Becky Ann Hughes (Last Updated: 5/09/2009)
San Francisco Bay Area, CA
beckyann@beckyann.com
650-740-8078


BECKY ANN HUGHES
RESUME


Core Competencies | Professional Experience | Awards & Accomplishments | Education | Community Involvement


CORE COMPETANCIES 

  • Brand Development for Consumer Markets
  • Media Planning and Execution for Direct Response and Broadcast Media
  • Development of Online and Interactive Media Strategies
  • Alignment of research and product development functions with brand strategy to drive traffic and strengthen brand assets
  • Application of Marketing ROI to optimize and enhance marketing effectiveness

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 

Black Angus Steakhouse, Los Altos, CA

May'07 - Present

Director of Marketing
Accountable for a $7 million budget while overseeing all marketing activities, including 12-month rolling marketing and product development calendar.
  • Active member of the corporate Leadership Team tasked with setting strategy for brand development and executional excellence.
  • Led the repositioning to define brand strategy, resulting in the creation of the Black Angus Steakhouse Brand Book - "A Campfire Story". This story became the foundation for building brand relevance within the category, increasing affinity among consumers, and creating preference over the competition.
  • Developed the "Elements of Execution", which defined areas of opportunity to execute the brand strategy and set up metrics to measure effectiveness.
  • Communicated brand strategy to all levels of the organization including retail management and senior staff.
  • Lead the corporate marketing team to set marketing strategy and execute tactics to drive guest counts, optimize check averages, and maximize profit margins.
  • Revolutionized media planning for the 2009 Fiscal year. Deep-Dive, Market by Market planning using historical response, saturation analysis, response curves, and a promotional pipeline resulted in a 59.73% YOY increase in advertised Guest counts for the first 17 weeks of 2009.
  • Developed a marketing ROI process to track the effectiveness of advertising, increase efficiencies in spending, and allocate funds to new channel testing.
  • Created a detailed media testing program to continually identify and test new marketing channels to expand reach and increase frequency.
  • Authored a detailed brand analysis that included an in-depth overview of recent operating history, internal and external environment, consumer targets, and strategic prioritization. Presented this plan to the Board of Directors.
  • Aligned all research and product development activities with brand strategy to deliver actionable insights and successful product launches.
  • Dramatically enhanced marketing collateral, including menus and FSIs, to align with the brand repositioning.


Black Angus Steakhouse, Los Altos, CA

Feb'05 - May'07

Marketing Manager
Accountable for a $4 million marketing budget while standardizing branding and collaborating with others to ensure consistent style across the organization.
  • Authored the In-Store Merchandising Map to define the best messaging strategy for all touch points.
  • Developed the long term Marketing Research architecture.
  • Revolutionized menu messaging by integrating food, beverage, and service to drive check averages.
  • Improved the experience of www.blackangus.com through new e-marketing tactics that included improved architecture, online reservations, flash animation, and location mapping.
  • Launched an email database marketing program. Acquired 245,000 members and maintained high click-through rates and redemption rates.
  • Provided marketing support to franchises in Korea and Singapore.


Black Angus Steakhouse, Los Altos, CA

Feb'04 - Feb'05

Associate Marketing Manager
  • Managed the design and print production for the In-Restaurant Merchandising Program.
  • Managed Marketing Research studies to inform marketing strategy.


SuperStringsDesign.com, Foster City, CA

Apr'00 - Feb'04

Owner/Operator
Designed and implemented corporate customer websites incorporating HTML, JavaScript, CGI, and Multimedia. Created a searchable database of over 7,000 companies and designed webpage templates to dynamically update with ProDocs Electronic Publishing Software.


Hilton Garden Inn, San Mateo, CA

Apr'00 - Feb'04

Manager on Duty | Hilton Honors Manager
Increased Hilton Honors sign-ups and guest satisfaction through training and innovative mini programs.


Country Inn & Suites, Sandy, UT

May'99 - Mar'00

Front Office Supervisor
Hired, trained, and managed front office staff while implementing incentives programs to enhance staff morale and improve customer service.


AWARDS & ACCOMPLISHMENTS 

  • Dean's Scholar, San Jose State University (Jan'02 - Dec'03)
  • Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society Inductee (Apr'03)
  • Golden Key International Honor Society Inductee (May'03)
  • 1st Place (Debate), 2nd Place (Speaker) SJSU Intra-Collegiate Debate Tournament (May'02)
  • Employee of the Month, Hilton Garden Inn (Jul'01)
  • Employee of the Quarter, Country Inn & Suites (Aug'99)

EDUCATION 

San Jose State University, San Jose, CA

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (GPA: 3.85/4.0)
Graduation with Honors: Dec'03 - Concentration in Marketing


Academic Involvement

FBI, Marketing Internship
San Jose, Jun'03-Dec'03
Led the marketing team to create an awareness campaign for careers with the FBI.

  • Completed a pre- and post-event research project to plan, execute and measure marketing efforts.
  • Designed an FBI Diversity website: FBI Diversity
  • Planned and promoted two recruitment events - The GOV Games and The Bell Tower Seminar.
  • Recruited more qualified candidates than any of the other nine participating universities.

SJSU, Marketing Research Student Assistant
San Jose, Jan'03 - Jun'03

  • Planned and presented marketing research seminars for students of Bus 138, Marketing Research.
  • The seminars included topics on Research Design, Classification, and Measurement.

Computer Skills

  • HTML, JavaScript, MS Office Suite, Serif, and SPSS (statistical package)

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT 


  • BUILD Mentor: Provide real-world entrepreneurial experience that empowers youth from under-resourced communities to excel in education, lead in their communities, and succeed professionally. BUILD.org
  • Charity Search: Designed a searchable database of over 380 charities.
  • Common Thread, Inc: Developed a website for the organ transplant recovery care center.