NAPERVILLE, Ill., May 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Business Marketing Association (BMA) today unveiled that its corporate membership program now offers extended benefits.  The restructured membership program enables companies and their employees to access the world's experts, best practices and current content in business-to-business (B2B) marketing.

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BMA membership has traditionally been open to individuals. The redesigned corporate membership program introduces a group rate option, offering corporations significant savings and benefits such as free conference registration and award entries.

The corporate membership program aims to extend the professional development benefits of individual BMA membership to greater numbers of marketing and communications professionals within corporations. Junior team members can now gain valuable education and training in B2B marketing practices more cost effectively. Corporate members can access BMA's content, including papers, surveys and multimedia programs. They also receive cutting-edge insight into social media marketing trends, measurement techniques, case studies and new products.

"We are very excited about our new corporate membership program, which was suggested by Steve Liguori, Director of Global Marketing of General Electric. The Corporate Membership Program includes access to all the resources and events of the national BMA organization, as well as membership in any of the BMA's many local chapters," said Gary Slack, BMA national chairman.

The initial companies that have upgraded to the BMA corporate-level memberships include; Avnet, Doremus, Eric Mower and Associates, GE, Motorola, National Starch Food Innovation, Siemens, Slack and Company, and Tellabs.

According to Tom Haas, chief marketing officer at Siemens Corporation, the new membership program is a strong incentive for expanding the company's professional development efforts. "Siemens has always been committed to professional development for its employees. The new BMA Corporate Membership Program now ensures that our marketing teams across all of our business sectors will have an opportunity to learn what the leading, most innovative B2B marketers are doing to engage their customers and enhance their brands.  For us, the BMA corporate program is a very cost-efficient way to provide our marketing people with great professional development, networking and best practice sharing forums that will ultimately help drive business results for the company," he said.

The BMA has grown its membership base to one the largest communities of business-to-business professionals. The power of this network is extended to over 22 local chapters and culminates at the BMA 2011 International Conference, June 1-3, 2011 in Chicago (www.marketing.org/unleash).

Thomas Stein, president and chief creative officer of Stein Rogan + Partners agrees. "Key people at Stein Rogan have long had individual BMA memberships at the national and local New York chapter level. We have benefitted from the many professional relationships started, the high-value live and virtual events, access to what is pacing the market and the ability to expand our personal and professional networks. With corporate memberships, we can now give more of our people access to BMA's many benefits – helping them develop professionally while making the overall business marketer community that BMA enables that much more robust."

Corporate membership is available at three levels:  

Platinum Corporate Membership - $10,000 annually, which includes:

• Up to 40 members from a company  ($8,400 value)
• Up to 40 companion Chapter memberships for the members  ($3,400 value)
• Two free attendees at BMA conferences  ($1,390 value)
• Six free entries into the annual BMA B2 awards  ($1,050 value)

Gold Corporate Membership - $5,000 annually, which includes:

• Up to 20 members from a company  ($4,200 value)
• Up to 20 companion Chapter memberships for the members ($1,700 value)
• One free attendee at BMA conferences ($695 value)
• Two free entries into the annual BMA B2 awards ($390 value)

Silver Corporate Membership - $3,500 annually, which includes:

• Up to 10 members from a company ($2,100 value)
• Up to 10 companion Chapter memberships for the members ($850 value)
• One free attendee at BMA conferences ($695 value)
• Two free entries into the annual BMA B2 awards ($390 value)

For more information about BMA's recently updated Corporate Membership Program, please visit http://ow.ly/4BoXd.

About Business Marketing Association

Started in 1922, today's Business Marketing Association (BMA) works to increase the importance, impact and value of marketing in businesses worldwide. BMA is the only professional organization with an exclusive focus on business-to-business marketing and its key drivers: Customer engagement and relationships, product and service innovation, value pricing, channels, online/offline marcom, and analytics.  BMA's members represent state-of-the art expertise in business-to-business marketing and communications, and share best practices for the benefit of the global business community. For more information about BMA, call 630-544-5054 or visit www.marketing.org.

SOURCE Business Marketing Association