Work
Strategy made tangible.
I work at the intersection of strategy, marketing, media, and storytelling—turning research, ideas, and audience insight into things people can understand, use, and act on.
15+ years in media & strategy · MBA, Marketing Management · 350+ episodes · Two top business podcasts · Audible acquisition · University educator
Strategy & Marketing
Nike — Wellness Platform Concept
Product Strategy · Consumer Insight · Positioning
How might an AI-powered nutrition co-pilot better fit the realities of everyday food behavior? Using MRI-Simmons consumer data, I analyzed the health attitudes, food behaviors, and self-perceptions of millennial men ages 30–44, translating those insights into product-positioning and target-market recommendations.
Challenge — Identify an unmet customer need and create a viable product/service concept.
Approach — Segmentation, consumer insight, competitive analysis, positioning and product development.
Output — Strategic recommendation and go-to-market concept.
View case study → Sam_Buti_Consumer_Insights_Nike_Nutrition_Portfolio_Brief
Under Armour — Growth Strategy & Brand Positioning Analysis
Business Strategy · Growth Strategy · Business Analytics
A strategic MBA case analysis examining how Under Armour could build a more defensible growth position against larger competitors. Using market growth, consumer behavior, campaign performance, competitive positioning, and brand-fit evidence, I identified unorthodox female athletes as a high-potential target segment and developed a focused communication strategy around that audience.
Challenge — Identify a path to growth despite competing against Nike’s substantially greater scale and marketing resources.
Approach — Identify a more focused, underrepresented consumer segment with strong brand fit and growth potential.
Output — Strategic recommendation to focus on unorthodox female athletes, a high-potential target segment.
View case study → UnderArmour_Portfolio_Sam_Buti
City Harvest — Nonprofit Marketing & Communications Strategy
Digital Marketing · Nonprofit Marketing · Marketing Campaign Development
A semester-long MBA consulting project, my team evaluated City Harvest’s brand health, competitive environment, donor and volunteer engagement, digital presence, and strategic opportunities within New York’s hunger-relief sector. My individual contribution included the SWOT analysis, brand and product recommendations, and development of a proposed awareness campaign. Plus, my analysis identified an opportunity to more strongly connect City Harvest’s hunger-relief mission with the environmental value created through food rescue, using that dual-impact story to strengthen differentiation and engagement across donor and volunteer audiences.
Challenge — How can an established nonprofit sustain relevance, donor engagement, and growth amid donor fatigue, generational shifts, digital gaps, rising competition, and increasing demand for food assistance?
Approach — From a comprehensive brand audit, strengthen the organizational mission and create consumer-centric, experiential messaging to enhance value and influence action.
Output — Strategic recommendation to amplify the brand narrative to both hunger relief and food waste reduction.
View case study → Sam_Buti_City_Harvest_2026
Media & Content Strategy
Online Marketing Made Easy with Amy Porterfield
Content Strategy · Production Leadership · Audience Growth · Cross-functional Management
During my tenure, the show moved from a top-ranked marketing-category podcast into the broader Apple and Spotify business charts, including a Top 50 Apple Business ranking, while adding more than 1,500 Apple ratings and reviews in under nine months. Additionally, I oversaw globally distributed production operations, collaborating across SEO, paid media, PR, external production, and other functions while evaluating content performance, and keeping execution connected to the broader content strategy.
The CEO Teacher Podcast with Kayse Morris
At the CEO Teacher Podcast with Kayse Morris, I managed weekly end-to-end multimedia production and distribution across platforms, including YouTube. Additionally, I built dashboards and reporting frameworks to inform growth decisions.
Storytelling & Creative Direction
Ideas matter more when people remember them. My work in narrative audio and radio drama taught me how structure, voice, tension, and emotion turn information into something people want to follow.
Narrative Audio
My first podcast turned a writer’s unsellable manuscript into an acquisition by Audible.
Radio Drama
In collaboration with Siena University, I directed students in the development and production of four original and adapted radio dramas. The work received Kennedy Center recognition for direction.
Selected Work: War of the Worlds, directed by Sam Buti and produced with Siena University students.
Explore additional audio work → here
Leadership & Education
Good strategy is partly an act of explanation. Across teaching, guest lecturing, and creative instruction, I’ve worked to make complex ideas accessible, useful, and actionable.
- Siena University — Radio production, direction, and student mentorship
- Pace University, Lubin School of Business — Guest lecturer
Capabilities
- Strategy — Market analysis, positioning, segmentation, consumer insight, product/service strategy
- Marketing — Content strategy, audience development, brand storytelling, performance analysis
- Execution — Cross-functional project leadership, external-partner management, media production
- Communication — Storytelling, presentation, teaching, audio/video
Ideas behind the work
The work is only part of the story. Each week, I write about the ideas underneath the work—strategy, marketing, media, behavior, leadership, and meaningful work.