Alumni Spotlight: Duriel Smith
Duriel Smith
I am the owner and operator of Creative Innovation Associates, specializing in brand communications, brand development, and strategy for clients throughout the state of Michigan. What I like most about IMC is the opportunity to take the idea of marketing and engage our clients directly with their brand and consumers, and just helping them to exceed and excel their product and taking that directly to the market.
What I liked most about EMU’s IMC program was the opportunity to build great relationships with people from all over the world. Being able to interface and interact with people that love marketing the way that I do and to be able to share ideas, thoughts, and experiences on marketing was a great thing. The advantage of a fully online marketing program is the flexibility and convenience of building your own schedule while continuing to work your business.
The top three lessons that I took from the IMC program were:
- Networking, building relationships, and collaborating with others. This is a very big and important part of all business, and IMC really helped me to hone in on all of these skills and to elevate them as well.
- Planning and executing full campaigns from start to finish. Coming up with the concept and taking that all the way through the entire process, with the client, really is a very big part of ‘all things marketing’ and definitely with IMC.
- Measuring results. Clients really want to see what they have done and how marketing is really affecting their bottom line and their marketing campaign. The idea and the concept of really taking an idea, measuring it, and showing results is a very big part of IMC and I continue to use it every day in my business as well.
When it comes to marketing I tell people all the time that it is important to really strive for the best and elevate your brand. It is a great thing to be able to take the idea of marketing and make it grand, make it huge, so that everyone sees you.