Craig Shields

Craig Shields brings to the table a track record of unparalleled success in technology, automotive, and industrial marketing that spans a period of 25 years. A seasoned marketing consultant and author of hundreds of marketing plans, Craig's presence on the team enables EV World and Associates to offer its clients penetrating insight into the market conditions that will affect their ultimate ability to sell their products profitably.

Since 1983, Craig has owned and managed a marketing agency with a staff as large as 210 professionals, generating demand for Fortune-sized and high-growth clients in IT, automotive, and industrial capital equipment. Headline client relationships have included Hewlett-Packard, Sony, Porsche Motor Cars, 3M, FedEx, General Motors, Western Digital, ITT, IBM, Litton, 3Com, Xerox, Penske, AT&T, National Semiconductor, Philips Electronics, Nortel Networks, Unisys, CSC, Pacific Telesis, Fujistu, and Oracle.

Results-Based Marketing
The most visible aspects of Craig's campaigns are their results. Based on his mantra: "Marketing exists only to drive sales revenues," and his unique, measurement-based approach known in the industry as "Closed Loop Marketing," Craig and his team have generated some of the most impressive ROI figures in B2B marketing history. It has been through the consistent and meticulous application of these Closed Loop principles that Craig has expanded his base over the years to include over 800 campaigns for more than 200 client organizations, featuring the following most notable examples:

IBM's campaigns promoting its Distance Learning product (IBM Learning Services Network)
CSC/Infonet's "Weigh the Difference" campaigns promoting its value-added network
Unisys" "Information is Everything" and "Great Teams" campaigns
Fujitsu"s application-specific solutions for its pen-based computer systems
3Com"s "When Lightning Strikes" promotions for its Boundary Routing Systems Architecture
Penske Logistics' "Shared Vision" campaigns
Litton Enterprise Solutions" "IT Is Out of Control" promotions

Customer Centricity
Successful marketing efforts are personal, intimate, and truly customer-centered. At the core of all of Craig's client campaigns is a penetrating insight into the precise unmet needs of each target market segment, and the positioning of the client's product or service according to that group's exact needs, frustrations, desires, and fears. In essence, this means actively taking on the customer's perspective and aggressively managing every aspect of the marketing and sales interface around the individual's work-style and lifestyle issues. Effective marketing in today's high-pressure, no-nonsense world requires that each aspect of the customer experience directly answer questions such as "Why should I care?" and "What does this mean for me?"

Education
B.A., Trinity College, Hartford, CT, 1977 (Physics and Philosophy)

M.A., Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., 1979 (Philosophy)

Craig's Blog

Read Craig Shield's TeamEVWorld.Com Blog

Case Studies

Through the 1990s, Craig Shields' marketing agency performed extensive work for Porsche Motor Cars North America, creating record levels of sales for 911, 928, and 944 models. In characteristic fashion, this work was delivered in distinct phases: research and planning, campaign design and testing, program execution, and results interpretation.

Research and Planning

The campaigns began with a statistically valid set of live, one-on-one interviews, including both current Porsche owners as well as people who were considering Porsches but did not yet own one. The results of these interviews enabled Craig to understand the true issues that create a passion for high-end sports cars and for Porsches in particular. Only when that mechanism was fully understood was it possible to design a winning program.

Campaign Design and Testing
When all the key demographic and psychographic issues were on the table, the plan became clear: a high-end direct mail campaign aimed at several different market segments, to create demand for test drives at the 330 Porsche dealerships in all 50 states. The piece included a personalized poster featuring the recipient's name emblazoned on the license plate of a Porsche, accompanied by an individually printed hand-signed personalized letter presenting the true and perceived benefits of Porsche ownership.

Program Execution
Dozens of different database segments received various versions of the campaign over a period of years. In many cases, response rates topped 6%--extremely high in consumer campaigns. Each respondent was tracked through the database, enabling the agency to report on the exact return on investment generated by the program.

Results
Taken as a whole, the program generated a return on investment of 63:1. That is, on average, Porsche dealers sold $63,000 in inventory for each $1000 that had been invested in the program. During the final year of the campaign, Craig's agency received the top Echo Award, which the bestowing organization describes as "the Oscar of direct marketing, a much sought-after industry honor, the ECHO is the only comprehensive international direct marketing award recognizing excellence in strategy, creativity, and results."