Mark Thomas, President
You are known by the company you keep. Mark Thomas has helped some of the biggest brands reinforce and grow their brands. Mentored by chief marketing officers from Mc Donald’s and Proctor & Gamble, Thomas learned every marketing discipline by actually doing tactics, then strategic planning, and finally mentoring.
During his career, the 56-year old Missourian has the unique perspective of being on the client and marketing agency side so his planning is designed to get results by fully understanding both sides of a marketing partnership. His client-side experience includes being an entry-level marketing specialist to eventually a senior marketing officer for major brands such as Du Pont, OMC/Volvo-Penta, Invisible Fence, and Amadeus, a division of Continental Airlines.
In a very unique move, Thomas realized he needed to understand all facets of marketing and communications so he joined a national advertising agency with billings over $100 million as an Account Group Director. He led an account group that accounted for over $25 million of business which included such varied brands as Sea-Doo, Harrah’s, Atlanta Falcons, and The Florida Times-Union.
Thomas quickly realized that the successes of almost brands rely on small to medium independent retailers such as travel agents, sporting goods dealers, or pet behaviorists. Actually taking time to work in these businesses gave him an appreciation of the issues and challenges faced every day by small, hard-working business people.
Dealing with so many varied brands and businesses, Thomas utilizes a proprietary planning process that is easily adapted to small businesses to major brands. His success using this process gained him 17 national awards including the 2011 Marketing Communication Person of the Year by PR NEWS. His curiosity in making a difference in the company’s success and teaching inspiring marketing professionals is what now fuels Prism Marketing.