In this episode of the BRITE Ideas podcast, the Brand Center’s faculty director, Prof. Bernd Schmitt, interviews David Aaker (Vice-Chair of Prophet) one of the seminal thinkers on brand management within both academia and corporate strategy. The dialog is centered around an updated 2nd edition of David’s book Aaker on Branding: The Playbook to Build Strong Brands which was released this month.

David discusses the historical shift of strategy from a focus purely on market share and price promotions in the 20th century to an understanding of the value of brand that began in the 1990s. He highlights the power of brand resonance in consumer’s minds, how it offers differentiation from competitors, and how he helped push to incorporate loyalty as a part of management strategy rather than thinking of it as merely an outcome.

In today’s setting, David notes the deeper challenges of communicating brand stories and gaining public trust alongside the need to both manage the impacts of disruptive innovation and the necessity to harness it to drive growth. Amid rapid change it’s important to refresh oneself on the fundamentals. Enjoy!

On Episode 21 of BRITE Ideas, JP and Matt interview Joel Beckerman, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Made Music Studio. As Joel notes early in the episode, humans are hard wired to connect to music and it “imparts emotion to all [our] other senses.” Joel shares his insights on how he works with his clients to create sonic elements that align with the brand and have the power to craft a distinctive connection – “sonic semiotics” -- so there is recognition of the brand, the story behind it, and it's vision. This is all fleshed out by Joel taking us through examples of successful branded sounds. In addition, Joel touches on how music and sound can impact human behavior and shares some of his hopes and concerns of AI and its capacity to create content. Finally, he details his BRITE idea of “sonic humanism” in which the emotional power of sound, music, and silence, can be used in ways to aid society. Enjoy!

On Episode 20 of BRITE Ideas, JP and Matt interview Kabir Ahuja '03SEAS '08BUS (Senior Partner, McKinsey and Co.) and Eric Sherman '20SPS (Knowledge Expert, McKinsey and Co.). The conversation delved into a wide range of areas from the role and relationship of the CMO within the C-Suite, leading brand and growth strategies, how AI is affecting organizations and society, marketing's unique potential to harness genAI, and the talent management issues that come with a rapidly changing world landscape. Enjoy!