Author Archives: Nick Westergaard

“Your feet take you on these adventures. You should have quality flip flops that you keep for a long time. That really became our core story.” That spark of an idea led Jeremy Stewart and his wife to found premium flip-flop brand Hari-Mari. In doing so, they essentially created a new market that involved changing behavior around what we put on our feet in warm weather. He took some time to share the story of founding the company and building the brand this week on the On Brand podcast. Read More →

“Bad writing can undermine everything you’re trying to do.” As someone who started out as a marketing copywriter and who still spends a lot of time today teaching business writing and writing books, I couldn’t wait to talk to copywriting and web writing expert Nick Usborne about how the words we use help us build better brands. We discussed this and much more this week on the On Brand podcast. Read More →

“Marketing is your ability to attract and keep customers. Most confuse the definition of marketing with the definition of advertising.” This week on the On Brand podcast, I chatted with Wayne Mullins, Founder of Ugly Mug Marketing. We talked about how to avoid checklist marketing (a favorite topic of mine), investing in the right end of the customer experience, and the role of social media today. Enjoy! Read More →

“The secret sauce of brands is purpose.” In a career that’s taken her from wrangling brands at Wieden+Kennedy to launching her own successful global PR shop, futurefactor, Kerrie Finch has spent her career helping brands share their stories with the world. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. Read More →

What do the Grateful Dead and Harry Potter have in common? Both have huge fandoms that include author David Meerman Scott and his daughter Reiko Scott respectively. “Our thesis was this—are the lessons of fandom relevant to brands?” While most … Read More →

“We’re the BASF of brand story. We don’t make it but we bring it life.” This analogy perfectly captures the inflection point where Christopher Wallace has built his business. InnerView helps marketing teams take the brand from the boardroom to the customers on the front line. This isn’t as easy as it might sound at first. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. Read More →

“You don’t want your brand name to be tame. You can’t afford to be tame!” As the verbal identity expert behind names for brands ranging from frozen yogurt to Burger King, Alexandra Watkins knows how to develop names that make people smile—and we talk about that a lot on the On Brand podcast. She’s also the author of the newly revised Hello, My Name is Awesome. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. Read More →

“The constant today is still that the consumer is at the heart of everything.” In a career spanning big brands and early-stage companies, Aimee Irwin has been at the forefront of strategic marketing and advertising. Despite the fact that big data is bigger than ever before, it’s nothing without the ability to effectively manage it and create meaningful connections with customers. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. Read More →

“It’s the simple things that I think people overlook because they’re trying to be so complicated or complex.” Beth Trejo is a force. As CEO and Founder of Chatterkick, she works to infuse the world of social media and digital marketing with a human spark. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. Read More →

“Collaboration is the next phase of marketing.” And Vlad Calus knows a thing or two about collaboration. A serial entrepreneur, Vlad’s latest venture is as co-founder of Planable, a social media management tool built around the need for greater collaboration among internal and external marketing teams. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. Read More →