Following are three short case studies of recent client experience to demonstrate how I helped:

• Recapture lost market share; 
• Develop new marketing communication strategies to address needs-based segmentation; 
• Engage digital moms and mommy bloggers through Web 2.0 technologies and social networking sites.

Mortgage Insurance Companies of America

In 2005, I helped APCO win a multi-million dollar, multi-year contract with the industry trade group representing mortgage insurance companies; they sought marketing counsel after their members collectively lost several market share percentage points to competing financial instruments. Our team devised a strategy to stave further erosion and committed to regain at least three percent market share in three years. Here's how we conditioned the environment that led to a double-digit percent gain ahead of schedule:

• Presented a two-prong strategy to (1) create awareness and educate real estate agents and mortgage brokers who had little knowledge of—or experience with—private mortgage insurance (PMI); and, (2) convert long-held biases against PMI which were typical of more tenured professionals.
• Conducted research to glean the positive attributes of PMI that resonated with the targeted audiences and therefore improve their perceptions of the product.
• Developed an integrated communications campaign that leveraged third-party support for more conservative housing finance options; incorporated those voices into our earned media strategy; and positioned the industry as a provider of more secure and fiscally responsible mortgage instruments versus adjustable rate mortgages and second liens.
• Designed a paid print and online campaign to reinforce the (research-tested) benefits of PMI; advertising and direct response marketing were used to keep PMI top of mind when agents and brokers advised their clients on home financing options.

Dow Corning Corporation (Life Sciences)

For five years, I led APCO's largest global marketing communications client—Dow Corning's Life Sciences business, a multi-billion dollar specialty chemicals supplier to beauty, personal care, healthcare and household products industries. When I joined, the corporation was spinning-off a large portion of the business under a new brand in order to invest in its more profitable offerings under a revitalized corporate brand. We developed multiple marketing communication strategies  aligned to each needs-based customer segment.

One example of our success was a branded campaign targeted to a high-end segment of innovators. Whereas the client was traditionally communicating to bench chemists in very technical terms, we helped them engage other important decision makers at the customer level—brand managers and marketers. We designed an entirely different look and feel to these communications; they

• Reflected personal care trends;
  
• Featured models as consumers to align with their customers' targeted audiences;
  
• Used marketing claims in collateral; and
• Included packaged, fully formulated samples so that customers could literally see, touch, feel, smell and taste the possibilities in a partnership with Dow Corning and its specialty chemicals portfolio.

This campaign theme, Experience the Difference, ran for several years and successfully positioned Dow Corning as a partner more so than a supplier, a collaborator who truly understood their customers' business and marketing requirements.

The 14 person team that I oversaw sat in multiple APCO offices around the globe. This included a range of talent—from our in-house creative and production department, to former journalists, to junior staff. On one occasion, I worked out of the client's European headquarters for a month when we were launching a new line of products.

Hooked on Phonics

Despite a decade's hiatus in paid advertising, there was significant recall for the iconic education brand, its infomercials and its reputation as a remedial reading tool. Research showed that consumers—mothers—held greater esteem for (and were more inclined to purchase) a learn to read product if it would help their child “get ahead.” Our challenge was to change perceptions in the run-up to the launch.

From the outset, we engaged “digital moms.” Not only were they a widely sought after source for opinions and recommendations, they were the most trusted; mommy bloggers were the gatekeepers to our most important demographic.

We did not want to wait until we had product in hand before forging a relationship between HOP and mommy bloggers. One of our first actions was to introduce the new CEO to prominent bloggers and start a dialog. We then set up a product development blog and Twitter feed so that parents could follow the process of producing an educational tool for young children. Blog posting highlighted the development team's credentials as former educators, academics, children's book authors, reading specialists and child development PhDs to establish credibility. They also posted elements of the new program and asked for feedback.

The second phase of the launch was creating experiential moments with the newly repositioned brand. We previewed songs and videos that would be featured in the new product on YouTube, Facebook and a new interactive Website to create pre-launch awareness and demand for the new Learn To Read system. Combined with a strong search strategy boosted by third-party bloggers and opinion/review sites, we teed-up HOP for a wildly successful launch.