Yvette Peña is a performance-driven leader with over twenty years of experience overseeing multimillion-dollar integrated marketing plans and multicultural strategies for Fortune 500 companies such as Sports Authority, Walgreens and Sears, Roebuck and Company. She has crafted strategic multi-channel campaigns to drive product visibility and generate competitive advantage. As the key executive of multicultural and general market initiatives, Yvette has converted untapped, emerging market opportunities into profitable ones, building and managing high-energy teams that consistently surpass expectations.
In January 2016, Yvette became AARP’s Vice President for Hispanic/Latino Audience Strategy within the new Multicultural Leadership business unit. Her responsibilities are to drive the Hispanic strategy enterprise-wide, and provide internal consultation and thought leadership while providing Hispanic audience expertise and insights. In her new role, she develops and manages relevant offerings and programs for AARP’s Hispanic members in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. She also designs and leads strategic direction on all communication channels targeting Spanish dominant and bilingual/bicultural segments. Yvette serves as the voice for AARP’s Hispanic engagement through partnerships with national multicultural organizations to drive AARP’s social mission.
Before moving to AARP and the nation’s capital, Yvette became the first Director of Multicultural Marketing at Walgreens in 2011. In this position, she was responsible for developing go-to-market strategy and Shopper Marketing programs for Multicultural audiences, with an initial focus on U.S. Hispanics, African Americans and Puerto Rico. Passionate about the audience and the opportunity it presented for Walgreens, Yvette worked closely with the Consumer Insights & Analytics team to turn category and customer insights into business building ideas. She oversaw the development and execution of targeted, Omni-channel marketing plans for both the Retail and Pharmacy business units. She incorporated the Hispanic and African American targets into the overall Cause Marketing platform on a national and local market basis. Additionally, as Walgreens began to expand their virtual dialogue with the highly-engaged, mobile-savvy consumer, Yvette led the development of the Walgreens Hispanic Digital strategy, ensuring the Walgreens message surrounded the consumer wherever they were.
Prior to her positions in corporate life, she was an Account Director at the Bravo Group, the Hispanic division of Young & Rubicam. She managed the Wrigley Gum Category for all Hispanic initiatives, and helped to build the Hispanic Wrigley strategic platform. She worked with the Wrigley Multicultural team to formulate marketing strategies and develop integrated business plans designed to make Wrigley the preferred brand of choice among Hispanics.
In 1997, Yvette moved to Chicago from New York City, to work as Manager of Multicultural Marketing for Sears, Roebuck and Co. She worked on the department launch of targeted programs focused on Hispanic, African American and Asian consumers. Some of the most notable Multicultural launches were the General Market ‘Softer Side of Sears’, which was also created for the Hispanic and African American audiences, in addition to the Hispanic campaign, Sears. Todo para ti. (Sears. Everything for you).
In 2000, she was appointed Brand Manager for the Craftsman and Kenmore brands. In this position, she was responsible for the marketing and advertising of Craftsman tools and Kenmore appliances, to both the General Market and Hispanic audiences. She managed the Corporate launch of Covington in 2001, a new addition to the Sears family of proprietary apparel brands. This brand became the company’s first exclusive brand extending across men, women, and children’s apparel, representing the biggest apparel launch in Sears’ history.
