Business & Professional
THE COVER.
Craig and Renee Erlich with staff members Sheri Wagner of Birmingham and Geoff Kretchmer of Huntington Woods
Staff photos by Angie Baan
Turning Up The Pulse
As its corporate event business skyrockets, Star Trax morphs into pulse 220.
Bill Carroll
Special to the Jewish News
T
he Jewish community knows
the Star Trax people for their
dynamic bar and bat mitz-
vah parties and valet parking at shivah
houses.
Metro Detroit companies know them
for planning and implementing innova-
tive sales conferences, business meetings
and holiday parties.
Now, the rest of North America is get-
ting to know them for staging multi-mil-
lion-dollar corporate events such as prod-
uct launches and award trips.
That's because Star Trax — the little
company that was founded by Marc
Schechter 20 years ago in an Ann Arbor
pizzeria, which expanded with co-founder
Renee Cherrin to the Orchard Mall in
West Bloomfield and which now is settled
in an office enclave in Southfield — has
shifted its focus and become a big orga-
nization with its "pulse" on the business
needs of the nation. The firm has taken
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June 14 • 2007
on a new identity as pulse 220 (officially
using a lower case "p.")
And the company is "not just your
father's bar mitzvah company" any more.
"The Star Trax portion of the business
still handles social entertainment, but we
wanted to differentiate ourselves locally
and take on large corporations and grow-
ing markets on a national scale said CEO
Craig Erlich, who married Renee 15 years
ago and gradually got immersed in the
business.
He calls the pulse 220 rebranding
"experiential" — helping large companies
create experiences to raise the level of
employee recognition and to boost profits.
"Our customers keep telling us we have
the 'pulse' of the business climate, so
we thought that would be a good name
for the new part of our business:' Erlich
explained. "And 220 is a person's maxi-
mum heartbeat rate when exercising. We
want customers to know we can turn it
up to 220. The name fits in with our goal
of 'going deep, creating buzz and always
having the pulse of the client."
Paying Dividends
The gradual changeover to the world of
big corporate clients and consumer-ori-
ented marketing already is paying off.
Growing at a rate of 25 percent in each
of the last four years, the award-winning
Star Trax pulse 220 took in $9.5 million
in revenue last year. It expects to garner
about $12 million in revenue this year,
according to Erlich, who points out "this
is a remarkable achievement in the face of
Michigan's poor economy"
He adds: "We're doing it with great,
young personnel (30 full-time and 60
part-time employees) who are excited and
passionate about their jobs and are not
content with just doing things the same
old way."
Although General Motors gave the old
Star Trax a big business break in the mid-
1990s, and the firm also has done work
for Ford and Chrysler, "we rely very little
on the so-called Big Three auto manufac-
turers now:' said Erlich.
Instead, pulse 220 has become "strategic
partners" with customers like Microsoft,
-
Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Tropicana, Kellogg's,
Quaker Oats, Anheuser Busch, ESPN,
Sports Illustrated, Merck, Enterprise
Rent-A-Car, Comerica, Homedics, Masco,
Quicken Loans and others. About half of
pulse 220's business is out of state.
"I'm excited about the tremendous
growth we've experienced in recent years:'
said Renee Erlich.
Coming Together
Renee and her husband, both age 39,
met at Birmingham Groves High School
and both graduated from Michigan State
University with marketing-merchandis-
ing-type degrees. He joined his father's
direct-mail business. She became a party
planner, operating Black Tie Optional
from her father's law office.
Meanwhile, Schechter, while a student
at University of Michigan in 1987, tried
to make "stars" of singers during the
budding karaoke craze by giving them
audio tape "tracks" of their performances
— hence the eventual Star Trax name.
"A pizza place on campus needed