Reinventing Integrated Marketing Communications with Don E. Schultz
\u201cA brand is a relationship between a customer and an organization.\u201d Don E. Schultz has spent his storied career navigating, teaching, and writing about that very complex relationship. He\u2019s a Professor of Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University\u2019s Medill School, President of Agora, Inc, and author of over twenty-eight books on marketing. He\u2019s also this week\u2019s guest on the On Brand podcast.\nAbout\xa0Don E. Schultz\nDon E. Schultz, BBA (University of Oklahoma), MA and PhD (Michigan State University) is Professor (Emeritus-in-Service) Integrated Marketing Communications, The Medill School, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL and President of Agora, Inc., a global marketing, communication, and branding consulting firm. Schultz consults, lectures, and holds seminars on integrated marketing communication, marketing, branding, advertising, sales promotion, and communication management in Europe, South America, Asia/Pacific, the Middle East, Australia, and North America.\nHe is the author/co-author of over twenty-eight books and over one hundred and fifty trade, academic and professional articles and serves on the editorial review board for a number of trade and scholarly publications. He was the founding editor of the Journal of Direct Marketing, the associate editor of the Journal of Marketing Communications, and the International Journal of Integrated Marketing Communication.\nSchultz is a member of the American Marketing Association, American Academy of Advertising, Advertising Research Foundation, Business Marketing Association, Direct Marketing Association, Association for Consumer Research, and the International Advertising Association, as well as the director and US Chairman for Brand Finance, London. He also provides consultancy services to a broad variety of marketing organizations, agencies, media and non-profit groups around the world. Schultz has received numerous awards, including the AAA (American Academy of Advertising) Ivan Preston Outstanding Contributions to Research Award in 2014.\nHe lives in Chicago with his wife Heidi who is also his business partner.\nEpisode Highlights\nNorthwestern University has been teaching advertising since 1903! To say that Schultz teaches at one of the most historic institutions for advertising instruction is an understatement. \u201cIn the 1980s \u2014 with so much new technology emerging \u2014 we started asking, \u2018how do we bring all of this together?'\u201d And that\u2019s how integrated marketing communications was born.\n\u201cYou have to start with customers,\u201d\xa0says Schultz. \u201cWhat do they need? You\u2019re really not trying to sell anything. Persuasion is out of date. It\u2019s a reciprocal process of solving problems for the customer.\u201d\nEven integrated marketing communications needs reinvention.\xa0\u201cWe found we needed to adapt or adjust the process. Today it ends with a sale and operates from campaigns. How do we get beyond solving the individual issue? We need to think about lifetime customer value. How do we get to be more responsive?\u201d\nWhat skill is timeless for marketers?\xa0\u201cThe technology is coming so fast. If we started teaching the technology, it\u2019d be out of date by the time students graduate.\u201d What skill is timeless and valuable for marketers? \u201cAn innate curiosity about people. It\u2019s very important to immerse yourself in culture.\u201d\nWhat brand has made Don smile recently?\xa0\u201cWimbledon. Those people really understand branding and how their brand relates to the world.\u201d\nTo learn more about Don,\xa0you can send him an email at dschultz@northwestern.edu.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices