Brand Management Careers

Workshop to provoke you to think differently so you can
reach your full potential in your Marketing career.
How to succeed in your
career in brand management

We make brands stronger.
We make brand leaders smarter.
Manage your Marketing Career
Workshop to help your career in Brand Management
Topics we cover:
• Assessment: Skills, behaviors,
experiences.
• How your core strength impacts your
future career choices.
• Checklist for what it takes to be
successful at each of the four levels:
Assistant Brand Manager, Brand
Manager, Director and VP/CMO.
• Building your personal brand, around
a Big Idea, a plan and a story.

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Want to get smarter
about Marketing?

Advice from a
former Marketing
Executive

Brand Careers Agenda
1
2
3
4
Build your career around your natural
strength as a Marketer
Assessment: skills, behaviors and
experiences
Where is your career now and where do
you want to go next? By job level.
Building your personal brand, around an
idea and a plan

1
What type of marketer are you? Are you best
at managing products, marketing execution,
strategic thinking or leadership of people?
You have to pick one.
Build your career around your
natural strength as a Marketer

While every Brand Leader claims to be a generalist,
everyone should have a lead strength:
1. Do you like running the business and
managing products?
2. Do you like marketing execution and being
creative, either generating ideas or
executing creativity?
3. Are you a strategic thinker, enjoying the
planning side of the business?
4. Are you a leader of leaders, with a passion
for leading people?
If you had to force yourself to choose
one, which one would you pick?

What is your personal core strength as a Brand Leader?
Marketing
Execution
Running the
Business
Strategic
Thinking
Leader
of People
Highly Competitive
Medium
Low
Focus on what you are
best at. Let go what
matters the least.
We give 4 chips, forcing
one at the high, two at
the middle to support
the strength, and let go
of one at the low.

What is your core strength?
Running the business and managing brands
• You’re naturally a business leader, who enjoys the thrill of hitting
the numbers–financial or share goals. In Myers Briggs, you might
be an ENTJ/INTJ (introvert/extrovert, intuition, thinking, judgment)
the “field general” who brings the intuitive logic and quick judgment
to make decisions quickly to capitalize on business opportunity.
• You like product innovation side more than advertising. You are
fundamentally sound in the core elements of running a business—
forecasting, analytics, finance, distribution—working each
functional areas to the benefit of the products. You may have gaps
in creativity or people leadership, but you’re comfortable giving
freedom to your agencies or team to handle the creative execution.
• My recommendation is to stay within Product Management as
long as you can. If you find roadblocks in your current industry, go
into new verticals before you venture into new career choices.
Consider running businesses on behalf of Private Equity firms or
venture into Entrepreneurship where you take your core strength
of running a business.
Career Options
• Product Management
• Shift across industries
• Lead Private Equity
Turnarounds
• Lead Acquisitions
• Entrepreneurship

Marketing Execution
• You are the type of Brand Leader who is highly creative and
connects more to ideas and insights than strict facts and tight
business decisions. You believe facts can guide you but never
decide for you. You are high on perception, allowing ambiguous
ideas to breathe before closing down on them. You respect the
creative process and creative people. You are intuitive in
deciding what is a good or bad idea. You may have gaps in the
areas of organizational leadership or strategy development that
hurts you from becoming a senior leader.
• Staying in the Marketing area, you may end up limited in moving
beyond an executional role. You may be frustrated in roles that
would limit your creativity. Moving into a Director level role could
set you up for failure. Look to grab a subject matter expert type
role in an internal advertising, media, innovation role or
merchandising.
• Going forward beyond Marketing, consider switching to the
Agency side or Consult on a subject-matter expertise
(Innovation, Marketing Communication or Public Relations) to
build on your strengths.
Career Options
• Executional Agency
• Subject Matter
Specialist
• Ideation Brainstorm
Facilitation
• Business Development

Strategic Thinking
• You enjoy the planning more than the execution. You might fall
into the INTP, where you’re still using logic and intuition,
stronger at the thinking that helps frame the key issues and
strategies than making the business decisions. The introvert
side would also suggest that your energy comes from what’s
going on in your brain, than externally. An honest assessment
would suggest that managing and directing the work of others
is likely not be a strength.
• If you stay within the marketing industry, you would be very
strong in a Global Brand role, General Management or even
a Strategic Planning role. You need to either partner with
someone who is strong at Marketing Execution or build a
strong team of business leaders beneath you.
• Going outside, you would enjoy Consulting and thought
leadership which could turn into either an academic or
professional development type roles. Continue building your
thought leadership to carve out a specific perspective or
reputation where you can monetize.
Career Options
• Global Marketing
• Consulting/Coaching
• Thought Leadership
• Adjunct Professor
• Business Development
• Writing/Speaker Series

Leader of People
• You find natural strength in leading other. You are skilled in
getting the most from someone’s potential. You are good at
conflict resolution, providing feedback, inspiring/motivation
and career management of others. You are a natural
extrovert and get your energy from seeing others on your
team succeed. As you move up, you should surround
yourself with people who counter your gaps–whether that is
on strategy or Marketing Execution.
• If you find yourself better at Management than Marketing,
and you should pursue a General Management role where
you become a leader of leaders. You would benefit from a
cross functional shift into sales or operations to gain
various perspectives of the business enable you to take on
a general management role in the future.
• After you hit your peak within the corporate world, consider
careers such as Executive Coaching where the focus
remains on guiding people.
Career Options
• General Management
• Stay within Brand
Management
• Cross functional roles
• Partner in
Entrepreneurship
• Personal Executive
Coach

The intersection of your
talent, where you love it,
where you can make a
decent salary and where
the market needs it.
Finding yourself a purpose driven career
Market
needs it
Earn a decent
living
Talented
at it
You love it
MissionPassion
JobProfession
Your
Purpose

Honest reflection to match up what you love with what your good
at, avoiding what you hate or lack talent.
Where is your sweet spot where your talent meets passion?
Finance
Writing long reports
Project Management
Sales Management/Presentations
Creative Solutions
Conceptual Mind
Strategic Planning
Leadership Coaching
Public Speaking
Heavy Advertising Experience
Accounting
Forecasting
IT/software/technology
Administrative
Legal Negotiations
Details
Copywriting
Event Planning
Production
Executional Details
Product Innovation
LoveDislike
Lack of
talent
Talented

2
Based on your skills, experience and behaviors,
where are your strengths and your gaps and what is
your game plan for closing those gaps?
Do a full assessment of your skills,
behaviors and experiences

Expected behaviors at any level in Marketing
• Hit deadlines: Never look out of control or sloppy. Marketers have enough to do, that
things will just stockpile on each other. In Marketing, there are no extensions, just missed
opportunities.
• Know your business: Don’t get caught off-guard. Make sure you are asking the
questions and carrying forward the knowledge.
• Be open communication: No surprises. Keep everyone aware of what’s going on.
Present upwards with an action plan of what to do with it.
• Listen and decide: It is crucial that we seek to understand and equally important that we
give direction or push towards the end path.
• We must get better: When we don’t know something, speak in an “asking way”, but when
we know, speak in a “telling way”.
• We control our destiny: We run the brands, they do not run us. Be slightly ahead of the
game, not chasing your work to completion. Proactively look for opportunity in the market,
and work quickly to take advantage.
• Regular feedback for growth: Always seek out and accept feedback, good or bad, as a
lesson for you. Not a personal attack or setback.

Manage your Marketing people in terms of
skills, behaviors and experiences.
• Analyze performance
• Think Strategically
• Define the brand
• Create Brand Plans
• Inspire creative execution
Skills Behaviors Experiences
• Accountable for results
• People leadership
• Broad influence
• Authentic style
• Runs business like an owner
• Write Brand Plans
• Manage a team
• Launch a new brand
• Launch new advertising
• Lead across organization

Define
the
Brand
Think
Strategically
Big
Idea
At Beloved Brands, we use a branding approach
Vision Analysis
Key Issues
Strategies
Execution
• Advertising
• In-Store
• Innovation
• Consumers
• Category
• Channels
• Competitors
• Brand
Values, Goals
• Experience
Brand Plan
Create Brand Plans
Inspire
creative
execution
Analyze
performance
Sm
art
Creative
Ideas

1. Digs deep into data, draws comparisons and builds a story toward the business conclusion
2. Able to lead a best-in-class 360-degree deep-dive business review for the brand
3. Understands all sources of brand data—share, brand funnel, consumption, financials
4. Writes analytical performance reports that outlines the strategic implications
5. Thinks strategically, by asking the right interruptive questions before reaching for solutions
6. 360-degree strategic thinking: core strength, consumers, competitors, situation, engagement
7. Able to lead a well-thought strategic discussion across the organization
8. Makes smart strategic decisions based on vision, focus, opportunity, early win and leverage
9. Defines ideal consumer target, framed with need states, insights and enemies
10.Consumer centric approach to turn brand features into functional and emotional benefits
11. Finds winning brand positioning space that is own-able and motivates consumers
12.Develops a big idea for brand that can lead every consumer touchpoint
13.Leads all elements of a smart brand plan; vision, purpose, goals, issues, strategies, tactics.
14.Turns strategic thinking into smart strategic objective statements for the brand plan
15.Strong in presenting brand plans to senior management and across organization
16.Develops smart execution plans that delivers against the brand strategies
17.Writes strategic, focused and thorough creative briefs to inspire great work from experts
18.Can lead all marketing projects on brand communication, innovation, selling or experience
19.Able to inspire greatness from teams of experts at agencies or throughout organization
20.Makes smart marketing execution decisions that tightens bond with consumers
Define
the Brand
Think
Strategically
Create
Brand Plans
Inspire
creative
execution
Analyze
performance
The 20 skills your marketing team must have to win
Skills assessment tool to evaluate your Marketing team

Marketing Skill Element 1 2 3 4 5 Comments
1. Able to analyze and draw conclusions
2. Leads a deep-dive business review
3. Understands all data sources
4. Writes analytical reports
5. Uses strategic questions for thinking
6. 360-degree strategic thinking
7. Leads strategic discussions
8. Makes smart strategic decisions
9. Defines target consumer
10. Turn features into consumer benefits
11. Finds winning brand Positioning statement
12. Generates the Big Idea for brand
13. Leads all elements of Brand Plan
14. Writes smart strategic objective statements
15. Effective plans presentation to management
16. Aligned marketing execution plans
17. Writes focused and inspired creative briefs
18. Leads all marketing execution projects
19. Inspire greatness from experts
20. Smart strategic decisions on execution
Skills assessment tool to evaluate your Marketing team
Assessment scoring for your team
90%: Exceptional team delivering for the brand
80%: Strong Team, but may have one major gap area
70%: Performance gaps holding team and brand back
60%: Team not trained to deliver on your expectations
Below 60%: Team is holding the brand performance back
Scoring for each element
5: Exceptional
4: Very strong
3: Solid
2: Below expectation
1: Unable to perform

1. Holds everyone accountable to the goals of their tasks
2. Makes it happen, get things done, don’t let details/timeline slip
3. Stays on strategy, eliminates ideas that are not focused against vision/strategy.
4. Works the system behind the brand, from sales to finance to operations to HR
5. Manages core team: focus, communication, solutions, results, let others shine.
6. Interested in their people’s development and career development
7. Coaches, teaches, guides the team for higher performance.
8. Provides honest assessments to their people and upwards.
9. Active listener, seeks opinions, makes decisions, owns strategy.
10.Controls brand strategy, yet flexible to new ideas on the execution.
11.Carries influence throughout organization.
12.Thinks of others beyond themselves, empathy to pressures/challenges others are facing.
13.Aware of their impact on others within and beyond their team.
14.Exhibits leadership under pressure: results, ambiguity, change, deadlines.
15.Consistency in leadership in how they show up.
16.Flexibility in leadership: admits mistakes, challenges self, adjusts to new ways.
17.Acts like a ‘Brand CEO’ accountable to the long range health and profits of the business.
18.Makes smart decisions that adds to the health of brand, not their career or personal wealth.
19.Makes the right choices, good for the company, consumers, customers, market, society.
20.Lives and breathes the culture of those who work behind the scenes of the brand.
The 20 behaviors your marketing team must have to win
Accountable
for results
People
Leadership
Broad
Influence
Authentic
Style
Runs
business like
an owner
Behavior assessment tool to evaluate your Marketing team

Entry Level Manager Level Leadership Level
Experiences that Marketers must go through
Write a Brand
Plan
Manage a
Brnad Team
Launch a new
brand
Lead brand
turnaround
Lead new
advertising
Lead cross
functionally
Write a brand
recommendation
Managed or
mentored an intern
Developed concepts
and testing
Deep analysis on
struggling brand
Led smaller program
or promo materials
Working with key
stakeholders
Write a deep dive
brand review
Write a section
of the brand plan
Fire a
Marketer
Managed a
direct report
Managed
multiple reports
Pool out of new
innovation
Brand re-alignment
to strategy
Provided feedback
on advertising
Broad inﬂuence
across organization
Launched new
product under
established brand
Led brand
recovery plan
Led pullout of
advertising campaign
Worked on cross
functional team
Wrote performance
reviews
Promoted a
Marketer
Coached through
development plan

What you need to manage a Marketing Team
• High standards: Hold the team to consistently high standards of work in analytics,
strategic thinking, planning and execution in the market (advertising, innovation, purchase
moment and brand experience)
• People leadership: Provide a team vision, consistently motivate others, be genuinely and
actively interested in helping your team manage their careers.
• Lead the process: Organize, challenge and manage the processes so your team can
focus on thinking, planning and executing. Guide the team to get things done on time. on
budget and on forecast.
• Coaching: Teach, guide and direct your team members for higher performance. Actively
motivate and recognize success by providing positive commentary to team players, one on
one and in public.
• Training and development: Provide on-going skills development to make the team better.
Smarter teams produce better work that leads to stronger results.
• Consistent communication: Both written and spoken, big and small. Easily
approachable. Makes time to wander.
• Actively listens to team: Asks the big strategic questions that challenge them for their
best, not the small tactical details that does their job for them.
• Leadership during times of pressure: Stays consistent in style during pressures of
pushing for results, dealing with ambiguity, times of change and hitting deadlines.

Brand Leadership in Marketing
• Be visionary: Craft a team vision to help align, motivate the team, guides the
direction of the brand and gatekeeper to all things strategic
• Be engaging: Take the time to engage in deeper strategic thinking to ensure it’s not
just about execution. Challenge team to stay on strategy, yet be open and provide
motivation for highly creative solutions.
• Influence beyond your team: Be the leader that proactively builds relationships
with the Sales Team, Agencies, R&D, Finance, HR, Global.
• Be Focused: Hold the team to a focus of one vision, three strategies, three tactics
each strategy, one target, one main message, one main objective each project.
• Follow Your Instincts: Listen to your inner thoughts: Take smart chances. Too
many leaders fail because “they went along with it”. Challenge everyone until your
instincts are satisfied.
• Be Authentic: Let your team know you, your values, your passions and your
purpose. Equally, get to know your team on a personal level to ensure you are
matching up to their motivations, goals and desires.

Great marketers
#1: Have a way to get what they need.
#2: What they need is the right thing to do.
Great marketers get both.
OK marketers fail on 1 or 2.

Where does the “Idiot Curve” show up in your job?
• With every new job, at every
level, the IDIOT CURVE
shows up in the first 90 days.
The premise is that you tend
to get (and feel) dumber,
before you get smarter again.
• With too much information,
pressure to perform early and
uncertainty, your brain gets
too logical, you over-think and
throw out your INSTINCTS.
Day 1 Day 90
You tend to get
(and feel) dumber,
before you get
smarter again.
Know that the IDIOT CURVE is a normal part of every job.
Be patient. Take your time. Ask questions. Reach for your instincts

Marketing Career Path
Where you should focus your attention
0
25
50
75
100
Assistant Brand Manager Marketing Director VP/CMO
Execution Strategy Managing Leadership

Strategic thinkers see “what if” questions before
seeing solutions, mapping out a range of decision
trees that intersect and connect by imagining how
events will play out in the future. They take time to
reflect and plan before acting, helping you move in
a focused efficient fashion. They think slowly,
logically, always needing options, but if you go too
slow, you will miss the opportunity window.
Intuitive thinkers see answers before even
knowing the right questions, using emotional
instincts and gut feel impulses. Any delays
will frustrate them, believing that doing
something is better than nothing at all. This
“make it happen” attitude gets things done,
but if you go too fast, your great actions risk
solving the wrong problem.
The smartest Brand Leaders know when to be a strategic
thinker and when to be an intuitive thinker.
Always find the right balance by thinking slowly with
strategy and thinking quickly with your intuition.
Think Intuitive

When Marketers come to a decision point that
requires focus, they try to justify a way to do both.
The best brand leaders force themselves to focus by using
the word “or” more than they use the word “and”
Don’t tell yourself that you are
good at making decisions if you
come to a decision point and
you always choose BOTH.
Strategic thinkers never DIVIDE
and conquer. They make
choices to FOCUS and conquer.

At every point of your career, you should
be asking these 5 questions:
1. Within your current company, how high up do
you think you can realistically go
2. Should you stay in the same industry or look at
new verticals?
3. Should you stay in pure Brand Management or
venture into a subject-matter expert type roles?
4. How long do you want to keep working?
5. Do you stay an employee or do you take this
moment to leap out on your own?

3
Where is your career now and
where do you want to go next?
1. Assistant Brand Manager
2. Brand Manager
3. Marketing Director
4. VP/CMO.

Assistant Brand Manager  
How to be successful at the Assistant Brand Manager level
5 key areas you should focus on

• A great ABM is able to tell stories, where others just see data.
Be pro-active
• A great ABM can get what they want.
• A great ABM takes action and moves before being asked.
• A great ABM puts their strategic thoughts forward.
• A great ABM is accountable in the ownership of their work.
Make it happen
Contribute strategically
Be accountable
How to unleash success at the ABM level
Before an ABM is promoted, your manager usually need to see all
five, and needs to see you start to act like a Brand Manager.
Analytical story telling1
2
3
4
5

1. Analytical story telling
A great ABM is able to tell stories, where others just see data.
• There is tons of data all over—share results, tracking, test scores, etc. One of the
most critical skill an ABM can work on is developing stories with the data. It’s one
thing to have the data point, but another to have thought it through and know what it
means, and what action you will take on this data. Look for patterns or data breaks,
ask questions, start putting together stories and challenge the stories.
• Use stories backed up by data to sell your recommendations. Never give a data
point without a story or action. You risk letting someone else take your data and run
with it or tell a story different from yours.
How to be successful at the ABM level

2. Be Pro-Active
A great ABM takes action and moves before being asked.
• Most of the projects for ABMs are already set by your manager. When you are new,
it’s comfortable to wait for your projects. But don’t get in the habit of waiting for
someone to create your project list.
• But a great ABM starts to push ideas into the system and create their own project
list. Some of the best ideas come with a fresh set of eyes and we need a continual
influx of new ideas.
• We also start to see the ABM making good decisions, on their own, and
communicating to their boss. Not asking permission but telling what they want to do
and look for the head nod. Know what’s in your scope and align with your manager.

3. Make It Happen
A great ABM can get what they want.
• Instead of just functionally managing the steps of the project, great ABM’s “make it
happen”: faster, bigger and better.
• Faster means you understand what are the important milestones that need to be
hit. Manage the bottle necks: the task that have the longest completion time, that
impact the entire project. Sometimes you need to push with an inflexible but
motivating fist to get it done.
• Bigger means you want to do more than is required. You find that magic to make it
even have a bigger impact. Creative solutions or motivating others to do more.
• Better means you have to take the same people and get them to give their best
ideas or their best effort or their best work. Guaranteed you will meet many points
of resistance. Every project will. Solving these and still getting the most you can, is
what separates the great ABMs from the rest.

4. Contribute Strategically
A great ABM puts their strategic thoughts forward.
• You need to be a strategic thinker—asking the right questions to ensure you are
focused on the right area, where you can gain a positional power that leads to higher
growth and profit for your brand.
• Ensure you are staying strategic and not just falling in love with some execution not
aligned to your brand’s strategy. It’s so easy to be lost in your own “cool” projects. At
the ABM level, showing that you can keep things aligned to the strategic is just as
important as being strategic.
• Speak up and represent your strategic thinking. Standing up for your thoughts shows
that you are in the game, that you are thinking, and that you believe in your strategic
thoughts. Silent ABMs never last.

5. Accountability
A great ABM is accountable in the ownership of their work.
• Accountability is the stepping stone to ownership. And the ownership of the brand is
a sign you can be a Brand Manager. We need to see that before giving you your own
brand.
• Great ABMs motivate but don’t delegate. If you have to step in, then jump in. You
cannot let things slip or miss. You have to stay on top of the timelines and lead those
on your project teams. You have to be action oriented, and solution focused. You can
never allow your team to get stuck.
• Be the hub of communication to all team members, and to key stakeholders,
including upwards to your manager.

The 10 reasons that an ABM fails
1. Can't do the analytical story telling.
2. Struggle to deal with the ambiguity of marketing.
3. Slow at moving projects through.
4. Selfishly think about themselves.
5. Don't work well through others.
6. Miss answers by not being flexible.
7. Fall for tactical programs that are off strategy.
8. Hold back from making contributions to the team strategy.
9. Settle for "OK" rather than pushing for "great".
10. Poor communicators, with manager, senior management or partners.

Listen to the subject matter experts
you are supposed to lead.
In your first year in
marketing, you will learn
more from those subject
matter experts than you
will from your manager.

Brand Manager  
How to be successful at the Brand Manager level

• A great BM takes ownership of the brand.
Strategic Direction
• A great BM spends the effort to make their ABM as good as can be.
• A great BM provides a vision & strategies to match up to.
• A great BM gets what they need.
• A great BM Can Handle Pressure: ambiguity, results, relationship, time pressure.
Managing Others
Working the system
Dealing with pressure
The best ABMs do not always make the best Brand Managers.
It’s time to start over and challenge yourself on ownership.
Ownership1
2
3
4
5

1. Ownership
A great Brand Manager takes ownership of the brand.
• Many Brand Managers struggle with the transition from being the helper to being
the owner. As you move into the job, you have to get away the idea of having
someone hand you a project list. Not only do you have to make the project list, you
have to come up with the strategies from which the projects fall out of.
• A great Brand Manager talks in ideas in a telling sense, rather then an asking
sense. It’s great to be asking questions as feelers, but realize that most people are
going to be looking to you for decisions. They’ll be recommending you’ll be
deciding.
• When managing upwards be careful of asking questions—try to stick to solutions.
You just gave up your ownership. Your director wants you to tell them what to do,
and debate from there.

2. Strategic direction
A great Brand Manager provides a vision and strategies to lead
everyone who works on the brand
• Bring a vision to the brand. Push yourself to a well-articulated 5-10 year brand vision
great. But a vision can be as simple as a rallying cry for the team. But you have to let
everyone know where you want to go.
• The strategy that matches up to the vision becomes the road map for how to get there.
As the brand owner, you become the steward of the vision and strategy. Everything
that is off strategy has to be rejected.
• Communication of strategy is a key skill. Learn to think in terms of strategic pillars, with
3 different areas to help achieve your overall strategy. Having pillars constantly
grounds you strategically, and is an easy way for communicating with the various
functions. Each function may only have 1 strategic pillar but seeing how it all fits in is
motivating.

3. Managing others
A great Brand Manager spends the effort to make their ABM as good as can be.
• Most Brand Managers struggle with their first five direct reports. The key is to keep self evaluating
and looking for ways to improve with each report.
• Most Brand Managers struggle to shift from “do-er” to “coach. They think they can do it faster, so
they may as well do it. They just become the “super ABM”.
• Many Brand Managers fail to share the spot light, so it becomes hard to showcase the ABM. But
the work of your ABM reflects 100% of how good of a manager you are.
• ABMs need feedback to get better—both the good and bad. I see to many Brand Managers not
giving enough feedback. And so many afraid of “going negative” so the ABM is left in the dark or
left thinking they are doing a good job.
• Great Brand Managers take the time to teach up front, give the ABM some room to try it out and
then give hands-on feedback in real time. Use weekly meetings to give both positive feedback and
address gaps.
• Brand Mangers should do QUARTERLY sit down performance reviews with their ABMs, who have
the capacity to learn faster than annual reviews allows for.

4. Working the system
A great Brand Manager gets what they want and need.
• The organization is filled with groups, layers, external agencies, with everyone
carrying a different set of goals and motivations. You can see how the organization
works and appreciating what are are the motivations of various key stakeholders.
You then use that knowledge to begin to work the system.
• You are starting to see key subject matter experts giving you their best. You
understand their personal motivations and find a way to tap into those motivations
as a way to to ask people for their best. It might be an odd step, but from my
experience a really motivating step. Very few people ask for “your best”.

5. Dealing with pressure
A great Brand Manager can handle pressure: ambiguity, results,
relationship time.
• Ambiguity is one of the hardest pressures. As a leader, patience and composure help
you sort through the issues. The consequences of not remaining composed are a scared
team and choosing quick decisions with bad results.
• If the results don’t come in, it can be frustrating. Reach for your logic as you re-group.
Force yourself to course correct, rather then continuing to repeat and repeat and repeat.
Challenge team to “this is when we are needed”
• Relationships. Be pro-active in making the first move to build a relationship. Try to figure
out what motivates and what annoys the person. Understand and reach for common
ground, which most times is not that far away.
• Time Pressure. It’s similar to the ambiguity. Be organized, disciplined and work the
system so it doesn’t get in your way. Be calm, so you continue to make the right
decisions. Use time to your advantage.

The 10 reasons that a Brand Manager fails
1. Struggle to make decisions
2. Not analytical enough
3. Can't get along
4. Not good with ambiguity
5. Too slow and stiff
6. Bad people manager
7. Poor communicators, with manager, senior management or partners
8. Never follow their instincts
9. Can't think strategically or write strategically
10. They don't run the brand, they let the brand run them.

The best Brand Managers figure
out how to work the system, by
getting buy-in as to what they want
and then go make it happen.

Marketing Director 
How to unleash success in the role

• A great director holds their team to a consistently high standard of work
Be consistent
• A great director is consistent in People Leadership and Management.
• A great director is consistency and predictable in their thinking & decision making
• A great director consistently shows up to the sales team.
• A great director can consistently deliver the results.
Be a consistent people leader
Consistently show up the sales team
Consistently deliver results
The biggest challenge for directors is stop being a Brand Manager.
The biggest challenge for Directors is to show up consistently.
Set a consistent standard1
2
3
4
5
How to unleash success at the Marketing Director level

1. Set a consistently high standard
• Hold your team to a consistently high standard of work: Rather than being
the leader by example, I'd rather see you establish a high standard and hold
everyone and yourself to that standard.
• Shift your style to a more process orientation so you can organize the team to
stay focused, hit deadlines, keep things moving and produce consistent output.
Consistent quality of brand plans, execution and interactions with everyone.
• It’s about how to balance the freedom you give with the standard you
demand. Delegate so you motivate your stars, but never abdicate ownership of
how your overall team shows up.

2. Be the consistent voice on the team
• A great Marketing Director becomes the consistent voice of reason to any
potential influencers, acting on behalf of the brand team.
• The director becomes the usual point person that the VP, sales team,
agency, each turn to offering their thoughts on the brands. Yet the Director
has to allow their BM to own the brand.
• As the team’s voice of reason, a great marketing director must continue to
ground all potential influencers in the brand plan with the strategy choices,
consistently communicate the brand's direction and back up any tactical
choices being made by the team.

3. Consistent people leader
• Newly appointed directors have to stop acting like a "Senior Senior Brand
Manager" and let your team breathe and grow. We know you can write a brand
plan, roll out a promotion super fast and make decisions on creative. But can you
inspire your team to do the same?
• It becomes the director's role to manage and cultivate the talent. Most Brand
Managers have high ambitions--constantly wanting praise, but equally seeking out
advice for how to get better. Be passionate about people's careers--anything less
they'll see it as merely a duty you are fulfilling.
• A great Marketing Director should be meeting quarterly with each team member one
on one to take them through a quarterly performance review. Waiting for year-end is
just not enough.

4. Consistently shows up to the sales team
• Marketing Directors become the go to marketing person for the sales team
to approach. Great sales people challenge marketers to make sure their account
wins. I've seen many sales teams destroy the Marketing Director because they
don't listen, and they stubbornly put forward their plan without sales input.
• Be the director that consistently reaches out and listens. They'll be in shock,
and stand behind your business. If sales people feel they've been heard, they are
more apt to follow the directors vision and direction.
• A great Marketing Director should informally meet with all key senior sales
leaders on a quarterly basis, to get to know them and listen to their problems.
This informal forum allows problems to bubble up of problems and be heard,
before they become a problem.

5. Consistently delivers the results
• A great marketing director makes the numbers. They have a knack for finding
growth where others can’t. And yet when they don’t, they are the first to own the
miss and put forward a recovery plan before being asked.
• Great Directors have an entrepreneurial spirit of ownership, create goals that
“scare you a little but excite you a lot”. They reach out for help across the
organization, making those goals public and keep the results perfectly
transparent. And everyone will follow you.

Marketing Directors have to be consistent in
setting high standards, thinking strategically,
managing people and delivering results.

Vice President/CMO
How to unleash success in the role

• A great VP understands better people make better work and deliver better results.
Bring a vision to the role
• A great VP isn’t the super-duper Brand Manager. It’s about them, not you.
• A great VP creates a team vision that everyone can follow to go to the next level.
• A great VP makes it comfortable enough to approach and share good and bad.
• A great VP runs the P&L and marketing processes so your people can execute.
Put the spotlight on your team
Be a consistent approachable leader
Run the process and the team
The best VPs realize they don’t really do anything by themselves
but everything is done through the greatness of their people.
People come first1
2
3
4
5
How to unleash success at the VP/CMO level

VP’s have to deliver
• Quintessentially, rule #1 is you have to make the numbers. As the VP, your main
role is to create demand for your brands. What’s expected of you is to gain share
and drive sales growth to help drive profit for the company?
• The results come from making the right strategic choices, executing at a level
beyond the competitors and motivating your team to do great work. But how you do
it, and the balances you place in key areas are choices you need to make.
• Making the numbers gives you more freedom on how you wish to run things.
Without the numbers, the rest might not matter.

1. People come first
• Focus on the People and the Results will come: The formula is simple: the
smarter your people, the better the work they produce and in turn the stronger the
results will be. You should have a regular review of the talent with your directors. I'd
encourage you to ensure there’s a systemic way to get feedback to everyone on the
team, preferably on a quarterly basis.
• Invest in training and development. Marketing Training is not just on the job, but
also in the classroom to challenge their thinking and give them added skills to be
better in their jobs.
• Marketing fundamentals matter. The classic fundamentals are falling, whether it is
strategic thinking, writing a brand plan, writing a creative brief or judging great
advertising. People are NOT getting the same development they did in prior
generations. Investing in training, not only makes them better, but it is also
motivating for them to know that you are investing in them.

2. Be the visionary
• You are the Mayor of Marketing: Bring a vision to the role. Look at what needs
fixing on your team, and create your own vision statements that relevant to your
situation.
• Bring a human side to the role. Get up, walk around and engage with everyone
on your team. It will make someone's day. Your role is to motivate and encourage
them to do great work.
• Influence behind the scenes to help clear roadblocks. Know when you need to
back them up, whether it’s an internal struggle, selling the work into your boss or
with a conflict with an agency.
• Do they love it? When they put their great work up for approval, and it’s
fundamentally sound, approve it. Don’t do the constant spin of pushing for better,
because then you look indecisive.

3. Put the spotlight on your people
• Let them own it and let them Shine: It has to be about them, not you.
• Don’t be the super-duper Brand Manger. It’s not easy to balance giving them to
freedom to lead you and yet knowing when to step in and make a decision. By
making all the decisions, you bring yourself down a level or two and you take
over their job.
• Instead of telling, you need to start asking. Ask good questions to challenge
or push your team into a certain direction without them knowing you’re pushing
them is more enlightening than coming up with statements of direction.
• Challenge your team and recognize the great work. It might be my own
thing, but I never said “thank you” because I never thought they were doing it for
me. Instead I said “you should be proud” because I knew they were doing it for
themselves.

4. Be a consistent, approachable authentic Leader
People have to know how to act around you. You have to set up an avenue where they
are comfortable enough to approach you, and be able to communicate the good and bad.

• A scary leader discourages people from sharing bad results, leaving you in the
dark. Open dialogue keeps you more knowledgeable.
• If you push your ideas too far, you could be pushing ideas from a generation too
late. Get them to challenge you.
• Inconsistent behavior by a leader does not “keep them on their toes”. It inhibits
creativity and creates tension. Be consistent in how you think, how you act in
meetings and how you approve.
• Leadership assumes “follower-ship”. Creating a good atmosphere on the team will
make people want to go the extra mile for you.
• Knowledge makes you a great leader, and it starts with listening. You’ll be
surprised how honest they’ll be, how much they’ll tell you.

5. Run the process and system
• While your people run the brands and the execution, you should run the P&L
and essentially run all the marketing processes. You have to run the P&L and
make investment choices. Bring an ROI and ROE (Return on Investment and
Effort) mind set to those decisions. These choices will be one of the essentials to
making the numbers and gaining more freedom in how you do the job.
• In terms of process, it’s always been my belief that great processes in place—
brand planning, advertising, creative briefs—is not restrictive but rather
provides the right freedom to your people. Get your people to drive all their
creative energy into great work that gets in the marketplace, not trying to figure out
what slide looks really cool in the brand plan presentation.

The VP role can be a rather lonely job.
• I remember when I first took the job as VP, I found it surprisingly a bit lonely. Everyone in
marketing tries to be “on” whenever you are around. And you don’t always experience the
“real” side of the people on your team. That’s ok. Just be ready for it.
• The distance from your new peers (the head of sales, HR, operations or finance) is far
greater than you’re used to. And it might feel daunting at first. Your peers expect you to run
marketing and let them run their own functional area. And the specific problems you face,
they might not appreciate or even understand the subtleties of the role.
• Your boss also gives you a lot of rope (good and bad) and there’s usually less coaching than
you might be used to. It’s important for you to have a good mentor or even an executive
coach to give you someone to talk with that understands what you’re going through.

CMO’s need smarter people to produce better
work and drive stronger results.
Never do it alone. The CMO’s who puts more into people
development gets more loyalty and better business results.

4
We look at the needs of employees and then build the rational
and emotional beneﬁts to ﬁnd you a unique position. Then
build a big idea and create a personal brand plan.
Building your personal brand,
around an idea and a plan

What
Employers
want
What your
Peer group
does best
What
are you
great at
Winning zone:
Your clear difference
matters to employers
Losing zone:
Your peers are better
than you
Risky zone:
Equally meet employer
needs. You win through
proven experience or your
ideals/values are a fit.
Dumb zone:
Competitive battle
where no one cares
Find what makes you unique
You have to be better or different or you won’t get the job.

Employer insights What do employers want?
Your key features What does your brand do?
Rational benefits What do consumers get?
Emotional benefits How does that make them feel?
Define employer needs
Define target, need states,
enemies and insights.
Rational benefits
Match your experience up
against needs of hiring
manager, and in their voice
answer “so, what do I get?”.
Use a Consumer Benefits Ladder to ensure
you talk in what the employer gets from you
Product features
What is your key strength,
your experience, your skills
your leadership style? What
past experience fits roles?
1
3
2
Emotional benefits
Look at rational benefit, asking,
in the hiring manager’s voice “so
how does that make me feel?”
4

I like to share
knowledge
I make others
optimistic
I like to be
in control
I make others
comfortable
I like to be
to be myself
I am easily
liked
I want to
feel free
I like being
noticed
Leader
How does your authentic emotional leadership zone drive
your future career going beyond Brand Management?
Use this to steer you to where you should be in your career or how you want to
emotionally position yourself as a potential leader, either on resumes or interviews.
Strategy Consulting
Adjunct Professor 
Training & Development
Turnarounds 
General Management
Private Equity Mgmt.
Consultant
People Leader
Subject Expert
Client Service
Personal Coaching
Operations
Entrepreneur
Work for yourself
Innovation Brainstorm
Public Speaking
Teaching
Facilitation
Personal Coaching
People Leader
Turnaround Leader
Facilitation
Sales Mgmt.
General Mgmt.

How to answer “so tell me
about yourself” in 7 seconds.
What is your 7-second brand?

Here is our simple model for how to build
your 7-second personal brand pitch.
7 second brand
How you define yourself, what primary benefit you provide
what secondary benefit you provide
the expected result

• I have a tremendous passion for everything Marketing. Experience in food, CPG, healthcare, moving up from Assistant
Brand Manager up to VP Marketing. As a brand leader with vast experience in CPG marketingStrong at Advertising,
Innovation and brand planning. Proven track record of 20 years of driving growth while moving up to VP marketing.
7 second brand
• I have worked on turnarounds, always put on the most challenging assignments. I find growth where others couldn’t.
Known as turnaround expert, having led turnaround plans, led global launch, created marketing program from scratch:
positioning, advertising, package design, in-store program.
1. How you define yourself
2. What primary benefit you provide your employer/customer?
4. What is the expected result you deliver?
3. What secondary benefit you provide your employer/customer?
• Led team into and through merger between J&J and Pfizer, with no departures. I create motivated brand teams. Created
a training program for the team on the fundamentals of marketing with a 100-page book. Hands on coach, who gives
honest feedback and uses teaching moments to make the team better.
• Sales results always come first for me. Always proud in deliver great work to drive results. Led marketing team at J&J
share gains on 9 of 12 brands, sales growth on all 12. Developed new brand vision that guided the brand to double digit
annual growth for a decade.
Start by brainstorming ideas for each section. Then narrow down
the list to what is most important ELEMENT for each section.
The 4 questions to build your 7-second brand pitch

As a brand leader, I find growth where others couldn’t,
I create motivated brand team
that delivers great work to drive results.
7 second brand
The 4 questions to build your 7-second brand pitch
As a brand leader, I find growth where others couldn’t and I create
motivated brand teams that deliver great work to drive results.
how you define yourself primary benefit you provide
secondary benefit you provide
expected result

As a brand leader, I find growth where others couldn’t,
I create motivated brand team
that delivers great work to drive results.
Led global launch of Listerine
Pocketpaks with Canada as lead
market. Created marketing
program from scratch:
positioning, advertising, package
design, in-store program.
Known as
turnaround expert,
having led
turnaround plans
on Zyrtec, Nicoderm
& Purell.
History of success
in finding high
performance
advertising that
drives growth.
Led marketing team at J&J share
gains on 9 of 12 brands, sales
growth on all 12.
Proven track
record of 20 years
of driving growth
while moving up
to VP marketing.
Hands on coach, who gives
honest feedback and uses
teaching moments to make
the team better.
Led team into and
through merger between
J&J and Pfizer, with no
departures of key team
members.
Reputation for making my
team better, with a motivating
& challenging style that gets
the best from people.
Created a training
program for the team
on the fundamentals of
marketing with a 100
page book
Developed new Listerine brand vision that
guided the brand to double digit annual
growth for a decade.
Expanding your 7-second pitch to create your
30-minute brand pitch30 minute brand
Take 8-10 of your best career stories and build out your 30 minute brand pitch

7 second brand
Here’s how your next personal brand pitch should go
As a brand leader, I
find growth where
others couldn’t and
I create motivated
brand teams that
deliver great work to
drive results.
Ideal for your next job interview or sales pitch
Tell me about yourself Tell me a time when you…
Led global launch of
Listerine Pocketpaks
as lead market.
Created marketing
program from scratch.
Known as turnaround
expert, having led
turnaround plans on
Zyrtec, Nicoderm &
Purell.
History of success
in finding high
performance
advertising that
drives growth.
Led marketing team at J&J share gains on 9 of 12
brands, sales growth on all 12.
Proven track record
of 20 years of driving
growth while moving
up to VP marketing.
Hands on coach, who
gives honest feedback
and uses teaching
moments to make the
team better.
Led team into and
through merger
between J&J and
Pfizer, with no
departures of key
team members.
Reputation for making my
team better, with a
motivating & challenging
style that gets the best
from people.
Created a training
program for the team
on the fundamentals
of marketing with a
100 page book
30 minute brand
I hope I have shown you
the many ways that as a
brand leader, I find
growth where others
couldn’t and I create
motivated brand teams
that deliver great work to
drive results.
Anything to add…
Developed new
Listerine brand vision
that guided the brand to
double digit annual
growth for a decade.
7 second brand

Build a Brand Plan that focuses
your efforts in the market place

Purpose
Mapping out your own Personal Brand Plan
Vision
Values
Goals
What do you want your brand to be in the next 5-10 years? Think of the next
5-10 years. Where do you want to be? What would you like to accomplish? Think of
big goals, far beyond the year at hand. While you may be focused on the current
year, bigger thinking and helps frame why you’re doing what you are doing.
Why do you do what you do? Why do you get up in the morning? Why did you
choose this profession? Why did you get into this business or career? I find you
have to keep asking this question because every time you ask it again, it becomes
even richer and deeper. The first few answers are usually just on the surface and
no one will connect with that. Go deeper.
What do you believe in? These are quotes that help project your opinion into your
Personal Brand. At a senior level, usually the connection is made with people who
share the same values. You need to find your values so you can project them to the
market. Do you have a theory or belief that you want to blow out and have
everything link to.
What do you need to achieve? Linked to your vision for the next 5-10 years, do
you have a financial goal, lifestyle, industry, role, location, job level, risk profile,
retirement age, bucket list of things you want to accomplish?

Strategy
Key
Issues
Tactics
Mapping out your own Personal Brand Plan
What is getting the way from achieving your vision/goals? Assessing your
situation will help identify potential gaps in your career, potential type-casting of
your experience, what is your family situation and any factor in the way of where
do you want to go next?
How can we get there? The how part of your career transition starts how you
position yourself in the market, your networking options (headhunter, past
employers/peers, associations) and the focused choices you see for your next
role (e.g. GM or VP marketing). Like a Brand, make these hard choices before
going to the market, so you go in with a focus.
What do we need to do to execute the strategy?
• Resume
• Networking list
• Linked In
• Social media,
• Project work.
• Build a routine to look for a job

Worksheet Summary for writing of a Personal Brand Plan
At Beloved Brands, believe we want to get brand leaders to think different believing that the thinking that got
them here, might not be enough to get them to where they want to go next.
Beloved Brands wants to be the voice of the modern brand leader, challenging every everyone to push
themselves to make great work that connects with consumers and reach their full potential.
• Consumer first
• Think Different
• Passion matters
Continue 10% sales growth for 2015., Add 5 new client in 2015, Grow business in Europe and Asia by 2015.
Launch 1 new e-book per year in 2017 and video boot camp for 2018.
Lead key clients with
Brand Coaching
Grow our Executive
Coaching program
Building the Training
Programs
Leverage new
technologies
• New verticals
• Geographic Expansion
• Build in CPG
• Advertising Coaching
• 1 on 1 tools for VPs
• Entrepreneurial program
• Career Coaching
• Launch two e-books
• Create new video series
• Skype coaching
• How do we continue building the brand coaching business in North America?
• How do we build one-on-one executive coaching business?
• How do we reach new marketing teams for learning and development opportunities?
• How do leverage new tools (e-books, video, Skype) to broaden reach?
Using Beloved Brands as an Example
• Corporate Training
• Boot Camp Training
• Retreats
• Key Note speaker
Purpose
Strategy
Vision
Values
Goals
Key
Issues
Tactics
• Results driven
• Leave client to ready to execute

Promise Brand Story Innovation Purchase Moment Experience
Big Idea
Positioning Advertising and
Communication
Product
Development
Selling
and Retail
Organization
and Culture
Consumer Brand
We make brands
stronger and
brand leaders
smarter
Align everything around your Big Idea
Brand Leaders
We will unleash
the full potential
or your brand
and your team of
brand leaders.
Find your right
answer and leave
you with a big idea,
plan, concept and
creative brief.
We are always
bringing new ways
of looking at brand
problems to help
find the growth
We offer unique
tools & formats to
trigger new thinking
that unlocks the
business problem
Focus on brand
leaders who are
feeling stuck and
can’t find the path
to growth.

Promise:
We will unleash the full
potential or your brand
and team of brand
leaders.
Experience:
Find your right answer
and leave you with a big
idea, plan, concept and
creative brief.
Story:
We are always bringing
new ways of looking at
brand problems to help
find the growth
Innovation:
We offer unique tools &
formats to trigger new
thinking that unlocks the
business problem
Strategy:
Focus brand leaders
who are feeling stuck
and can’t find the path
to growth.
Purpose: At Beloved Brands, believe we want to get brand leaders to think different believing that the thinking that got
them here, might not be enough to get them to where they want to go next.
Brand Vision: Beloved Brands wants to be the voice of the modern brand leader, challenging every everyone to push
themselves to make great work that connects with consumers and reach their full potential.
Personal Brand Road Map
Values: Consumer first, think different, passion matters, results driven, leave client ready to execute
Goals: Continue 10% sales growth, add 5 new client, grow business in Europe and Asia, launch 1 new e-book
The Big Idea: We make brands stronger. We make brand leaders smarter
Lead key clients
with Brand
Coaching
Grow our Executive
Coaching program
Partner of choice for
Training Programs
Leverage new
technologies
Strategies:
Tactics:
• New verticals
• Geographic Expansion
• Build in CPG
• Advertising Coaching
• 1 on 1 tools for VPs
• Entrepreneurial program
• Career Coaching
• Launch two e-books
• Create new video series
• Skype coaching
• Corporate Training
• Boot Camp Training
• Retreats
• Key Note speaker

• How do you tell your experience in a way that makes you seem like you fit with your target?
Remember how you put yourself in their shoes to project what you do, now keep doing that as
you tell your story.
• If you can create a “reputation” what do you think it would be, and how does that tie into your
story. You can’t really dispute someone’s projected reputation, it becomes part of the story you
might tell about yourself.
Frame your experience as a ‘reputation’ implies
even more powerful for a senior leader.

Get key influencers to provide you with a recommendation of support of you. Make
sure they are real, and even push them to match up the story you wish to tell.
Use the views of others to help tell your story

Map out your Values/Views and projecting those into the
marketplace to find a match
“The most Beloved Brands are either
different, better or cheaper. Or else,
not around for very long.”
“A Beloved Brand uses the love that consumers
have for the brand to replicate the positional power
of a Monopoly: higher growth and profits.”
“If you don’t love the work you do,
how do you expect your consumer
to love your brand?”
Leaders have opinions: Lead with your view to connect
• Having 3 views mapped out makes you more powerful in the interview process.
Layer these views/values into your resume.
• Project them into the market through social media—blog, twitter, Linked In. You can
join up to 50 groups in Linked In where you can comment, be noticed and connect
with people who share the same views or values.

Every executive should
have a well-crafted Bio for
themselves, that outlines
your big idea for you as a
Brand, tells the story of
who you are, what you
believe in, where you
came from and how you
can help whoever is
reading this bio.
Take everything into a personal bio for yourself

Take your experience to a Resume
Building the resume
starts with your
brand idea, layers
in the experience to
fit that idea, and
keeps everything
simple, results
oriented and clean.
Only put in information that
the reader wants to hear,
not what you want to say.
There may be projects you
are proud of that no one
else cares about.

Use a timeline to add flavor to your resume

Create a laminated ‘Brand Placemat’ to
showcase your personal brand
front back

Social Networking means on line and in Person
• Using social media will make you seem more modern as a Brand Leader. Pick the
social media options that best tell your story. Stay focused because social media
can exhaust you. Do you have a blog? You have to at least write weekly. What is
your lead social media vehicle and support option? Linked In, Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, Pinterest or even emailing.
• Watch how you use twitter? Keep your twitter feed at least 90% business to stay
consistently focused. And only 10% fun: avoid 38 Football tweets on a Sunday.
Avoid any of the political discussions. The world is too divided.
• Network has to be very personal and authentic way. Most people are bad at
networking, bad at staying in touch. It’s OK that you’re bad at it, and it’s OK that
you’re using networking to search for a job. Get past the hesitation or guilt and just
do it. This creates a huge opportunity for you to do it better than everyone else. If
you can be the one that links friends, that gives you more power.
How to Tell Your Story?

Make It Personal and Real
• Be the social connector in your group that links people together. Add personal
touches, whether that means coffee, personalized notes or coffees. With the digital
world we live in, we still have needs for serotonin. A 15-minute catch up does
wonders for people. A personalized note just feels good.
• What’s your communication package look like? Think of it like a leave behind: what
story would you leave behind. Yes, the resume is obvious, but what else would you
leave behind. Create one.
• If you’re looking to get into marketing, do up a brand plan for a charity and leave it
behind at an interview. Do up your business card, a brochure. Vista print is so cheap
these days. Moo.com offers even more innovative options.
How to Tell Your Story?

Once you frame what your personal
brand is all about, you might notice that
you start to show up differently even in
the simplest of conversations.
You now have to live up to your big idea

Passion matters:
If you don’t love what you do,
how do you expect your
consumers to love your brand?

Brand Management Training Program
We help Brand Leaders
reach their full potential

You should invest in
training your people.
Better people pays off when you see smarter
brand strategies, amazing marketing
execution and stronger brand results.

We will build a Brand Training Program to
unleash the full potential of your Marketing team.
Strategic Thinking
Brand Positioning
Brand Plans
Creative Briefs
Brand Analytics and the Business Review
Marketing Execution
Creating a Beloved Brand
Consumer Centricity
Managing your Marketing Career
1
2
6
4
5
3
7
8
9
Menu of training programs

Strategic Thinking is an essential foundation for Brand Leaders, so they
ask big questions that challenge and focus their decisions.
• We teach Brand Leaders how to think strategically, to ask the right questions before
reaching for solutions, mapping out a range of decision trees that intersect and
connect by imagining how events will play out.
• We take Brand Leaders through the 8 elements of good strategy: vision, opportunity,
focus, speed, early win, leverage and gateway. We introduce a forced choice to help
Marketers make focused decisions.
• We teach the value of asking good questions, using five interruptive questions to
help frame your brand’s strategy. This helps to look at the brand’s core strength,
consumer involvement, competitive position, the brand’s connectivity with the
consumers and the internal situation the brand faces.
• We show how to build strategic statements to set up a smart strategic brand plan.
Training Workshop 1
Strategic Thinking

Training Workshop 2
Brand Positioning
A winning brand positioning statement sets up the brand’s external
communication and internally with employees who deliver that promise.
• We show how to write a classic Brand Positioning statement with four key elements:
target market, competitive set, main benefit and reason to believe (RTBs).
• We introduce the Consumer Benefit ladder, that starts with the consumer target, with
insights and enemies. We layer in the brand features. Then, get in the consumers
shoes and ask “what do i get” to find the functional benefits and ask “how does this
make me feel” to find the emotional benefits.
• We introduce a unique tool that provide the top 50 potential functional and top 40
emotional benefits to help Marketers stretch their minds yet narrow in on those that
are most motivating and own-able for the brand.
• We then show how to build an Organizing Big Idea that leads every aspect of your
brand, including promise, story, innovation, purchase moment and experience.

A good Brand Plan helps make decisions to deploy the resources and
provides a road map for everyone who works on the brand
• We demonstrate how to write each component of the Brand Plan, looking at brand
vision, purpose, values, goals, key Issues, strategies and tactics. We provide
definitions and examples to inspire Marketers on how to write each component. We
provide a full mock brand plan, with a framework for you to use on your own brand.
• We offer a workshop that allows Marketers to try out the concept on their own brand
with hands on coaching with feedback to challenge them. At each step, we provide
the ideal format presentation to management. We offer unique formats for a Plan on
a Page and long-range Strategic Road Maps.
• We show how to build Marketing Execution plans as part of the overall brand plan,
looking at a Brand Communications Plan, Innovation Plan, In-store plan and
Experiential plan. This gives the strategic direction to everyone in the organization.
Training Workshop 3
Brand Plans

Training Workshop 4
Creative Briefs
The Creative Brief frames the strategy and positioning so your Agency
can creatively express the brand promise through communication.
• Marketing Execution must impact the brand’s consumers in a way that puts your
brand in a stronger business position. The Creative Brief is the bridge between the
brand strategy and the execution.
• Through our Brand Positioning workshop, you will have all the homework on the
brand needed to set up the transformation into a succinct 1-page Creative Brief that
will focus, inspire and challenge a creative team to make great work.
• The hands-on Creative Brief workshop explores best in class methods for writing the
brief’s objective, target market, consumer insights, main message stimulus and the
desired consumer response.
• Brand Leaders walk away from the session with a ready-to-execute Creative Brief.

Training Workshop 5
Brand Analytics
We show how to build a deep-dive business review on the brand, looking
at the category, consumers, competitors, channels and brand.
• We start with the smart analytical principles that will challenge your thinking and help
you gain more support by telling analytical stories through data.
• We teach you the steps to complete a deep-dive Business Review that will help assess
the health and wealth of the brand, looking at the category, consumer, competitors,
channels and brand. We show key formulas you need to know for financial analysis.
• We teach how to turn your analysis into a presentation for management, showing the
ideal presentation slide format. We provide a full mock business review, with a
framework and examples of every type of analysis, for you to use on your own brand.
• We show you how to turn your analytical thinking into making projections by
extrapolating data into the future.

Training Workshop 6
Marketing Execution
We show Brand Leaders how to judge and decide on execution options
that break through to consumers and motivates them to take action.
• We provide Brand Leaders with tools and techniques for judging communication
concepts from your agencies, as well as processes for making decisions and
providing effective feedback. We talk about the crucial role of the brand leader in
getting amazing marketing execution for your brand.
• We teach how to make marketing decisions with the ABC’S, so you can choose
great ads and reject bad ads looking at tools such as Attention (A), Branding (B),
Communication (C) and Stickiness (S)
• We teach how to provide copy direction that inspires and challenges the agency to
deliver great execution. We also talk about how to be a better client so you can
motivate and inspire your agency.

Training Workshop 7
Generating Brand Love
Why does Brand Love Matter? We believe the more loved a brand is by
your consumers, the more powerful and profitable that brand will be.
• We challenge Brand Leaders to find brand love through the by creating a Big Idea to
rally around, strategically focusing all their resources and instilling passion in the work
to exceed the consumer’s expectations:
1. Build an organizing Big Idea that connects consumers at every touchpoint,
tightening the bond, reflecting the inner Brand Soul and desired external
reputation.
2. Need strategic focus in deploying the brand’s limited resources to breakthrough
points, moving consumers along the brand love curve to enable your brand vision.
3. Put all your passion into the execution creates breakthrough ideas that surprise
and exceed consumer expectations, becoming a favorite brand of the consumers.

Training Workshop 8
Consumer Connectivity
Marketers have to find the most motivated consumer who wants to buy
what you do. You have to matter the most to those who care the most.
• We challenge you to listen to your consumers, get in their shoes to understand their
mindset and speak in their voice as you represent them to your brand. Instead of
asking which consumers you want, ask which consumers want you.
• We build a consumer profile that looks at segmentation, need states, pain points,
consumer insights and desired consumer response. We outline the difference
between “selling” and “marketing” target. To ensure Marketers focus on those
consumers who provide the full impact of your effort.
• We go into depth on the 360 degree gathering of consumer insights. We teach that
insights should start with “I” to get you into the consumer’s shoes and then use
quotes to ensure you are using their voice.

Training Workshop 9
Marketing Careers
Workshop for Brand Leaders to help explore your strengths in
marketing and how that can shape what you do next.
• We lay out the skills, experiences and behaviors that you should be trying to build
upon. We go through the four levels of the Marketing Career, looking at Assistant
Brand Manager, Brand Manager, Marketing Director and the VP level.
• We go through the 4 potential career streams, building around your personal
strength: strategy, people leadership, creativity or business management.
• We provide a full evaluation and line those up to creating your personal brand. We
go through each level of the marketing function.
• We show how to build your own personal Brand, so that you can reach your full
potential.

Brand Boot Camp
We have created two separate 3-day
training programs for brand leaders.
Strategy Boot Camp
Training sessions include strategic
thinking, brand analytics, writing brand
plans and brand positioning statements
Execution Boot Camp
Training sessions include brand
positioning & concepts, writing
creative briefs, judging marketing
execution and media planning

We lead a 360 assessment of your business, looking at the marketplace,
consumers, channels, competitors and the brand.
We help you define your brand, with a simple, unique, inspiring,
motivating and own-able Brand Positioning Statement.
We will create a Big Idea that will transform your brand’s soul into a
winning brand reputation.
We help you build a strategic Brand Plan that everyone who works on the
brand can follow
We coach on Marketing execution, helping to tighten the bond with your
consumers and drive brand growth
We will build a Brand Management training program, to unleash the full
potential of your Marketing team.
1
2
3
4
5
6
TM

Gyongyver Menesi-Bondar
Head of Marketing Strategy
Shell Asia Paciﬁc
“Beloved Brands has helped us to accelerate
our journey towards building emotional
connection with our customers. The journey of
transformation from a traditional tactical driven
marketing approach to a Brand and Experience
Driven marketing approach is enormous and
requires changes at all levels of the
organization. Graham has been instrumental to
enable the change, building long lasting
marketing competencies of our teams. He
spent time with our diverse Asia teams he has
been one of us, understanding our business,
our challenges, and able to quickly connect
with relevant examples and stories.”

Our clients speak out on our behalf
Zhelyaz Koliovski
Marketing Director
Vinprom Pashtera, Bulgaria
“The most efficient investment was
having Graham’s train my team.
He managed to translate the
“heavy marketing” slang into down-
to-earth brand management
frameworks that are practical and
easy for everyone to understand.
Beloved brands covers it all
including analytics, key issues,
strategy and brand activation.
Every word will make you a better
brand leader.”

Feyi Olubodun
VP Planning,
Grey Advertising, Nigeria
“Beloved Brands’ knowledge base is
vast and practical. They helped me
upgrade my strategy team significantly,
from strategic thinking to creative briefs
to overall brand management.”
Lana Jensen
Marketing Manager
3M Canada
“Graham provided expert advice and
reliable suggestions during coaching
sessions to build brand performance
with my team. His knowledgable
experience was extremely valuable.”
Our clients speak out on our behalf
Doug Rozon
Director of Marketing
Henkel Sun Products
“Beloved Brands created and
delivered a custom training
program to meet the
developmental requirements of a
diverse team of Marketers.
Graham puts the training in
context of their own businesses,
resulting in real-time application
of the training modules. His
philosophies push strategic
thinking and get people to see
the “what if” questions before
jumping to solutions. Graham
challenges you to think different
making each Marketer better.”

Canada
Ghana Nigeria
Barbados
United Arab Emirates
China
Germany Thailand
USA
Philippines SingaporeIndonesia
Bulgaria
Malaysia
Oman
Australia
New Zealand
Pakistan
The markets we have served

Graham spent 20 years in Brand Management leading some of the world’s most
beloved brands at Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer, General Mills and Coke, rising up to
VP Marketing. In his career, he has won numerous Advertising and Innovation awards.
Graham played a major role in helping Pfizer win Marketing Magazine’s
“Marketer of the Year” award.
Graham started Beloved Brands believing he could make brands stronger
and brand leaders smarter. Graham will challenge you and your team to think
differently and strategically. He leads workshops that will help define your
Brand Positioning Statement, create a Big Idea for your brand, and write
Brand Plans to motivate and focus everyone that works on the brand.
He will build Brand Management training programs that will help
unleash the full potential of your team, so your team can produce
exceptionally smart work that drives stronger brand results.
The Beloved Brands robust client roster has included the NFL
Players Association, Reebok, Acura, Shell, Jack Link’s, 3M,
Melitta, Capital One and Pfizer.
Graham Robertson at Beloved Brands
One of the voices of today’s Brand Leaders.

Graham Robertson at Beloved Brands
Significant career experience in Brand Management
Education
• MBA, Ivey School of Business, Western University, 1994
• Bachelor of Commerce, Carleton University, 1989
Work History
• President, 2009- Present
• VP Marketing, 2005-08
• Group Brand Director, 1999-2005
• Senior Brand Manager, 1997-99
• Associate Brand Manager, 1994-96
• Coca-Cola, Summer Marketing Intern, 1993
• Marketing Training Program, 1989-92

We are guided by our beliefs
At Beloved Brands, we promise to
make your brand stronger and your
brand leaders smarter.
We believe big ideas, focus and
passion matter, because the more
loved a brand is by consumers, the
more powerful and proﬁtable that
brand will be.
We will challenge you to think
different, because the thinking that got
here may not get you to the next level.
Our Credo
• Driving more Brand Love will lead to
more power and profit for your brand.
• Smarter Brand Leaders will lead to
smarter decisions and stronger brands.
• Consumer have changed dramatically,
impacting what it takes for brands to
win. You need to change with them.

Investing in your people pays off with smarter strategies,
amazing execution and stronger brand results
We will unleash the full potential of your people so you will
see a direct impact on your brand’s growth trajectory.
We will train your team on the
fundamentals of brand management
• Address gap on brand analytics and strategic
thinking, to ensure you end up with smarter
Brand Plans and Creative Briefs.
• Improve judgment and decision-making to
ensure your Marketing execution pays back.
• We can see first hand the impact that training has
on your team’s skills, motivations and behaviors.
• Our workshop style training provides an
immediate impact on their day-to-day jobs.

Beloved Brands
Graham Robertson
The voice of today’s Brand Leader
The playbook for how to be a smart,
disciplined and passionate Brand
Leader in today’s cluttered world.
New book coming soon
Beloved Brands
The playbook for finding brand
love in today’s cluttered world.
Graham Robertson
The voice of today’s Brand Leader
Define
the
Brand
Think
Strategically
Big
Idea
The branding approach that gets you to think,
define, plan, inspire and analyze.
Vision Analysis
Key Issues
Strategies
Execution
• Advertising
• In-Store
• Innovation
• Consumers
• Category
• Channels
• Competitors
• Brand
Values, Goals
• Experience
Brand Plan
Create Brand Plans
Inspire
creative
execution
Analyze
performance
Sm
art
Creative
Ideas

Do you want to get smarter
about Marketing?
Visit beloved-brands.com
Over 5 million views from Marketers getting smarter

Ask us to design a training
program for your team.
We would love the opportunity to
help you unleash the full potential of
your team of brand leaders.
Graham Robertson • 416 885 3911 • graham@beloved-brands.com

Brand Management Careers

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