I work at the intersection of brands & reality.
I've worked for 28 years translating branding strategy into something more than images and words, leading marketing communications for world-leading brands and advising others.
Global brand strategist.
For almost a decade, I've partnered with experts in 6 major markets worldwide to serve clients in Europe, Asia, and North America, leading a number of business initiatives to deliver the behaviors that substantiate brand by crossing departments, functions, and both digital and offine communications domains, such as:
- Motivating thousands of retail store associates to deliver customer experiences
- Unifying design, manufacturing, and dealer resources to launch a new family car
- Working with a leading computer brand to orchestrate a new product sellout
- Building behavior plans enabling a government agency to be competitive
- Creating CRM programs that transcend cross-selling for financial institutions
- Inventing creative concepts to engage consumers in electronics/appliance brands
- Coordinating marketing, NPD, and a global retail presence for a CE product line
- Introducing new ways to buy products from a global beverage brand
- Strenghtening loyalty through better understanding of the drivers of customer purchases
- Integrating marketing activities to reduce costs and improve efficacy.
Author.
I've written two books: the first, Branding Only Works on Cattle (2008), was "savage and witty" according to The Economist, and earned me the label "merry iconoclast" from Publisher's Weekly. My latest book, Bright Lights & Dim Bulbs (2009) distilled cases from 500+ companies worldwide to deliver 9 contrarian brand and marketing forecasts for 2010.
My award-winning blog, Dim Bulb, earned me status as one of Technorati's top bloggers of 2009. Last year I wrote a twice-weekly column on brands and technology for InformationWeek; I currently write a bi-weekly column on leadership for Advertising Age; and I've contributed articles to Sweden's Dagens Media.
I co-host a popular podcast on the latest opportunities and pitfalls of social media, Socializing Media, and I'm regularly quoted in print, video, and audio stories about what works and doesn't work in brand marketing.
Speaker.
I draw on my experience running public affairs and marcom for brand names like Nissan, Limited Brands, and Blockbuster, and speak to conferences and workshops on a variety of topics. I started my career with Grey Advertising and Edelman Public Relations in the early 1980s, and have been a bit of a technology geek ever since I programmed PDP11s with FORTRAN punched on cardstacks, so I possess a unique perspective on what's truly new and viable.
