What are the attributes clients look for in a marketing partner? How important is brand positioning to a marketing team? In this week’s episode of Branding Business, RiechesBaird CEO Ryan Rieches explores these topics and more with Tim Williams, the founder of Ignition – a consulting firm dedicated to helping marketing agencies create and capture more value for themselves and their clients. Williams is also a sought-after speaker, author and regular contributor to such reputable outlets as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, AdAge and many others.

For brands to remain top of mind, relevant, and increase sales, they must be innovative and create that “must have” factor. Brands that ignite a spirit of disruptive innovation place themselves at a huge advantage over their competition. In this week’s episode of Branding Business, RiechesBaird Principal Alan Brew sits down with well-known author and branding guru, and Vice Chairman of Prophet, David Aaker, who shares examples of brands that have displayed such innovation and have left their competitors in the dust. Take for example Chrysler who in 1982 came out with the minivan. The brand invested 2/3 of a billion dollars into the minivan subcategory, sold 200,000 in the first year and went 16 years without any competition. Tune in to hear of other brands who have taken a risk to stand apart from the competition.

When it comes to branding, we need to look beyond design, logos and naming. We need to look at ways of continuously sensing people’s desires and rapidly delivering compelling value to satisfy those desires. In this week’s episode of Branding Business, RiechesBaird Principal Alan Brew sits down with well-known author and brand strategist, Tom Asacker, who narrows it down for us. While a complicated discipline of sociology, psychology and behavioral economics, branding is really about how people make choices. The idea of creating something desirable – creating value – so people invest in your brand is what branding is all about. A brand in essence is an expectation of value, an experience customers are looking for.

The daughter of positioning pioneer, Al Ries, Laura Ries is President of Ries & Ries, a best-selling author and a sought after branding analyst for many prominent media outlets. Following the passion for branding held by her father, Laura Ries has helped many large corporations build their brand by narrowing their focus and owning a word in the customers mind. In this week’s episode of Branding Business, Ryan Rieches sits down with Laura Ries to explore the content of her latest book, Visual Hammer.

With an entrepreneurial spirit and serious determination and focus, Mark Moses started and successfully sold two businesses – one of which achieved more than $1Billion in annual revenue. Moses now coaches CEOs throughout North America – helping them to focus on their vision and drive success. In this week’s episode of Branding Business, Ryan Rieches sits down with Moses to discuss the process he takes to help businesses realize success.

In recent years, many universities have taken the necessary steps to further define their brands in an effort to clarify who they are and prove the value they provide to their internal and external stakeholders. In this week’s episode of Branding Business, Ryan Rieches sits down with Gary Brahm, Chancellor and CEO of Brandman University, formerly Chapman University College, to discuss the process the educational institution took to differentiate itself amongst more nontraditional students yet still associate the brand with the established Chapman University system. From research to visual identity, Rieches and Brahm will talk to the steps the agency took to get Brandman University where it is today.

Find answers to:

The process of changing an established organization’s name

Trends in branding universities

What is involved in defining a brand

The importance of defining Purpose, Vision, Mission and Values

How to roll out new branding statements and sentiments internally

Who is responsible for the brand

The social revolution and economic shifts have led many to review and determine their personal brands. Just like a corporate brand, your personal brand it there to make sure that you’re relevant and that you resonate with the marketplace. In this week’s episode of Branding Business, Ryan Rieches sits down with Devin C. Hughes, a professional public speaker and leadership coach, to discuss the similarities between personal branding and corporate branding. Just like corporate brands, individuals too need to evolve their personal brands over time to stay top-of-mind and differentiate themselves from others. Tune in as Devin and Ryan also explore the importance culture plays in branding and how the personal brands associated with employees can impact the culture of an organization.

The leadership and stakeholders connected to The Volunteer Center of Orange County were confused as to what the non-profit organization stood for – they were unable to clearly articulate the purpose of their organization and the benefits they provided to the community. The organization knew they needed to take the necessary steps to undergo a transformation in order to express their story, vision and purpose effectively. In this week’s episode of Branding Business, Ray Baird sits down with Dan McQuaid, CEO of OneOC, to discuss the critical steps the non-profit took to rebrand itself. From getting buy-off from their board to how the non-profit engaged their internal and external audiences, Dan and Ray explore the strategic process that helped to increase the awareness and perception of this valuable organization.

In this day and age and during challenging economic times, brand value plays a crucial role when it comes to how investment firms work with companies during mergers and acquisitions. In this week’s episode of Branding Business, Ryan Rieches sits down with Tracy Albert — Managing Director for the Los Angeles office of Houlihan Lokey, an international, advisory-focused investment bank, ranked by Thomson Reuters as the No. 1 M&A advisor for U.S. transactions under $1 billion in 2010 and the No.1 global M&A fairness opinion advisor over the past 10 years. Ryan and Tracy discuss how companies can benefit from greater investments and truly capitalize in the marketplace when they clearly understand their positioning and can prove value in their brand.

How private equity firms determine investment strategies depends a great deal on how a company is positioned for growth. In this week’s episode of Branding Business, Ryan Rieches sits down with Murray Rudin — Partner at Riordan, Lewis & Haden, a large private equity firm based in Los Angeles — to discuss the fundamentals of what is looked at when evaluating business investments. Rudin explores how their firm takes a strong look at how their portfolio companies differentiate themselves and the obstacles that many large companies face when it comes to focusing on their brand.

The digital frontier is ever-evolving and brands need a knowledgeable partner to help them navigate the channels and execute online marketing strategies while still maintaining brand consistency. In this week’s episode of Branding Business, Ryan Rieches sits down with Peter Bohenek, Co-Founder and President of Rhythm Interactive — a full-service digital marketing agency in Irvine — to discuss how the agency works with clients to ensure that the brand experience is preserved through various digital strategies. Peter explains the overall thought process behind digital campaigns — how the agency defines various engagement and convergence strategies — by first understanding the client’s business goals, brand guidelines, brand strategy and brand positioning.

Managing a brand internationally is a challenging task and one that requires special considerations and tactical expertise. Here to discuss these challenges are two individuals deeply rooted in the global representation of their B2B, international brands. First, we speak with Steve Holley, Director of Global Development at Oakley, and find out how creating partnerships with retailers around the globe, along with proper marketing tools and training, ensures the success of the brand in international markets. In the second half of our show, we talk with Constantin von Boch (Director of Marketing & Sales in the US and Canada for Villeroy & Boch) about bringing this 260+ year old European business into the US. Tune in now and let us know your thoughts in the comments. 

This week’s episode of Branding Business brings two great creative minds together to discuss the foundations, challenges and trends in naming and logo development. Drew Letendre and Michael Dula have worked on world-renowned brands such as American Airlines, Villeroy & Boch, Avery Dennison and Nike, just to name a few.

In many important ways, market research can and will drive how a brand must be defined to ensure success. In this episode of Branding Business, Alan Brew interviews two key professionals in the field of research. Bill MacElroy is the President of Socratic Technologies, a research firm specializing in online outreach, and Chris St. Hilaire is President of M4 Strategies and the author of the acclaimed book ’27 Powers of Persuasion.’

Today’s host, Ryan Rieches, speaks with two men that dared to build a brand, and in the process, define a new category in the marketplace. Serial entrepreneur Casper Zublin, founder of Asterisk Financial, and Garry Green, President and COO of Liberty Synergistics, Inc. share their stories of how branding was instrumental in the realization of their business goals.

In this episode, Ryan Rieches sits down with members of the Hoag executive team, namely CEO Dr. Rick Afable, to discuss how and why Hoag’s brand has evolved in recent months. As a prominent healthcare provider to those in the Orange County area for the past 50 years, Hoag is a well established name in the community…

In this inaugural episode of Branding Business, RiechesBaird founders Ryan Rieches and Ray Baird join fellow principal Alan Brew in discussing the show’s launch and future. Also in this episode, the trio look at some of the most current and pressing matters in the world of branding and brand strategy…