ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: Michael Stromer

Michael Stromer (MBA '04) has been part of digital marketing since its dawn, working at major brands including 1-800-Flowers.com and Publishers Clearing House. On November 11, Michael was named the new Vice President, Customer Connections for JetBlue Airways, where he now oversees the airline’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), E-Commerce and Loyalty teams.

  
We sat down with Michael to get insight into his digital expertise, JetBlue’s CSR objectives and his thoughts on career success.

What do you see as the most groundbreaking digital marketing applications used today, and what should we be looking out for in the next 2-3 years?

It would be ignorant not to say some of the main social media sites including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. With the latest count of just Facebook users worldwide at 800 million, these sites have completely changed the digital landscape and have overpowered the portal landscape (e.g., Yahoo, MSN and AOL) which owned the majority of the online share for the past ten plus years.

It is not simply the fact that these applications have created massive share-shift in terms of viewership; they have completely changed the way consumers interact with digital products and with people in general. These businesses were smart to quickly shift their focus to mobile which has really helped to propel their businesses.

On a smaller scale, there have been some terrific web and mobile applications that have entered the space that have filled gaps in customer experience. DropBox is a great example of a company that has helped solve the file-sharing problem we have all had for such a long time. As of April 2011, they have grown to 25 million users.

In two to three years, I believe the trend will continue to show more geo-relevant applications that bring the social, local and personalization techniques closer and closer together. I theoretically should be able to find anyone and anything, wherever I am, quickly. With mobile penetration continuing at its fast pace, I imagine that voice recognition will also continue to be developed across the board.  Let’s be honest, we are all looking for a safer way to stay connected on foot and in the car. With that note, I would urge students not to text and drive – it is not worth it!

Good advice indeed! And speaking of good things, can you talk about JetBlue’s CSR priorities and share any highlights of the company's cause marketing?

Our goal for Corporate Social Responsibility is to make JetBlue a world class corporate citizen. How have we done this to date? 

Supporting and aligning ourselves with not-for-profit organizations that focus on health and human services, education, environment and youth in the communities we serve. Inspiring greatness in others through enriching the lives of the individuals. Involving crewmembers in our efforts to help make JetBlue a great place to work.

Our goal is to figure out a way to accelerate our efforts and broaden our message by using some innovative approaches. For example, while we love planting trees in local communities, we also know that there are limits to how wide we can manage those types of programs – there are resource constraints around managing what can be complicated logistics.

We have initiated several very successful cause marketing campaigns gaining accolades and awards along the way. Most recently we launched a summer reading campaign with PBS and Random House called Soar With Reading. The goal was to combat summer regress that occurs predominately in lower income neighborhoods. We created an interactive website, hosted reading events across the country, created and distributed 250,000 reading activities including 50,000 in Spanish, developed crewmember volunteer opportunities to read in libraries and lastly we had more than 115,000 customers vote for their home town library to receive 10,000 new books. Without advertising resources, we engaged social media - relying on Mommy (and Daddy) bloggers to spread the word.

We would love to figure out how to use our strong digital presence and large customer base more to drive programs at a large scale where we can create even greater benefits for the communities and programs we support.

Ultimately, the Customer Connections area is about deepening the relationships we have with our Customers (capital C) without always focusing on transactions. It’s about how we can support you as a customer with the things that you are passionate about in your local community and multiply those efforts across the America.

This sounds like a terrific strategy to be leading. You have really positioned success into your career, Michael. Congratulations! Reflecting on your career up to now, what have been your keys to success?

I believe focusing on customers, building strong relationships, and spending as much time on strategy as I do implementation, have been the key areas to drive my success. I’ve learned this from some great teachers both inside and outside of school.

It doesn’t matter how smart you are – if you can’t get people to buy into a vision and to support your initiatives, you will have a much harder road ahead. Content is key but you also need to know how to deliver it. Focus on customer satisfaction - many times it is the small details that in the end help to differentiate you and your company. At the same time, if you jump into the details without a solid vision grounding it, you will get lost in them. I also can’t underscore enough the value of effective public speaking. This was one of the biggest benefits from my MBA at Baruch.

Setting a track for myself has also really helped to focus my career. I remember sitting on the LIRR many years ago plotting out a plan for my career. I am not saying that it has perfectly aligned to my actual career, but it has stayed close. This has helped me to reassess every few years to see if I am where I want to be.

Lastly, you can’t bulldoze your way to success. I am sure this works for some people but I can’t see how those people can feel fulfilled in their careers. I always try to create a fun and fulfilling environment for the people I work with including my team. Let’s be honest, there is something about popularity that helps to drive success. You can’t do it on your own. And, be thankful to people and never take credit for someone else’s work. Great leaders build great teams and they should showcase their teams and the hard work they do. In turn, they will get even better results.