Steve Bridges
Steve has held senior marketing positions with several New Zealand companies where he specialised in guiding the conversion from a production to a customer orientation.
Steve’s name is synonymous with many marketing successes, including Tullen Snips, Villa Maria wines and law firm Simpson Grierson. His work at Simpson Grierson was featured as a comprehensive case study in the 1998 Australia/New Zealand edition of Philip Kotler’s marketing textbook. In recognition of his standing within the marketing profession, Steve has been the judge and/or head judge of most marketing awards offered in New Zealand over the past 25 years, including the TVNZ/Marketing Magazine Marketing Awards. He is also well known for his innovation of the Marketing Plan Flow Chart, a simple marketing planning template now used internationally by small and medium sized enterprises
After gaining his BA and MBA degrees and working for leading marketing-oriented companies in the United States, Steve Bridges moved to New Zealand in 1970. His subsequent combination of academic and practical experience in marketing is extremely rare – and also extremely valuable in an applied discipline such as marketing.
In terms of the academic side of marketing, Steve taught the first marketing course in New Zealand; this was at Victoria University from 1970 - 1972. He also taught at Massey University (1978-1987) where he was Professor of Marketing, Head of the Department of Marketing and Dean of the Faculty of Business Studies. Steve currently teaches marketing courses for a wide variety of organisations, including Auckland University’s Executive Short Courses and various divisions of the New Zealand Institute of Management.
Steve is past President of Sales and Marketing Executives International (Auckland), a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management, and a Trustee of The Independent Business Foundation. In 1997, he was runner-up in the inaugural SMEI Marketer of the Year Award.
In August 2003, Marketing Magazine introduced a new award to its series of annual marketing awards, i.e. the Marketing Hall of Fame. Steve was one of the four inaugural inductees. In an article about Steve in that month's issue of Marketing Magazine, David McNickel wrote: "Arriving in New Zealand in 1970 from the US state of Indiana, Steve Bridges has been both a pioneer in the field of consumer-focused marketing in New Zealand, and a charismatic tutor. He has directly influenced the marketing career of literally thousands of local marketing graduates."