Marshall Warkentin is a seasoned marketing executive with over 25 years of experience in the retail and B2B sectors. Currently, he serves as the Chief Marketing & Merchandising Officer of Staples US Retail, where he is responsible for overseeing the company’s marketing strategy and ensuring that customers receive a relevant and innovative retail experience through products, services, and storytelling.
Warkentin has a proven history of leading organizations through strategic brand transformations. In his previous role as the Head of Marketing at US Foods, he oversaw an insight-driven brand transformation from US Foodservice to US Foods. This transformation was centered on food leadership and drove the company’s strategic direction. During his time at US Foods, Warkentin introduced data-driven personalized marketing, re-defined customer engagement through Food Fanatics, drove product innovation through The Scoop, reset the private label portfolio, and implemented a new functionalized team structure.
Prior to his role at US Foods, Warkentin was a Retail Marketing Leader at LoyaltyOne, where he introduced multi-channel personalization across 100+ retail partners, created a new shared promotional platform for grocery, pharmacy, and apparel retailers, established a multi-dimensional customer segmentation, and introduced retail analytics.
Warkentin started his career at Shoppers Drug Mart as a Relationship Marketing Leader, where he held several positions including Director of Marketing and Shoppers Optimum and Manager/Coordinator of Shoppers Optimum.
Warkentin’s areas of professional expertise include brand strategy and planning, product and category strategy, marketing program growth, customer insight and segmentation, content strategy and development, loyalty program design and optimization, social and digital media, CRM management and automation, leadership, recruitment, and mentorship, and 1 to 1 marketing.
Staples recently launched Staples Worklife, a quarterly magazine aimed at professionals “who see their work as more than just a job.” The new content follows Staples’ rebranding changeover in March to “The Worklife Fulfillment Company,” which aims to position the retailer as a provider of solutions rather than just a retailer of products. A Staples Worklife podcast, e-newsletter, digital community, and live events will soon follow.
In conclusion, Marshall Warkentin is a highly experienced marketing executive who has a proven track record of leading organizations through successful brand transformations. With his expertise in brand strategy, customer insight, and 1 to 1 marketing, he has helped companies to deliver innovative and relevant retail experiences to their customers.
