About Karen

I have a big interest in what makes customers stay customers!  A first time sale or occasional purchase is one thing… but keeping people coming back, year after year, is something else.  Something different.  It’s marketing that uses all the Ps.

I’m terrifically enthusiastic about what makes people tick.  I remember standing in the front of the classroom, making a presentation to other psychology undergrads, and getting so caught up in my case study on advertising’s influence on consumer behavior that I lost my place in my index cards and had to stop for a minute to catch up.  Fast forward to grad school.  It took me two years to get my MBA because I’d never taken a business class and I had to take all the prerequisites – but it only took me two weeks to decide to major in marketing.  Marketing=psychology with a purpose.

With my hot-off-the-press MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I started working in health care – hospital and medical group marketing, back when it was known as “community relations.”  Primarily Catholic hospitals.  From there, I went to for-profit health care.  Big, big change.  Then to the American Hospital Association, and then to the American Dental Association, where I served as the senior director for membership marketing and member services.  The ADA has an amazing market share among licensed dentists and dental students and an awesome retention rate.  In 2014, I made the transition to a broader role in a smaller organization.  I’m now the CEO of the Michigan Dental Association, where I have the opportunity to make a bigger impact, faster, on a smaller number of people.  I hold the CAE (certified association executive) credential from the American Society of Association Executives.

In addition to ASAE, I’m a member of the American Marketing Association and its West Michigan chapter.  Every day, I learn something new.  The purpose of this blog is to share some of the excitement.  You can reach me at karenburgess@me. com.