After years of spectacular global growth and a huge home run in China, Estée Lauder’s brand sizzle began to fizzle and it needed a sweeping modernization. Consumer Research revealed the brand was viewed as old-fashioned, tired and “my grandmother’s brand” even among older Boomers.

I led a Global Brand Equity Study designed to refresh the brand and engage the younger customers. We discovered that Mrs. Estée Lauder’s amazing story - a woman who defied the odds to achieve meteoric success - resonated deeply across different generations and cultures around the world. Women admired Mrs. Lauder’s aspiration, determination and courageous imagination.  She epitomized the self-made woman they wanted to be - a fearless entrepreneur who refused to listen to experts or settle for anything less than the very best.

I created a new “Brand World” that capitalized on Mrs. Lauder’s entrepreneurial spirit and woman-to-woman approach. I also created a “Tool Box” to guide execution through product innovation, store design, consumer experiences and communication touch-points..

This refreshed brand positioning inspired a series of new products and initiatives including: New Dimension Shape + Fill Expert Serum, Revitalizing Supreme + Cell Power Creme, and a new “always on” campaign for Advanced Night Repair.

When Eric and Brielle, friends and farmers, programmers and Planeteers, set out to uproot big AG and pioneer a healthier future for people and the planet, I helped them plot their best route.  Working with Creative Director Lauren Webster, we positioned the brand, designed their identity and new logo, created their pitch deck and beta-website. The result: a brand that connects with urban home gardeners and gives them the green thumb they need grow their own healthy, fresh foods, medicinal herbs and flowering plants with no, stress, no mess, no watering or weeding. We’re pretty excited about ROOT and hope you’ll give it the “thumbs up”! www.growwithroot.com

Get ready to up your buds. The LAVIT™ - Latin for the Good Life – is the revolutionary, cool beverage brewing system that transforms purified water in pure wonder. Now with just a touch of a button, you can enjoy a pure, deliciously refreshing beverage, still or sparkling, with zero sugar, zero preservatives and just 10 calorie.  Working with Creative Directors David Pugh and Lauren Webster, I helped create the Brand Positioning and Narrative, Design Concept and Website.  Result: Lavit made a major splash in the single serve cold beverage market. At their very first Trade Show the team sold 100% of the 2015 unit production capacity.

Ruthless competition and intense snobbery – welcome to the NYC Private School scene. By tapping into this insight Creative Director Susan Hunter and I helped introduce Léman Manhattan - a new school without traditions and a reputation – to the community and differentiate this David against the Goliaths via the campaign “Where does your child go to school?” This approach created pride among existing families and interest among potentials. The campaign included advertising, web design and digital.

We also helped develop student acquisition strategies for Meritas, LémanManhattan's parent company’s and helped position its other US and international campuses. 

Since 1989, MMG has provided investment banking, strategic and financial advisory services to clients in the retail, fashion, textile, home decor and beauty sectors.  But they are not a bunch of suits. They are a boutique firm that brings a modern energy, dynamism and unique insider perspective to every transaction.  They decided to up their game and let the industry know them for who they are.  Creative Director Susan Hunter and I created a new brand persona and website that reflects their strategic and scrappy, personal and professional, elegant and expert style.

Ojon, the 500 year old beauty secret from Central America, was acquired by The Estée Lauder Companies in 2007.  The goal was to expand its cult status beyond QVC and specialty stores by giving it broader appeal. I helped position the brand as high-performance natural hair care and a leading authority in efficacious sensual hair repair treatments and the go-to brand for rare and unique beauty rituals.

Walmart wanted to reach the tech-savvy, socially conscious members of Gen Z with a new beauty brand.  Long time client and partner Pacific World texted Creative Director Susan Hunter and I and we won the bake-off for them. geoGirl was launched in just 9 months. We created every touch point including: a new language, naming system, packaging and web design, product, promotion and charitable-giving. Other Pacific World projects include: creating SensatioNail, Fuse Gelnamel and Fing'rs Prints.

Product names include: ES (Erase Screen) Cream Concealer, F2F (Face2Face) Moisture Tint, 2BH(ToBeHonest) Mineral Powder, KOC (KissOnCheeks) Cream Blush, QTPi (CutiePie), J4G (Just 4 Grins) Lip Balm SPF 15, GR8 (Great) Lipshine, VBS (VeryBigSmile), 2NTE (Tonight) LipTreatment, iCU (ISeeYou) Cream2Powder Shadow, FYEO (For Your Eyes Only), TiSC (This Is So Cool) Body Mistand many more

Leonard Lauder charged our small, skunk works team to forget everything we knew about cosmetics. And that's just what we did.  The result: Origins revolutionized the beauty industry. I was privileged to be part of that amazing experience and originated the Origins brand personality, language and naming system. Since its launch I’ve concepted many of its most successful products and still serve as its chief creative strategist, brand voice and Sherpa.

Product names include: Plantscription, Peace of Mind, A Perfect World, Starting Over, Youthtopia, Modern Friction, Checks & Balances, Never A Dull Moment, High-Potency Night-A-Mins, Smarty Plants, Sensory Therapy and many more.

The charge: Create a lower proof, lower calorie flavored vodka.  Creative Director Susan Hunter and I knew that Cosmo loving, martini drinking women were the ideal target audience for this light spirit. We worked with this start-up and a team of mixologists to create the strategic brand identity, name and packaging for the new fruit and fusion flavored vodka. Soaring sales are all the proof you need of its success.

Creative Director Susan Hunter and I gave Georgette Klinger, a 65 year old “blue haired lady” brand, a complete makeover that transformed it into a 21st century, luxury medi-spa and “Place of Possibilities™. The campaign - “How beautiful do you want to be?” presented the 3 new locations as a “Disneyworld” of cosmetic services that ran the gamut from Botox to body massage. Then we worked with Johns Hopkins Medicine to create Cosmedicine™, an OTC line of skincare 

How do you restore luster to a once famous brand that had become associated with Tchotchkes (translation knicknacks) back to a preeminent name in bridal jewelry?  Give it elegance. Infuse it with authentic emotion.  Understand she's been fantasizing about this day – how he’ll ask, what she’ll say, where they’ll be and of course what the ring will be like. Know that he doesn’t want to blow it.  Creative Director Susan Hunter and I created a dual strategy that turned luster into lust. The result: Keepsake is sold to Wal-Mart where it is the #1 diamond jewelry brand.

The master of zen-like minimalism.  One of the world’s most famous and infamous designers. For over 2 years, Creative Director Susan Hunter and I served as a creative “think tank” for Calvin Klein Cosmetics – working on a collection of color cosmetics and developing and naming new fragrance concepts such as Contradictions.

Long a leader in the plus size intimate apparel category, Playtex engaged Brash to help them contemporize their image and reach a more youthful consumer.  As a result of their work, Brash was invited by sister brand, Champion JogBra, to pitch their advertising account . The challenge: create a single page ad for a new product to be tested in a mall intercept. The prize: Become advertising agency of record.  We won the account (beating out some big guns) with “Only abs should be flat” and served as their agency for three years.

Since 1865, the Stetson hat has been the icon of the American West worn by pioneers, presidents, professionals, cowboys and CEO’s. But today most guys ride a subway instead of the range. And the closest many come to a bronc is the Bronx. Creative Director Susan Hunter and I helped contemporize the Stetson identity to express modern individuality, integrity, honesty and authenticity via a campaign entitled: Made Of America. Because even a cowboy who never saw a cow can spot the real thing from all the bull.

Darphin, a jewel in the Estée Lauder portfolio, was having an identity crisis that had retailers and consumers wondering “que est-ce que ce est"?”  Partnering with art director David Pugh, we created a unique visual and verbal communication strategy that captured the brand’s three equity pillars of: The Art of Formulation (The unique way in which Darphin selects and blends ingredients to ensure efficacy and sensoriality), Sensory Experiences and its Parisian Heritage.

And voila - intimate portraits that blend narrative still life photography with honest, first person writing and frank observations to create a special engagement with our audience

There's no such thing as a plain jane. How do you create an entirely new market and convince retailers that your audience will actually pay for the product not pilfer it?  Creative Director Susan Hunter and I created Jane for two courageous entrepreneurs.  With its sassy, fun, multicultural personality and upbeat, self-esteem message, Jane Cosmetics celebrated everything great about being a girl. It instantly became the darling of mass retailers and awakened others to the swelling ranks of teens and the strength of their buying power. The result.  Jane became the first mass cosmetic brand to be purchased by Estée Lauder.

It's a Gel!  It's a Polish!  No, it's Fuse Gelnamel!  Following the success of Sensationail, the #1 at-home gel polish brand (named and positioned by Brash for Pacific World Cosmetics), our longtime client and partner asked us to create the next big thing – a new hybrid polish that delivered salon-worthy results with speed, ease and a price like nothing before.  We knew that women want nail color with staying power, but without the time, effort, cost or commitment of gels.  The answer was FUSE Gelnamel.  Fusing the best of both worlds - The fast fun fashion of a polish with the dazzling long wear of a gel.

Truth is Beauty. While working with Klinger Advanced Aesthetics, Creative Director Susan Hunter and I created, named and positioned Cosmedicine, a collection of advanced scientific formulations dedicated to providing truthful information about ingredients, their necessity and ability to perform. Unlike many would-be physician’s skincare lines that were stock formulas doctored slightly, Cosmedicine™ was original OTC (over-the-counter) formulations developed according to pharmaceutical standards. Bona fide results were verified by Hopkins Medicine.They were the safest, most effective skincare you could buy without a prescription. No MDs.  No BS.

Product names include: Hydra Healer, Night Nurse, Opti-Mologist, Medi-Morphosis, Mega-Dose, Primary Care, Global Health, Physical Conditioning, Speedy Recovery and many more.

She’s one of the most influential, trendsetting hairstylists in Hollywood and New York. So how do you bottleand sell her in Walgreens and HSN?  Creative Director Susan Hunter and I zhuzhed up the packaging and created a consistent and unique creative direction for Sally Hershberger’s existing line and new line of prestige haircare products.