Bob Melcher

Current

Managing Director, USA at Four Groups USA

Past

Senior Consultant at D&E Communications
Marketing Consultant at SBL Foods (Sole Proprietorship)
Brand Manager at BC USA, Inc.

Product Manager, Dennison's at American Home Foods
Product Manager at Nestle's Enterprises (USA)
Account Executive at Interpublic: SSC&B Lintas NY

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3 more...

Education

Thunderbird School of Global Management
Universität Salzburg
University of Vermont

Northeastern University
Bradford Elementary
Northern Highlands Regional HS

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3 more...

Recommended

5 people have recommended Bob

Connections

288 connections

Industry

Computer Software

Websites

My Company

Bob Melcher’s Summary

Experienced Commercial Futurist

I generate higher profits by predicting the future! Its not magic and its not as hard as you would believe!

As a direct result of my innovation and careful stewardship, my businesses have become the top performers in 11 of my last 12 assignments.

Bob Melcher’s Specialties:

B2B, Advertising, Positioning, Consumer Promotion, Crisis Management, Packaging, Retail placement, P&L, New Products, CPG, Packaged Goods, Hands On, Account Management, Branding, Brand Management, Leadership, Media, Targeting Pet Foods Dairy Cheese specialties Internet Sales, German French telecom utilities telecommunications rationalization, competition repositioning new products gourmet leadership restaging plan-o-gram merchandising SWOT, game theory risk change options

Bob Melcher’s Experience

Managing Director, USA

Four Groups USA

(Professional Training & Coaching industry)

February 2009 — Present (11 months)

4G is a proprietary approach to understanding behavior, relationships and group cultures. Based in part on the work of Swiss psychiatrist
Carl Jung, 4G incorporates measures of people’s strengths, creativity, motivation and weaknesses.

Four Groups Is used to predict the difficulty or ease of relationships between team members, and is useful in reducing turnover and improving work flow.
Senior Consultant

D&E Communications

(Public Company; DECC; Telecommunications industry)

May 1998 — February 2009 (10 years 10 months)

Led competitive efforts to create a very profitable 'Competitive Local Exchange Carrier' (CLEC) which achieved a 60% share of market in competition with Verizon (formerly Bell Atlantic), Frontier (formerly CTSI), XO Communications (Formerly NextLink) and Level 3 (formerly Hyperion, then Adelphia).
Marketing Consultant
SBL Foods (Sole Proprietorship)

(Sole Proprietorship; 1-10 employees; Consumer Goods industry)

August 1995 — May 1998 (2 years 10 months)

Provided Specialized marketing services to provide specialty food producers with go-to-market strategy.
Brand Manager

BC USA, Inc.

(Privately Held; Food Production industry)

June 1989 — August 1995 (6 years 3 months)

Responsible for the company's largest US brand at it's BC-USA division. Marketed flavored cream cheese at up to $15.00 per pound and moved it from the third largest brand in the category to the first. Managed a promotion that resulted in a permanent 36% increase in sales volume in the brand and category's most developed market.
Product Manager, Dennison's

American Home Foods

(Marketing and Advertising industry)

1987 — 1988 (1 year )
Product Manager

Nestle's Enterprises (USA)

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; NESN (Zurich); Food & Beverages industry)

February 1984 — May 1987 (3 years 4 months)

Responsible for planning and marketing of 420 SKUs of baby food. Grew business from a 14% to a 25% share of market by repositioning the brand with concrete product features. Led the marketing effort to reformulate over 80 products and rationalized the line from 121 unique items to 86. Improved cash flow by $13 million per year while reducing inventory by 9%.
Account Executive

Interpublic: SSC&B Lintas NY

(Marketing and Advertising industry)

January 1981 — August 1984 (3 years 8 months)

Participated then led positioning and advertising efforts for 3 Carnation Pet Food brands (Friskies Buffet, Chef's Blend and Fish Ahoy). Analyzed sales per point of distribution to rationalize product line and to suggest new flavor varieties. As a result, the client informed me that despite two new brand introductions, Friskies Buffet sales increased and the advertising budget was increased by $2 million.

Bob Melcher’s Education

Thunderbird School of Global Management

MBA , Advertising and General Management , 1979 — 1980

Activities and Societies:

Pub Manager
Universität Salzburg

Politische Wissenshaft, Deutsch als Fremdsprache 1975 — 1976

Ausserordentliche Hoerer with credit towards my degree from the University of Vermont, USA. All classes in German.

Internship in Export Management at Parfums Givenchy, Beauvais, France

Activities and Societies:

Student Movement, Ski Club, Mountain Climbing, Hang Gliding,
University of Vermont

BA , Political Science , 1973 — 1976

Activities and Societies:

Student Newspaper (op-ed writer),
Northeastern University

None , Liberal Arts , 1972 — 1973

Transferred to the University of Vermont

Activities and Societies:

Northeastern University Crew
Bradford Elementary
Northern Highlands Regional HS

Additional Information

Bob Melcher’s Websites:

My Company

Bob Melcher’s Interests:

Skiing, History, Energy Science

Bob Melcher’s Groups:

SMEI, Infragard

Thunderbird Alumni
BCMIX - Business Continuity Management Information eXchange
Linked:HR (#1 Human Resources Group)
CPG Branding and Marketing Forum
SSC&B/Lintas NY
University of Vermont Alumni
Alumni of Northeastern University
The In-Store Marketing Institute
Northeastern University Crew Alumni
Innovative Marketing, PR, Sales, Word-of-Mouth & Buzz Innovators
Business Executives Networking Group
Nestle Alumni Worldwide
Roughnecks
Universität Salzburg
Telecom Tigers - Innovative Networking for Telecom Professionals
Listrak Email Marketing
Linked:HR - Organization Development & Training
JOB CENTER of Employment & Work Opportunities for Marketing, PR & Sales Innovators
Linked:HR RETENTION
NHRHS72
Alumni of D&E Communications, Inc.
University of Vermont Philadelphia
Linked To Lancaster PA