MARKETING INNOVATORS CELEBRATES 30 YEARS OF INNOVATION AS WOMAN-OWNED BUSINESS

Marketing Innovators International, Inc. celebrated its 30th anniversary on February 1, 2008.  Through the tremendous energy of founder and owner Lois LeMenager, Marketing Innovators (MI) has risen to become one of the most respected people performance management companies in the country, and remains one of Chicago's largest private firms.

Due to its growth and achievement, MI is consistently named one of the top women-owned firms in Chicago (ranking 5th in 2007) by Crain's Chicago Business.  Over the years, LeMenager has received numerous prestigious awards recognizing her many contributions.  Among them are honors from organizations such as the Entrepreneur of the Year Institute, Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame and American Institute of Entrepreneurs.  Other awards include: America’s Top 50 by PINK magazine (2007), Who's Who in Chicago Business, Crain's Chicago Business; America's Top Women-Owned Businesses, Working Woman Magazine.

Over the last decade, MI has demonstrated a high level of corporate social responsibility and has been an exceptional leader in the growing people performance industry.  Rick Blabolil was named as MI President in 2001, after providing vital leadership to the company and the industry since 1982.  Among other credits, Blabolil is 2008 President of the Incentive Marketing Association; 2007 President of the Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement; Vice President of the Incentive Research Foundation (2008-09); member of the Performance Improvement Council, Incentive Gift Certificate Council and Incentive Technology Council; and Advisor to The Incentive Federation and The Motivation Show.

“This milestone arrives at a pivotal time for our industry,” says Blabolil.  “People are extraordinarily important in organizational performance, so people performance management and a growing focus on integrated strategies to fuel business success has captured the attention of CEOs throughout the world.”

As a full-service people performance management and measurement (PPM) company, Marketing Innovators delivers value to clients by inspiring, motivating and recognizing the people who affect business success and aligning their employees, partners and customers to their business goals.   “Each of our clients is unique and therefore, each program we develop is custom designed to their specific objectives, culture and desired result,” says Blabolil.  “We help companies drive improved business results by effectively translating their business challenges into people strategies and solutions.”

“We’ve always focused on innovative program strategy and development, but award fulfillment plays a key role,” says LeMenager.  “Back in the eighties, we were determined to make our incentive gift certificate vision a reality, so we developed the technology for administering a vast array of gift cards from hundreds of merchant partners.”  Cultivating relationships with hundreds of national merchants, MI has also had exclusive rights for the corporate sales and marketing of JCPenney gift cards for more than 25 years, and was named JCPenney supplier of the year in 1998.

Sherry Blabolil-Das, MI’s Executive Vice President, has been an instrumental leader for the company since its inception.  “Marketing Innovators has brought a lot of innovation to the incentive industry, and we’ve seen so many changes in the past thirty years,” says Blabolil-Das.  “We continue to develop new award options inspired by our program participants, and we provide an award platform of merchandise, gift cards, prepaid cards, events, and experiential and travel awards, that can be combined to fit program goals, budget and audience demographics.”

Marketing Innovators maintains a commitment to practicing what it preaches, and one out of seven employees has been with the company for more than 15 years.  “We have set a high standard of performance and exceeding expectations, both in our work environment and for service to our clients.” says LeMenager.

“When we combine our people, technology and best practices, with the strategy and best practices of our clients, the result is a people performance management system that engages the audience and drives extraordinary performance,” says Blabolil.  “Our success is attributed to our passion for the business and our realization that quality people, innovation and service are paramount to building long-lasting relationships.”