The following is an article excerpt featuring an interview with Steve Liguori. For the complete original article by Stuart Elliot from October 17, 2014 see: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/18/business/media/association-of-national-advertisers-to-acquire-the-business-marketing-association.html
For the second time in five months, a venerable marketing trade association is acquiring another.
The Association of National Advertisers in New York, founded in 1910, has agreed to acquire the Business Marketing Association in Naperville, Ill., which was founded in 1922. The two associations are announcing the agreement on Friday morning.
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Although “giving up your independence is emotional,” Steve Liguori, chairman of the Business Marketing Association, said in a phone interview from the conference on Thursday, “the A.N.A. can help us because of its scale and breadth.”
“The A.N.A. reached out to us several months ago and said, ‘We want to be all things marketing,’” Mr. Liguori said. “We’ve got the passion and expertise in b.-to-b., but we lack the scale.”
In becoming a division of the Association of National Advertisers, he added, the Business Marketing Association will move to New York from Naperville and its board of directors – which has approved the acquisition — will become a board of advisers. Al Maag, executive director of the association, will remain in his job, Mr. Liguori said.
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The following is an article excerpt featuring an interview with Steve Liguori. For the complete original article by Stuart Elliot from October 17, 2014 see: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/18/business/media/association-of-national-advertisers-to-acquire-the-business-marketing-association.html