Event Details
Our panel will explore the challenges facing today's marketers as they seek to reach key ethnic audiences that include Hispanic, African American and Asian consumers. We'll discuss how marketers must match the message to the market, and we'll explore the unique challenges posed by increasingly aggressive competition, and the current tough economy.
The panel will cover a number of relevant topics that include:
* Do's and don'ts for each ethnic market
* Strategies to differentiate yourself from growing and more aggressive competitors
* How to rebrand your product or service for different ethnic markets
* How to segment various ethnic markets to maximize revenue opportunities
* How to most effectively partner with ethnic communities and opinion leaders
Program
6:00 PM-6:30 PM: Registration & Networking
6:30 PM-8:00 PM: Presentation
8:00 PM-9:00 PM: Cash Bar & Networking
Speaker Profiles
Enna Calderón (Panelist)
President, Comadres, Inc.
Enna Calderón is president of Comadres, Inc. a multicultural marketing communications firm in downtown Chicago. She has managed accounts that include Sears Roebuck, Kraft Foods, Citibank, Bank of America, Quaker Oats, Banco Popular, AT&T, and Advocate Health Care. Her firm has managed national and international accounts, handling advertising, promotions, public relations, package design, and various other communications programs.
Twenty-two years at the helm of Comadres have given Enna Calderón insights and a keen awareness about multicultural customers. She is an expert at taking a brand and making it relevant and appealing to diversified audiences.
Enna began her career at Bank of America in Ecuador and continued at Procter & Gamble Spain. She holds a communications degree from La Universidad Complutense in Madrid and a business degree from DePaul University. She speaks three languages fluently. While training ten years under a Japanese Aikido master, she immersed herself in Japanese and Asian etiquette. She lived in Japan and visited various countries in Asia.
Irma González-Clark (Panelist)
Executive Marketing Director, Clark Consulting, Inc.
Irma Gonzalez-Clark has a successful track record as a marketing executive in both domestic and international markets. Her experience spans marketing, sales, business development, and international business in the U.S., Latin America, and extensively in Mexico. Irma worked for Cingular Wireless as Director of Marketing-Internet to lead the Hispanic market initiatives and develop the first Spanish Language Wireless website. Earlier, she served as Vice President Multicultural Markets for Millward Brown, and was instrumental for growing multi-cultural revenues from $3.2M to $9M over a three and a half year period, and offering clients multicultural research expertise to construct and reinforce their strategic marketing strategies.
Irma is a graduate of NYU's Executive MBA program with a focus on international business sponsored fully by AT&T. She is bicultural and bilingual in English and Spanish and has knowledge of French and German. She is a member of the National Society of Hispanic MBAs.
Ken G. Kabira (Panelist)
Veteran Consumer Marketing Executive
Ken G. Kabira is a veteran consumer marketing executive with a background in leading large marketing teams as a chief marketing officer both domestically and abroad. Mr. Kabira’s most recent position was Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for the Chicago Transit Authority, where he had responsibility for CTA’s planning and development, customer communications, real estate and advertising sales operation, and business development. Mr. Kabira will comment on the implications of the recent Limited English Proficiency segment study conducted at the CTA.
Mr. Kabira began his business career at Inland Steel Company in 1987. In 1994 he joined the Kellogg Company in Battle Creek, Michigan, where he spent most of his career as a member of the management team of Kellogg Japan. In 2003 Mr. Kabira was appointed as Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for McDonald’s Japan, the company’s second largest market after the US with over 3,700 restaurants and $3.8 billion in system-wide sales. His scope of responsibilities included marketing strategy, brand management, advertising, sales promotion, in-store merchandising, field marketing, sports marketing and product development.
Born in Japan to a Japanese father and an American mother, he spent his first 19 years there completing his primary and secondary education in the Japanese public schools. He then moved to the US to pursue his college studies in 1979. He has a B.A. and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. His private passions are bicycle racing and soccer. He raced his bicycle with the University of Chicago Velo Club for many years until his overseas career began.
Reginald Ponder (Panelist)
V.P. Senior Account Director, E. Morris Communications, Inc.
Reginald Ponder is a marketing communications professional with 20 years of experience working for general market and African-American advertising agencies as well as on the client side of the business. This experience allows him to combine his advertising knowledge and insight with his keen understanding of his clients' needs to help achieve their objectives.
Currently, Reginald is the V.P. Senior Account Director for E. Morris Communications, Inc., an advertising firm that specializes in marketing to the African American consumer. He has been responsible for Wal-Mart, Tyson Foods, American Family Insurance and General USA where he worked on accounts such as Kellogg's cereals, Mrs. Smith's Pies, Eggo Waffles and McDonald's of Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana. He moved on to work for Ameritech as a marketing communications specialist where he managed the advertising agencies servicing his business. Upon the consolidation of Ameritech business units Reginald decided to stay in the telecommunications industry to head up the marketing programs for a start-up tel-comm company, where he developed initiatives designed to promote new products. He then went on to work for UniWorld Group Inc., an African-American advertising agency, heading up the Burger King account for the central region. Reginald received a BA in sociology from Princeton University and a MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Reginald lives in Chicago with his wife Donna and two daughters Bobbi (13) and Carri (10). He is also a film critic and an avid basketball player.