Editorial Contributor

Stephan A. Butscher is a partner with Simon-Kucher & Partners Strategy & Marketing Consultants and the managing director of SKP's London office. He has been with the firm since 1994 and spent 3½ years building up the US office in Boston before moving to London.

His areas of specialisation are the development of national and international marketing and pricing strategies, international price harmonisation, new product development, positioning strategies and retention marketing. He has worked for numerous companies in Europe and the US, including Barclays, British Airways World Cargo, BT, DHL, Eurotunnel, Hewlett-Packard, Hilton International, HSBC, Lufthansa, Microsoft, T-Mobile and Virgin Trains.

He is author of the books Customer Clubs - A Modern Marketing Instrument (German only) and Customer Loyalty Programs and Clubs - A Practical Guide (Gower Publishing, London, 2nd ed. 2002). He has published over 100 articles on international marketing and strategy, retention marketing, pricing etc. in various journals in Europe and the US.

In 1993, he received the Alfred-Gerardi-Award from the German Direct Marketing Association for his work on customer loyalty programmes. In 1999 he received the Distinctive Pricer of the Year Award from the Professional Pricing Society. Stephan is a regular speaker at national and international conferences and at the London Business School.

Stephan studied Business Administration at the Universities of Bielefeld and Mainz and graduated with honours at the Johannes-Gutenberg-University in Mainz.