Presentations
"Brandscendence' : The Journey of Enduring Brands"
"Brandscendence"- the fusion of "brand" and "transcendence" - brands that go beyond ordinary limits.
World-class commercial brands such as BMW, Coke, Disney, General Electric, IBM, and even not-for-profit institutions such as the Red Cross are on the journey to Brandscendence. They have enduring reasons for being, yet adapt to changing circumstances and evolve over time. Brandscendence is designed to simplify the branding conversation to make brand strategy accessible to anyone - and to any organization.

Clark uses success stories and examples to illustrate his theory on the three essential elements enduring brands must manage: relevance, context and mutual benefit. First is the organization's or product's enduring relevance to the customer. Next is the context in which the brand must adapt to cultural shifts or changing economic needs of customers over time. Relationships are then turbocharged when all stakeholders perceive mutual benefit, which creates a bank of goodwill to nurture future interactions - and is crucial in times of crisis.

Once you've heard Brandscendence you'll be able to see branding at work every day and the heavy lifting it does all around you - and be able to start on the journey to gain competitive advantage by increasing customer consideration, preference, and loyalty.

Intended audience: Executives, managers, consultants and marketing professionals responsible for business strategy, brand strategy, change management.

"Brand Next' "
The presentation "Brand Next' " is based on the chapters of the upcoming book Brandscendence' : Three Essential Elements of Enduring Brands that focus on the future of brand strategy and brand management. Brandscendence is the fusion of "brand" and "transcendence" - brands that go beyond ordinary limits.

Brand strategy holds the power to redefine organization strategy at large.

Clark uses success stories and examples to illustrate his theory on the three essential elements enduring brands must manage: relevance, context and mutual benefit. Branding can focus resources and select valuable customers by being focused and relevant in specific and known ways. It can create a high performance culture that adapts to shifting contexts - or creates the context other must respond to in the marketplace. Branding must also lead in the creation of mutual benefit that drives more value for all players in the brand ecosystem.

Once you've heard "BrandNext" you'll be able to see the future of branding with more clarity - and see it at work every day all around you. Start on the journey to gain competitive advantage by increasing customer consideration, preference, and loyalty by hearing "BrandNext" today.

Intended audience: Executives, managers, consultants and marketing professionals responsible for business strategy, brand strategy, change management.

"Products are Solids, Customers are Liquids"
The energy of change is transforming traditional strategic planning. This presentation uses a metaphor - the three states of water - to talk about customers, products and companies. They can be frozen, liquid or gaseous, depending on the amount of energy applied to each.

Product specifications have to be frozen for some period of time, while customers are more like liquids. Customer needs and desires are in an ever-changing state of flux. While individuals aggregate to create mass markets, these markets are the result of fractal flows of emerging customer tastes and temperaments.

Solid products are always chasing liquid customers.

Learn how gain decisive competitive advantage by creating liquid flows between the boundaries of customers, products, services and organizations.

Intended audience: Executives, managers, consultants and marketing professionals responsible for business strategy, brand strategy, change management, and managers responsible for manufacturing, planning or service delivery.

About Kevin Clark
Kevin Clark is Program Director, IBM Client Brand Experience Design, part of the IBM Corporate Marketing team. He is responsible for designing new ways for customers to interact with and experience IBM. He is the IBM Brand and Identity Community Leader worldwide, and is the brand steward for the IBM Think family of personal computer offerings, including IBM ThinkPad notebook computers, IBM ThinkCentre desktop computers, and IBM ThinkVision monitors.

He is also president and managing member of Content Evolution LLC Worldwide, a content creation entity and consulting firm primarily serving not-for-profit institutions; not related to IBM.

Kevin is an international speaker about brand strategy, business strategy, and end user computing. He works with marketing experts, industry analysis, academics, futurists, and members of the media about the wants and needs of customers, and emerging social and technology trends. Kevin is the author of Brandscendence ' : Three Essential Elements of Enduring Brands published by Dearborn Press in 2004. He is also a contributing writer to Wireless Rules: Customer Relationship Marketing Anytime, Anywhere, published by McGraw-Hill in 2001, and is the author of the new media chapter for The Handbook of Strategic Public Relations and Integrated Communications published by McGraw-Hill in 1997. "The IBM Think Strategy: When Business Strategy and Branding Come Together" by Kevin Clark and Mark McNeilly were published in Strategy and Management magazine in the spring of 2004, and Listening and Leading in User-Focused Design by Kevin Clark and Kazuhiko Yamazaki was published in Proceedings: Exploring Emerging Design Paradigm, Oullim of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design, 2001 Seoul, Korea.

Kevin joined IBM in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1979. He has held a variety of marketing, management and communications positions since joining the company. Before joining the corporate marketing staff at IBM, he was Program Director, Market Intelligence and Business Development for IBM Personal Systems Group (PSG). His team orchestrated the IBM Think Strategy that balances external innovation for customers with internal operational efficiency. His team worked on marketing and business strategies, brand strategy, market intelligence, market research, marketing plans, customer experience strategy, and global customer requirements for end user computing. Kevin has also been program director, communications, for the Networked Applications Services Division; manager, communications, for the Interactive Broadband Services group, part of the corporate strategy staff; and manager, IBM United States public relations.

He is the IBM PCD Executive Advocate for NASA and United Space Alliance, Nationwide Insurance, and Deutsche Telekom. He has lectured at Duke University Fuqua School of Business, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Northwestern University, University of Colorado at Boulder, Fordham University, Pace University, and Keio University in Japan.

Kevin serves on the Boston College Marketing Advisory Board, has served on IBM's steering committee for the MIT Media Lab, and has been an instructor for the IBM Corporate Marketing Management Institute. He attended the IBM Senior Leadership Forum at Harvard Business School, Wharton Business School executive class on Creating World Class Capabilities, IBM's MBA Fundamentals program, and several programs at IBM's Corporate Management School, including the global Business Management Institute. He is listed in several Who's Who publications, including Who's Who in America, and is a member of the North Carolina Writers Association and the International Visitors Council.

Kevin holds a Bachelor of Science degree in advertising and public relations from the University of Tulsa. He is married to Heidi Sawyer-Clark who is a children's manners educator, former president and current treasurer of the Chapel Hill Garden Club, and North Carolina Master Gardener.