Laurence Bernstein
Laurence Bernstein has a diverse background of unrelated skills and activities, culminating in his current focus on making companies and products grow by understanding and delivering meaningful experiences to people. In an odd way he calls this brand consulting, and he accomplishes it through the auspices of the company he founded 9 years ago, BC3. Most of the magic happens as a result of finding new ways to understand how people integrate the product in their lives, combining this with what is known about the product, the cultural and social context and the dreams and visions of the clients, and then praying that something will somehow crystallise from the ether. This is called Rainmaking: not making the rain fall, but making the conditions right so it wants to fall!
Laurence is a graduate of Cornell University and is a member of the Cornell University Trustee Council, and the Cornell Arts Committee. He has worked for major hotel brands, advertising agencies and was managing partner at RPM, one of Toronto's most innovative and successful clubs. His world view has been honed by stints living in the UK, US, Germany and, of course, being born and raised in South Africa.
"Practically speaking, I like to take the highest road in approaching any client: how do we really make a difference to the client's business. Too often clients ask for and receive solutions that make incremental changes in what the they do, how they do it and, therefore, what success looks like. I am, mostly interested in paradigm-shifting changes.
"Other than the above, I confess to being a closet computer geek and obsessive news junkie."
Laurence's Recent Posts
Hair: Feature, Attribute or Minor Annoyance?
Justin Bieber had his hair cut. Not earth shattering news, not even news (he did this about a month ago). But interesting, nevertheless because it raises some serious questions about brand versus … more
Group Think is the Result of Groupthink
Group think is the nemesis of qualitative research. The more senior you go in any organization, the more dismissive of focus groups managers become because of "group think." And, indeed, watching … more
The Nature of Luxury
Marketers today are increasingly focusing on the “luxury” market, as if it were an identifiable, affluent orgasm that spews money on high design and extravagance. While this may be the … more
90% of new products are not going to make it to the third year in the marketplace...
...and yet we still rely on consumer research techniques that were designed by statisticians in the 1950s. I'm not a psychiatrist, but it seems to be that there is something vaguely neurotic about an … more
Enough! Please stop! No more! I can't stand it!
There are times when there is no possibility of being constructive when writing about the absurdities inflicted on an innocent world by others in our field. There are even times when, as honest … more