Brad Mild

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Profile

Brad Mild
Online Customer Service and Experience Strategy
Marketing and Advertising | Greater Chicago Area, US

Summary

I am Curious. More importantly, I am curious about people – who they are, what they do, and how they make decisions. It is this curiosity that has guided my education, my career and my hobbies.

I graduated in 2007 from the University of Colorado with degrees in both Business Administration and Psychology. The combination taught me valuable tools and insights into understanding people on a micro and macro scale. I also furthered honed my skills by working in a psychology research lab and completing an honor thesis.

After graduation I worked first as a marketing intern and later as a sales representative. Both positions required me to understand customers from different perspectives: at a distance and up-close and personal.

While I was working, I watched carefully the growth of digital technology and data accumulation. I realized that a new frontier of consumer understanding was presenting itself. The current data collection techniques let us as marketers not only understand past behavior, but also allow us find indicators that could predict future behavior and even tie them to financial returns. Exciting! I decided to go back to school to study these emerging trends.

That is my story… stay tuned for the next chapter.
Specialties: Integrated Marketing Communication, IMC, customer segmentation, customer lifetime value, customer profiling, consumer insight, data mining, Digital Marketing, SEO, psychological research, brand strategy, social media, web analytics, graphic design, Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Excel, SPSS, SAS

Experience

  • Jan 2011 - Present
    Online Customer Service and Experience Strategy / Discover Financial Services
    Responsible for strategy and development of e-Business initiatives - Identified opportunities to improve online functionality, crafted business cases, composed project proposals interviewed stakeholders, gathered requirements, lobbied for technology resources, mapped timelines, facilitated user acceptance testing, coordinated analytical reporting and presented results to management Grew the share of online activation by 7.5 percentage points to date - Customized the online activation experience through the use of account specific data - Gained business partner participation in marketing the online activation process through stickering, fulfillment kits, emails, and web pages. Managed the design and execution of the Paperless Giveaway Promotion - Developed business case and marketing strategy - Supervised design process for a number of assets types: pages, placements, and intercepts - Coordinated promotion installation and launch across multiple business partners - Automated the posting of winners on the site to conserve technology resources Designed a strategy to align the offline and online card issuance experience - Stitched together an interactive map that outlines the entire customer activation journey and includes assets from Contact Centers, Print, and Online - Conducted stakeholder interviews and workshops to define the ideal customer experience - Worked with business technology to segment and prioritize requirements Maintained the e-Business Cost Savings report. - Calculated forecasts and plans for key business drivers and total cost savings for e-Business - Automated the reporting documents to allow for easy updating and analysis Introduced a new project management system that allows for a more flexible and visual interface, more robust documentation system and a smaller overall file size. Templates are currently being created for distribution.
  • 2009 - Present
    Graduate Student / Northwestern University Medill IMC
    Integrated Marketing Communications is a program that teaches students to uncover strategic insights about their most profitable customers and then tailor the customer contact points to provide clear and relevant communications that suit the customer’s needs. The last step is to tie the marketing actions to financial and goal related measurement. --Committees and Side Projects-- Chair of the IMC Public Speaking Committee Description: is to improve students’ public speaking skills through practice and peer critique. • plan and conduct weekly workshop meetings with around 10 or more participants. • work with faculty and outside organizations to provide materials and feedback. Brand Analyst for the IMC Cause Marketing Initiative Description: to create marketing and brand strategies for non-profit organizations • Current Company Project: To help Heartland Alliance, a non-profit that undertakes human rights work in housing, health care, economic security and legal protection, to understand their stakeholders and create strategic communication messages to differentiate them from the their peers. • project is still in progress Visual Communications Manager for Vitamin IMC Blog • manage the aesthetics of the site • write blog posts Brand Strategist for Eat Green Foods Description: They are a local Chicago company that produces artisan quality granola bars made from all natural ingredients grown by local farmers. They distribute through Whole Foods and local coffee shops. • create a marketing positions strategy that helps to differentiate Eat Green Foods from their competition. • The initial strategy included competitive pricing analysis, brand positioning, ethnographic research and measurement procedure creation. • project is still in progress.
  • Jun 2010 - Present
    Customer Intelligence & CRM Summer Resident / Cricket Communications
    • Identified consumer trends through relational database analysis with SAS and SQL • Developed both long and short term retention strategies supported by data driven insights.
  • Nov 2008 - Present
    Account Executive / Custom Communications
    Company Description: Custom Communications is an AT&T authorized retailer with 13 locations throughout St. Louis. They specialize in mobile wireless, internet, home entertainment services and equipment. They are differentiated from their competition by their high level of customer service. • developed skills in customer relationship management and sales theory • sold wireless, wireline and home entertainment products and services
  • Mar 2008 - Present
    Marketing Intern / Metro Group Solutions
    Company Description: A printing and marketing design company that specialized is small to media sized local businesses in the Greater St. Louis area. • conducted meetings with clients to discuss design process, timetables, and implementation of advertisements and pricing. • designed advertisements and logos • created strategic branding plans for emerging companies
  • Dec 2005 - Present
    Research Assistant / University of Colorado
    Lab Description: The Colorado Alcohol and Smoking lab researched the cognitive effects of substances on individuals. I worked with smokers to determine the effects of nicotine on cognition. • guided participants through testing procedure, recorded biometric and cognitive data over three hour sessions. • conducted interview screens of potential research candidates to determine eligibility. • used SPSS to compile and analyze data.

Education

  • 2009 - 2010
    Northwestern University
    M.S. in Integrated Marketing Communication
    Activities: : - Vitamin IMC student blog - Visual Communications Manager - Public Speaking Committee - Chair - Cause Marketing Initiative
  • 2002 - 2007
    University of Colorado at Boulder
    B.S. in Business Administration, B.A.Psychology
    Activities: : Secretary of Order of Omega – greek honor society • Planned events • Designed and implemented a strategy to increase recruitment Sigma Pi Fraternity • Parents Event Coordinator Psi Chi – National Honor Society for Psychology Beta Gamma Sigma – International Business Honor Society

Additional Information

Websites:
BradMild.com, Vitamin IMC, Medill IMC Program
Honors:
Summa Cum Laude : University of Colorado
Interests:
Snowboarding, Wake-boarding, Ice Hockey, Sketching, Painting, New Technology
Who I Am :: LinkedIn
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Posts

December 23, 03:11 AM
Introductions are in Order

Hello Bloggers

My name is Brad Mild and I am a graduate student in Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) at Northwestern University.  Along with my collegiate career I am also the Visual Communications Manager of the Vitamin IMC Blog, an IMC student led blog that produces quality content on current marketing topics.

Well, that is who I am on paper.  On a more personal note I am someone who is passionate about marketing and its integration into the digital sphere.  Marketing is currently undergoing a transformation.  Rapid technological advances in internet and telecommunications are changing the way data is collected and the consumer is engaged. I want to be on the forefront of this change.

To clarify,  this blog is intended to be an outlet to discuss future trends in marketing and how they manifest themselves today.  I will provide articles that I find relevant and comment on them through a lens of an IMC student.  But, this is only one lens.  To really grasp the shifts that are unfolding before us more perspectives are needed, so I encourage your participation.  All points of views are welcome and i encourage disagreement, as long as it is done in a professional and respectful manner.  It is an exciting time for marketing.  Let us share and learn from it together.

As Charles Darwin once wrote, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

Brad


December 23, 03:56 AM
Virtual Goods as Status Symbols?

The world is a theater.  In everyday life we define the roles we play by the scripts we learn, the costumes we wear, and the props we own.  If we wish to portray ourselves as a successful business person we follow proper etiquette, wear professional suits, and own designer accessories.  But, as people are beginning to spend more and more time online for social as well as business practices how are we to maintain our roles and status?  Well, we are beginning to see the answer to this question in the creation of “virtual goods”.  That’s right, digital representations of actual products.  If you are asking yourself, “what on earth is he talking about” go to Facebook and post a happy birthday message to one of your friends.  You will be immediately solicited to purchase a digital good to send along with your message.  This present could be a cake or a drink or any number of icons.  The funny think is people are now defining themselves by their collection of virtual goods and those that they send to others.

To add another layer of meaning, certain digital swag are now bearing brand name logos.  So when a vodka martini might signal sophistication, an Absolute vodka martini might say something more.  This means that brand names are purely the differentiating factor here because the product is offering nothing more than an association, a chance to attach oneself to the essence of the brand. In an article entitled Branded Virtual Goods are Presents for Marketers, Too Ad Age writes about this phenomenon and quotes Stanford Professor, Jeremy Bailenson saying, “People are spending more time on Facebook than they are face-to-face communications, and it’s natural that if you are going to present yourself in the digital space, you care about how you look and how you sound.”

Food for Thought:

With virtually zero production costs and infinite scalability are “virtual goods” something that all companies should consider creating?

Does a person’s selection of a digital product change the way they are viewed by other individuals?

What ways could this marketing strategy backfire?


What I Think :: Wordpress

WHO AM I?

PROFESSIONALLY:

I distill actionable insights from data. This helps companies target their most profitable customers with relevant messages leading to higher net returns.

I am graduating in December 2010 from Northwestern University with a Masters in Integrated Marketing Communication with specialties in Brand and Advertising Strategy, Marketing Analytics, and Direct & Interactive Marketing.

If you want to talk about career opportunities, contact me below or text BRADMILD to 50500.


PERSONALLY:

I am passionate about marketing, and its integration into the digital sphere. Marketing is currently undergoing a transformation. Rapid technological advances in internet and telecommunications are changing the way data is collected and the consumer is engaged. I want to be on the forefront of this change.

"We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden." - Goethe

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