Jack Trout – President, Trout & Partners, Ltd. / US
Jack Trout is the acclaimed author of many marketing classics published in many languages: Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, Marketing Warfare, (updated in the 20th Anniversary edition), The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, Differentiate or Die, Big Brands. Big Trouble, A Genie’s Wisdom, and Trout on Strategy. Following the Second Edition of Differentiate or Die, he wrote In Search of the Obvious. The Antidote for Today’s Marketing Mess. His most recent book is Repositioning. Marketing in an era of competition, change and crisis.
He is president of Trout & Partners Ltd. an international marketing consultancy based in Connecticut. He has consulted for such companies as Hewlett-Packard, Southwest Airlines, Merck, Procter & Gamble, Papa John’s Pizza and many others. He has consulted with the State Department on how to better sell America and in 2006 helped the Democrats regain leadership of the U.S. Congress. He continues to advise the current administration on strategy.
Recognized as one of the world’s foremost marketing strategists, Trout is the originator of Positioning and other important concepts in marketing strategy. He has over 40 years of experience in advertising and marketing, and became a boardroom advisor to some of the world’s largest corporations and his worldwide consulting work gives him first-hand experience in a wide range of marketing scenarios. Jack Trout has gained an international reputation as a consultant, writer, speaker, and proponent of leading-edge marketing strategies.
MehrSteve Rivkin / US
A widely-recognized expert in naming, Mr. Rivkin regularly provides naming services for the partner firms of Trout & Partners Ltd. He has also completed naming assignments for such clients as Alliant Energy, Aqua-Glass Corp., Biosense/J&J, Clairol, Georgia-Pacific, Kraft Foods, Pfizer Howmedica, Premio Foods, 3M and Tiffany & Co. In 2004 Steve Rivkin co-authored The Making of a Name, described by Oxford University Press as “the definitive book on names and naming.”
Mr. Rivkin is also the co-author of three books with marketing strategist Jack Trout: The New Positioning, the sequel to the international best-selling book that introduced the concept of positioning; The Power of Simplicity, a guide to coping with the complexity of management, leadership and people issues; and Differentiate or Die, which presents the keys to survival in a killer global economy.
Steve Rivkin founded Rivkin & Associates, Inc., a marketing and communications consultancy, in 1989. He has a diverse background in marketing, advertising, naming, identity, corporate communications, public affairs and journalism.
Prior to forming his own firm, Mr. Rivkin spent 15 years with Trout & Ries Inc., the prestigious marketing strategy firm known for its pioneering work in Positioning and Marketing Warfare. As executive vice president at Trout & Ries, Mr. Rivkin supervised campaigns and strategy projects for such clients as Harrah’s Hotels, Ingersoll-Rand, Leica Cameras, Magnavox, Playtex, Stop & Shop Supermarkets, United Jersey Banks and Western Union.
A journalism graduate from the University of Missouri, he began his career as an associate editor of Iron Age magazine, a weekly trade publication. Later, he was co-founder and editor of Financial Marketing Abstracts, a monthly newsletter.
Mr. Rivkin is a frequent speaker on marketing and communications topics. For 10 years he has been on the faculty of the Estes Park Institute, a leading healthcare education organization, and he has appeared at hundreds of other seminars, conferences and retreats in the U.S., Europe and Southeast Asia. He and his wife April live in northern New Jersey.
MehrCarlos F. Villa / Colombia
Carlos F. Villa is President of The Trout & Partners Company, Colombia. Mr. Villa is an accomplished international speaker and has done numerous positioning and marketing strategy assignments for major corporations in Colombia. He has had two years of chemical engineering study and graduated from Syracuse University School of Management. In addition to his many business activities he is an active member of the American Marketing Association and is Director of the Marketing Program at the Graduate School at the University of Medellin. Mr. Villa has published many articles in newspapers and industrial magazines on marketing science and positioning.
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