Valerie Skala Walker

Experience

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  Procter & Gamble

  Jan 1990 - Jan 1993

  Assistant Brand Manager

  Led multi-functional team (R&D, Legal, Creative, Media) to deliver product improvements, product claims and positioning, and TV/radio/print/outdoor/direct mail marketing efforts for Solo and Tide laundry detergent brands.Analyzed behavioral & attitudinal data to identify opportunities and develop business cases.

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  IRI

  Jan 1993 - Jan 2009

  Product manager for Shopper Insights Explorer™ (annual revenue $5 million+ and growing), a new web-based application on the new IRI Liquid Data™ platform. This application provides CPG marketing and sales analysts with hands-on access to a vast database of household purchase data segmented on multiple dimensions including product attributes, geographic territory, retailer, consumer demographics, custom consumer/shopper segments, trip mission, etc. SIE enables users to uncover new consumer and shopper insights that lead to multi-million dollar wins at retail. As product manager, led a multi-functional team to develop and implement the product roadmap and marketing strategy. As project manager, oversaw all development, production, and QA activities. As analytic thought leader, developed new measure formulas, scorecards, and guided analyses. As marketing manater, developed all sales materials. Show less Developed and launched new services resulting in several years of double-digit growth for the Custom Panel Analytics product line. New services included new product forecasting, in-store shopper interviewing, Trip Typology™, Product Affinity™ analysis, and category market structure analysis. Success due to close teamwork with a varied group of statisticians, SAS programmers, analytics delivery managers, and analytics sales reps.Developed and presented thought leadership studies -- including IRI's well-known New Product Pacesetters study -- at CPG industry conferences and to clients, to generate new contact and sales. Show less Developed all sales support materials (website, product fact sheets, sales presentations, proposal templates, pricing) for the company’s line of in-market testing services and other advanced analytic services including marketing mix modeling, choice modeling, and store-group analysis. Developed in-depth knowledge of each product and translated its features and advantages into compelling value propositions.Managed staff of 4-7 people to maintain our Sales Support website and historical project results databases and to provide statistical analysis training/support to sales & analytic staff in 7 U.S. locations. Show less Created complete training and reference manuals for and taught in-house seminars on In-Market Testing and New Product Benchmarking, Evaluation, and Forecasting. Created all sales and marketing materials including product fact sheets, sales presentations, case studies, proposal templates, pricing tools, and web pages. Built database of all past in-market testing projects for meta-analysis. Developed thought leadership content and presented it at major industry conferences. Represented the company at trade shows. Show less

  • Product Manager, Shopper Insights

    Jan 2007 - Jan 2009

  • Product Manager, Consumer Insights Analytics

    Jan 2000 - Jan 2007

  • Product Manager, Advanced Analytics

    Jan 1997 - Jan 2000

  • Product Manager, In-Market Testing Services

    Jan 1995 - Jan 1997

  • Client Services

    Jan 1993 - Jan 1995
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  Freelance Consulting

  Jan 2009 - Apr 2010

  Marketer / Researcher / Writer

  - Expert analyst of retail sales, household purchase panel, and consumer survey data. - Skilled at integrating multiple data sources to find converging points of evidence to build persuasive retail selling stories and successful marketing plans. - Strong writer of research reports, training documentation, sales materials, presentations.

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  Datamonitor Consumer

  Apr 2010 - Apr 2011

  Custom Research and Consulting, Consumer Packaged Goods

  Sold and delivered custom analyses that integrated primary research (consumer and industry surveys) with Datamonitor's unique on-line library of data and insights on consumer goods markets (the Consumer Knowledge Center), including the Product Launch Analytics database which captures and databases new product launches globally, New Consumer Insights reports on consumer attitudes and trends (both on specific categories and on broader themes like cooking habits and the green movement), Company Profiles, Country Profiles, and Market Size Data (sales figures for 200 categories in 62 countries). Show less

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  Freelance Consulting

  May 2011 - Oct 2015

  Writer / Researcher / Marketer

  Developed web pages and sell sheets for a marketing analytics consulting firm.Developed training materials and case studies for internal training use for a marketing research firm.Developed ideas, researched, and wrote blog articles on topics relevant to consumer products innovation for an innovation consulting firm.Researched and wrote in-depth reports for a syndicated research firm. Completed reports on various topics of current interest to the consumer packaged goods industry, including packaging innovation for the aging population, lessons learned from new product failures in emerging markets, the future of probiotics in foods/beverages, developments in nutricosmetics, and trends in ingredients in energy foods/drinks, Show less

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  MaxPoint

  Oct 2015 - Sept 2016

  Content Strategist for Shopper Marketing/CPG Solutions

  Developed concepts for thought leadership content and marketing collateral, wrote copy, and collaborated with marketing managers and graphic designers to bring these concepts to life for use by our sales force. Produced the company's first major piece of thought leadership directed at CPG brand and shopper marketing clients, "The New Consumer Mobility: Five Changes to Master for Digital Success." Wrote a variety of case studies, sales hand-outs, product sell sheets, and blog posts.MaxPoint is a leader in digital advertising technology and measurement, specializing in converting online interest to offline sales. MaxPoint's approach to ad targeting is based not only on individual- and household-level characteristics, but also on the broader context of their neighborhoods, stores, and cities. Show less

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  TransUnion

  Nov 2016 - Sept 2017

  Marketing Communications Manager

  Developed copy for blog, social media posts, paid advertising, and email campaigns. Wrote and edited e-books, research papers, and slideshows.

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  Freelance Writing

  Sept 2017 - now

  Freelance writer and researcher for B2B and B2C websites, blogs, white papers

  Wrote white papers for an adtech company for use in inbound marketing.Wrote blog posts and web pages with SEO to support lead generation for law firms and other professional services firms.

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  Innova Market Insights

  Aug 2019 - now

  Commissioning Editor