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About Us |
Brad VanAuken is the president and founder of BrandForward, Inc. Brad brings an unequalled level of expertise in branding to his clients, leading them in the collaborative discovery process that results in strong brands. Brad gained his experience as director of brand management and marketing for Hallmark Cards, Inc. and as vice president of marketing for Element K, a leading e-learning company.
During his tenure as Hallmark's chief brand advocate, Hallmark rose to 4th in the EquiTrend national quality brand ranking and received the Brand Management of the Year award. At Element K, he moved the brand from relative obscurity in a highly fragmented market to one of the top 10 e-learning brands in the world in less than two years.
Brad’s clients range from Fortune 100 and start-up companies to not-for-profit organizations and municipalities. He has helped position Bangkok, Thailand as a global fashion capital and downtown Tampa as an up-and-coming place to live in southwest Florida.
Recognized as one of the world's foremost experts on brand management and marketing, Brad is a much sought after speaker and writer. A keynote speaker at several major conferences a year, he writes extensively for the business press and academic journals and is regularly quoted in trade publications. He has been interviewed by CNN, Fox News, Investor’s Business Daily and The Bloomberg Money Show and has been quoted in eleven different brand management and marketing books other than his own.
He has been a guest lecturer at many universities including Stanford University, Northwestern University, Vanderbilt University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, RIT, University of Rochester, University of Kansas and University of Missouri at Kansas City. In addition, he has conducted brand management and marketing workshops throughout the world, from Accra, Barcelona, Basel, Brussels, Milan, Moscow, Nairobi, San Juan, Toronto and Vienna to Almaty, Bangkok, Bogotá, Dubai, Kiev, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Vancouver and Zurich.
Brad has been the American Management Association’s featured speaker on measuring corporate brand value. He was a member of The Conference Board’s working group on Managing the Corporate Brand and APQC’s Brand Building & Communication Benchmarking Study sponsor group. He chaired the IIR Brand Masters conference and the IQPC conference on Internal Brand Building. He is a founding member of the World Class Branding Association. He is a facilitator of Unilever’s North American brand management and marketing planning.
He has authored two books on brand management: The Brand Management Checklist and Brand Aid, which are available throughout the world and have been translated into several languages. His books are used by several universities to teach brand management.
Brad publishes a controlled circulation newsletter to thousands of marketers throughout the world. Marketing executives from many organizations including 3M, Air Canada, Amway, Applebee’s, Bank of America, Bates Worldwide, Bear Stearns, Citicorp, Dreyfus, Intel, Leo Burnett, Lucent, Maytag, McCann-Erickson, McDonalds, Microsoft, Ogilvy, Pepsi-Cola, Purina, Sam’s Club, Sprint, Time Warner Cable, Unilever, Wizards of the Coast (Pokémon) and Yahoo subscribe to the newsletter. He coauthors BrandingStrategyInsider.com, one of the top 50 marketing blogs on the Internet with more than 10,000 daily visitors.
He has assisted numerous advertising/marketing agencies develop, sell and deliver brand management capabilities.
Brad has a BS degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Brad was a member of the Advertising Council of Rochester's board of directors and won their Lantern Award. He sits on the local Boy Scout council's executive board, among several other roles in that organization. Brad serves on the marketing committees of several non-profit organizations including the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. He is the president of Writers & Books board and immediate past president of the Harvard Business School Club of Rochester.
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Services |
| Brand management and marketing consulting, client-specific workshops (brand positioning, brand architecture and customer touch point design), educational seminars and workshops, keynote speeches, ideation sessions. Topics include brand leadership, inside out branding, place branding, brand building on the Internet, brand research, brand positioning, advanced brand management. |
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Products |
Brad's Brand Aid book has been translated into several languages and is available on Amazon.com. Here is what people have to say about this book:
‘Brand Aid is an asset for the beginner and veteran brand builder alike. No matter what size your organization or how great your brand expertise, this book can provide a point of reference and new insights.’
Elizabeth A. Hunter, Senior Brand Specialist, Bank of America
‘Finally, a road map for the often treacherous journey of building and maintaining great brands. This is an indispensable tool for all marketers. Brand Aid is the essential toolkit for today’s (and tomorrow’s) brand marketers.’
Jim Harman, Manager, Corporate Advertising, General Electric
‘A comprehensive guide unlike any other on the market today. Apply what you learn to your brand building activities and watch the value of your brand and bottom line increase.’
Amy Kelm, Worldwide Consumer Brand Development Manager, Hewlett-Packard
‘Brad VanAuken has delivered one of the best brand education and reference tools I have come across. This book will always be within arms’ length from my working area for assistance in brand savvy throughout every workday.’
Carole L. Sustak, Manager, Marketing Strategy & Branding, AAA National
‘Many books have been written about branding in the past 15 years. Many are short and focus on only a few aspects of the complex process of building and nurturing a brand. With Brand Aid, Brad VanAuken has pulled it all together in one of the most comprehensive books ever written on the subject. If you work in marketing, read it. If not, make sure your marketing team has.’
Ron Dix, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Sales, Bush Brothers & Company (Bush’s Baked Beans)
‘The checklists are an incredibly effective way for any marketer to evaluate and grade their brand’s current marketing performance. Brand Aid should really be named Brands for Dummies. I’m definitely going to keep this one around and I only wish I had found it years ago.’
Dan Hucko, Vice President, Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, Harris Interactive Inc.
‘Brad VanAuken’s practical, step-by-step guide to brand management and marketing resonates with experience and insight. Excellent refresher for the most seasoned marketer and a great introduction for those new to the field. I’m keeping my copy on my desk and giving one to everyone in our advertising agency.’
Sharon Napier, President & CEO, Partners + Napier
‘This book surprised me. It’s found a newly practical and authoritative way to describe how to do branding. In this, it is quite unlike any other 100 plus books on brand that I have read.’
Chris Macrea, Chief Brand Officer, valuetrue.com and author of World Class Brands and Brand Chartering Handbook
‘It is refreshing to read a book that is pithy, down-to-earth yet immensely insightful in demystifying the complexities of building and managing a brand anywhere in the world. Brand Aid will always be in a prime position on my bookshelf alongside books by Kotler, Ogilvy, Dru, Morgan, Ries & Trout, Temporal and Aitchison.’
Graeme Murray, Planning Director, Bates Thailand
‘Brand Aid will be the definitive work on the subject for years to come. All that’s needed now is for business men and women with creativity and depth to read it, and to work with it. When that happens, Brad VanAuken will have done the marketplace a great service.’
Peter Holloran, President, Cognitive Marketing Inc.
‘Thank you for your insight. Your book is concise and is an excellent teaching tool for the first-time and experienced brand manager.’
Ernie Avellana, Vice President of Marketing, Control Diabetes Services, a subsidiary of Eli Lilly & Company
‘Brand Aid is the most comprehensive of all the materials that I've read on brand management. This book should become required reading for all business leaders responsible for driving the growth of their organizations.’
Thomas J. Miller, Product Marketing, Director, Newport Corporation, Inc.
‘I've referred to the draft copy you sent in December so much that it's getting dog-eared.’
Tom Welle, Advertising Director, Potomac Electric Power Company
‘It's great to have a strong brand customers love and are happy to pay a premium for, but when a brand gets overextended, underadvertised, overpriced or develops other problems, few entrepreneurs know what to do. In Brand Aid (Amacom, $24), author and marketing consultant Brad VanAuken goes a long way toward remedying these problems.’
By Mark Henricks, Entrepreneur Magazine, September 2003
‘I found the book "Brand Aid" highly informative and I believe VanAuken has set a new standard in the study of branding. Whether it's the Case Studies, "Did You Know?" items or checklists throughout the book, he is able to provide PRACTICAL advice that can be used to develop or enhance brands. This book could very well become the "Bible" for branding now and in the future. I would give it 5-plus stars.’
Amazon.com Review
‘VanAuken’s points pack a heavyweight’s punch; he backs them up with case study summaries of the successes and failures of real brands. Chapters are packed with “Have you thought about…?” questions and checklists.’
Jim Pawlak, Biz Books, August 10, 2003
‘Quite possibly the best book I have seen on the topic of creating and maintaining a "brand" is Brad VanAuken’s Brand Aid ($24.94, Amacom). It will prove to be a powerful resource to anyone wrestling with the challenge of the entire process of building a high-impact brand and trouble-shooting the issues that come with it. If you want your company to become the next Nike, Disney or Absolut, this is the one book you want to read. And then read again!’
Bookviews by Alan Caruba, August 2003
‘VanAuken has distilled his enormous practical knowledge about the theory and practice of brand management into this smart…volume. The book is packed with information and good ideas – so many, in fact, that it is virtually an encyclopedia of brand management does and don’ts’
Publishers Weekly, June 16, 2003
‘Of all the books I’ve read on marketing and branding, this one is the shining star! I’ll also go out on a limb and assert that it’s one of the best books I’ve seen published by AMACOM.’
Roger E. Herman, Midwest Book Review
‘This is an EXCELLENT practical book in a field awash with theory and useless generalizations.’
Anne Holland, www.MarketingSherpa.com
‘You will not want to be without this book in your library.’
Laura Schneider, About Marketing (http://marketing.about.com)
‘Trying to encapsulate this truly vast wealth of knowledge, Brad VanAuken has written what promises to be the synoptic work on the subject. Brand Aid is a dense treatise that tries to make the very complicated issue of branding accessible. VanAuken's brand advice is both sound and timely.’
Brands: Case Closed by Jonathan Jackson, Critical Eye, www.channelseven.com 12/15/03
‘This is an in-depth guide to the whole subject of branding. As such, it is ideal for those who are looking to learn about branding for the first time or for the more experienced practitioner who is looking to improve knowledge in one particular area. It can help to solve branding problems through its exhaustive but easily understandable analysis of the subject. This is a very useful book for understanding branding and as such will be of interest to anyone involved in marketing generally.’
Martin Payne www.poolonline.com/books/books68.html Number 25: Winter 2004
‘This is a terrific, pithily-written book that stands head and shoulders above most other branding books currently on the market. Its fluid style and concise treatment of the major issues in creating winning brands makes most other such texts look pedestrian by comparison.’
Keith Dinnie, Book Review Editor, Journal of Brand Management, August 2003, Vol 10, Number 6
‘…Comprehensive instruction on managing and growing your brand in the usual online and offline channels. Well organized for quick comprehension; includes checklists to see if your brand is ready to go global, well positioned for an ad campaign, has an identity to work with, and a helpful “troubleshooting” chapter. Good place to start if you are still trying to wrap your brain around brand management.’
Reader review, www.brandchannel.com, November 2003
‘Just bought BRAND AID. THIS BOOK IS PHENOMENAL!!!! THANK YOU.’
Alexander S. Bosika, marketing manager, Phantom Fiber
‘My desk has been home to a bumper crop of worthwhile new books on brands and branding. A standout in the group is Brand Aid by Brad VanAuken, which offers an almost encyclopedic look at every step in the brand process (designing, building, leveraging, managing). The advice is straightforward, voluminous and informed by experience. VanAuken also includes lengthy checklists at the end of each chapter that help readers assess their own situations and also serve as a good platform for brainstorming. Highly recommended.’
Joseph Rydholm, editor, Quirk’s Marketing Research Review, May 2004
‘Brad VanAuken knows his stuff - and he knows how to share it with the rest of us in a clear and concise manner that will leave you feeling: "Now I get it!" With a tremendous understanding of how to take complex marketing systems and put them into an easy to understand, universal language, VanAuken brings the reader up to speed quickly and comfortably with simple terms and concrete examples. This book will serve well as not only a quick reference, but also as a step by step tool to creating a branding identity that will stand the test of time.’
John Copeland, program manager, National Arts Marketing Project
‘I run a very small business that designs and manufactures products for a crowded micro market. We were looking for a book or resource that would help gather our thoughts into a concise executable plan. Wow does it feel like this book came through for us. Of all the business, marketing, branding, positioning books I have read, this has to top them all.’
Andrew B Lautenschlager, Bay Area, CA
‘A really comprehensive branding manual, with an almost textbook feel to it. Every branding concept is thoroughly explained. Not necessarily a book to read cover to cover in a few days, but definitely an invaluable reference guide to keep close and handy by anybody involved in marketing and branding products, services and companies. Excellent.’
Mario Sanchez Carrion, marketing, branding and small business blogger, www.shoestringbranding.com
‘Our company does web design, graphic design, corporate communication. I like that this book is not only an easy reference guide, but also a comprehensive approach to branding. The book can stand alone as a Brand teach-in, and require no prior knowledge about branding. The book is also relatively complete and can be used as a text book or self-learning Branding book. This book is good.’
T. Santoso, Surabaya, Jatim Indonesia |
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Company Contact Information |
| 585-624-2043 |
Phone 1 |
| 585-582-2553 |
Fax |
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| 145 Pond Rd |
| Honeoye Falls, NY
14472
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| Monroe County |
| Rochester Region |
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Email This Company
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| Website: |
http://www.brandforward.com
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| Blog: |
| http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com |
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| Brad VanAuken |
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| Founded: |
1999 |
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| Major Clients |
Partial List of Brad VanAuken’s Speaking Engagements and Workshops (1997-2010):
• @Wireless Franchise Conference
• AAA (3 times)
-2000 Marketing & Financial Services Conference
• Abbott Vascular (3 times)
• Al Sigl Center
• American Association of Museums Annual Meeting
• American Management Association (3 times)
-Executive Forum on Corporate Branding: Leveraging Your Company’s Key Intangible Asset
• American Marketing Association (4 times – Albany, Chicago, Kansas City and Rochester, NY chapters)
• American Public Works Association (3 times)
• Aris Vision Institute
• Bausch & Lomb
• Best Brand (Russian Federation)
• Bishop Kearney High School
• Black & Veatch
• Boy Scouts of America
-Detroit Area Council
-Marketing Explorer Post – 2002, 2007, 2009, 2010
-Northeast Region Marketing Summit 2005
-Seneca Waterways Council (2 times)
• Brand Training (Kiev, Ukraine)
• Branding West Conference (Vancouver, Canada)
• Bush Brothers (3 times)
• Canadian Real Estate Association Leadership Conference
• Cerebral Palsy Association
• CFM/GE
• CooperVision (2 times)
• Darden Restaurants
• Definition6
• Digital Rochester
• Direct Marketing Association – Rochester Chapter
• Downtown Albany Business Improvement District
• AG Edwards Small Business Owner Workshop (2 times)
• eBusiness Association
• Element K
• Empire State Bed & Breakfast Association Fall 2006 Conference
• ESL Federal Credit Union (2006, 2008)
• Fairport Public Library, Seymour Rudin Small Business Lecture Series (2006, 2007)
• Genesee Valley Presbytery
• Genesee Valley Trust Company
• Getinge USA
• Hallmark Cards, Inc. (many times)
• Harvard Business School Club of Rochester
• High Tech Rochester (Technical Entrepreneurship Week 2002)
• Honeoye Falls-Lima High School (2009, 2010)
• Home Properties
• Human Resource Executive Seminars
• IBN International (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Bangkok, Thailand, Dubai, UAE 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009)
• ICONIQ (Singapore)
• IKC Solutions
• Institute for International Research (6 times)
-Brand Masters ™: A Practitioners’ Forum (1997, 1998, 1999, 2002)
-Your Brand & the Bottom Line Conference
-The Branding Trilogy: Market Research to Drive Brand Decisions, Cyberbranding ™, Develop the Brand-Building Organization
• Insurance Marketing Communications Association (2 times)
• International Conference Development Events
-The Annual Online Marketing International Summit (3 times)
• International Quality & Productivity Center (4 times)
-Maximizing Brand Value through Internal Communication (2 times)
-Maximize Brand Value through Employee Communication
-Internal Communications Summit
• Ivy League Magazine Network
• Jewish Senior Life
• John Knox Village of Lee’s Summit, MO
• Kaiser Permanente
• Kavaq Business Intelligence (Dubai, UAE; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
• Kingdom of Thailand/Fashion City Bangkok
• Locus Pharmaceuticals (2 times)
• Lumi-nox (San Raphael, CA, Zurich, Switzerland)
• Mapping Analytics
• Mary Cariola Children’s Center
• Master Brand (Brussels, Belgium; Vienna, Austria; Barcelona, Spain; Milan, Italy)
• McKesson
• Motion Engineering, Inc. (2 times)
• National Park Service of New York Harbors
• National Restaurant Association, Rochester Chapter (annual meeting)
• New York State Energy Resource Development Authority
• Northwestern University
• One World Goods
• Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University
• Palmetto GBA
• Partners + Napier
• Pioneer Hybrid International
• Potomac Electric Power Company
• Professional Communicators of Western New York
• Rajamangala University of Technology, Thanyaburi (Bangkok, Thailand)
• RCI (of Wyndham Worldwide) (many times)
• Resmi Group Ltd (Almaty, Kazakhstan)
• Renaissance Weekend XXXVI
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• Rochester Advertising Federation
• Rochester City Ballet Board of Directors
• Rochester Institute of Technology (2006 Advertising in the Digital Age Symposium)
• Rochester Professional Consultants Network (RPCN)
• Rochester Regional Library Council (4 times)
-Brand Management & Marketing Fundamentals
-Capturing the Hearts & Minds of Your Stakeholders
-Innovation & Library Marketing
-Brand Identity Basics/Brand Marketing Plans
• Rochester School for the Deaf
• SCORE – Kansas City Chapter
• Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals – Central New York chapter
• Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages
• Stanford Brand Strategy Executive Program
• Strategy Food & Beverage Conference (Toronto, Canada)
• Tampa, Florida (city of)
• TEC/Vistage (2 times)
• Telekom Malaysia Berhad
• The Advertising Council of Rochester (14 times)
-The 1998 Ad Council Fall Conference
-The 2000 Ad Council Fall Conference
-The 2002 Ad Council Fall Conference
-The 2004 Ad Council Fall Conference
-The 2002 Ad Council Academy (3 times)
-The 2003 Ad Council Academy
-The 2004 Ad Council Academy (2 times)
-The 2007 Ad Council Academy
-Ad Council Board of Directors Workshop (2 times)
-Marketing Explorer Post
• The Cerebral Palsy Association of Greater Rochester
• The Conference Board (2 times)
-1997 Corporate Branding Conference
-The 2003 Extending Your Brand to Employees Conference
• the Marketing forum 2000 (Aboard the QE2)
• The Mary Cariola Children’s Center
• The Nature Conservancy
• Unilever (San Juan, Puerto Rico; Bogota, Colombia)
• United Way of Greater Rochester
• University of Ghana Business School/ Omni Media Ltd. (Citi 97.3fm)
• University of Kansas Integrated Marketing Communications Program (2 times)
• University of Missouri at Kansas City (many times)
• University of Rochester Simon School (2 times)
-Including The 2005 Simon National Marketing Case Competition
• Vanderbilt University
• Vectren Corporation
• Veraxis Health Communications Expert Advisory Panel
• Volunteers of America
• Wesley Retirement Services
• Xerox Corporation
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| Testimonials |
“On behalf of all of the participants of the 2 days seminar ‘Building The Winning Brand’ I would like to express our sincere gratitude for your excellent presentations. We got a great response with many thanks for a fruitful meeting and substantial topics.”
Maria Khokhlova
CEO, Best Brand, Moscow
“Brad, thanks again for all your help and participation in AAA’s Marketing & Financial Services Conference. I continue to get rave reviews on your workshops.”
Karen Pelczar
Manager, Marketing Strategy & Branding
AAA
“You did it again -- nothing but RAVE reviews from your presentation last Friday! I’m convinced, you could start a whole fan club here!”
Dawn V. Borgeest
President & CEO
The Advertising Council of Rochester
“You are a great speaker, well-informed, enthusiastic and articulate. Many people told me how much they enjoyed your presentation.”
Monica Madariaga
Conference Consultant
the Marketing forum 2000
"Thanks again for the excellent session you facilitated on Tuesday. I continue to get positive feedback from all who were present. I met with our president today, and he reiterated what a great job he thought you did and how the day exceeded his expectations. Your clear commitment to the Conservancy's mission was very much appreciated by the group, and your experience in brand building and skill in facilitating made a long day in a windowless meeting room actually fun!"
Angie Sosdian
Director, Marketing Strategy Project
The Nature Conservancy
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