Wakefern names brand strategy and advertising leaders

Grocery retail cooperative Wakefern Food Corp. has promoted Laura Kind to vice president of brand strategy and welcomed Ranjana Choudhry as vice president of advertising and social media.

Wakefern is the nation’s largest retailer-owned cooperative, with member companies that own and operate 354 supermarkets under the ShopRite, Price Rite Marketplace, The Fresh Grocer, Dearborn Market and Gourmet Garage banners.

Kind (left) joined Wakefern in December 2018 as director of own brands marketing and packaging and was pivotal in driving the design, positioning and launch of Wakefern’s newest own brand offerings, Bowl & Basket and Paperbird.

In her new role, Kind will oversee strategic brand management for all of Wakefern’s retail brands, and work to uniquely differentiate those banners in the marketplace, shape the brand identities and ensure connectivity in all customer-facing initiatives.

Prior to joining Wakefern, Kind was director of brand at Jet.com, a Walmart e-commerce company, where she built the company’s private label brand, winning several awards for its packaging and design. She has also held marketing leadership roles at Bloomingdale’s and Saks Fifth Avenue.

Choudhry (right) joined Wakefern in March and brings more than 25 years of experience as a global marketing and communications leader to her new role at Wakefern. She will lead the advertising and social media divisions to develop marketing and digital content strategies that harness the brands’ promotions, and also introduce new campaigns across advertising and digital channels.

Related:Wakefern creates chief customer officer, chief merchant roles

Choudhry began her career with Grey Advertising, a global marketing communications agency. She relocated to New York while working for WPP, a multinational advertising agency where she led more than 400 team members in 220 countries for Colgate-Palmolive’s brands.