The Brand Farm

Dedicated to the care & feeding of growing brands.

About Me

My name is Michael B. Moore. I'm a "brand guy" who loves brands, marketing, and advertising. Currently, I am founder & CEO at B2C Grid and Chairman of a consumer food company with about a $150 MM retail footprint.

I blog about brands from an decidedly strategic point-of-view. You can expect both regular essays and advertising reviews here. Most, in one way or another, celebrate the immense power and opportunity in leveraging consumer insights, brand strategy, and creativity to develop meaningful and monetizable consumer connections. I hope you'll find the content here both interesting and entertaining. Maybe there's even a nugget or two that can help you in your interaction with brands. A good place to start, that offers a peek into how I think about advertising, is 'The 5 Drivers of 'Effective Advertising'".

After an MBA from Duke University, I started my marketing career at Kraft and Coca-Cola before moving to leadership roles in smaller, high-growth companies. I had the pleasure of learning among the best, receiving classical CPG brand training on the iconic Jell-O and Coca-Cola classic brands.

Over the course of my career, I've had the unique benefit of being in leadership positions in companies on the ground floor of two major global business movements. I was VP Marketing at No Fear - a pioneer in the extreme sports business. The company helped to bring extreme sports to the mainstream and, for a time, was one of the hottest brands in the world. In the late 1990's, I was on the leading-edge of the social networking phenomenon as President and CMO of Infopop - an innovative software company that created the first generation of enterprise social tools for Fortune 500 companies. This experience instilled a deep interest in the growing power and evolution of social media.

Later, I led a boutique consulting practice that worked with mostly small and mid-sized consumer companies - helping them maximize the power of their brands whatever their business or budget. My experiences at Fortune 100 global brands and in, and with, smaller companies very nicely counterbalance each other. The blend has given me a unique facility with the best of both environments that allows me to 'pick and choose' from the best of each.

These days, I am particularly perplexed about how ridiculously difficult it is for small and mid-sized businesses (SMB's) to build strong, high performing brands of their own. There are probably 40 million small and mid-sized businesses just in the U.S.; globally they spend about $150 billion annually on advertising. In the U.S., small businesses represent more than 99.7% of all companies, employ well over half of all private sector employees, and have generated over 65% of all new jobs in the economy - yet it's needlessly difficult for them to create a high performing, profitable brand that drives growth. I read recently that if only 1 in 3 small businesses was able to hire just 1 new employee that it would completely eliminate all unemployment in the U.S. I can't help but think that if it was easier for SMB's to access and manage creative resources - to build strong brands - that this would address the issue, positively impacting their personal wealth, the economy, and society. The internet has been a hugely democratizing force in other industries. Maybe it can similarly impact SMB brands globally. Stay tuned. I will have something more to say about this!

I offer you a sincere and warm welcome. I hope you find this site both a useful and entertaining use of your time. Feel free to connect with me on Twitter and Facebook as well.

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