BURTON R. BLAZY

***** ******* *****, *****

Palm Desert, CA 92211

zlh6qp@r.postjobfree.com

Home 760-***-****

Cell 760-***-****

MARKETING LEADER

~ Over 15 years of success driving record levels of sales, profits and market share ~

Hands-on leader with expertise in branding, advertising, media planning, collateral/website development, offline, online and social media marketing campaigns. Excel in designing highly effective online marketing strategies that reduce cost per lead/sale and dramatically improve ROI. Extensive experience managing successful marketing strategies for diverse companies and industries. Change Agent with demonstrated success in leading organizations to industry leadership positions through sophisticated research, integrated marketing campaigns and post-campaign behavioral analytics and measurement systems.

HIGHLIGHTS

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> Delivered 145% of sales goals and millions in marketing cost reductions. Generated so much activity that operations and call centers could not keep up with demand.

> Consistent track record of slashing 10-40% of marketing costs while lifting response rates 15-25% and customer loyalty 5-12%.

> Doubled customer acquisition in 1 year while reducing aggregate costs by over 40%.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

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Integrated Marketing Campaigns

Brand & Loyalty Strategies

Social Media Marketing

SEO / SEM

Market Research & Analysis

Behavioral Analysis

Online/Offline Programs

Media Buying & Analysis

Creative Management

B2B & B2C Markets

Marketing Communications

Inbound/Outbound Call Centers

Ecommerce/Direct Response

Statistical Scoring & Analysis

Team Development

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

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PRINCIPAL - MAY 2003 – DEC 2005 / MAY 2009 –PRESENT

BALAZSI, LLC MARKETING & ADVERTISING

Provide strategic marketing consulting to companies focused on B2C markets. Collaborate with company executives to determine branding strategies, product positioning and integrated online/offline campaigns to drive sales and increased market share. Responsible for implementing mid- to large-scale integrated marketing programs.

SAMPLE ENGAGEMENTS:

* Engaged by diabetes testing supplies firm to perform competitive and market analysis, identify appropriate niche and develop move-forward branding strategy. Developed customer database with demographic and behavioral characteristics used to overlay incoming responses to further segment prospects and optimize sales effectiveness. Result: Delighted client by doubling customer base in 60 days.

* Campaign Manager: George Fitch For Governor (Virginia) 2005. Responsible for day-to-day management of campaign including creating direct mail pieces, web site content development, press releases and candidate interviews. Result: Due to his late entry and limited funds, Mr. Fitch was expected to pull only 2-5%, but pulled ~20%, a number that pundits stated was “extraordinary”.

* Retained by retail store to develop and implement marketing strategy. Established brand positioning, messaging, direct mail and print advertising with TV and radio to follow. Results: Dramatically beat goal of $60K sales in 6 months, delivering $30K in 1st month, $45K in 2nd month and producing $100K a month.

STARWOOD VACATION OWNERSHIP - PALM DESERT, CA

Fortune 500 Global hospitality and timeshare company.

SENIOR DIRECTOR, INTEGRATED MARKETING (INTERNET, PRINT, DIRECT MAIL) - JAN 2007 – APR 09

Promoted to oversee all global marketing for full portfolio of products. Responsibilities include oversight of Database & Campaign Management, Owner Marketing, Web Marketing channel, and Lead Acquisition & Management. Develop strategies and execute programs and campaigns to support various business units, with primary focus on Customer Acquisition. Secondarily, executed a CRM strategy to assure programs are brought to market effectively.

NOTABLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

* Slashed $1M in salaries and saved 20% in marketing costs by consolidating all marketing operations.

* Reorganized marketing and assumed responsibilities of E-commerce Director, Lead Management Director, Director of Marketing, St. Regis, VP Business Development/Strategic Alliances and outside media buying agency.

* Delivered 128% of budgeted leads and 113% of budgeted sales by ramping up e-commerce efforts.

* Increased interactive lead performance 76% via A/B landing page splits, and predictive analytics.

* Developed Web 2.0 social media campaigns via Facebook, MySpace, Yelp, Twitter, YouTube, and Eventful. Additionally launched go-to-market mobile marketing strategy by creating a shortcode and creating interactive marketing campaigns for text-to-win.

* Used Behavioral Analytics to increase interactive display lead closure rates by 40%.

* Introduced database direct marketing and statistical modeling that lowered acquisition costs across the board and provided a model that could predict a purchaser from non-purchaser.

* Decreased page abandonment rate 19% by adding leave-behind page for users to sign-up for e-newsletter or click-to-call a sales representative.

DIRECTOR, DATABASE & CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT - JAN 2006 – JAN 2007

Recruited to improve effectiveness of direct marketing efforts and bring all marketing operations in-house to support a $300M business with a $16.8M marketing budget. Crafted and executed over 75 integrated campaigns/month testing creative, price, and promotions across 16 properties.

NOTABLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

* Delivered 145% of sales goals and exceeded every sales goal per campaign resulting in reducing marketing efforts as operations and call centers could not keep up with demand.

* Saved over $2.5M by bringing marketing in-house. Assembled and trained marketing staff of 22 personnel.

* Executed over 1M pieces of direct mail monthly integrated with email, internet and social media campaigns (Twitter, Blogs, etc).

* Raised response rate 20% every year since 2006 from .6% to as high as 2.5%.

* Improved campaign performance across all states by as much as 40% through better list selects and target marketing.

* Increased click-through-rates by introducing best practices in SEM, SEO and PPC.

* Reduced direct mail cost-per-package by over 11% despite postal increases of $0.05 per piece. Eliminated ~1M addresses through improved customer segmentation and analysis of potential buyers.

* Decreased return mail by 72% from 4.0% to 1.1%.

DIRECTOR OF CUSTOMER ACQUISITION - OCT 2001 – APRIL 2003 (COMPANY ACQUIRED)

EXPRESS-MED / MP TOTALCARE - NEW ALBANY, OH

Nationally known healthcare company providing home delivery service to customers with diabetes.

Recruited to turnaround performance of marketing department, reduce 4-year trend of escalating customer acquisition costs and establish national branding presence. Oversaw $5.6M budget, team of 8 professionals and 30 Inbound / Outbound Call Representatives.

Championed consistent branding and consolidated over 7 disjointed messages. Completely revamped company and product image through new logo, identity and positioning strategies. Performed media analysis for nationwide TV and print advertising campaigns integrated with direct mail. Performed detailed cost-per-customer analysis by medium to measure effectiveness and identify areas for improvement. Launched integrated marketing campaigns utilizing multi-media: television (DRTV and broadcast), print (magazines and newspapers), direct mail, Internet and tradeshows. Developed benchmarks for all direct response initiatives, including synergy metrics for measuring “lift” from multimedia. Created scoring profiles broken out by medium.

NOTABLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

* Credited for driving company from #5 to #2 market share.

* Increased new diabetic customer base 120% from 5,900 to over 13,000 in 1 year.

* Reduced aggregated cost-per-customer +40% from $500 to <$300 and generated over 90,000 qualified leads.

* Developed an online/offline catalog that garnered $60,000/month in incremental revenue where none previously existed.

* Increased web traffic over 700% from 8,000/month to over 65,000/month

* Credited for initiating loyalty programs that resulted in reactivating over 15,000 customers.

* Won First Place for AIM award (Achievement in Marketing 2002) for direct response TV commercial that reduced CPC from over $1100 to less than $350.

* Developed co-op advertising campaigns with product manufacturers resulting in incremental $300K in new marketing dollars.

* Retrained inbound Call Center Agents to become Inside Sales Center, armed with sales incentives and new phone scripts. Increased inquiries over 400% resulting in more than doubling Call Center staff and outsourcing overflow calls to outside firm.

* Lowered operating expenses by 22% through intelligent utilization and negotiations with outside vendors including creative agencies, media buyers, statistical scoring house, list compilers and printers.

* Successfully negotiated with list broker to add three questions to their bi-annual proprietary national surveys at their cost, effectively saving company $300K.

Developed statistical contact strategy to optimize list rental and number of contacts required to exact a response resulting in lowering direct mail acquisition cost from $450 to $180.

ACCOUNT DIRECTOR - 2000- 2001

LEO BURNETT - CHICAGO, IL

Top 10 Global Agency with 95 offices in 83 countries.

Business Challenge: Increase effectiveness of database and overall direct response initiatives for Philip Morris Discount cigarettes. Oversaw staff of 5 managing budget in excess of $20M. Provided strategic direct marketing input and developed contact strategy and mail matrix grid, complete with total mail quantity, CPM, estimated response percents and CPO.

NOTABLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

* Redefined consumer profiles that psycho-demographically reflected consumers’ lifestyles.

* Introduced new tracking that slashed turn-around for coupon redemption from 9-12 months to 3-6 months.

ACCOUNT DIRECTOR - 1996 -1999

DRAFTWORLDWIDE - CHICAGO, IL

Global marketing Communications Company that ranks as the largest direct and promotions agency in the United States.

Recruited as Account Supervisor to oversee marketing initiatives for 2 critical programs for company’s largest client, United States Postal Service (USPS). Promoted after 1 year to Account Director to establish new USPS program to grow stamp collecting segment.

NOTABLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

* Created market test designed to simulate trial of ATM Stamps-to-Go and Stamps By Mail that resulted in a 12% ATM usage increase (against goal of 3%) and a 6% increase in Stamps By Mail mail order.

* Conceived and authored direct marketing plan for Celebrate the Century un-circulated stamps. Designed direct response test and beat expected returns by 1000% (produced $250K vs. $25K goal) that resulted in $3.2M in new agency billings, the creation of 8 new positions, and over $25M in retained stamp sales for client.

* Recognized for re-branding stamps as a “collectible” resulting in 400,000 new collectors in <4 months.

EDUCATION

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MS, INTEGRATED MARKETING, CONCENTRATION IN DIRECT MARKETING

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY - EVANSTON, IL

First program in U.S that combines the disciplines of Advertising, Corporate Public Relations and Direct Marketing into 1 degree

BA, ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE - EVANSTON, IL

4 years on Dean’s List, National Dean’s List

ADDITIONAL COURSEWORK

Kellogg Graduate School Of Business

Channels of Distribution - Sales Force Management

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