Creative Channel Services

Company: Creative Channel Services, Los Angeles, CA
Company Description: Through our proprietary CyberScholar Retail Network® and exclusive retailer partnerships, Creative Channel Services’ retail marketing solutions accelerate our clients’ sales performance by connecting their brands with more than 15,000 stores and 175,000 retail professionals who recommend and sell products to up to 3,000,000 shoppers each day.
Nomination Category: Marketing Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Marketing Team of the Year

Nomination Title: CCS-Samsung Field Sales & Marketing Team

1. Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved since January 1 2009 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

CCS’ Samsung Field Marketing Team is dedicated to increasing the market share,
image and retail sales of the world’s No. 1 consumer electronics brand by
providing superior representation and retail-marketing support. The CCS-Samsung
team focuses on Home Electronics, Mobile Electronics, Information Technology and
Home Appliances product lines. Collectively, they build relationships with
retail personnel to ensure that salespeople understand Samsung’s product
features and benefits and can communicate that value to consumers. In-store,
team members leverage relationships and individual creativity to secure millions
of dollars of shelf space and optimize in-store displays. As brand ambassadors,
the team ensures that salespeople are well educated and able to effectively
match their consumers with the right products for their needs, promotes Samsung
at industry events such as the Consumer Electronics Show, and represents the
Samsung brand in their local communities.

For years, the CCS-Samsung team has provided Samsung timely intelligence to
monitor and move its business forward. The team captures thousands of points of
market research data every day at the store level to keep Samsung informed of
what is happening at the point of sale. The team’s actionable data and
insightful analysis gives Samsung what it needs to act quickly to develop and
adjust its retail channel strategy as the market demands.

2009 Accomplishments
The team’s collective efforts . . .
• Resulted in record sales in Samsung home appliances at Best Buy, Sears, Lowes
and hh gregg.
• Made Samsung No. 1 in customer satisfaction for Refrigeration (five years
consecutively), dryers (two years); and washers, as well as for overall
laundry-pair (two years).
• Increased DI sales by up to 123% in covered stores
• Contributed to 31% higher sales at stores covered by the CCS-Samsung Field
Marketing Team vs. uncovered stores (Data collected Jan-Sept 2009))
• Met or exceeded the following goals: No. 1 market share for LCD and PDP (+50”)
displays; No. 1 market share for Blu-ray and Home Theater products; and 100%
achievement of operation excellence
• Grew TV category by 16% and the Digital A/V by 78%
• Increased the number of retail associate’ interacting with Samsung online
product training by 189%
• Local team member organized holiday photo shoots for the military and their
families for the last two years. In 2009, the holiday event for Army and Air
Force families with handicapped children was attended by over 100 families with
61 special-needs children.
• Individual team members received unsolicited kudos from consumers that they
had helped in stores.

2009 Recognition
• Best Buy Bravo Award – For the second consecutive year, Samsung was recognized
with Best Buy’s Home Appliance Bravo Award for overall organization commitment
to the Home Appliance business at Best Buy, including superior account
management, strategic growth, supply chain execution and, most importantly,
best-in-class field team support to Best Buy associates.
• J.D. Power & Associates Study – A six-month survey of 1,200 retail locations
in the first half of 2009 found that Samsung LCD TVs were recommended 58 percent
of the time by retail associates.

2. List hyperlinks to any online work samples, news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

TWICE Magazine:
JD Power: Samsung Winning TV Retail Recommendations
http://www.twice.com/article/print/357837-JD_Power_Samsung_Winning_TV_Retail_Recommendations.php

JD Power & Associates:
2009 Home Appliance Study: Clothes Washer
http://www.jdpower.com/Homes/ratings/home-appliance:-clothes-washer-ratings

3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated team:

Vida Roozen, Director, Strategic Accounts
Vida quickly rose through the CCS ranks after joining the company in 2000. She
became director of Strategic Accounts in 2005 and has provided innovative
leadership for the Samsung team’s strategy, operations and planning. Her team
has grown from one team of 14 people to multiple category teams of more than 150
field and support associates.

Vida credits much of her success to CCS’ focus on teamwork and willingness to
embracing organizational change. She has sought mentoring from CCS colleagues
and company leadership to build a broad perspective of the industry, which helps
her adapt to the dynamic retail marketplace.