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Director of Brand Marketing Chicago, Illinois

PriyaRaghunathan

Consumer & specialty retail · Brand strategy · Growth

I run campaigns against revenue, not impressions — and I have spent nine years proving that the brand work and the performance work were never two different jobs.

Work with me See the work
BRAND DEMAND RETAIL LIFECYCLE 3.4× BLENDED ROAS
Brand strategyIntegrated campaignsIncrementality testingRetail mediaLifecycle & CRMConsumer researchTeam leadership Brand strategyIntegrated campaignsIncrementality testingRetail mediaLifecycle & CRMConsumer researchTeam leadership
$48MRevenue influenced
3.4×Blended ROAS
11Markets launched
+240%Qualified pipeline

01 — Selected work

Four campaigns, and what they actually did.

Every one of these had a brand argument and a number attached to it. I have never been able to care about one without the other.

est. 1984 Still here. REPOSITIONING · 4 QUARTERS

Halloway & Finch · Flagship brand

Bringing a forty-year-old brand back into growth

Six flat quarters and a category that had moved on. We stopped apologising for the brand's age and made it the argument — heritage as proof rather than nostalgia — then rebuilt the media plan around the people who already believed it.

+14%YoY revenue
4 qtrsTo turnaround
+31%Brand consideration
1.9× 3.4× BLENDED ROAS · BUDGET +12% Q1Q5

Halloway & Finch · Media

Rebuilding the media mix around what was actually incremental

Last-click had been quietly rewarding channels that would have converted anyway. Holdout testing across eleven markets rewrote the allocation, and the budget barely moved.

3.4×From 1.9×
+12%Budget change
11Markets tested
eighteen months ELEVEN METRO LAUNCHES · ALL ON TARGET

Halloway & Finch · Expansion

Eleven metros in eighteen months

A repeatable launch playbook instead of eleven bespoke plans — local retail partnerships, a fixed creative kit, and a two-week pre-launch lifecycle sequence that did most of the work.

11 / 11Hit year-one target
4Beat it by 30%+
40130 CREATIVE ASSETS SHIPPED PER QUARTER AGENCYIN-HOUSE STUDIO

Halloway & Finch · Operations

Bringing creative in-house without losing the craft

The agency was good and expensive, and the turnaround times meant we tested a fraction of what we wanted to. A four-person studio changed both numbers in the same year.

−$1.1MAnnual agency spend
3.2×Creative output

02 — Experience

Nine years, three companies, one promotion I had to argue for.

2022 — PresentChicago, IL

Director of Brand Marketing

Halloway & Finch

$9.2M budgetTeam of 74 brands11 markets
  • Returned the flagship brand to +14% year-over-year growth after six flat quarters.
  • Lifted blended ROAS from 1.9× to 3.4× on a budget that grew only 12%.
  • Launched into 11 new metros in 18 months; every one hit its first-year target.
  • Grew qualified pipeline 240% by rebuilding content and lifecycle around real search demand.
  • Hired and developed a team of seven; two have since been promoted to manager.
2019 — 2022Chicago, IL

Senior Brand Manager

Verity Goods Co.

$4.5M budget2 direct reports$22M portfolio
  • Grew a $22M portfolio by 31% over three years in a category growing at 4%.
  • Led the launch of the company's best-selling line to date — $8.4M year one against a $5M plan.
  • Built the brand's first customer research practice; 60+ interviews redirected the year's creative platform.
2017 — 2019Chicago, IL

Brand Manager

Verity Goods Co.

Promoted in 22 months
  • Redesigned packaging across 14 SKUs, lifting shelf conversion 18% in tested stores.
2015 — 2017Evanston, IL

Marketing Coordinator → Associate Brand Manager

Ellinwood Retail Group

  • Grew the email program from 40k to 180k subscribers with revenue per send up 62%.

03 — What people say

Three sentences I did not write myself.

“Priya is the only marketer I have worked with who will kill her own campaign in week three because the holdout data said so.”
CMO · Halloway & Finch
“She rebuilt a brand that most of the industry had written off, and she did it without a rebrand, which is the part nobody believes.”
Interlake Business Review · 2023
“I have been promoted twice since working for her. She spent more time on my development than any manager I've had.”
Former direct report

04 — Recognition

Awards & press

Midwest Brand Campaign of the YearLakeshore Marketing Guild · 2024
40 Under 40 in Consumer MarketingInterlake Business Review · 2023
Halloway & Finch Impact Award2023
Speaker — “The Brand/Performance False Choice”Great Lakes Marketing Summit · 2025
Panelist — Retail Media After the HypeConsumer Growth Forum · 2024

05 — Capabilities

What I actually do

Brand strategy & architecturePositioning Integrated campaign planningPaid social & search Retail mediaIncrementality testing Media mix modellingLifecycle & CRM Consumer researchConcept testing SegmentationIn-house creative operations Agency managementTeam leadership

TOOLS

Meta & Google Ads · Klaviyo · Braze · Looker · Amplitude · Figma · Asana

EDUCATION

B.A., Communications & Economics — Ashford Bay University
Certificate, Marketing Analytics — Westmore University Executive Education