I am a brand consultant who helps create and build profitable brands. I have decades of experience working with businesses of all sizes, from Fortune 500 companies and major brands to start-ups fast-growth businesses across all aspects of branding.
My expertise includes brand strategy, brand naming, brand identity, brand launch, copywriting, digital branding, search engine optimization, thought leadership, and video production.
My clients include multinationals like Johnson & Johnson, ADP, Canon, Kay Jewelers, and Bed Bath and Beyond, but also small, fast-growth entrepreneurial firms and nonprofits.
I work for clients directly and as a team member at various advertising, digital, and branding agencies, including McCann-Erickson, FCB, Ogilvy & Mather, Mother, Brandworx, Verse Group, and others.
Before becoming an independent consultant, I was a director in the Brand Strategy practice of McCann-Erickson’s FutureBrand consultancy. I worked with clients as diverse as ExxonMobil, McGraw-Hill, D&B, and UPS. Before that, I was Marketing Director at E Ink Corporation, an MIT start-up that developed the display technology in the Amazon Kindle. During the dot-com bubble, I was Vice President of Marketing for CENUS Corporation; an Internet technology firm spun out of the University of California. I began my career selling advertising space and syndicated data at Downey Communications, a family-owned company. I learned about business, selling, writing, and entrepreneurship from my parents, both of whom started and ran their own successful companies.
I am a frequent contributor of subject matter expertise to NPR, CBS, CNN, BBC, Fortune, Crain’s, The Atlantic, Marketing Daily, and many others. I write publications such as Forbes, Yahoo Finance, American Bank Marketing, Manufacturing, Apparel Magazine, China Business News, Sporting Goods Business, and others. My book Merriam’s Guide to Naming was first published in 2009, with a second edition in 2013. On the non-branding front, I co-wrote Mastermind: The Many Faces of the 9/11 Architect, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, published by Penguin in 2011, Leading from Behind, a New York Times best-seller in 2012, and co-wrote Weaponized Marketing: Defeating Islamic Jihad with Marketing that Built the World's Top Brands. I am co-owner of Phoca Press, which publishes books by and about Navy SEALs.
My areas of expertise:
Verbal Branding
* Naming
* Tagline creation
* Copywriting that combines an ear for a persuasive brand voice, translating dry facts into engaging copy, and being fully search engine optimized--if the robot doesn’t see it, your customer will never read it. I usually include social media content in the package (i.e., a white paper with social media tweets, posts, infographics, etc.)
* Verbal brand assessments across media to include online and offline content, text/white papers/case studies/brochures/e-books/etc., video, imagery, social media profiles and posts, link building programs, on-page SEO, email campaigns, customer engagement processes
Understanding the Brandscape
* Video market research—getting out from behind the focus group glass and going out where real people interact with brands
* Competitive audits
* Internal marketing communications assessments
* Internal and external stakeholder interviewing
* Trend identification
* Business strategy alignment
Brand Strategy
* Attributes
* Positioning
* Personality, tone, manner
* Brand architecture
* Brand books
* Messaging guides
Brand Consultant
