THE SCIENCE OF BRANDING YOUR BUSINESS
YBI Learning Lab Series
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
8:30am-10:00am
FREE with RSVP
Youngstown Business Incubator
Learning Lab

Marketing Managers, Business Leaders, Entrepreneurs, and anyone interested in Start-Ups will find this event to be valuable.

Youngstown Business Incubator
241 West Federal Street
Youngstown, Ohio 44503
(330) 599-4583

Register now for a Learning Lab networking workshop that provides a look at The Science of Branding Your Business with Best Practices.

The Science of Branding:
Innovative Thinking on a Foundation of Best Practices
It doesn’t matter what anybody thinks of your brand.
It only matters what they think of you relative to your competitors.

Prodigal’s Brand MRI is a proven process used by many of the region’s leading firms to position their brand above their competitors. By taking a look inside the thinking behind this innovative process, you will come away with new ideas about how to grow your own brand. The session will be led by Jeff Hedrich, President of Prodigal, and Adam Richards, Prodigal’s Senior Research Analyst.

Topics covered will include:

• Brand Category: What do I do, and who are my competitors?
• Brand Positioning: What do I excel in, and what position can I own?
• Behavioral Economics: How do consumers think about my brand?
• Market Research: What do I need to know?
• Strategic Analysis: What do the numbers tell me?
• Creative Direction: How do I communicate what I’ve learned?

 

For an introduction to the Brand MRI process, visit: http://www.prodigalmedia.com/brand-mri

Jeff Hedrich-

Jeff Hedrich brings a wealth of expertise to his dual role as President and Creative Director of The Prodigal Company, Inc.

Beginning his career as a journalist, Jeff earned a reputation for writing feature stories of substance and style while working as a Senior Writer at Cleveland magazine. He received several journalism awards while writing for various Cleveland-based publications.

In 1990, he joined Glazen Creative, a medium-sized advertising agency in Cleveland with a number of large clients, such as National City Bank, Squires, Sanders & Dempsey, Invacare, Northfield Park and others. The agency attracted such clients by virtue of its reputation for producing exceptionally creative work. In his eventual role as Senior Copywriter for Glazen, Jeff was responsible for developing creative strategies and marketing campaigns for many of the agency's clients.

In March of 1994, Jeff returned to his hometown area in the Mahoning Valley and founded The Prodigal Media Company, Inc., later changed to The Prodigal Company, Inc.

With about a thousand dollars of capital, he began the agency as a one-person firm with an office about the size of a compact car.

 

Over the last several years, he has led the company to its present status as a 12-person agency, serving an array of regional and national clients. Hedrich devotes time to several area charitable organizations, is a member of the Mahoning Valley BLDG Executive Committee and is a trustee of the Church of the Rock in Poland, Ohio.

Adam Richards-

As Prodigal’s Senior Research Analyst, Adam Richards leads the agency through the development, implementation and further improvement of its Brand MRI Process.

With an extensive background as a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, Adam brings groundbreaking insight into the behavior and motivation habits of consumers that enhances Prodigal’s Branding process and helps to guide our creative and strategic decisions. In addition Adam brings with him experience in the development of internal systems and structures. He now works to create operations and simplify agency processes including the Brand MRI.

In addition to his background in psychology, Adam brings extensive organizational leadership experience. Prior to joining the team at Prodigal, Adam worked in the education field for 15 years, having headed up large organizational structures of more than 125 employees.

If all this isn’t impressive enough, Adam, his wife and children operate an organic micro farm at their home in Canfield.

Adam earned his bachelor degree from Grove City College and also holds a masters degree in counseling from Youngstown State University.

Event is Free and Open to the Public

For more information contact
Rose Shaffer at rshaffer@ybi.org or by phone at 330-599-4583.

YBI UPCOMING EVENTS:

Global Tax Consulting
w/ George Elias & Michael Krajcer
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
8:30am-10:00am
$20.00 Breakfast provided

RSVP HERE


 

Youngstown Business Incubator Learning Lab Series
The Learning Lab was established to host educational, networking and conferencing events. The vision of the Learning Lab is to spur entrepreneurship and innovation in the Mahoning Valley by offering quality programming that encourages business development.