Powering
Brands

Connecting Hearts & Minds
with Strategy and Action

Geared to Power You

Understanding why, where and how you fit into the hearts and minds of others is at the core of any successful brand journey. Academic rigour and years of working with and for some of the world’s most powerful brands form the ideal canvas to help you identify, define and articulate your very own basis for success.

Whether it is articulating your WHY (purpose), shaping strategic brand or business vision, achieving clarity in market positioning, reconfiguring the very architecture that drives your culture, or optimizing brand and marketing capabilities: take advantage from my proven track record of strengthening brands and creating demand in the 21st century.

Global Brand and Marketing

I thrive on helping companies around the world strengthening their brands and creating demand for them. I have the privilege of working for exciting brands and their teams such as Aston Martin (Global Chief Marketing Officer), Harley-Davidson (Marketing Director EMEA), Ferrari, Luxury Goods Companies, Financial Services Firms, Technology Companies, NGOs, Startups and many more – So that they can take their captivating brands to more people in more places around the world. I combine client-side with advisory experience, covering the entire spectrum from mass to premium to luxury; from board to operations, from B2C to B2B across industries and vertically from insights to strategy to execution and measurement.

Conceptual and Hands-On

I understand intrinsically how brands create desire and aspiration – and the receipe that creates the magic sauce to get more of it. It’s the result of years of experience in working with and for great brands and their leaders across all dimensions, across all touchpoints, omnichannel, offline and digital. The beauty shines through when all stakeholders are aligned around one vision, one brand and pull on one string to deliver excellence together. Culturally rounded and well versed in multinational environments, I grasp context and business understanding quickly and engage easily. Whether Purpose activation that drives culture or tactical marketing campaigns that create more leads and sales, I thrive in helping people and their brands succeed in today’s marketplace. In English, German, French and Spanish.

Fueling Growth

I am passionate about enabling growth for companies through strategic brand management and tactical marketing. Brand and marketing need to do deliver growth at multiple levels. B2C/B2B full spectrum brand & marketing that delivers results is at the heart of what fuels businesses small and large. Count on me to help you think holistically across customer journeys, prospects, stakeholders and internally across functions. From engineering, sales, distribution to HR and beyond. Connecting your brand and marketing proposition to what drives your business is key to success.

Academic Rigour

I hold degrees in Marketing & Brand Management from the University of California in Berkeley (USA), an MBA (Hons) from the SAID Business School at the University of Oxford (UK) as well as a degree in Fintech and Future Commerce from MIT (USA). I teach Strategic Brand Management for MBAs and Executives as a Senior Honorary Visiting Fellow at the Faculty of Management Sciences at Cass Business School London as well as NEOMA Business School in France. But the past is no guarantee for relevancy in the future. I sit on the European Board of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and act as a jury for the UK Marketing Property Awards to continuously connect with the latest trends in the fascinating world of Brand and Marketing Management.

Engaging hands-on by taking selective equity stakes and board positions in companies and brands where I can make a difference.

Testimonials

«From our very first meeting, it was clear to me that Markus is one of those rare individuals whose combination of natural curiosity, energy, honesty, passion and vision totally befit his meteoric rise to a senior role at one of the world’s most respected brands. A great guy!»
Andrew Spalding, CEO, MSP
«Markus is an intelligent and professional marketing consultant who gave our marketing function clear direction through a period of change. He learnt our business quickly, identifying and prioritising our needs. He is very energetic and has an engaging style and became a popular member of the Executive Team.»
Martin Eves, Global Head of HR, VERTU
«Markus is an outstanding marketing leader and it was truly exciting to work with him at Harley-Davidson. His ability to take broad strategic initiatives and deliver and execute across multiple companies, geographies was clearly exceptional. Creative, passionate, and a very respected leader in the organisation that achieved outstanding results!»
Don Fetzer, MD EMEA, Baltimore

Workshops & Masterclasses

Getting You Ahead

Customized education with tangible outputs. Facilitated engagements involving the shaping of shared and aligned purpose, creating vision, and embedding and aligning teams on brand strategy, culture and direction.

#Purpose #Vision #Culture #Brand #Marketing #Alignment

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Markus Kramer & Tofig Husein-zadeh

The Guiding Purpose Strategy

The Code to Competitive Advantage for Brands, Businesses and Individuals.

A unique blend of philosophical 21st-century reflection, experience and hands-on brand strategy frameworks: The Guiding Purpose Strategy is a book for the positive change-makers of tomorrow.

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Thinking

Positioning Your Personal Brand

Brand positioning is a simple concept, but hard to get right. Why is positioning so important not only for companies, brands but also for individuals? What are the benefits of positioning? And how can you go about finding your own position? Here’s a crucial reminder to get us started: if you don't define your own […]

04 December, 2023

Storytelling for Emotional Connection: Lessons from Luxury Brands

As Stewart Wallis from the New Economics Foundation once stated: “History tells us that a value shift is triggered by creation of a new story about how we want to live.” Most companies in most industries are not good at storytelling. Their marketing or corporate communications departments are missing the opportunities and benefits the best […]

05 November, 2023

Learning from Luxury: Branding for Better Business

When building your #brand, please think luxury 💎. I use principles of luxury branding to explain, mostly to non-luxury businesses, why and how this space serves as a beacon in brand building. There are many learnings to be had. For starters, rather than relying on superficiality and run-off the mill messaging, a strong brand focuses […]

17 May, 2023