DD+D Presents for the American Marketing Association of Chicago

Marketing the Customer Experience: Balancing Technology and the Human Touch

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Catalyst Ranch, 656 W. Randolph St., 4th Floor - Jitterbug Room, Chicago, IL 60661

Join the Consumer Packaged Goods SIG on Tuesday, April 30th for a discussion on how innovative marketers balance technology with the human touch in order to create the best experience for their customers.

With consumers embracing smartphones and iPads in all aspects of their daily lives, it’s not surprising that more and more service providers use the technology to enhance the customer experience. At the same time, McDonald’s is bringing together unlikely collaborators from the disciplines of theater and design to help the world’s largest foodservice provider connect more personally with customers.
Our guest speakers will share their experiences and the innovative ideas they’ve employed to measurably and positively impact the bottom line in consumer services.

Key takeaways include insight into how:
1. The design of the consumer service experience can be as important as the design of the product packaging for leading consumer brands.
2. Innovation in services marketing is often a collaboration of unexpected partners.
3. Marketing and educating employees is a critical driver to the success of new service offerings.
4. The right combination of technology and marketing creates positive customer experiences while the wrong mix can easily drive away customers.
5. Applying marketing and design principles to track results and improve the customer experience in a way that contributes to the bottom line is critical regardless of which innovation path you choose for your services.

Event Agenda:
5:30-6:00 pm - Networking and Refreshments
6:00-7:00 pm - Presentation and Q&A
7:00-7:30 pm - More Networking and Refreshments

Speakers:

Jeff Pollard Director, Experience Design McDonald’s USA Corporation	As Director of Experience Design, Jeff employs human centered methodologies to conceive and simulate how customers choose to experience McDonald’s in the next 5-10 years. Jeff also helps the organization deliver better service experiences today at more than 33,000 stores around the globe. A genuine curiosity about people and technology and the ability to make connections gained from user insights inspires Jeff and his team to dig deeper to deliver strategic outcomes and generate excitement around new service initiatives. This ability to motivate teams and clients ultimately leads to new service models and product concepts that are actionable, brand building and help build the business. Jeff’s twenty years of experience in integrating design, consulting and innovation has provided him the dexterity required to lead diverse teams and drive change at leading professional service firms such as Doblin (now part of Monitor), VSA Partners, Arthur Anderson, Ignition and most recently, McDonald’s Corporation. Jeff holds a masters degree in Human Centered Design from the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.
Byron Stewart Owner/Theatre-based Consultant Dramatic Diversity/DD+D	Byron is an actor, director, consultant, facilitator, presenter, and owner of Dramatic Diversity/DD+D. For the past eleven years, Dramatic Diversity has provided theatre-based corporate training and diversity & inclusion consultation to many clients including BP/Amoco, Hyatt Hotels, Motorola, Northern Trust Bank, Brookfield Zoo, Ohio State University, Northwestern University, and PepsiCo. Byron has facilitated theatre-based product, service, and customer experience design workshops for McDonald’s (US & Global), Critical Mass, Sears, Walgreen’s, RTC, University of Chicago, DePaul University, Columbia College, and for Northwestern University’s Design for America Fellows. Byron is a local leader and presenter for Chicago’s Interaction Design Association (IxDA) and coordinator of the Chicago Service Jam ‘11. He is a co-founder of the Service Design Network Chicago. Articles on Byron’s workshops have been featured in the UXmatters and Experience Matters online magazines. His article, “Call Me a Cab, But First”, was published in the Service Design Network’s Touchpoint Journal. Byron was a featured speaker for Arizona State University’s Compete Through Service Symposium, World Design Capital Helsinki, Finland, IIT/ID’s Design Research Conference, Service Design Network’s Global Conference, UXMasterclass Conference, and DePaul University’s Continuing and Professional Education Program. Byron is lead instructor of the Ready section of Northwestern University’s STEM Communication Fellowship Program Ready, Set, Go. As a professional actor he has appeared at the Goodman, Northtlight, Court, and Black Ensemble theatres and received a Jeff Citation, Black Theatre Alliance Award, and an After Dark Award. He served as Artistic Director of A Real Read, Chicago’s African American LGBT performance ensemble for five years. He has co-starred in feature films and has done casting for award winning television series. Byron received his BFA degree from Howard University in Washington D.C.
Jay Clark Director, Creative Services Shared Marketing Services, Inc.	Jay leads the Creative Team and Media Personnel for the in-house advertising agency of Shared Marketing Services, Inc. Jay is responsible for creating strategic initiatives and executing targeted marketing to provide lift for Fortune 500 clients and their channel partners. Jay also leads the development of new tools and emerging vehicles for manufacturers and their channel partners in new media. Shared Marketing Services is a full service, integrated marketing solutions firm. For more than 25 years, Shared Marketing Services has worked with multi-unit, franchised, retail, and dealer/distributor companies to help optimize the ROI on their advertising spend. Their suite of online tools allows centralized marketing departments the ability to control their brands, messaging, and costs while providing local managers the flexibility to creatively target their customers and prospects. All of the solutions are custom tailored to clients' requirements. Jay is also partner and co-owner of SilverGrass Marketing, a company that offers guidance and technical solutions to help manufacturers with data-driven marketing and improved client communications.