Women in the Industry: Part 4

Senior director of marketing and merchandising, USA BABY

Jacque Sternquist has worked with USA Baby since 2001 when she started out as the director of merchandising. Before that she had worked with retailers like Wickes, Plunkett's and Homemakers.

Since starting at USA Baby, she's been promoted twice and her responsibilities include building relationships with vendors, creating advertising pieces that generate store traffic, assisting existing franchisees with problems and working with new franchisees in developing their individual store layouts.

"I try to lead by example within the USA Baby franchise organization," she said.

USA Baby is a specialty retailer of infant and children's furniture and accessories and expects to be in all top 80 metropolitan markets within five years and to have more than 300 stores in 10 years.

"My passion is definitely in the realm of designing and merchandising new stores," Sternquist said. " I work with my franchisees to build our manifest; I try to build each store's environment to suit the demographic information of each specific location. Our goal is to provide new parents the ability to visualize their baby's nursery. We want to serve our franchisees by providing their customers with a convenient service-oriented store that meets all their needs. I am most proud of the new store design that we just created. This gives USA Baby a new face. It allows each existing franchisee the opportunity to have a fresh look, with minimal expense."

USA Baby's goal is for each customer to feel special and not have a "big box" experience so service is this retailer's key to success. Franchising gives the retail the buying power of a big box but the store size gives the feel of an independent.

Sternquist says the skills most important to her job are relationship and team building skills.

"I believe that none of us are as smart as all of us," she said. "I try to brainstorm with others to work toward the best solutions. I have always found this to be an extremely effective way to produce results in business. Service is the key. Seeing the customer as a customer enables you to serve them the way you would want to be served. This is the number one ingredient in my recipe for success."

Brand director, Simmons Kids and Deep Sleep brands

Anne Kozel has been with Simmons for almost seven years. Two years ago the company reacquired its baby mattress line from a licensee and Kozel then started working with children's products.

"Because Simmons never manufactured its own baby mattress line before, being brand director of Simmons Kids gave me the opportunity to help reshape the baby mattress category, which has been a challenging but amazing experience," Kozel said.

She sees Simmons Kids at the forefront of an evolution in children's bedding.

"We've made a conscious effort to make the baby mattress shopping experience fun for parents while communicating the idea that we have both kids' and parents' best interests in mind," Kozel said. "Simmons Kids is revitalizing the baby mattress category through innovative product designs and packaging, and we are excited that consumers are noticing our impact."

Based upon Simmons Kids' success since its launch last year, Kozel expects the brand to experience phenomenal growth in the future. The company always is exploring new technologies and designs to further improve the quality of sleep kids receive, and she anticipates Simmons Kids will quickly be known among parents as the premier choice for innovative children's sleep products and accessories.

Buyer, Breuners Arizona/Kids Room by Breuners

Chicago-native Jami Myers turned her degree in interior design from the University of Arizona into a career in the home furnishings industry and has spent the last 15 years at one of the Top 100 furniture companies, Breuners Arizona in Scottsdale.

She's a member of WithIt and the Western Home Furnishings Assn. and was one of Furniture Today's Top 50 Fresh Furniture Faces in 2005.

Breuners Arizona always has carried youth furnishings in its stores, but four years ago the family-owned business decided to turn a property it owned across the street from its main store into a stand-alone kids and home office furniture store.

"With 5,000 square feet we thought we'd have 2,500 for kids and 2,500 for home office," Myers said. "Youth kept growing so two years later we made the entire store kids. It proved very successful."

Though the Arizona market is saturated with furniture stores, Kids Room by Breuners is the largest store, now at 10,000 square feet, devoted to youth furniture in the area.

Day to day, Myers' job includes helping merchandise all four stores, including the kids store, and she's responsible for buying "everything you sit on, including leather, upholstery, sleepers and the occasional tables" as well as everything for the youth store.

"I have two young children so it's a perfect fit for me," Myers said. "I merchandise as a merchant and as a mom; we set the product in vignettes and it's not over the top, but it works."

Myers sees her biggest success as helping grow Kids Room by Breuners to 10,000 square feet and making it a destination. The store isn't in a strip center or mall, so creating an interest to entice shoppers is her goal. The store uses print and e-mail blasts to get the word out plus Myers works with a local morning talk show, "Sonoran Living," where she is in her second year hosting a bi-monthly furniture segment. Breuners also has worked closely with ABC's"Extreme Makeover:Home Edition" series and Myers' work has twice been featured on the show.

"Our relationship with 'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition' is something we're very proud of," Myers said. "The show is positive on many levels."

When it comes to the future, Myers is optimistic.

"I see the store growing and maturing and just doing what we do best — showing great products and great value with highly educated sales people," Myers said. "We were one of the first stores with the new Young America gallery and we keep moving forward. Youth represents about 10% of the business now and we're being proactive instead of reactive. Breuners is a family-owned business and we're a team."