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Stephanie Howard O'Brien

Brand Strategist│Market Research Consultant│Advertising Planner/Account Management - Focused On Brand Vision, Visibility and Growth│

Stephanie Howard O'Brien is a seasoned professional with over 20 years of experience in brand strategy, advertising, and consumer insights.1 She currently works as a Global Researcher at Insights Exchange.23

Key points about Stephanie Howard O'Brien:

  1. Professional expertise:
  • Brand strategy
  • Account management
  • Consumer insights
  • Advertising planning
  1. Career highlights:
  • Expert in delivering breakthrough brand ideas that solve business challenges
  • Skilled interviewer, presenter, and storyteller
  • Manages qualitative insight projects, brand positioning, audience persona development, and customer journey mapping
  1. Previous experience:
  • Accomplished account executive managing national and international marketing and advertising campaigns
  • Worked with notable clients such as Kraft, Coors, 7 Eleven, Budweiser, American Express, and others
  1. Additional roles:
  • Co-founder of The RAD Road, a company assisting young adults in their transition from students to independent adults with career branding, strategy, and life skills coaching
  1. Education:
  • Attended the University of Colorado at Boulder1

Stephanie's LinkedIn profile can be found at linkedin.com/in/stephaniehobrien.1 Her expertise in brand building, advertising leadership, and consumer insights makes her a valuable asset in her role as a Global Researcher at Insights Exchange.

Highlights

May 26 · linkedin

Just finished a great webinar from Leadership Strategies on becoming a "Facilitative Leader." The highest of their three levels of leadership is "Visionary" and a key component is "anticipating customer needs." I would also add "anticipating and engaging with employee needs."

Consider doing qualitative research. It doesn't need to be crazy expensive and offers several advantages. It helps leaders develop true empathy by understanding the lived experiences of customers and employees and identifies patterns, trends, and underlying motivations.

It answers the "why" behind the "what."

#marketresearch #customerinsights #audienceengagement #employeeengagement

May 2 · linkedin

I've been encountering this a lot lately. Friends and family working for or with brilliant people creating new platforms and products...

But leadership is so caught up in the product they are failing to understand their customer's real needs, behavior and emotions, and they don't take the time for strategic discipline.

What can happen if you don't really consider your customer? Or truly understand what problem you are solving?

The tech start up Bodega comes to mind. Founded by two Google execs, they were well funded and made localized/customized vending machines, hoping to eradicate "centralized shopping locations."

They failed hugely and publicly primarily because they did not understand a key customer insight - that their target market valued much more than just convenience, and that social interaction and especially "community" in the shopping experience is vitally important.

"The great thing about working with entrepreneurs is they are almost always bright, enthusiastic people with imaginative ideas. Here's the downside: those bright, enthusiastic people can be so caught up in their idea that they lack empathy for customers' emotions, and so gung-ho that they ignore strategic discipline. Empathy without strategy is impractical -- it has no bottom line. Strategy without empathy is cold -- it has no top line." - Thomas A. Stewart and Patricia O'Connell

#brandstrategist #brandstrategy #customerexperience #customerintelligence

Related Questions

What are some of the breakthrough brand ideas Stephanie Howard O'Brien has delivered?
How does Stephanie Howard O'Brien integrate generative AI into her research?
What is The RAD Road, and how does it support young adults?
Can you provide examples of Stephanie's work with major brands like Kraft and Budweiser?
What unique skills does Stephanie bring to her role as a brand strategist?
Stephanie Howard O'Brien
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Location

San Francisco, California, United States