Today we’d like to introduce you to Joan Schneider.
Joan, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
In 1980, I started Schneider Associates from my 200 sq. ft. sunporch in Newton. After working in an advertising firm, at WBZ-TV as a PR manager, as an advertising/PR manager at a major bank and then as a VP in a large PR firm, I decided to take my insider knowledge of journalism and help clients implement media strategies that told a compelling story. While my background was consumer marketing, my first client was a major real estate developer with a series of buildings that needed to be leased. Using consumer strategies, we soon leased all the buildings and other real estate companies were knocking at my door until the real estate crash of 1990. That’s when I learned that having a diversified practice and a dedicated and talented team is the key to survival. Since then, the firm has broadened its practice areas and worked on everything from ice cream and banking to graduate school programs and legal services. My real breakthrough came when I worked with Pepperidge Farms to launch the new Goldfish cracker. They had spent years perfecting the smile on the goldfish shaped cracker but only started thinking about launching the product several months before the product hit grocery store shelves. It was in that moment that I realized that brands needed to start incorporating marketing planning into new product launches right from the beginning of the planning process. And that’s when I decided to start writing books about new product launch. By focusing on new product launch which worked across industries—I was able to grow the business from a one-woman shop in Brookline to a 20-person agency in downtown Boston. We’ve launched countless products, 47 real estate developments and so much more using our proprietary launch methodologies. Along the way I wrote two books on Launch Public Relations, our proprietary approach to integrated marketing, and have featured as a thought leader on the topic in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review and USA Today.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Being in business is a journey—some years are great and others are more challenging. Over the past 37 years, we’ve weathered four recessions, 911 and the dawn of social and digital media which completely changed the PR business. One of the things I learned at the Owner President Management Program at Harvard Business School is that change is inevitable and if you aren’t constantly changing, you are not going to stay in business. It’s also where I decided to focus on launching products, services, companies, communities and institutions and developed and service marked the phrase, Launch Public Relations®. This revelation also sparked a career-consuming passion for new product launch research. Most of our agency methodology has been built on our new product launch research, which we’ve been conducting for more than 15 years. I love learning and my favorite thing about marketing and PR is that you’re always learning something new. That zeal for learning helps me stay agile from a business perspective. We were one of the first agencies to adopt social media practices into our public relations and marketing campaigns. Our client base has shifted several times over the years in anticipation of market needs, and I always hire people who are multi-talented so they can work cross borders on consumer, education, real estate and business to business campaigns or whatever new industry we decide to pursue.
Please tell us about Schneider Associates.
Schneider Associates is a Launch communications agency that creates integrated marketing and media strategies for education, consumer, non-profit, corporate and public affairs clients. We successfully launch and accelerate visibility for new products, services, companies, institutions and communities. Our integrated media strategies blend PR, social media, digital marketing, and influencer relations to deliver messages that inform and mobilize target audiences. The agency specializes in Launch Public Relations®, a proprietary method of building awareness, interest, engagement, inquiries and action. We’re really proud to be known as the launch experts and the learnings we have from our research enables us to build programs that mobilize consumers to try and buy new products. Our heritage in the real estate industry has also served us well as we have a 97% success rate at town meetings for our public affairs campaigns. If I had to pick something personally, it’s the recent 40-mile TD Five Boro Bike Tour charity ride in New York City. I recently started cycling and decided to join Team Understood- a nonprofit organization that helps parents with kids who have learning and attention issues. Taking on that kind of physical challenge was daunting —as was riding the 100 miles required to train, but I’m glad I was able to help Understood and prove to myself, I can do whatever I set my mind to doing. I am looking forward to the Four Bridges Ride in Rhode Island this fall.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I come from a line of entrepreneurs, my father had his own business (wholesale surgical supplies), my mother had her own business (retail surgical supplies) and my grandmother came from Russia and owned bars and rooming houses. My parents and grandparents worked 7 days a week, and in my grandmother’s case, all hours of the day and night (her bar opened at 7 am and closed at 4 am). It seems like I have always been working, whether it was babysitting, being the “delivery girl” for my father’s company, as an Avon lady or a waitress or Kelly Girls typist which is how I put myself through college. I wanted to work for other people to learn how non-family businesses operated and throughout the eight years that I worked for other companies, I learned a lot about how I wanted to manage and inspire my team. I believe in being the best you can be—and I work hard to invest in my team, stress the importance of collaboration, innovation, and producing the best work for clients. I am an avid reader, cyclist, skier, boater, motorcycle passenger, museum devotee and an NPR junkie. My parents are 92 and 97 and still living on their own—so I have a long life ahead of me in which to accomplish great things. I am blessed to be able to learn something every day from my clients, my team and living life to the fullest.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2 Oliver Street
Suite 402 - Website: http://www.schneiderpr.com
- Phone: 617-536-3300
- Email: launch@schneiderpr.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sa_launch/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SchneiderPRBoston/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/SA_launch
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