Our affiliates have experience in marketing, graphic design, web design, and public relations.

As your consultant, we make certain to bring only those professionals that you need to the table so that you won't have to pay for services you don't want. This keeps costs down, yet enables you to access the very best and most talented professionals.

If you find you need additional services, we can provide them, and we all work together to make certain your branding and message is cohesive and effective.

Marketing and Public Relations Specialists...
In addition to Marie Duess, Duess Consulting is pleased to include Ron Melk of Melk Communications as one of our affiliates.

Ron Melk has more than 30 years of marketing, marketing communications and business development experience, and is known for creating multi-media programs with longevity and publicity appeal for sponsoring brands.  Since 2001, Melk Communications has focused on programs that promote health and wellness, often with outstanding results.

For example, in 2001 Ron Melk originated the multi-media community outreach initiative HeadsUp on Heart Disease®, which featured an informative, supermarket-distributed booklet containing heart healthy recipes, diet and exercise tips and a TV show that uniquely paired cardiac specialists with a famous chef to prepare heart healthy recipes. Three hospitals in the Catholic Health East (CHE) network, one of the nation’s largest Catholic Health systems, were the primary sponsors of the program.  Supporting sponsors included health friendly food and other brands like Filipo Berio Olive Oil, Alpine Lace, Carolina Rice and MasterCard.  The program has won five major awards, including three consecutive golds for “Best Total Public Relations Campaign” in the Healthcare Advertising Awards, a competition that draws thousands of entries from across the nation. The program also generated extensive publicity from food editors and the healthcare marketing trade press and met or exceeded all objectives.

Other recent accomplishments include convincing Robin Roberts and Good Morning America to do a more than 10-minute “staged stroke” at St. Mary Medical Center, near Philadelphia, promoting that hospital’s newly launched Primary Stroke Center and an award-wining video about a nationally known physician’s holistic approach to menopause.

Much of Mr. Melk’s experience was gained in New York advertising and marketing services agencies such as Compton Advertisng and Leber Katz Partners. He has experience in dozens of product categories from food and other types of consumer packaged goods to retail, technology, publishing, travel, insurance and healthcare.

From 1982 to 1994, Mr. Melk was one of five partners who built Comart, a New York marketing services agency, into one of the largest agencies of its type in the country.  Over 12 years, he was at various times the senior executive in charge of creative services, client services and business development. 

With Mr. Melk heading Creative Services, Comart achieved record annual income.  He then started the agency’s technology marketing group, which developed marketing programs for Memorex, Verbatim Corporation, Lotus Development and other well-known brands, and recorded $2 million in launch year revenue.  He also promoted the mall at New York’s WorldTradeCenter for nearly a decade, consistently doubling the annual budget with promotions designed to benefit the retailers and sponsors like Chevrolet, Campbell, Polaroid, Cunard Line and the British Railway.

Among many distinctions, Comart was named best agency of its type in the nation by Advertising Age magazine.

Mr. Melk formed Melk Communications when Comart was purchased in 1994.