Rainbow Rentals today announced the appointment of Daniel J. Griffin Jr. to the newly created position of director of marketing. He will be responsible for all consumer branding and marketing activities at Rainbow and will report to Wayland J. Russell, chairman and chief executive officer.

Wayland J. Russell
Chairman and chief executive officer
"Dan's 20-plus years of experience in retail branding and marketing will help us strengthen Rainbow's position in the rent-to-own marketplace and enhance our relationships with our customers. We hired Dan after a careful nationwide search. We look forward to building a stronger marketing program to support Rainbow's long-time success as a premier store operator."

Since November 1995, Griffin had held marketing management positions at Cleveland-based Cole National Corp., an international optical and specialty gift retailer with nearly 3,000 locations. For the past three years, Griffin was marketing director at Pearle Vision Inc., a leading optical retailer with more than 850 stores and more than $500 million in sales. His tenure at Cole National also included three years as Pearle Vision's director of brand management and two years as marketing manager of Cole National's specialty businesses.

Before joining Cole National, Griffin was director of client services and new business development at Contract Marketing Inc., a Cleveland-based provider of database driven marketing programs to retail companies, including Coca Cola, Goodyear Tire & Rubber, Wendy's International, Taco Bell, Cracker Barrel and Host Marriott. From 1987 to 1993, Griffin was with Ponderosa Restaurants, a national steakhouse chain, most recently as director of marketing services. Prior to that, he worked for nine years at Fisher Foods Inc. in Cleveland, most recently as advertising manager.