NSME Dinner - January

"Marketing is a Battle of Perceptions, Not Tomatoes" by Dick Maggiore, President & CEO of Innis Maggiore Group

Finding and expressing your organization’s unique position in the marketplace is crucial for cutting through all of the clamor and clutter. Learn how you can be heard from Dick Maggiore, internationally acknowledged authority on strategic positioning and president and CEO of Innis Maggiore, recognized as the America’s No. 1 positioning ad agency. Dick will provide real world examples of how to differentiate your brand.

Dick Maggiore, President & CEO, Innis Maggiore Group

Biographical Sketch

 Dick Maggiore is co-founder, president and CEO of Innis Maggiore, America’s leading Positioning Ad Agency. Dick is said to be America’s pre-eminent practitioner of positioning.

 Positioning is the process by which a brand (a company, product or service) is marketed with the goal of owning a meaningful and differentiated idea in the mind of the customer. Positioning was named as the most important marketing concept of the 20^th century in Advertising Age, the advertising industry’s leading publication.

 Dick says unless they have a solid foundation in positioning, even the most clever and creative marketing programs and advertising campaigns are doomed to fail. He goes so far to say companies that ignore positioning in their advertising are wasting their dollars.

 Dick began a close relationship with Jack Trout — the man who coined the term positioning and was known as the “Father of Positioning” — in the early 1980s that continued until Trout’s death in 2017. Dick is known as Trout’s most dedicated disciple, with Trout dedicating his 2009 book, In Search of the Obvious, to Dick in recognition of the inspiration he provided.

 A noted speaker on strategic positioning, Dick coined the term positionist^®. He practices what he preaches as he leads the agency’s team in putting positioning into practice for the benefit of such clients as Alcoa, Bank of America, Disney, Goodyear, Microsoft, Purell, Republic Steel, Shearer’s Snacks, Smith’s Dairy and hundreds of other companies and institutions.

 Dick is a published author. His book, The CEO’s Number One Responsibility: Identifying Your Brand’s Position, provides sound counsel for chief executive officers about building their brands through strategic positioning. Dick is a newspaper columnist with Gannett, using timely examples of familiar products and companies to illustrate how positioning strategy (or lack of) impacts business success. He has also served as an expert witness on branding.

 Dick is an ad industry “Hall of Famer” for pioneering dimensional outdoor advertising. In 1998, the Canton Chapter of the American Advertising Federation named him Ad Person of the Year. In 2003, Dick received the distinguished Community Salute Award from the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce. In 2004, Dick received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and in 2009, Kent State University’s Distinguished Alumni of the Year Award. He is a 2013 recipient of the Distinguished Sales & Marketing Award from Sales & Marketing Executives International. In 2015, citing his more than three decades of service and leadership, Canton Advertising Federation bestowed its Lifetime Achievement Award on Dick.

 Dick has addressed a diverse group of organizations over the years and is a lecturer at the University of Akron, Kent State University and Walsh University. He enjoys sharing his positioning expertise with the next generation of marketing professionals.

 Dick serves (or has served) on numerous boards of directors: American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As) Cleveland Council Board of Governors Chair, AultCare, Child Welfare League of America, FirstMerit Bank, Kent State University, NorTech, Players Guild Theatre in Canton, Canton Advertising Federation, Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce, Pathway Caring for Children, Stark Economic Development Board, Troyer Foods and more.

 Dick holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from San Francisco State University. He lives in North Canton with his wife, Kathi.