Most recently, Mr. Fair was Vice President of Customer Insights at Sephora, the international beauty product retailer, where he focused on driving sales using their innovative loyalty program, targeted online marketing and increasing customer satisfaction. His team measured the traffic for the world’s largest Beauty Products website, and he was directly involved in social media and iPhone app initiatives.
John Dee also headed up research and analytics teams for Williams-Sonoma / Pottery Barn and Wells Fargo, with specialized focus in optimizing email capture, sales and retention.
Before he led those corporate customer insights teams, he managed a wide spectrum of consulting projects. He helped establish the first methodology for large FDA clinical trials on the efficacy of “cosmeceuticals.” He spearheaded a controversial project that completely rearranged the wine aisles in over 80% of US grocery stores to increase sales within the same shelf space that is still the standard today. He established the first panel of wireless data users in the US and created the first cross-industry benchmarks for cell phone and carrier satisfaction. He once spent several consecutive days inside a full-size airplane simulator moderating a series of focus groups with international first-class flyers on seat comfort. He has run large scientific test-kitchens to measure the taste quality of microwave meals and different breeding stocks of pork. He also managed the political polling and media-buying program for a Congressman in the US House of Representatives for several elections.
Despite his diverse set of research skills and industry experiences, John Dee is best known for his engaging, upbeat, and clear presentation style. His talk last Fall in San Jose on Analytics Driven Business Decisions sponsored by the SAS Institute, Accenture and the Harvard Business Review received extraordinarily positive evaluations even by their standards. He was a company spokesperson at Internet start-up Telephia (now Nielsen Mobile) where he made presentations to all of the major wireless carriers and at industry conventions. He was a keynote speaker at the University of Michigan Future of Wireless conference. While at Telephia, he was interviewed by the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, NPR All Things Considered and numerous trade publications on consumer trends in mobile voice and data.
John Dee Fair started his career literally on the front line of the research industry by working full-time during the day as a telephone interviewer at a small research company in his hometown of Kalamazoo, Michigan, while putting himself through business school at night. He eventually became a Summa Cum Laude graduate of Western Michigan University and the Vice President of that research firm.
Mr. Fair lives with his partner and their West Highland Terrier “Abby” in Carmichael, California.
