Bike

Fishing

Lifestyle

Outdoor

Snow

Health & Fitness

Demonstrated success and progressive experience in expanding specialty outdoor brands via activating holistic, omnichannel
marketing initiatives focusing on customer-facing communications in digital advertising, email marketing, social media, trade
marketing, in-store & POP branding, print media, out-of-home campaigns, and public relations. 

Maintained a proven track record of success in developing long-term strategies, building brand partnerships, and creating a best-in-class customer/brand experience. Uniquely adept at collaborating with internal and external stakeholders to drive key performance indicators across multiple revenue channels.  Expertise in delivering operational analysis and procedural improvement recommendations-assessing business and market trends to significantly impact performance and revenue. 

Extensive background in management, including experience in staff development, conflict resolution, budget administration, developing an ROI to show the potential success of innovative programs, and a proven background in exceeding business goals while remaining below budget. Excellent problem-solving skills with the ability to work in fast-paced, high-pressure environments.

•	Built the brand’s first dedicated marketing team, successfully developing brand identity, increasing market share, and growing brand awareness; contributing to significant gross revenue increases across direct to consumer – 42% growth vs 2018, wholesale – 20% growth, and key accounts – 14% growth during FY2019. 
•	Managed a team of 8 including graphic design, copywriting, merchandising, email, digital marketing & advertising, social media, UI/UX Development, and content (in-field and studio) production.
•	Effectively managed annual marketing budget of $6.2M (2020) including digital advertising budgets of $3.4M (2019) and $5.1M (2020) and a content budget of $775K (2020).  Realized a digital ROAS over 1500% across all channels – Google Ads, Shopping & YouTube, Facebook & IG, Bing, Quantcast, Criteo, Pinterest, and El Toro. 
•	Drove 33% YoY (2018 vs 2019) growth in organic conversion rates through branded keyword campaigns and in-depth analysis of traffic, behavior, and user demographic data to implement new content strategies and optimize the path to purchase on kuhl.com.
•	Drove ecommerce revenue to a 38% increase YoY during COVID (February – May 2020) without leveraging promotional or discount strategies via digital initiatives including daily updates to ad spending across all channels to align with consumer behavior and market trends, revised social media tactics, relevant content creation and distribution, and new email acquisition campaigns.
•	Utilized first-party data and launched customer engagement surveys to identify new audience segments to increase brand awareness in previously untapped channels.  Forecasted, developed, and executed 12-month content creation pipeline to generate a robust asset library with a focus on increasing authentic brand awareness across these new audience segments.
•	Onboarded a team of Python developers to identify purchasing trends within customer segments, cohorts and their associated behavior, and created long-term strategies for improving customer retention, CLTV, and conversion rates.
•	Implemented email content strategy to decrease churn rates and increase open and click-through rates without negatively impacting email-attributed revenue. Evolved welcome funnel email flows to capture additional $550k in revenue in 2019.
•	Applied regional-seasonality, gender, and end-use segmentation to email channel and content distribution to improve new product introductions to existing customers.
•	Developed and tested continual updates to kuhl.com PDP - Demonstrated performance improvements through A/B testing and analysis resulting in incremental improvements to cart-to-detail and buy-to-detail rates. 
•	Improved category page hierarchy, style assortment & display, and predictive merchandising through machine learning software implementation.
•	Fostered relationships with key accounts (REI, Backcountry.com, Scheels, etc.) and supported independent wholesale teams with regionally relevant marketing assets, consistent with branded direct-to-consumer campaigns. 
•	Managed a team of contract SEO specialists to audit the KUHL site against the competitive landscape.  Made recommendations for improvements in content, menus, category pages, PDP's and backlink profile to improve search ranking and facilitate non-branded keyword campaign performance.


Director of Marketing

•   Executed 18-month strategic initiative to improve the brand's global positioning and market share.
•   Effectively managed annual North American Brand Marketing budget of $6.5M.
•   Surpassed EBITDA contribution by 2.9% versus 2017. Contributed to overall brand growth of $30M (Gross Revenue).
•   Contributed to a 14% growth of the Black Diamond brand in H1 of 2018 via holistic marketing initiatives focusing on trade
marketing, social media, digital advertising, print media, consumer events, and public relations.
•   Facilitated 89% year-over-year growth in H1 of 2018 for a re-launched apparel initiative.
•   Successfully executed bi-annual outdoor retailer shows, GOA shows, OutdoorShow and ISPO in Germany. Coordinated
development of all sales assets, merchandising components, booth layouts, video productions, social media campaigns, on-
site and off-site activations, PR and Media communications. Won best booth in Summer 2017 Outdoor Retailer show.
•   Managed a team of 7, overseeing creative, retail, athlete team, events, activations, trade marketing, and brand experience.
•   Directed a team of 64 global athletes and influencers with a total social reach of 9.8M followers. Developed long term
strategy to increase brand ambassador team by 200 influencers over a 12-month period.
•   Implemented a $500K point-of-purchase global retail marketing initiative for wholesale distribution channels.
•   Successfully coordinated the launch of 300+ unique styles across equipment and apparel over the course of three seasons.
•   Facilitated 30%+ growth in Japanese market and 15% growth in Black Diamond EU through cohesive and consistent global
messaging, creative direction, and marketing campaigns.
•   Enabled the planning development and launch of footwear as a new category for Black Diamond, capturing #3 place in N.A. market-share within the first year.
•   Coordinated launch of signature product collection with Alex Honnold through social channel via athletes, brand
ambassadors and influencers. Successfully launched through direct-to-consumer platform & key retail partners.
•   Supervised relationship with Backbone Media with an annual PR budget of $300K.
•   Responsible for budget development and analytics for marketing department.
•   Focused heavily on growing the Black Diamond digital presence, working with digital marketing team, across all major
Social Media Networks.

North American Expansion
•   Composed market research for potential retail locations and executed the opening of Fjallraven brand centers as part of a sustainable North American growth model.
•   Contributed to growth of North American retail presence by 260%, successfully opening stores across Canada and the U.S.
•   Created visual plan for all graphic and POP assets in store to effectively communicate current brand message. Aligned plan
with merchandising and physical space to create authentic brand experience.
•   Designed layout of new stores creating a consistent customer experience in all North American Brand Centers.
•   Effectively estimated cost of new store construction and opening, managing a retail capital budget of $1.5 mm annually.
•   Successfully managed logistics for all store openings. Procured/sourced materials for store builds that aligned with company's environmental responsibility code while achieving economic efficiency, profitability, and brand recognition.
•   Managed relationships with vendors, contractors and fixture manufacturers in association with new store openings.
•   Executed capital improvements to existing stores - $225,000 annually.
Operations
•   Oversaw retail inventory of $6.5mm in North American Market.
•   Developed in-store B2C drop-ship, web-based system for out-of-stock items to capture immediate sales at POS - drove
improvement to overall store conversion rates by 3%.
•   Implemented loss prevention program for North American Retail stores. Customized and implemented European inventory
management and retail operating system for North American stores - Microsoft AX System Dynamics for retail.
•   Wrote customized training and user manuals for POS system integration. Developed and implemented auto replenishment
system for merchant team. Launched first dynamic reporting system for retail stores.
•   Developed and implemented secret shopper program to reinforce consistent brand message and in-store experience.
•   Established traffic flow analysis to streamline scheduling and payroll - resulting in a payroll savings of 3.7% across 16 doors.
•   Created and implemented standardized sales strategy to boost KPI's in all doors - drove performance improvements by a
minimum of 18% in all categories within 30 days of roll out.
•   Employed a standardized onboarding and training program for new employees resulting in a 32% increase in sales from associates hired and trained through the program.

Director of Retail Operations

Store Manager/Alpine Lead

Matt Bluher is a Director of Marketing at KÜHL Clothing in Cottonwood Heights, UT.

Matt Bluher — Director of Marketing at KÜHL Clothing

Matt Bluher

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