We don’t expect you to hang out with us because of our one-liners or our ability to drop casual references to both obscure indie films and Japanese garage bands. You want to hang out with us because we’re relentless. Getting down to the who, what, when and why of women requires a deep dive into the haystack to come back with the needle. The OYM team understands that better than anyone else. And we take seriously our responsibility to represent women’s needs, preferences and opinions both powerfully and accurately. But we can also say there’s no other way we want to spend our days (or careers). We love what we do. It shows, so we’ve been told. And it even helps the work. The way we say it: Talk straight; think big; work hard; laugh often.
Brenda Laguarta
Brenda Laguarta co-founded OYM in 1994.
Brenda is a shrewd strategist, effective communicator and more fun than a dip in Barton Springs on a hot Austin afternoon, all of which she considers key to OYM’s success.
Brenda moves easily between focus groups and the national stage, and talks to companies all over the country about women and their buying behaviors.
OYM methodology has evolved over the years to cultivate extraordinary intimacy with women. While marveling at some of the, shall we say, unfiltered things women tell her, Brenda is thankful for the great trust OYM is given as the steward of that information.
She still roots for her alma mater, the University of Arkansas Razorbacks. But she loves Austin for its laidback, creative, peace, baby vibe that infuses the office, too. Someday, though not anytime soon, you’ll find her on a ranch with a big porch, a glass of tea and somebody else asking the questions.
Jeanne Corrigan
Before joining On Your Mark as a partner in 1999, Jeanne worked in both advertising agencies and client-side marketing departments across the Mid-West and New England.
An analyst by nature, Jeanne’s yen for getting to the bottom of things would make her immediately employable at any detective agency in the world, if only the lively conversations around the OYM office had not spoiled her for anything else.
After twenty years of conversations with women, she’s found all the hot buttons in every subject and business category imaginable. Still, she’s often taken aback by how generous women are with their thoughts and loves the screeching left turn in a conversation where they say something completely unpredictable. These days Jeanne tries to live the questions instead of moving too fast to get to the answers.
Jeanne lives with her son, Finn, a crazy little dog named Charlie, and currently a crew of painters, electricians and other renovation, er, specialists.
Karen Spruill
Karen has always worked as a voice for women, in jobs as various as collecting unpaid child support to managing a local food pantry.
After receiving her BS in Management and her MBA in Marketing, Karen put her hard-earned good sense to use in the areas of interactive and social marketing.
By day Karen develops and manages On Your Mark’s online consumer panels and digital tracking studies and gets face-to-face in immersion studies to get to the heart of what women are thinking. After work, she fields questions about tomorrow’s lunchbox contents and the stresses of kindergarten in her personal focus group of two.
Though born in Saudi Arabia, Karen prefers the snow to sand and returns often to the mountain ski resort where she met her husband. She also likes to golf, watch college football and reality TV (don’t ask), and play board games–for keeps.
Crystal Markowski
Friends at the University of Texas counted on Crystal to know everything from an obscure pop song lyric to the tiniest tidbit of art history. Well, no one appreciates a collector of things unusual yet useful more than the team at OYM.
Crystal helps manage many of our panels and databases, taking that information and extrapolating the essence for clients. Past experiences have given her an iron-tight grasp on translating information into strong action. She studied consumer behavior and brand management both here and abroad, and has also served in strategic marketing roles for several non-profit organizations.
On weekends Crystal can be found seeking out new restaurants (and reporting back), looping Lady Bird Lake, critiquing films, taking pictures of her own or patronizing yet another coffeehouse for her fix.
Stephanie Milam
Stephanie joined the On Your Mark team in the fall of 2010 after working in media and advertising research where she uncovered her true passion for interpreting the consumer voice. A native Californian, Stephanie made the move to Austin after finishing her degree at UCLA.
In her down time, Stephanie can be found outdoors around Town Lake and the nearby hill country or digging in the dirt in her thriving vegetable and herb garden. Stephanie loves a good flick and is widely known to be a recreationally stern movie critic.
