Bryan Feller: Founder and President of Catalyst Performance Group
By Anique Gonzalez
Bryan Feller is a religious man. He attended college at a theological school where he studied to become a pastor. He turned to God during some of the most trying times in his career, which included the instances in which he ''worked alongside a COO who threatened his life when he blew the whistle on corporate embezzlement; watched his hard work dissolve on September 11th, along with much of the U.S. economy; [and when working] for a major leadership development company, witnessed the toxic management one would liken to Enron.'' This is why it is all the more amusing that Feller's first true entry into the field of marketing was a result of feigned ignorance and a touch of dishonesty.
Act Now! Activate a FREE three days trial to MarketingCrossing.com, because you know how important it is to know about all the jobs.
While studying at a small theological school after graduating high school, Feller began working in the shipping room of a training company. After nearly one year there, Feller concluded that the company could increase sales of their products if they offered them via a catalog, in addition to offering them at keynote and training events.
After informing his boss about the idea, Feller was tasked with writing the copy for the catalog. It was a huge success. "And when my boss and his boss got fired, the new guy thought I was the marketing manager. I just pretended like I was and kept working on marketing projects," Feller says. With Feller serving as marketing manager, sales increased by $3 million over the next few years.
Following this unique start, Feller went on to serve as marketing vice president for a leadership development company, general manager at a software company, and vice president of sales and marketing at a commercial furniture manufacturer and corporate events company. Along the way, Feller has achieved tremendous success, leading one company to the Inc. 500 list twice in five years, as well as growing a company's revenue from near bankruptcy to $20 million annually.
All of this success may, in part, be tied to Feller's belief in disciplined marketing. "Marketing that is not based in the scientific method will ultimately fail over the long term," he states. According to Feller, too often, marketing executives create and execute campaigns without fully understanding customer behavior. While they do develop campaigns that are extremely creative, they do not connect with the customer, which should be the primary goal.
"Let's face it; even in large consumer brand companies, you can test ad campaigns on statistically significant focus groups before you roll them out and know if they are going to impact demand. Yet most companies never do. Instead, they rate the ad campaign on how well senior managers like it — people that are frequently out of touch with what consumers are really thinking." So while creativity is important, knowing your customers and what they want, is the only way to achieve results.
"Creativity is great, but in a turnaround situation, you have to make every penny you put into marketing count. If you take a creative gamble and lose, everybody loses their jobs."
Q. What was the last piece of music that you listened to? A. Jazz.
Q. Throughout your lifetime, what movie have you watched the most? A. My kids watched The Princess Bride probably a hundred times while they were growing up. By default I think I probably saw it at least half of those times. [I] still think it is a cute movie.
Q. What was the last book you read? A. The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing, Thomas Nagle. It was a little dry, but informative.
Q. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? A. Butter Pecan.
Q. If you had an extra hour in the day, what would you spend it doing? A. I'd pray more. I pray a lot, but not enough.
Feller learned this customer-based and results-focused marketing style well. While working as the vice president of sales and marketing for furniture manufacturer Bertolini Inc., for instance, Feller theorized that the company could drastically improve sales by altering their marketing approach. To accomplish this, Feller created a direct mail experiment in contrast to the previously used direct response space ads with the belief that it would double and improve lead generation without generating significant marketing costs. Sales soon increased from $8 million to $16 million annually.
Building on this momentum Feller ventured out in 2005 and started his own marketing company, Catalyst Performance Group, which he now oversees as president. The company client list already includes the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Charles Schwab, and the California Beach Volleyball Association, among others, and focuses on B2B marketing. Having already achieved a sizable amount of success thus far, Feller hopes to expand the agency by spinning off other companies in the future. "Catalyst is not a traditional ad agency — we actually use what we teach our clients to grow ourselves. We hope to do this with high potential start-ups in the future."
This approach, with an eye on results, growth, and above all else, the customer, will help Catalyst overcome the major challenges within the industry that are beginning to present themselves. "I believe as time goes on it will be more difficult to communicate a value proposition to clients that is compelling and different. The old school branding tactics of plastering pithy slogans across mass media will simply cease to work," Feller says.
"Managers will demand more discipline from marketers, and at the same time, they will have to be better at innovation. Changing the rules to the game in commoditized markets will be the only way marketers will survive over the long term."
Mandie , Quincy, MA
MarketingCrossing has a large quantity of jobs which are updated very frequently--ensuring freshness.
Jennifer , St. Louis, MO
The quick search option and the advance search engine are the best options on MarketingCrossing. They also save a lot of time.
Anna , Brentwood, TN
MarketingCrossing is a fantastic website, and provides a lot of opportunities.
Malika , Houston, TX
The newswires on MarketingCrossing is the best thing about the site. I like to read them regularly.
Laurie , Dallas, TX
MarketingCrossing provides an excellent service. I have recommended the website to many people.
To compare MarketingCrossing with other job sites
Show Everyone What You Are Capable Of: Take Action and Investigate Jobs on 50,000+ Websites Instantly
Get immediate results in your job search: Discover marketing jobs from over 50,000 websites on MarketingCrossing. It is not logical for you to be confined to marketing jobs on one website when you can have the exciting experience of searching over 50,000 websites at once.
You are focused on living in the present and not the future: Do not wait for the ideal marketing jobs to come to you; instead, find them right now. Observe, be practical, take action and get results today.
Director of Web Marketing United States-ME-Waterville
Thomas College is seeking a Director of Web Marketing to improve the overall impact and effectiveness of the College's web marketing strategy with ...
Even with the economic recession, one should never stop trying to find a decent employment and stay on it. However challenging it can be, there will always be ways to get a job in whatever industry or set of skills one has. This holds true for any kind of job, and this certainly holds true when one is trying to search marketing job in these trying ...
EmploymentCrossing is too good and very user friendly. The best feature is the submission of the resume and cover letter online. The search engines are also very fast.
Allison , Chicago, IL
The best thing about MarketingCrossing is that you can upload your resume and also have the option to apply online.
Archer , Rancho Santa Margarita, CA
The only reason I cancelled my membership was because I found a full-time position. I did not see the job posting on any other job board. I would definitely utilize this service again.
See Every Marketing Job We Can Find on the Internet!
Unlike other sites, MarketingCrossing works for you and does not charge employers to post jobs and actually goes out and researches jobs for you. The jobs you see are the jobs we find for you and not the ones employers are paying us to post.
Show Everyone What You Are Capable Of: Take Action and Investigate Jobs on 50,000+ Websites Instantly
Get immediate results in your job search: Discover marketing jobs from over 50,000 websites on MarketingCrossing. It is not logical for you to be confined to marketing jobs on one website when you can have the exciting experience of searching over 50,000 websites at once.
See all the jobs in your profession on the Internet in one place. Your powers of observation and people skills will all pay off when you can view:
Marketing jobs from every company employer career webpage we can find.
Marketing jobs from every professional marketing firm career page we can find.
Marketing jobs from every job board we can find.
Marketing jobs from every newspaper classified ad we can find.
Marketing jobs from every specialized marketing publication we can find.
Marketing jobs from every federal, state and local government career page we can find.
Marketing jobs from every public interest, nonprofit and other career page we can find.
Tell us where to send your access instructions:
Today at MarketingCrossing
2,225 - Jobs found in last 24 Hours13,644 - Jobs found in last 7 Days42,003 - Total Jobs Found
Your privacy is guaranteed. We will never give out, lease, or sell your personal information.
MarketingCrossing - #1 Job Aggregation and Private Job-Opening Research Service — The Most Quality Jobs Anywhere
MarketingCrossing is the first job consolidation service in the employment industry to seek to include every job that exists and not charge employers to post jobs on its site.
MarketingCrossing uses sophisticated technology and manual work to comb employer websites and other job boards for jobs and bring them all to its site.
