Peter A. Blackwell
Managing Partner at 4thought Marketing Consultants

His 20 years’ experience with some of the most successful and well-known Consumer Packaged Goods and Retail companies is drawn upon to lead organizations in the complex, yet essential goal of achieving full Marketing integration across all marketing channels, all parts of the marketing organization and its agencies and all other areas of the business.

What has he done?
Peter started as a Marketing summer intern and now he’s Managing Partner at 4thought Marketing Consultants.
He began his career in Brand Management at Adams Confectionery he oversaw brands like
Trident Gum and Halls Cough Drops – each $50mil brands in Canada, interfacing with teams in
Mexico, Brazil and Japan.
He then served as Director of Corporate Strategy for Kraft’s $3 bil Canadian business after
which he spent five years as VP Marketing for Canadian Tire – a 90 year old, $7billion Mass
Merchandising Retail icon and Canada’s most beloved retail brand. Peter was responsible for a
budget of $400 mil in Marketing spend, including a team of 130+ marketing colleagues working
with over 20 agencies.

What will you learn?
His innovative and unique approaches to solving business and people challenges will make you understand that a brand is not only a logo, a slogan or an advertisement. He will explain that a Brand is the sum of every experience a customer has with your business/organization, why it’s important to put Brand first in your business and he will help you assess if your brand is truly the heart & soul of your business.

Actionable learning for you to take home?
‘To succeed you must increase the practice of putting the Brand first – establishing a clear, compelling Brand Purpose followed by processes & policies that align, guide and inspire everyone in the company to deliver consistent, on-Brand, superior customer experiences at every single touchpoint – always! ‘
Join us at Leaders in Marketing on October 18, 2012 in Bucharest, Romania to hear more about Peter A. Blackwell and our roster of international Marketing heavyweights.

Leaders in Marketing
Get Smart …stay Smart!
Smart people welcomed

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Michael Ruckman
Relationship Centricity Pro, Founder, President and CEO
Michael presents a framework for building mutually beneficial relationships with customers. This man has a vision, a different approach. Although using a banking approach first, Michael’s holistic approach to reaching out to customers and securing relationships can apply to other industries as well such as telecoms, broadband, cable and utilities.

What has he done?
Michael worked in his twenty-year career both as a banker and as a consultant for retail banks in over twenty five countries around the world. He is also known for his leadership in promoting the value of Customer Experience in retail banking, he has a tremendous experience in distribution network development, alternative channel roll-outs, sales development, alliances and ventures, systems implementation, and corporate culture development.
He has authored a unique methodological approach to operationalize the Customer Experience principles in practical use, resulting in greater customer loyalty, increased sales, and better customer service. He regularly writes articles for a number of professional publications in Europe and the United States and makes appearances in international conferences as a guest speaker. In addition, Michael has been a guest professor at an Eastern European MBA program, introducing students to modern economic theories and their practical implementation in the business field.
Michael’s work portfolio includes a number of large-scale transformation projects for brands such as Abbey National, Alfa-Bank, Atlantico (Millennium BCP), Banco Venezolano, BNP- Paribas, Citibank, ING, Vneshtorgbank, Bank Menatep SPb, Nadra Bank and many others.

What will you learn?
Like in any business, the most important stakeholder is the Client. Michael explains that relationship-centricity is the concept that a provider and a customer can have a mutually beneficial relationship. Learning what your customers really want just might be the key to creating a relationship-centric relationship.

Actionable learning for you to take home?
“We must stop selling products. Instead, we need to sell solutions that help people to achieve certain results. Regardless what can be found in the package, it is important to that it offers a solution for a specific purpose. First, we should find out the customer needs and then start developing a plan for ways to achieve those goals. And I am not talking just about the goals that the customer has today, but those that he may have in six months, a year or two…”
Join us at Leaders in Marketing on October 18, 2012 in Bucharest, Romania to hear more about Michael Ruckman and our roster of international Marketing heavyweights. See http://leadersinmarketing.ro for more details.

Leaders in Marketing
Get Smart …stay Smart!
Smart people welcomed

The post Leaders in Marketing: Speaker Profile appeared first on .