Marketing Guru David Aaker to Speak on 20 Branding Principles, April 21

Haas Marketing Professor Emeritus David Aaker will distill his decades of pioneering work on branding into 20 principles that drive success during his annual talk at Berkeley-Haas at 12:30 p.m. April 21 in the Wells Fargo Room.

The lecture, “Aaker on Branding: 20 Principles that Drive Success,” is also the name of Aaker’s newest book, which will hit store shelves this summer. His talk is part of the David Aaker Distinguished Speaker Series and is sponsored by the Dean’s Speaker Series, MBA Marketing Club, and Undergraduate Marketing Club. Registration is required; more details on registration will be provided as the event approaches on the Dean’s Speaker Series website. Boxed lunches will be served at the event.

In his talk, Aaker will comment on both the history and the future of branding, touching on the power of “brand as asset,” the role of a brand vision, the importance of innovation, and the need in today’s Digital Age to change the focus from the offering to what the customer is passionate about.

Aaker has published more than 100 articles and 16 books, including seven on brand strategy, that have sold well over one million copies and been translated into 18 languages. Aaker is the winner of three career awards for contributions to the science of marketing and was named one of the top five most important marketing/business gurus in 2007. He has won awards for the best article in the California Management Review and (twice) in the Journal of Marketing.

Aaker is also vice-chair of Prophet, a global marketing consultancy, which was co-founded by two Haas graduates Scott Galloway and Ian Chaplin, both MBA 92, on the basis of the brand principles developed by Aaker. Another Haas alumnus, Michael Dunn, MBA 90, now leads Prophet as the firm’s chairman and CEO.

Aaker will be featured in the upcoming spring issue of BerkeleyHaas magazine’s “Faculty Giants” series. In the BerkeleyHaas article, Dunn calls the move to bring Aaker into the Prophet brain trust his “best corporate decision.”

If you can’t make Aaker’s talk at Haas on April 21, you can catch him speaking at the Berkeley-Haas Alumni Conference later in the week, on April 26. He also blogs at davidaaker.com.

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