Oct 14, 2019
Today's guest is Ken Pasternak, President of Two by Four, a full service advertising
agency based in Chicago. On the episode, however, you'll hear me
introduce Ken as President and COO of Marshall Strategy, a San Francisco-based
brand identity and strategy firm he cofounded in 2002. A few months
ago, Two by Four acquired Marshall Strategy, so Ken's
role changed a bit. We recorded this conversation a little before
that happened.
Ken leads major positioning, identity, naming, and brand
architecture work. He's worked with clients like Apple, Symantec,
MTV, Boeing, Sony, and UC Berkeley.
I've known Ken since 2007, and through the years we've partnered on
quite a few naming and brand architecture projects. It was great to
get to talk to an old friend and colleague-who also happens to be a
brilliant brand strategist-and hear more about how he thinks about
brands and brand experience.
We kicked off the conversation talking about Ken's interesting
career path, which started out in Budapest. The common thread in
his career has been storytelling, which took him from a degree in
English literature to producing corporate videos, and eventually to
brand strategy.
Next, Ken detailed his process for creating a great brand
experience, including his definitions of brand and brand
experience, and a few simple tools he uses with clients (including
plotting potential brand experience touchpoints on a two-by-two
with axes of impact versus effort).
Toward the end of the conversation, we talked about how Ken feels
about Alaska Airlines acquiring Virgin America (hint: not great)
and what they'll do to the brand. Then he recommended
some books and gave
his advice for new or junior brand strategists.
To learn more about Ken, visit the Two by Four and Marshall Strategy sites. I highly
recommend you check out the Marshall Strategy blog, too-it's full of insightful, useful
articles. Most recently, Ken's partner Philip, who you'll hear him
mention during the episode, published a great
article about what's changed-and what hasn't-in his over
30 years in the brand identity world.