrated marketing plans – collaborating with Product, Sales, and Finance teams to meet shared goals and contributing to $300 million sales growth over 10 years.
2. Transformed the company’s legacy marketing function – crafting a more effective marketing org design and nurturing development of a high-performance culture and skillsets. Efforts led to new best-in-industry marketing capabilities and a reduction in non-working expenses.
3. Lead strategic brand-building programs – leveraging research and consumer insights to strengthen brand positionings, overseeing redesign of the brand's visual identity and producing ongoing creatives and multi-channel advertising campaigns that delivered significant growth in key brand metrics.
4. Developed new revenue growth strategies – including an innovative realignment of product distribution channels. Managed associated sales and marketing implementation of strategies, resulting in a 14% year-on-year sales increase.
5. Devised the company's first-ever digital lead management function – developing high-performance, in-house teams for digital advertising, SEO, and web design and delivering consistent annual increases in site conversion rates and a 9% CAGR in sales leads.
6. Built the company's social media and influencer marketing function – developing an internal content creation process with deeper industry partnerships that led to double-digit increases in social media metrics and record-high brand PR coverage in top industry publications.
7. Develop trade marketing and store design programs for a network of 5000+ local retail partners – continuously improving programs based on retailer feedback and leading to doubling in dealer website visits and a 10x increase in consumer traffic to dealer social media properties.
8. Drove product line performance improvements – reimagined the product supply chain, elevated the offering with more premium design options, and optimized the selling strategies. Changes led to a 40% reduction in product costs and will deliver a forecasted $11 million dollar sales increase.

Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company, Newark, NJ

Vice President of Marketing and Digital Commerce | March 2013 – October 2013

Chosen to lead a new 25-person marketing business unit that integrated traditional marketing functions with the company’s ecommerce and web design operations to create new direct-to-consumer revenue streams.

• Turned around the company’s ailing ecommerce business – quickly pinpointing ecommerce success drivers and implementing restorative processes and team structures which halted an 18-month sales decline within the first month and delivered quarterly growth rates of 40%.

Vice President of Marketing| December 2009 – March 2013

Promoted to lead all consumer and trade marketing activities for a $2 billion portfolio of consumer products (TVs, Imaging, Audio, Personal Care and Appliances). Directed 4 agencies and a staff of 12 marketing professionals.

• Led brand strategy, advertising, media, PR, digital/social, promotions, events, and trade marketing programs for national and regional retail trade partners.
• Restructured the marketing organization to more effectively support the product groups and to drive improved ownership and performance of the marketing team members.
• Championed a brand building effort for the company’s two leading brands – Led ad agency selection and oversaw the creation of ad campaigns that delivered an 8x increase in brand awareness.
• Oversaw the development of innovative retail product display solutions using unique digital interactive approaches – Display solutions were praised as “Best in Industry” by the #1 U.S electronics retailer.

Director of Marketing, Display Product Group | June 2007 – December 2009

Responsible for all consumer and trade marketing programs within the company's $700 million U.S. television business. Supervised 2 marketing associates.

• Led development of a comprehensive set of consumer-focused brochures and point-of-sale materials, providing management and creative direction to external design resources as well as the internal company creative teams.
• Led development of a series of high-impact product demonstration videos to be used at retail storefront.
• Collaborated with Japan-based product engineering teams to develop and launch the industry’s first web-based content/entertainment portal to be hosted natively on the TV device.

Mars Foods, Hackettstown, NJ

Associate Director of Innovation, Snackfood Division | July 2006 – June 2007

Led short and longer timeframe innovation efforts for a portfolio of confection products with annual sales in excess of $3 billion. Coordinated advertising agency, retailer, technical, and research team contributions.

• Led ideation sessions and directly authored a series of new product concept boards, also overseeing their testing through quantitative consumer test panels.
• Championed the creation of the division’s first entry into the Better-For-You segment. Fast-tracked product development (7 months from creation to launch) forecasted to deliver $50 million within 3 years.

Senior Brand Manager, Petcare and Snackfood Divisions | December 2001 – July 2006

Led new product development efforts and managed the daily operations, full P&L, and marketing programs for several $300 million brands within the company’s confection and petcare portfolios.

• Oversaw development of a comprehensive market segmentation study, providing actionable consumer insights which drove improved brand strategy and marketing programs.
• Led development of a unique innovation process that delivered 50 viable concepts, including ideas that scored in the 98th percentile of BASES new product rankings with a $80 million sales forecast.
• Managed commercial sourcing from various novelty item vendors to support the seasonal confection growth plans.

Additional Experience

Jackpot.com,Vice-President of Marketing | January 2000 – May 2001

Beyond.com, Director of Marketing, Consumer Division | March 1999 – January 2000

Nestlé USA, Marketing Manager, Beverage Division | April 1996 – March 1999

Kraft Foods, Associate Product Manager, Post Cereals Division | August 1994 – April 1996

United States Air Force, Officer, Weapon Systems Development Group | January 1988– March 1992

The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

• MBA in Marketing Management | June 1994
• Concentration in Strategic Planning

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

• Bachelor of Science in Astronautical Engineering | June 1987
• Awarded full four-year Air Force scholarship.