Megan Kent is a born brand strategist

One of the pioneers of the strategic planning discipline in the U.S., Megan has held leadership positions at some of the most creative advertising agencies in the industry (Fallon McElligott, Hal Riney, TBWA Chiat/Day). She has developed brand strategy for companies such as BMW, Coca Cola, Nikon, The New York Times, Sotheby’s, Clinique and many others. She has won numerous industry awards for her work.

From Fortune 500 companies to start-ups, Megan’s passion is in helping brands clarify who they are and what they stand for, and then determining the best possible way to bring an expression of those values to life in the marketplace.

Megan is best known for her insightful approach to branding, and her humanistic approach to building teams and consensus. Her expertise is in understanding the conscious and subconscious cues which define an overall brand experience, and cause consumers to intuitively prefer one brand over another.

“What defines me as a brand strategist is my passion for improving the ways brands connect with their consumers. I’ve spent the past several years immersed in the science of the mind, so that I can help my clients communicate their brand strengths more powerfully and intuitively.”

Megan is currently writing a book titled: Get Your Brand In-Sync: 7 Steps to Building Brands a Brain Can Love.

My Story

One night at a cocktail party, some 13 years ago, someone asked me what I did for a living. “I work in advertising”, I said.  “Oh,” they said, “then you know all about the inner workings of the consumer’s mind – the hard wiring, the soft wiring, all the sociological and psychological reasons that explain why people buy what they buy – right?”   Suddenly I felt really dumb.  At NONE of the nationally renowned, critically acclaimed ad agencies where I’d been employed over the last several years did we discuss the real scientific underpinnings of consumer behavior.  Sure, we did focus groups and asked people which ads they liked best.  We ran surveys to find out which brands they purchased and if they intended to do so again, but our real understanding of consumers was based on a pretty basic and superficial line of questioning.

Right then and there, I became obsessed with knowing more.  I felt we owed our clients more expertise than they were currently getting about “what makes consumers tick”.  Never again did I want to be in a room where we were determining which ad campaign to run based on which one we felt was the funniest.  Does funny even work?  Is entertainment always the best way to go?  Would they remember us in the morning?

I felt that as marketing professionals, we should be able to council our clients not just based on hunches, but based on a scientific foundation of knowledge about consumers.  And now, with all that is being discovered about the brain, thanks to the emergence of the fMRI machine and neuroscience, we really have no excuse for continuing to operate “in the dark.”

I’ve spent much of the past decade attempting to learn as much as possible about the best ways of communicating with consumers.  Based on these principles and beliefs, I’ve started a company: Brand Synchronicity, dedicated to helping clients put their best foot forward by marketing in sync with the way the brain works. It seems like a “no-brainer” right?

Click on the links below to find out more about our proprietary offerings: the In-Sync Brand Audit, In-Sync Brand Workshop and the In-Sync Brand Strategy Blueprint.