Speaking and Guest Lectures
We enjoy sharing our decades of strategic naming and branding experience from the stage or podium. (Well, one of us does - the other prefers writing words, not speaking them.) Typical audiences and topics below, but we are of course open to special requests, too! Content will be tailored to meet the needs of your audience.
Audiences include:
• Company executives, often CMOs or founders
• Buyout professionals and operating partners at PE firms
• Students in upper-level undergraduate or graduate Marketing, Business, Communications, or Entrepreneurship programs
Topics include:
• How naming and brand architecture decisions directly affect integration speed, customer trust, and exit value
• How firms can make smart brand decisions at the platform and add-on level and use naming as a lever for value creation rather than friction
• How naming decisions can drive or destroy value, and common pitfalls to avoid
• When to leverage a legacy brand name vs. when to create a new name
• How brand architecture decisions support exit options
• Evaluating brand stretch beyond current geography or offerings
• Structural brand decisions and intellectual property alignment
• How to evaluate and tailor architecture and naming models to support business goals and brand strategies
• Strategic, structural, creative, and legal decisions that determine how brands scale, differentiate, and create long-term enterprise value
• Brand architecture models and their implications
• Architecture mapping and decision frameworks
• Naming strategy and taxonomies of brand names
• Creative development and generative naming methods
• U.S. trademark fundamentals (USPTO process, classes, search and filing processes) and risk analysis
• International trademark systems (Madrid Protocol, WIPO)
• Cultural and linguistic evaluations
• How to leverage AI for naming-related work (and how not to)
Speaker Bio:
Mark Speece is the founder of Prequel, a branding and naming consultancy supporting private equity firms and their portfolio companies through mergers and acquisitions.
Mark’s expertise in brand strategy, brand architecture, naming, and name systems has been leveraged by some of the world’s best-known branding firms. Mark directed the verbal branding practices at FutureBrand and Landor New York before building Prequel, an Atlanta-based brand consultancy.
Historically, Mark has managed large-scale programs for clients such as Ford, GM, Visa, and UPS, and has shaped numerous platform brands for firms including Trivest, Riverside, Accel-KKR, and Roark Capital - among many others.
• Company executives, often CMOs or founders
• Buyout professionals and operating partners at PE firms
• Students in upper-level undergraduate or graduate Marketing, Business, Communications, or Entrepreneurship programs
Topics include:
• How naming and brand architecture decisions directly affect integration speed, customer trust, and exit value
• How firms can make smart brand decisions at the platform and add-on level and use naming as a lever for value creation rather than friction
• How naming decisions can drive or destroy value, and common pitfalls to avoid
• When to leverage a legacy brand name vs. when to create a new name
• How brand architecture decisions support exit options
• Evaluating brand stretch beyond current geography or offerings
• Structural brand decisions and intellectual property alignment
• How to evaluate and tailor architecture and naming models to support business goals and brand strategies
• Strategic, structural, creative, and legal decisions that determine how brands scale, differentiate, and create long-term enterprise value
• Brand architecture models and their implications
• Architecture mapping and decision frameworks
• Naming strategy and taxonomies of brand names
• Creative development and generative naming methods
• U.S. trademark fundamentals (USPTO process, classes, search and filing processes) and risk analysis
• International trademark systems (Madrid Protocol, WIPO)
• Cultural and linguistic evaluations
• How to leverage AI for naming-related work (and how not to)
Speaker Bio:
Mark Speece is the founder of Prequel, a branding and naming consultancy supporting private equity firms and their portfolio companies through mergers and acquisitions.
Mark’s expertise in brand strategy, brand architecture, naming, and name systems has been leveraged by some of the world’s best-known branding firms. Mark directed the verbal branding practices at FutureBrand and Landor New York before building Prequel, an Atlanta-based brand consultancy.
Historically, Mark has managed large-scale programs for clients such as Ford, GM, Visa, and UPS, and has shaped numerous platform brands for firms including Trivest, Riverside, Accel-KKR, and Roark Capital - among many others.