Greetings from Cleveland

I develop and execute the marketing strategies for holiday-themed greeting cards at American Greetings (AM ), specifically for Wal-Mart (WMT ), in Cleveland. My main goal is to increase profit via distribution growth. The conception-to-sell-through process involves working closely with various teams, including creative, forecasting, logistics, and sales.

My passion for consumer goods began in high school, where a part-time job evolved into a five-year commitment managing a branch of card and gift stores. By the time I graduated from DePaul University, I had retail and promotions experience. During the next six years in product management, including a tenure with Rand McNally, I co-developed programs for Wal-Mart and learned what the world's biggest retailer demands from its vendors. While at Rand, I had a series of bosses with MBAs, whose leadership abilities and support of my professional growth led me to graduate school.

A quest for a deeper financial and strategic understanding of the marketplace is what brought me to the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester, where I had dual concentrations in marketing and competitive and organizational strategy. The MBA education taught me to think at a macro level, solve problems, and negotiate with people and teams.

It also gave me the tools to succeed and opened the door at American Greetings. I joined the company in October, 2003. My first position was as assistant product manager for the everyday side of the business. I accepted an offer on the Wal-Mart team last summer, and the drive and camaraderie of the department is simply outstanding.

Here's an outline of my typical day:

7:30 a.m. -- I usually leave for work between 7:20 and 7:35. The commute is about 25 to 30 minutes. I like to listen to upbeat music in the car. Madonna is a no-brainer.

8:05 a.m. -- Walk into the building, then my cube, log onto the computer, turn on the lights, check voice mail. I focus on the new e-mails while eating breakfast, taking my daily nutrients, and water or juice. I also take this time to find a motivating or thoughtful quote to send to the team and to other co-workers. I then take a look at my schedule, print it out, and evaluate what meetings can be delegated and which are critical.

8:30 a.m. -- Meeting with production to see if we can expedite a shipment of some cards to Wal-Mart.

9:00 a.m. -- Have a one-on-one meeting with my program administrator, who is my right hand. We review our project lists for the week, discuss long-term goals, and address any housekeeping details, including vacations, time out of the office, training, etc.

10:00 a.m. -- Meet with creative to discuss the holiday planning process and how we will develop the Valentine's Day program. We are in the social expressions business, and each level of the development and production process needs to be completely seamless to the customer, Wal-Mart, and has to result in an enjoyable shopping experience for the consumer.

11:00 a.m. -- One-hour break between meetings. Time to catch up on e-mail, some projects, and phone calls. The days are very meeting-heavy, so any opportunity to have in-office time is huge. But business never rests, and the demands pour in -- a meeting invitation for 4 p.m., a request on the cost of goods for a certain program, verify pricing on another, read performance report of current holiday at retail, etc.

Noon -- My goal is to take 45 minutes each day to go to the cafeteria, get some food, go back to my desk, and start catching up on the news of the day. I like to read both Foxnews.com and CNN.com to get a balanced story. I look for retail issues and see what's driving consumers to spend their dollars and why. I also look at what movies are topping the box office, which designers are signing licensing deals, and then forward the highly relevant articles to the team and synthesize the trends to develop better products.

There are so many product substitutes in the market that if I can get consumers' attention at retail and have them spend their hard-earned money on my greeting card because the product spoke to them, then I have won. It means that all the four Ps of marketing -- product, place, price, promotion -- are working. The question is how do I make my cards a part of a consumer's daily experience?

1:00 p.m. -- Meeting with the category manager of the Wal-Mart team. I am trying to figure out a way to streamline a process and the number of forms required to be filled out by various functional areas within the department.

Continued on next page>>  | 1 | 2