Thomas Braun Email and Phone Number

Successfully supported a wide range of companies with marketing direction and advised them on their strategic brand positioning, such as a dedicated cuddly toy startup, a premium dog food manufacturer, a medium-sized company in the timber engineering/construction business, or a recruitment company that finds highly qualified experts and managers for their clients—just to name a few. Effectively trained young marketers in design, copywriting and online marketing disciplines like social media and search engine advertising, and assisted agencies in developing presentations and brand books. Planned websites, conceptualized, wrote copy for, and designed promotional materials and ideas—sometimes from layout to retouching. All in all, my job hasn't been this versatile in a long time. So it doesn't get boring, and this kind of stuff is also reviving my creative spirits. Nevertheless, every now and then I miss the dynamics and cooperation of a marketing team, the exchange among colleagues and the interdepartmental and international cooperation. That's why I'm on the lookout for a suitable job again. However, I’ve probably become a little picky. So, if you’re reading this and you happen to know a solid company near Ulm with a great working culture*, one that's looking for a professional and experienced marketing person—not some bloody beginner—please drop me a line. If we’re a match, you won’t regret it. * Leo Burnett, one of my favorite ad men, once said: ”We’re not in business for fun, but that does not mean there cannot be fun in business.” It’s that kind of culture I’m interested in—where disciplined work and fun are allowed to coexist.

I love to share what I’ve learned—and what I’m good at. So after a lecturing pause during my agency years with almost unpredictable working hours, I created the certificate course »Marketing Manager (IHK) for our local chamber of commerce (IHK Ulm). It’s a complete and intensive course that enables participants from diverse disciplines to understand and handle marketing tasks and to successfully manage a marketing operation. One participant wrote: ”As an outstanding mentor, Thomas found the right balance of imparting profound theoretical knowledge and hands-on experience refined with a good sense of refreshing humor and up-to-date examples. Without restriction of any kind I can recommend him as a skilled guide through the marketing jungle. Overall, I liked his easiness and motivated willingness to share his mindset. It helped me to focus on central marketing themes in my daily business and to get new perspectives.“The course became a success model in short order. Meanwhile, my co-lecturer Birgit Vogt and I have educated several generations of young (and even not so young) marketing managers, which has helped them get promoted and improve the marketing of the companies they’re working for significantly. The course also attracted several founders and marketers from specialized disciplines (e.g. designers or social media managers) who wanted to learn the foundations of marketing. In addition to that course, I also gave one-day or two-day seminars on topics like product management and online marketing.Beside that, I also did some customized in-house seminars and trainings for several of my clients on the topics of search engine advertising, E-Mail-Marketing, web copy, innovation and product management, marketing strategy and creative copywriting. Hint: If you think your team could profit from a tailor-made in-house training or seminar, you’re probably right.

rose plastic, founded in 1953, is a third-generation family-owned company located near Lake Constance, Southern Germany. It is counted as one of the »Hidden Champions« and is the global leader in industrial protective plastic packaging with +800 employees worldwide. As Head of Marketing, I was overseeing the global marketing of the rose plastic group, including rose plastic medical packaging, a subsidiary. With my team of up to 10 specialists, I was responsible for marketing communications and PR, branding, trade fairs, product management, business development, sales support and online marketing. I was also leading the International Marketing Team, coordinating marketing issues with the subsidiaries in China, Korea, Brazil, India, the US and Europe. Among my duties has been the development of the global marketing and communication strategy and the global annual marketing plan, as well as the execution of all marketing matters, worldwide. Additional tasks included an extensive brand redesign for both, rose plastic and rose medical packaging—and a complete reconceptualization of their online marketing, including website and shop, social media, search engine and E-Mail marketing. By positioning rose plastic as the global leader it is—an opportunity that had been overlooked—and by communicating this position effectively, I helped secure the two-digit growth the company was after in an increasingly competitive environment. By updating the somewhat dusty company image and by completely reinventing and modernizing all marketing matters, I contributed to securing the market position for years to come—in order to allow for a prosperous future of the company and its employees, something I’m rather proud of.All that had not been possible without the trust of my boss and the support of my team, as well as the outstanding collaboration of my colleagues from development, technical center, product design, sales and the subsidiaries—something I am thankful for.

Rayher Hobby GmhH is an owner-managed, medium-sized company in the creative industry (+350 employees), based in Laupheim, Southern Germany. Founded in 1961 by Wolfgang Rayher†, the company is regarded as the pioneer of the handicraft industry and one of the leading companies in its field in Europe.As their Chief Marketing Officer, I was responsible for up to 30 team members in three groups: product development/atelier, product management, and marketing services. The biggest challenges were a) to regain an eroding market position through successful new product innovations, b) to deal with the increasing loss of business through retailers and c) to make sure the company was fit to compete in a highly competitive online marketplace, too. Among my main responsibilities has been the formulation of a brand and marketing strategy, the development and launch of new products, the management of products along their lifecycle, the development and implementation of all marketing activities and, of course, employee management and development.Two of the most demanding jobs were the conception of a new integrated online presence (with a completely modernized online shop)—and the creation of a new visual identity. Both tasks were successfully carried out and completed on the basis of my groundwork by the group head I hired.Among the results to which my efforts contributed significantly were: - Renewed company image that appeals to today’s customers - Increased sales in a shrinking market - Launch of several successful new products (some honored by industry creative awards) - Recapture and stabilization of the market position I’m proud of these results that were accomplished during a relatively short time of less than two years, because I strongly believe they saved the company from becoming obsolete. Of course, all this was possible only because the CEO let me do it—and because my team supported the goals without restrictions. I am thankful for all we achieved.

As the co-founder and principal of my own advertising agency, I served—together with my partner—some of the most demanding clients and reputable brands in B2C and B2B markets. The conception, creation and implementation of cross-medial international campaigns for clients like Alto/Nilfisk, Dehner, Dethleffs, Evo-Bus, Gardena, Husqvarna, Lands’ End, Legoland, Pustefix, Smart, Wap and many others was often demanding, sometimes exhausting yet always fulfilling. What our clients came for was that unique combination of strategic ability, purposeful creativity and our unconditional reliability and attention to detail when it came to execution—all available in just two heads and without any middlemen. I went to the briefings, did the research, presented our solutions—and did the actual work, too (concept, creative, layout, copy). When the client told us something, he didn’t have to repeat it several times to an account manager, planner, project manager, media planner, designer or copywriter. That’s why we hit the bull’s eye with our work first time—every time. Of course we had additional team members—but we briefed and directed them. And we were involved in the work ourselves. The work ethic we inhibited during those wonderful years—working in a discarded water tower—is something that still benefits me. I still like to immerse myself in the work, even if it is just to know what I’m talking about. I still love to tackle a marketing problem, ponder it, work it out—and come up with and execute a classy creative solution that actually solves it. It’s why I love marketing and advertising.

When working at my father’s direct marketing company as a creative director, I also started giving seminars and trainings in marketing, advertising, copywriting, creative techniques and so on (I also started lecturing a marketing course at the local chamber of commerce). The seminars and workshops went so well that we set up «academia», a business unit which was dedicated to seminars. There, I had the chance to lecture alongside—and learn from—among others, marketing great Hans Dieter Maier, ex P&G product manager and Marketing Director at Gervais/Danone, or former Lintas Copy Chief and book author Walter Schönert †, Germany’s ”grand seigneur of advertising“, from whom I learned an awful lot about writing great copy. I held over 100 seminars for approx. 3,000 participants, mostly marketing executives, but also specialists from other disciplines—and CEO’s. I believe every company in Germany sent someone—our client list went from ABB to ZEISS. The topics? Marketing, advertising, direct marketing, product management, ideation and creative techniques, copywriting, E-mail marketing, lettershoping … and so on. We also offered In-house seminars and train-the-trainer workshops for numerous well-known companies or institutions, e.g. Deutsche Post AG, IHK Ulm, Evo-Bus, Gardena, Alto/Nilfisk Group, Aventis (formerly Hoechst Marion Roussel), Legoland—and many more.My responsibility also was to analyze the market and competition, create competitive, unique seminar “products”, find and hire lecturers, conduct customer surveys, market the seminars and ensure the unit was profitable. We also offered a printed newsletter with articles on those topics. It soon became a looked-after medium, and rumor has it that some collectors still have all the issues neatly organized in a drawer. The experience as a lecturer honed my presentation skills. It could not cure my Swabian dialect completely, though. For those who find this offending, I can offer to lecture in English.

I often say I was brought up in direct marketing. My father had founded a direct marketing company in 1984 and was one of the true pioneers in this line of business in Germany. As a teenager, I had sometimes worked in the lettershop after school, or helped my father with the printing of personalized letters on weekends. Since many well-known companies had their direct mail handled by my father’s shop, I got a practical understanding of how to sell by mail very soon. In 1993 I started to work in my fathers business as an apprentice and learned the direct marketing trade inside out. I soon introduced desktop publishing to the still small shop and set up an inhouse agency. A little later, in 1996, I went to the Bavarian Academy of Advertising & Marketing (the late BAW) to earn a diploma in direct marketing—and was lucky to be able to apply most of my newly acquired knowledge directly into practice. The company grew to become the number one full service direct marketing shop in South Germany, offering logistics, lettershop services, and creative. We had lots of reputable clients, like AEG, Bosch, Gardena, Kögel, Lands’ End, Mercedes, Legoland, Ratiopharm, Sparkasse, Steiff or Zwick—to name a few. Meanwhile, I was working as a creative director and had a small team of designers and copywriters that I led. At about the same time, I started giving seminars and trainings in marketing, advertising, copywriting, creative techniques and so on. Still some years later, after discussing market trends and future opportunities with my dad, I left the company to found my own small advertising agency in 2006. Realizing that direct marketing was eventually being replaced in big parts by online marketing, my father sold the company in 2009, just before a whole industry collapsed. The foundation I got through this “upbringing” in direct marketing turned out to be priceless, as online marketing works by the same principles—and direct marketing is still my secret weapon.