As DC's founders moved on, the brand needed a strong definition of the brand's core values and brand promise. With over 300 employees (globally), all the business functions and regional teams needed to manage themselves against a shared understanding of the brand. Above is an excerpts of the DC Brand Book. Beyond a brand vision and mission statement, the Brand Book connected dots for operating as a matrixed organization while staying authentic to brand's core DNA.  

RESPONSIBILITY // Worked with founders, athletes, leaders, retailers and employees, to refine and document the DC brand into a Brand Book.

DC's authenticity and credibility in skateboarding, is the life blood of the brand. As DC grew in popularity (& distribution), that authenticity, credibility and ultimately connection slipped. To get it back, DC created cross functional teams, led by category directors - experts in specific action sports (skate, snow, etc.) - to lead the go-to-market process. What's the consumer insight(s) for the season, how should that drive product & marketing stories, how are those stories brought to life through distribution. 

RESPONSIBILITY // Reported directly to the President of DC Shoes, I led the creation of this function and team.

RESULT // During my time at DC, sales increased by almost $100 million (35% in approximately 18 months), and category-specific performance improved, particularly in the Skate category.

DC's Skate category had been significantly neglected. Although legends in their own right, the skate team was from the previous generation... and not doing much skating. Skate retailers considered DC a sell-out mall brand who missed the trend towards simpler, lower profile skate shoes (a la Vans). The core skater had moved on to brands who were committed investing in skate culture - Nike SB, Vans, Lakai, Fallen to name a few. Creating a DC Skate renaissance became the number one priority for DC.  

RESPONSIBILITY //  Working with our fans (and some who weren't), our retailers, our product, marketing and sales teams, we built a strategy. It wasn't rocket science... sign new athletes, retool the product range, integrate the two with compelling content marketing and bring back a pyramid distribution strategy - investing and nurturing the best skate retailers.  

RESULT // 18 months later, DC had, what most considered to be,the most relevant team, made up of both legends and the best of the next generation. You could find DC shoes back in the best skate shops and the marketing was by skaters for skaters.  DC Skateboarding was back.

With six business categories, eight distinct consumer targets, twelve different product lines, seven different distribution channels, and three geographic regions, the level of complexity and lack of focus was crushing the internal teams; impacting workflow, productivity, efficiency, retention and ultimately performance at retail.  

RESPONSIBILITY // We created the above model - the Brand Diamond - to put every function on to the same page - who are our consumers, how can consumer insights drive an integrated product and marketing process and how will product/marketing map to execute a more efficient, effective and disciplined market segmentation.  

RESULT // The Brand Diamond was embraced across the business and served as universal language for planning and executing the business.