Episode 88: Lessons On Branding From A Fashion Industry Mogul, with Bernt Ullmann

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The Power Of Brand Consistency

The concept of branding is thrown around a lot these days but there’s few with a better handle on what that means than Bernt Ullman. Bernt has a weighty and impressive trail of success in fashion and branding with the likes of Donna Karan whom he took from 40m to 250m in international revenue. Roland and Bernt talk today and garner some great takeaways for you, our listeners.

Mr. Ullmann has been the trusted business acceleration expert by CEOs such as Daymond John, Eddie Lampert, and Tommy Hilfiger. He’s arguably the world’s leading expert in celebrity brand development, brand management, licensing and distribution, and monetization – having contributed to the successful launches of brands for clients including Jennifer Lopez, Adam Levine, Nicki Minaj and many others. The brands he has worked with have generated over $6 billion dollars in global sales, and as such some call him the “6 Billion Dollar Man”. But Bernt didn’t start out in high fashion, he had a more down-to-earth start with his launch of Scandinavia’s first home delivery pizza service, Pizza Pronto, in Copenhagen.

All that to say, we think you’ll enjoy his story and will benefit from his experience! If you want to dive deeper, check out his website and his book, the Billion Dollar Branding Blueprint

“You cannot be ‘best in class’ within every single product category. It’s just not even credible… I believe in concentrate and dominate. Be really, really good at what you’re good at. If you want to be a global lifestyle brand, you need to have a number of different product verticals, but it’s not logical that you’re the best operator for every single vertical.”– Bernt Ullmann

Listen For

  • The ‘Good, Better, Best’ Pricing Strategy Bernt learned at Donna Karan that caters to people who can’t afford higher-end products and pricing, but still protects the feeling of exclusivity at the higher end.
  • ‘Halo Products’ and Brand Essence.
  • Consider the emotion you want your brand to evoke and make sure that feeling is consistent across all your product lines and everything you do as a company
  • How licensing can help you expand your brand and ensure better quality – without tapping out your resources.
  • The three ingredients that make up all great brands: Authenticity, Aspiration and Credibility. Find out what you can do when you have all these under your belt. 
  • What Bernt learned from his first entrepreneurial venture, Pizza Pronto.
  • How he moved to LA and managed to get a foot in the door at Barneys, Nordstrom, and Nieman Marcus.
  • How he and his partner worked with a ‘factoring company’ to fund the orders (listen for Roland’s explanation of what a factoring company is/does).
  • How he took Donna Karan from $40 million to $250 million in International revenue.
  • The Price Anchoring tactics FUBU used to sell ‘boatloads’ of high-end jeans.
  • How to put your brand ‘on steroids’.

“At the end of the day, brands are about trust.” – Bernt Ullmann

 

References and Links Mentioned:

The Power of Broke by Daymond John,

The Billion Dollar Branding Blueprint.

Contact & Follow Roland

On Facebook 

On Instagram 

Through his Website

Contact & Follow Bernt Ullmann

At his website

On Facebook

On LinkedIn

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