Introducing GBK Collective
Written by Jon Greenwood, Co-Founder and CEO
In the summer of 2015, I sat on a train about to depart Philadelphia train station. Something was eating at me and I fidgeted in my seat. I had just watched my friend and the chair of the Wharton School’s marketing department, Professor Eric Bradlow, deliver a keynote speech at a marketing conference. As a senior marketing executive myself, I sat with my colleagues in the audience and absorbed Professor Bradlow’s words with rapt attention. He could barely get off the stage as we peppered him with questions about his academic research – Who are our most valuable clients? How do we identify and acquire them? How do we keep them? Why should we focus on customers rather than products?
As these thoughts swirled in my mind, I asked myself a few questions: Wouldn’t brands benefit from a closer connection to academically-led marketing insights? Why do brands spend so much money on the same commoditized “solutions” to solve their multi-billion dollar marketing strategy questions? The answer was obvious to me – they shouldn’t. But why wasn’t there a clear market offering for brands to access the thought leadership of luminaries like Professor Bradlow and marketing insights specifically tailored to their brands and customers? I knew that I needed to connect the dots between academia and the CMO’s office.
“I knew that I needed to connect the dots between academia and the CMO’s office.”
Six months later, Professor Bradlow (now the Vice Dean of Analytics at Wharton) and I launched a marketing consultancy called GBH Insights. Our vision was simple but ambitious – provide highly-specific marketing consulting, custom-built from the ground up and informed by cutting edge primary research, marketing science and advanced analytics for our select group of clients. We would not peddle one-size-fits-all, black-boxed marketing solutions. We would invest in experienced professionals who wanted to work on solving amorphous business challenges. We would start with a question-driven approach and ideate and frame the specific challenges that a brand faced. We would apply best-of-breed primary research, predictive analytics and strategic consulting as part of an integrated solution. We would recommend specific ways to optimize a brand’s marketing strategy calculated to drive top- and bottom-line growth. We would help our clients activate our recommendations. We would be results oriented.
“Five years later… our vision has clearly resonated with the marketplace.”
Five years later… our vision has clearly resonated with the marketplace. We are a maturing marketing consultancy that works with some of the leading brands on the planet. We’ve recruited many talented team members, including fellow Wharton classmate Jeremy Korst to join us as a partner, who brought with him decades of experience as a senior marketing executive at places like Microsoft and T-Mobile. We have locations spread across the country and we are proud to count amongst our team some of the brightest academic and practitioner marketing experts that can be found anywhere. We have become a collective of intellectually curious clients, talented team members and well-regarded academic advisors. We are now GBK Collective.
Introducing GBK Collective
We chose the name GBK Collective, not only to reflect our current partners (Greenwood, Bradlow and Korst), but also recognize our belief in the power and insight that comes from the collective power of our amazing clients, partners, and growing network of consultants, industry experts and academic thought leaders.
“At GBK, we love large, awkward amorphous problems, and we believe that every problem requires a unique approach and custom solution.”
Simply put, GBK Collective operates differently than other consultancies. We’ve always been data driven and customer obsessed and relentless in pursuing better insights to define the right strategies with our clients. But it’s more than that.
GBK Collective exists to solve marketing problems clearly, i.e. in “high definition”. Every company today has a unique set of challenges. At GBK, we love large, awkward amorphous problems, and we believe that every problem requires a unique approach and custom solution.
As we head toward 2021, we couldn’t be more appreciative of our partnerships and meaningful work we’re doing with clients. We also continue to expand our global network of practitioners and academic thought leaders – providing clients with senior marketing, data science and analytics talent on demand.
You can learn more about our unique and innovative approach here: gbkcollective.com/ourapproach.
