JP Kuehlwein

JP is a global brand- and business builder, recognized strategy expert, teacher, author and speaker.   He has a 20+ year of hands-on experience in successfully creating or re-staging brands that have grown to generate over a billion dollars in combined incremental sales annually around the world.  His experience ranges from developing the first unified communication strategy for the world’s leading detergent, via introducing the concept of disposable diapering and the Pampers brands to India to turning around a Prestige hair care salon- and retail business in New York and divesting it to international investors.

Before co-founding Ueber-Brands Consulting,  JP served as Managing Director of Global Strategy & Innovation – Premium Consumer at CPG multinational Procter & Gamble and was Executive Vice President of its Premium Hair Care subsidiary Frédéric Fekkai & Co. He also served as external director of Smith & Norbu, a Hong Kong-based luxury optical frame maker.

JP has co-authored the bestselling “Rethinking Prestige Branding – Secrets of the Ueber-Brands” with Wolf Schaefer, which has become a reference book when it comes to understanding what drives the success of premium brands for marketing professionals and students, alike .  They have also written “Brand Elevation – Lessons in Ueber-Branding”, a step-by-step guide on how to make a brand meaningful, peerless and priceless to customers.

JP is also Adjunct Professor of Marketing, teaching graduate courses in brand strategy at NYU’s Stern School of Business and Columbia Business School and directs the Marketing and Communications Institutes for The Conference Board, a Global industry think tank.  He is regularly involved in public speaking and training across industries and markets in English, French or German language and has been named 2017 ‘Inspirational Marketer of the Year’ by the Association of National Advertisers/The Internationalist among other awards.

Based in New York City, JP is on the advisory board of the local Masters Program in Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing and Management at the Fashion Institute of Technology and an advisory board member of the CMO Council and L2 Inc.

Some Videos (more on Youtube):

Here is another talk by JP on “Elevating a Brand in Times of Crisis“ given in the context of the 2020/21 Global pandemic and socio-political tensions at the Center for Marketing Excellence and the LVMH-SMU Research Initiative on Luxury.

Some Articles, Interviews and Coverage by/on JP:

Interview ‘Creator of Ueber-Brands‘ in Beautystreams and the summary of a panel discussion led by JP on Brand Elevation at Columbia Business School.

Article in the Journal of Brand Strategy: Ueber-Branding Part 1: Creating Meaning through Mission and …

… in the Marketing Review St.Gallen: Mythical Marketing – Today’s Holy Grail  and …

… in the Asian Management Insights journal: How To Make Your Brand Priceless, on Digital Platforms as Brands and on Brand Elevation – Even in a Crisis.

… on the Brand Strategy Insider site:  (multiple over the years)

… on the AMA blog: The Power of an Experience-Driven Brand

… on the CDA Blog: Brands Must Be Meaningful to Millennials

… in The Internationalist: JPK Redefines Significance of Modern Prestige

… on Mumbrella:  Article Series: How Asian Ueber-Brands Grow

Interviews with JP… on CEO in 10 podcast: Chat in 10 with JP Kuehlwein

… in Marketing Magnified (CMO Council): Don’t Talk It Up, But Talk Your Own

… on the Brand Driven Digital: Rethinking Luxury Branding with JP Kuehlwein

… on the Acccidental Creative: Ueber-Branding Step #1: Un-learn Selling

… on ImpactBoom: Using Ueber-Branding to build successful Social Enterprises

… on Lead with a Story: What getting stuck in the mud can teach you …

… on the Creative Warrior: Think of yourself as a Premium Brand

… on GetAbstract life: How to build and live a personal Ueber-Brand

… on IP Fridays: From Mark to Meaning

 

JP contributions to books like … ‘Luxury Branding – Construido marcas de luxo’ (Paulo R Chiele, Centhury, 2016) or the ‘Oxford Handbook of Luxury Marketing‘ (with Glyn Atwal and Douglas Bryson, Oxford University Press, Nov 2020)

Awards  The Internationalist/ANA Inspiring Marketer of the Year

LinkedIn Page:                              www.linkedin.com/in/jpkuehlwein

Amazon Author Page:                www.amazon.com/author/Jpkuehlwein

Get in touch directly:                 here

Events with JP:

 

Endorsements:

“A HUGE thank you for helping us.  It was such a fantastic session, I really feel we gained so much.  It challenged us in the right way, tough at times, but I think we now have a great foundation.”

Trisha Ayyagari, Senor Vice President
Global Marketing, Maybelline New York

“In a world where marketers are barraged with new tech new advances, JP cuts through the noise and shares intelligent insights and tangible examples of how to make your brand priceless. His brand stories engaged and inspired our audience. JP delivered one of the most talked about presentations of the day and stayed behind to interact with attendees and answer questions.”

Amy Quigley, President
MITX | BIMA | FutureM

“JP came to our global marketing team to talk about observations and case studies that illustrate how many different types of branded products have been able to achieve ‘Ueber’ status while also capturing maximum value. 

The framework that he shared is applicable to all brands and set the table for our team to have more meaningful discussions.   We have referenced his book and the framework multiple times since his visit and continue to see rich applications in our day to day work.   We look forward to working with JP again in the future.”

Jason Chrenka, Marketing Manager
ExxonMobil

“4.7 out of 5 stars! *

JP delivered an outstanding two hour presentation with some eye-opening and provocative thoughts on premium & super-premium beauty brand building.
The audience especially appreciated JP’s interactive style (despite the large crowd) and the vast array of examples from across different industries.
We would welcome him again any time!”

Ben Schwarz, Capability Leader
Procter & Gamble Specialty Beauty

(*score given by participants in a post event questionnaire)

“You could take several years, try various approaches, spend a ridiculous amount of money and still end up with a crapshoot.  Alternatively, you can work with JP who will, through a combination of concrete examples and high-energy delivery, show you that prestige branding can be distilled to some fundamental yet essential elements. 

The Ueber branding toolkit and methodology is enriching, dynamic and especially thought provoking.  Doubters and jaded marketers quickly become believers and even advocates.  JP gave our team deep insights, a common vernacular and a powerful set of tools that everyone can be aligned with and that will guide our brand and business to new heights!”

Andrew Hyncik, VP Marketing
ZEISS Vision Care

 

“You knocked it out of the ballpark!  Folks loved it.  We’ll be back for more than seconds!”

Thomas Vince, Vice President CMI
L’Oréal Skin Care, Cosmetics, Luxe

” JP’s work is highly visionary, with tangible details that vividly bring ideas to life.  He is at the same time remarkably creative while staying deeply grounded to the core human truths in marketing.  … a highly engaging story teller and communicator able to converse fluently in industry lingo, but at his best is when he distills big concepts into simple truths that are easy to digest and hard to forget. “

Michelle Lin – Head Branding & E-Commerce, Bastide Aix-en-Provence

“JP Kuehlwein’s presentation to members of The Luxury Marketing Council, faculty and graduate students at the Fashion Institute of Technology (some 300 people) last October was one of the highlights of our 2015 program.  The insights contained in his book “Rethining Prestige Branding: Secrets of the Ueber-brands” serve as a compelling call to action for all luxury marketers.  JP’s work is one of the most comprehensive and compelling compendiums of best marketing practices and guide to raising the bar in how luxury marketers can better surprise and delight their best customers.  I routinely give copies of his book to new Council members as a thanks for their membership and to members who want to push the envelope and revitalize their marketing strategies and tactics.”

Gregory J. Furman – Founder & Chairman
The Luxury Marketing Council – Since 1994
Serving 1,000 Luxury Brands 5,000 CEO’s and CMO’s in 57 Cities Worldwide.

“The concept of ‘Ueber-Branding’ is striking and highly inspirational for our lovebrand building at Merck Consumer Health. JP presented the key principles in vivid ways.  Both our global Marketeers as our global Leadership Team were truly excited about the way he carved the brand-building strategies out. His illustrative examples made crystal clear how successful brand-building could and should look like, and I believe that we will strive to apply this to our work here at Merck.”

Dr. Lars Atorf, Global Head of Communications
Merck Consumer Health

“Une intervention fort enrichissante…  J-P a fait montre d’une grande expérience, d’un savoir-faire et de perspicacité…  Je tiens à féliciter JP pour sa magnifique présentation et pour sa modestie…”

Participants de l’equipe Henkel Tunisia
en association avec l’IHEC Carthage

“I just wanted to reach out and say thank you so much for joining us yesterday at America’s Customer Festival and for putting together such an amazing panel. The views from each person provided a great dynamic on modern branding- from You and Hermann, to Ian, Lindsey and Gwen- It was a great balance of perspectives and definitely a highlight of the show.“

Ed Jennings | Producer
Terrapinn Inc.
Business Events || Worldwide
Terrapinn.com

“Your talk was riveting … and I am really enjoying your book!”
Alisa Smith, Associate Director
Kao USA Inc.

“Wolf and J.P. delivered a clear and cogent contextual understanding of branding in an era where branding receives too little of the narrative. Their precepts on building a community advantage for a prestige brand have universal utility and I’m confident they sent our members and customers home re-evaluating their respective branding efforts with specific lessons and takeaways, putting “answers in action”, that we insist upon for all AMA presentations. We would welcome them back anytime to share their next set of branding insights!”

Russ Klein | Chief Executive Officer
American Marketing Association
Service || Knowledge || Community
AMA.org

“JP Kuehlwein recently made a strong webinar presentation on premium or ‘Ueber-Branding‘ to our MENG membership.  Our MENG audience of experienced executive level marketers (corporate, marketing services, and consulting) can be a critical bunch with high expectations, and JP’s presentation was extremely well received.  Attendees stayed engaged for the full time, and his survey scores were strong. He is an articulate and insightful presenter, and his real world cases added value to the members who want practical and usable lessons.”

Jim Fisher – Program Director
MeNG – Marketing Executives Networking Group
www.mengonline.com

Great work, people definitely liked it. We had the highest attendance and retention rate, so far and you’ve also had the top score so far with people in ‘value of the webinar’ at 4.2 and ‘content’ at 4.3 (of 5 among 228 attendants).  Key comments:

“We were honored to have someone of JP’s caliber speak at the inaugural Brandemonium conference and festival. His session was relevant, insightful, and engaging for attendees. We look forward to having JP back to speak again.”

Bill Donabedian,
Co-founder – Brandemonium

Connect with JP’s Speaker Agents:

– in Asia
– in the EU/Germany
– in North America
– in the UK

Future and Past Events: