Butler, Shine, Stern Expands Influx Consulting Group With Best Buy Innovation Leader Hire

SAUSALITO, Calif., March 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Influx Strategic Consulting, a longstanding division of Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners, has expanded the business innovation side of its consulting practice with the addition of Kristi Burrows, formerly director, consumer insight, strategy & execution at Best Buy.

Burrows, who joins Influx as director of business strategy, will spearhead the strategic consulting group's work with brands to recognize opportunities for transformation. During her nine years at Best Buy, Burrows focused on innovation, marketing, customer research and strategy development. She excelled at identifying customer insights and applying them to create new streams of revenue, developing product offerings for the electronics retailer related to energy management, health and wellness, e-vehicle transportation and new-store format development, with projected revenues of over $40M in 2012.

"My expertise is in developing new experiences and stories that connect brands to consumers," Burrows said. "At Influx, I look forward to applying this experience to help clients discover customer insights that unleash innovative ideas and help their businesses grow in new directions."

"For nearly 10 years, clients have valued the fresh thinking our Influx strategy group has brought them around brand positioning and customer targeting," said Greg Stern, CEO of Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners. "With the addition of Kristi Burrows to our team, we now expand that fresh thinking to help clients identify and realize new ways to grow revenue and profits, as well."

Since its creation in 2002, Influx Strategic Consulting, led by Edward Cotton, has worked with a range of clients providing services including brand positioning development, target segmentation, research and market sizing for established brands including Nordstrom, Gap, Medco, ConAgra, Chipotle, Greyhound and AMC Theatres. It has also advised a wide range of new businesses, such as Green Mountain Energy, Similasan, CorSolutions, DestinationRX and Greenplum, on a variety of digital, brand positioning and target segmentation work.

"We have invested in building a proven consulting practice that has helped a wide range of clients drive growth," said Ed Cotton, director of strategy. "Not only do we understand the ways in which the customer's decision-making journey has changed, but we are able to identify where the trends of tomorrow will be, so our clients are ahead of the curve."

The Influx Insights blog was ranked one of the top marketing blogs by Ad Age and provides perspectives on branding, trends and technology at www.influxinsights.com.

Influx Strategic Consulting's sixth Influx conference, The Future of Brand Relevance Through Storytelling, will take place in May in New York City. The daylong event will feature a range of corporate brand leaders, design innovators and content, development and creative experts. By examining the cultural landscape and how it influences, and is influenced by, popular trends, the conference will identify new ways for brands to engage with their consumers. 

About Influx Strategic Consulting

Influx explores the intersection of brands and the social, consumer and cultural forces that influence them. By exposing untapped opportunities between brands and consumers, Influx can imagine new models of interaction. The end result is brand transformation and newfound momentum that propels brands toward growth.       

About Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners

BSSP (www.bssp.com) is a full-service marketing communications agency based in Sausalito, CA, providing services in advertising, online marketing, Web development, data analytics, integrated communications planning, brand identity, design and strategic brand consulting. In 2010, Adweek named BSSP Small Agency of the Decade. BSSP is one of the largest independent agencies on the West Coast and is known for providing highly creative, fully accountable marketing solutions to a broad array of marketers including MINI Cooper, Priceline, Columbia Sportswear, SOREL, AT&T Interactive, Isis mobile payments, Greyhound, Electronic Arts, Mission Foods, El Pollo Loco and Nokia.

Contact:
Toni Lee
203-246-7524
[email protected]

SOURCE Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners