Ulli Appelbaum

Guten Tag, I’m Ulli Appelbaum.

For the past 30 years, I’ve been trying to answer one stubborn question: what actually makes a brand grow? Not what wins awards, not what generates buzz — what genuinely moves people to choose one brand over another, again and again, at the moments that matter most.

I came to that question through the side door. I spent my first ten years in Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire, and later lived in Belgium, France, the UK, Germany, and Hungary before eventually settling in the US. Different languages, different customs, different ways of seeing the world. What struck me everywhere I went was how much of what makes us human stays the same beneath the surface: the desire to belong, to be understood, to make choices that feel right. That fascination with people — and with the small, often invisible patterns that shape their behavior — is what eventually led me to brand strategy. I’ve been chasing it ever since.

I started looking for answers inside some of the world’s largest advertising agencies, holding Head of Strategy roles at BBDO Germany and Leo Burnett Chicago, and Global Strategy Director roles at Fallon Worldwide and SapientNitro. In 2014, I left to build my own practice — First The Trousers Then The Shoes Inc. The name is a small reminder that strategy is a creative problem-solving process and that everything in marketing has an order of operations: clarity before creativity, strategy before tactics, trousers before shoes. (If you ever want the longer version of that story, ask me over coffee.)

My work is grounded in evidence rather than opinion. It’s built on the science of how brands actually form in the minds of customers and consumers, shaped by the analysis of more than 1,200 case studies, and tested across categories, continents, and company sizes. It’s helped win 7 Effies and an ARF Ogilvy Award for Excellence in Research. It’s been put to work for Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, General Mills, Wrigley, Hallmark, Harley-Davidson, Chrysler, Škoda, 3M, Ecolab, and many others — across the US, Europe, Latin America, and Asia.

I’ve also tried to make these ideas useful well beyond the consulting room. I’m the author of two books and two sets of method cards used by tens of thousands of marketers, founders, and strategists around the world:

• The Brand Positioning Workbook (award-winning and bestselling)
• The Brand Positioning Development Method Cards
• Aha! The Ultimate Insight Generation Toolkit
• The Science of Brand Associations: Win Minds, Win Markets (the most recent and already award-winning)

When I’m not working with clients, I write for trade publications in the US and Europe, guest on podcasts, speak at conferences, and teach as an occasional guest lecturer at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota.

When I’m not doing any of that, I’m at home in Minneapolis with my wife, our three kids, and two German Shepherds. The rest of the time, my spare hours tend to involve a motorcycle and an unfamiliar stretch of rural America — or, on the more ambitious trips, an off-road vehicle somewhere in Mongolia or Patagonia with friends who say yes to bad ideas.

Want to talk?