Our Team

The question isn't, "Do you have a brand image?" You have one whether you want one or not. The question is, "How do you manage and communicate your brand so it builds customer loyalty, employee commitment and business success?" Brands are your promise to your customers. They shouldn't distort reality; they should reflect reality. Smoke-and-mirrors brand building causes more harm than good. Your product quality, business practices, corporate culture, employee attitudes, tone and visual appearances all play a role in building your brand.

Our job is to make sure your company and product are perceived as they should be perceived. Your job is to make sure that perception is reality. Together, we build great brands. Great brands build business.

We're a team of fast learners and smart thinkers who build brands and develop communications for companies large and small. Our talented strategists, writers and designers will help you plan your marketing and communication strategies, develop content and messaging, and marry it with award-winning design. Then we'll help you tell your story in a way that is cohesive, impactful, memorable and powerful.

And we're proud to be a different type of marketing company — where one of our key differentiators isn't what we do — it's what we don't do. We don't over-complicate. We don't deliver "cookie cutter" solutions, we don't build campaigns around the latest and greatest trends in marketing that quickly go out of style. And we don't spend your money unless we are convinced it's the right thing for your organization.

Our History

Our founder Jane Bodman Converse made her way from the J. Walter Thompson agency in Chicago to vice president of marketing at a large Peoria manufacturer to building a world-class agency of her own — but she never lost sight of what she believes is most important: The message.

That's no surprise considering she was first in her journalism class at the University of Illinois and is a respected author, from writing marketing textbooks for Cornell College to co-authoring "And Dignity for All: Unlocking Greatness with Values-Based Leadership," with former Caterpillar Vice President Jim Despain. Her unique approach to clear and honest communications turned into a program she calls "Trustwordy," and countless Converse employees, university students and business professionals have heard Jane say, "It's not just what you say. It's how you say it."

A writer at heart, Jane founded Converse Marketing in 1990 as a message-first agency. "The average mind is a dripping sponge that can only hold so much information," she says. "Our mission is to help our clients narrow their focus — to simplify and strengthen their messages."

It's a mission that works. The Converse team has grown from its original employees working out of Jane's basement to a full team of professionals in a unique 1880s mansion on Main Street in Peoria. We create award-winning marketing and communications for regional, national and international clients of all sizes. But whether we're a team of two or 20, we remain a tight-knit group of friends who have fun working together and making a difference for our clients.