Michael Markowitz
Michael Markowitz is a highly experienced and respected brand development, brand strategy and marketing expert. Michael has two areas of specialization. The first is in applying the techniques of successful brand building to enrich and increase the effectiveness of marketing and communications, design, and, often most valuably, new product and service development. The second builds value at an even higher strategic level. Through offering clients a deep and precise understanding of Brand Benefit Structure, which answers that critical question: “What’s in it for me?” as it applies to all core constituencies, Michael helps clients to drive profitable and sustainable differentiation for the entire enterprise.
The President of Michael Markowitz + Associates Inc., Michael’s 35+ year track record represents an ideal blend of consulting and senior management experience. Since it was established 14 years ago, MM+A has worked with clients like Anheuser-Busch, Universal Studios theme parks, Taco Bell, Precor and Panera Bread. Michael’s work for Panera, applying Brand Benefit insight as the core driver of corporate culture and behavior in a rapidly expanding retail system, led to an invitation to create an expansive brand marketing function for the company built on these principles. Michael went on to have a highly successful tenure as Panera’s SVP and Chief Brand Officer.
Prior to founding MM+A, Michael led two Ogilvy & Mather advertising agencies. First he was President of Euramerica Advertising in New York, one of the country’s early high-level strategy/creative boutiques, where his techniques for optimizing the often dysfunctional interface between brand positioning development and creative development were first prototyped. Later he became Managing Director of O&M East Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, where he worked with a range of leading multinational corporations.
Michael continues to prove invaluable in working with clients to identify brand benefit essence and manifest it in tactical forms, creating meaning that resonates across even the most diverse customer groups.