Biography

Since March 2007, I have been President of MineThatData. I have worked with more than fifty brands and leadership teams, helping them understand the complex relationship between customers, advertising, products, brands, and channels.  Catalogers earn their Catalog PhD, e-commerce brands and retailers partner with me on Digital Profile segmentation projects, social brands hire me for Hashtag Analytics projects, and increasingly, mobile brands partner with me on Multichannel Forensics projects that illustrate how customers migrate from traditional channels to mobile.

Prior to starting my own business, I spent nearly twenty years in various levels of leadership at large multichannel brands.

• Vice President of Database Marketing, Nordstrom, 2001 - 2007.
• Sr. Consultant, Avenue A, 2000
• Director of Circulation and Analytics, Eddie Bauer, 1995 - 2000.
• Manager of Analytical Services, Lands’ End, 1990 - 1995.
• Garst Seed Company, 1988 - 1990.
• BS, Statistics, University of Wisconsin, 1988.

At Lands’ End, my favorite project was an experiment we conducted in 1993-1994, where we learned how each of our brands interacted with each other.  We learned that not every dollar we measured was incremental, instead, dollars from one brand were cannibalized by dollars customers spent in another brand. At Eddie Bauer, we tested not offering customers promotions for six months.  We learned that customers spent the same amount, long-term, when offered or not offered promotions.  We also learned that the internet was going to disrupt our business.

At Nordstrom, we shut down a catalog business, and actually saw total catalog + e-commerce sales increase in the year after closing the division down.  This was amazing, it went against everything the experts communicated to direct marketing leaders.

These findings shape the consulting work I do for my clients today.