User:MadisonfromStanding/Maritz

Corporate overview
Maritz Holdings, Inc. is a privately-held sales and marketing services company specializing in incentive trips, customer loyalty, reward and employee recognition programs, and marketing research. It is based in Fenton, Missouri, within the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. The company is owned by Steve Maritz, who serves as chairman and CEO. Maritz's tagline is "The Science and Art of People and Potential".

In 2004, there were eight companies operating under Maritz Holdings, including: Maritz Interactions; Maritz Learning, which taught skills to employees; Maritz Loyalty Marketing; Maritz Research; Maritz Travel Company; and the corporate travel business TQ3. Maritz Holdings had 1,756 St. Louis-based employees in 2016. Current subsidiaries include Maritz Motivation Solutions, Maritz Global Events, and MaritzCX.

Maritz Motivation Solutions
For more than 30 years, Maritz Motivation Solutions Inc. (formerly known as Maritz Loyalty & Motivation Inc.) has provided services to help clients motivate people using techniques based on design, neuroscience, and technology. The company has operated as a Fenton-based subsidiary of Maritz Holdings since 2000, and designs employee recognition, customer loyalty, and other types of incentive programs as part of its portfolio of services.

In 2012, Maritz Motivation Solutions published "The Power of Play: How Gamification Will Drive the Evolution of Channel Loyalty", a white paper about how employee performance and customer loyalty can be improved by incorporating "game mechanics". In 2014, the company released the software platform RewardSphere, which uses Oracle Commerce Platform technology to support customer loyalty, employee recognition, and sales incentives websites. Clients in a range of industries use RewardSphere sites to enable participants to redeem points for gift cards, merchandise, travel, and other incentives. The software platform incorporates client branding and offers a personalized user experience and commercial design. It completes data analysis to increase email click-through rates, identify desirable incentives and shopping behavior, and enhance the user experience. Clients can customize the appearance, point system, and rules for individual websites. RewardSphere applies The Maritz Institute's learnings about human behavior.

Maritz Motivation Solutions helped create Johns Manville's "Preferred Partners Program" in 2015 and the pharmaceutical company Allergan, Plc's "Partner Privileges" program in 2016. In 2016, the company released a two-minute game for the Oculus Rift called "Awards Aviator", and "The Insider's Guide to Customer Loyalty", which offers recommendations for enhancing customer engagement with brands and companies. Maritz Motivation Solutions runs InterContinental Hotels Group's IHG Rewards Club.

Maritz Motivation Solutions has been recognized by Incentive magazine's annual Motivation Masters Awards several times. The company was awarded for its work on Kimberly-Clark's "KCPzone" loyalty program in 2012, Daiichi Sankyo's "Arigato" employee recognition program in 2013, and American Honda Finance Corporation's "Set Your Sights on Cabo" incentive travel program in 2014. Programs created by Maritz for Allergan and The HON Company were honored in 2015, and Maritz's work on IDT Corporation's "Boss Rewards Program" and Hyatt's "Gold Passport Associate Rewards" program were honored in 2016.

John McArthur serves as the president of Maritz Motivation Solutions.

Maritz Global Events
Maritz Global Events is a Fenton-based subsidiary of Maritz Holdings, offering events, meetings, and travel management services. The company was known as Maritz Sales Builders until 1958. Its name was changed to Maritz Travel Company until 2016 when it rebranded to Maritz Global Events.

In 2001, Maritz Travel employed 140 full-time and 135 part-time travel directors to staff more than 1,000 events, accounting for more than $500 million in sales. Christine Duffy, who joined Maritz Travel in 2001, served as the company's president until 2010. By 2012, Maritz Travel was organizing 16,000 activities annually.

Maritz Global Events consists of Maritz Travel and the Twinsburg, Ohio-based event management company Experient, which Maritz acquired in 2012 for an undisclosed amount. Prior to the deal, Maritz Travel and Experient had 823 and 540 employees, respectively. David Peckinpaugh, who was appointed in 2011, served as Maritz Travel's president during the acquisition and confirmed that Experient would operate as a subsidiary of the company. Experient's CEO, Jeff Price, stepped down as a result of the merge.

Maritz Global Events mostly serves corporations under Maritz Travel, and Experient focuses on associations and trade shows, among other markets. In 2015, the "Sales Champion Winners Circle" program created by Maritz Travel and Cisco Systems was recognized by the Incentive Marketing Association's Circle of Excellence Awards. Experient partnered with TurnoutNow, which uses wearable technology to supply the events industry with behavioral data.

David Peckinpaugh serves as president and CEO of Maritz Global Events, Stephen J. O'Malley serves as president of Maritz Travel, and Michael Guerriero serves as president of Experient, Inc.

Maritz Research and MaritzCX
Maritz Research, Inc. was founded in 1967 and operated as a subsidiary of Maritz Holdings. The Fenton-based company offered business and marketing research services, and had offices elsewhere in the United States and in the United Kingdom. It released a variety of studies.

In 2010, Maritz Research acquired the social media analytics company evolve24. The St. Louis-based company continued to operate as a standalone business under Maritz Research, with additional staff based in Chicago. Anthony Sardella, evolve24's founder and CEO, continued serving as managing director of the company following its acquisition, reporting to Maritz Research's executive vice president and chief research officer.

In 2011, Maritz Research launched CEBenchmarks, which collected customer experience data about companies in more than 30 industries to supply to clients.

In November 2014, Maritz merged with Allegiance Software, a Voice of the customer and enterprise feedback management technology provider. Maritz Research and Allegiance formed the new standalone company MaritzCX, which offers "customer experience software, data and research science, vertical market expertise and managed program services". According to the St. Louis Business Journal, MaritzCX earned nearly $200 million in its first year.

Allegiance's CEO, Carine Clark, initially served as MaritzCX's president and CEO. The company is based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area and has 18 offices globally, with 900 employees serving one million users and 500 mid-size to large companies in 100 countries. Maritz Holdings is MaritzCX's largest investor. Mike Sinoway currently serves as president and CEO.

Maritz Incentives, Maritz Loyalty Marketing, and Bond Brand Loyalty
Maritz Incentives was a corporate performance improvement consultant firm and division of Maritz Holdings. As of 2003, its initiatives included conducting a bimonthly poll of workplace issues. In 2004, the incentive design company laid off between 35 and 50 of its 226 employees, including the company's president Brian Fitzpatrick and other senior management, and reassigned 11 more to other Maritz subsidiaries. John McArthur, Maritz Holding's chief operating officer, took over operations of Maritz Incentives, which was once considered Maritz's "flagship operation", in an attempt to reverse a sales lag. The changes were also part of Maritz's restructure to separate its marketing research, performance enhancement, and travel services into eight independent companies. The Maritz Incentives business was merged with Maritz Loyalty.

Maritz's customer loyalty marketing firm was known as Maritz Loyalty Marketing until it was rebranded as Bond Brand Loyalty in 2014. In 2013, Forrester Research ranked the customer loyalty marketing agency as the highest and third highest in the strategy and market presence criteria, respectively, among eight established loyalty program providers. Bob Macdonald was serving as president and CEO of the company at the time. As of 2014, the agency had 400 employees and Bond clients included Ford Motor Company, Johnson & Johnson, and Under Armour. In November 2015, Maritz sold the Canadian loyalty firm to the Bond management team. Maritz continues to provide customer loyalty services through Maritz Motivation Solutions.

Maritz Learning and Librix
Maritz Learning operated as a Fenton-based subsidiary of Maritz Holdings. The company offered learning solutions to increase sales for clients, such as courseware, application and process training, and customer service and product knowledge training.

In 2001, Maritz Holdings acquired Librix Learning. Maritz merged Maritz Learning Systems Group and Librix Learning to form Librix, A Maritz Co. In 2010, Maritz divested part of Librix, but maintains a minority equity position in the company.

The agency offers training aimed at improving employee performance in areas including sales, compliance, and employee retention. Brian Carlin, Librix Learning's chief executive, continues to serve as president, as of 2016.

Early history – 1970s
The company was founded by Edward Maritz in 1894. "Maritz, Inc." started as a watch and jewelry wholesaler, and has been credited for the tradition of gifting gold watches to employees upon their retirement, since the early 1900s.

The company almost collapsed in 1929 as the result of Edward's death and the Great Depression. Edward's sons, James and Lloyd, began selling watches and other jewelry to companies to use as sales incentives. Maritz landed its first national client in 1931; subsequent clients included Chevrolet, General Motors, and Ralston Purina. In the 1930s and 1940s, the company began offering luggage and other incentives, and started providing resort and travel packages in the 1950s.

James and Lloyd controlled the business for nearly 20 years, until they split the company in 1950. James continued operating the incentives business, while Lloyd opted for the wholesale jewelry company. Lloyd died five years later, and his business went defunct. James' company was successful, generating $5 million in sales in 1958 and $11 million in 1960. James' son, James A. "Jim" Maritz Jr., first joined the family business, followed by his other son, William E. "Bill" Maritz, who began working as a sales manager in 1959. Bill and Jim served as co-CEOs during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1970, the company's sales reached nearly $100 million.

1980s – present
Jim's son, "Jimmy", joined the company around the time of James' death in 1981, and Bill's son, Steve, joined in 1983. Maritz thrived during the late 1980s, generating a net income of $38.5 million and $1.05 billion in sales in 1989. However, the company experienced an economic downturn during the early 1990s recession.

Steve became the CEO of Maritz in 1998. In 2000, Maritz earned $1.32 billion and ranked thirteenth on the St. Louis Business Journal list of the largest privately held companies. The company reported $1.4 billion in revenue in 2002, though eMaritz fell short of Maritz's $18 million goal by only generating $1.3 million in sales. eMaritz reported a $5.5 million loss in 2003.

Maritz reported $1.4 billion in revenue for its fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2003. In February 2004, there were eight companies operating under Maritz Holdings, employing 5,700 people, 2,475 of which were based in St. Louis. In 2009, Maritz launched LoyaltyHQ 3.0 (LHQ), a management portal that enables companies to control their loyalty programs from a single technology platform. That same year, Maritz generated $1.1 billion in revenue and had 3,100 employees, including 2,200 based in St. Louis. The company reported $1.1 billion in revenue again in 2010.

In November 2013, Maritz sold its prepaid incentive cards business, InteliSpend Prepaid Solutions, to Pleasanton, California's Blackhawk Network for an undisclosed amount. Maritz continues to work with Blackhawk Engagement, which acquired InteliSpend and operates from Maritz's Fenton campus. Maritz earned $1.2 billion in revenue in 2013, which was a 9.1 percent increase from 2012. In 2013, Maritz had 4,292 employees (1,691 of which were locally based), and Dennis Hummel was serving as the company's president. Maritz generated $1.2 billion in revenue again in 2015.

In 2016, Maritz established a partnership with Capital Innovators, one of the nation's leading technology accelerators. The pair co-lease office space in the Cambridge Innovation Center, and Maritz offers mentoring to the accelerators' portfolio companies. In July 2016, Maritz announced the launch of its Innovation by Design Summit to "[celebrate] the unique intersection of innovation and behavioral design". Steve Wozniak headlined the event, which was held at St. Louis' Union Station in September; other speakers included Nir Eyal, Jeremy Gutsche, and behavioral researcher Wendy De La Rosa.

The Maritz Institute
Maritz launched The Maritz Institute in 2009 to promote the human sciences in business. According to its former vice president and executive director, the institute was created "as a bridge between the latest human science research and the new normal" corporate environment. The Maritz Institute serves as a think tank and research and development branch, providing recommendations to Maritz on how to incorporate design thinking into client programs. It has created 21 proprietary design principles derived from human behavioral research to enable clients to customize their sites created by Maritz.

In May 2011, the institute published a white paper called "The Game Has Changed: A New Paradigm for Stakeholder Engagement", which describes scientists' findings on human drive and how this can help business executives engage with their clients, employees, and partners. The white paper was written by Mary Beth McEuen in her role as The Maritz Institute's vice president and executive director. In August, the institute and Maritz Travel collaborated with The Cornell Center for Hospitality Research to publish "The Future of Meetings: The Case for Face-to-Face", which describes different types of meetings and their effectiveness based on research conducted by academics and neuroscientists.

In 2014, the institute launched its "Master Designer Certification" program to improve incentive planners' understanding of program design in order to deliver more knowledge and greater service to clients.

In September 2015, the Maritz Institute appointed Charlotte Blank, a former manager of Chevrolet Global Marketing for General Motors, to the role of executive director.

Community partnerships
As of 2016, Maritz has partnered with Teach For America for more than ten years. In 2012, Maritz donated $100,000 to the educational organization to support the development of a corps of teachers for low-income schools; employees also donated supplies. The company funds the Maritz Arts and Education Fund for Teachers through the Arts and Education Council of St. Louis. Maritz has contributed to Lindenwood University, including a $25,000 grant in 2010 for the glade restoration project at the Boone Home Campus, and a 2014 grant for programming at the university's Daniel Boone Home & Heritage Center. In 2011 and 2012, Maritz awarded Webster University’s Student Literacy Corps $25,000 and $20,000 grants, respectively, to fund student tutors.

Rankings
Maritz ranked number 305 and number 314 in 2007 and 2008, respectively, on Forbes' list of largest private companies in the United States.

In 2008, InformationWeek ranked Maritz number 26 on the "InformationWeek 500", which recognizes the "most innovative users of information technology" in the United States, and included the company in its "Elite 100" listing. In 2010, Maritz ranked number 119 on the "InformationWeek 500", marking the company's eleventh consecutive appearance, and was included in the magazine's "Elite Top 250 Innovators" list.

The St. Louis Business Journal ranked Maritz in its "Best Places to Work" listing in 2008, 2015, and 2016. Maritz also received the publication's 2016 "Community Impact Award". Similarly, Computerworld ranked Maritz number 76 in its 2011 list of the "Best Places to Work in IT",  and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch included the company in its list of "top workplaces" in 2015 and 2016.