Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM APRIL 2016 60 B U Y I N G G R O U P N E W S RO BRANDSOURCE WELCOMES CARL DITTMANN TO ITS MANAGERIAL STAFF BrandSource is pleased to announce the hiring of Carl W. Dittmann as, Region Manager for the North Atlantic and Tri- State regions. He will be responsible for supporting the dealer network, assisting members in driving sales and profits through the various programs Brand- Source offers, and cultivating new membership. Carl will preside over a vast swath of territory as regional manager. The North Atlantic and Tri- State area includes Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey as well as portions of Ohio and West Virginia. He will also be responsible for the management of nearly 90 employees within his region. Carl will report to Tom Bennett, president of BrandSource and Kevin Werner, lead region manager. "Carl will be a great asset to our team," said Bennett. "His experience and relationships will help us drive member values throughout the regions." He will be based in New Jersey. His start date was in February. Carl brings over 16 years of valuable direct and indirect channel sales management experience to BrandSource as well as a talent for building long-term business alliances. He was most recently employed as channel sales manager of the Americas for METO, a division of Checkpoint Systems. As manager, he was tasked with instituting strategy for the company's product suite and nurturing new industry partnerships. Previously, he spent eight years as regional sales manager within the Sharp Imaging and Information division within Sharp Electronics Corp. in Mahwah, NJ. As regional manager, he nurtured and developed sales relationships with their largest channel partners while earning various accolades and awards. Between 1998 and 2006, Carl was regional, then district account executive for the Imaging Systems Group (ISG) at Canon USA, while moving between their offices in Lake Success, NY and Jamesburg, NJ. During his time with Canon, he successfully managed in excess of $60 million in annual sales while supporting channel partners with the marketing of company software and hardware. In addition to his proven track record in sales and account management, Carl has memberships in multiple industry and trade association groups and is also CDIA (Consumer Data Industry Association) certified. BRANDSOURCE ANNOUNCES CREATION OF NEW TRIBMARKETING DIVISION BrandSource announced the creation of a new marketing program within its TRIB division. BrandSource's CEO, Jim Ristow initiated the new addition to TRIB in order to enhance its competitive edge in the RTO industry and to create new synergy among company resources. He explained the wisdom of the investment decision by stating, "TRIB and the RTO channel are very important to BrandSource. We wanted to make sure TRIB members have all the tools necessary to make their business profitable. By leveraging the BrandSource Marketing infrastructure with dedicated RTO assets we can give TRIB members the marketing tools they need that are specific to RTO." BrandSource's decision to expand TRIB's marketing resources is necessary for its incursion into the bourgeoning RTO industry. Although BrandSource has its own retail marketing program, it is the hope that TRIB can attain the same success through a combination of affordable websites, point of purchase, Google ads, Facebook ads, SEO, social media, TV production, as well as tabloids and direct mail. Kristina Smallwood has been selected to manage TRIB's new initiative. Kristina is a7-year RTO veteran with a background in marketing and design. She has been on the TRIB board for over a year and had been in discussions with Ristow for some time about the institution of a separate marketing program. They agreed of the necessity of growing the relationship between BrandSource and TRIB. "Having the right marketing message targeted at the right audience is very important," said Dennis Shields, executive director of the TRIB Group."We are excited that BrandSource has taken the initiative to elevate TRIB by hiring a proven rent-to-own marketing individual such as Kristina." C A R L D I T T M A N N K R I S T I N A S M A L L W O O D

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