Aquiles Este working at the intersection of branding and big data
BY READERS DIGEST
13th Jan 2021 Down to Business
"Your brand is what other people say about you when you are not in the room" – Jeff Bezos, CEO Amazon
Agreeing to Mr. Bezos’s words, a brand is something that reflects the core idea and fundamental values behind a company. Consequently, it should be something that impresses people with its quality and reputation in the market. Businesses cannot become brands unless they change their practices and operations. Today, every business aims to transform itself into a specific niche brand but fails miserably when they take matters into their hands. This is where brand consultancy comes into the picture.
The brand consultancy provides general marketing strategies, analysis, and effective solutions for companies to increase their sales. It is more than just enhancing your brand or increasing its brand awareness or recognition. A well-equipped brand consultant will dichotomize the business and examine even the minutest detail that restrains the businesses from becoming a profound and symbolic brand. There is a vast array of people that a brand can turn towards when needing guidance for their advertisement and promotion, but one person that tops the list is Aquiles Este.
Known for being an international practitioner and researcher on branding and reputation management, Aquiles has over 25 years of experience teaching and practicing branding in three continents: North and South America, Europe, and Asia.
Skills that make a brand consultant excellent
The definition of the term ‘brand’ today does not merely consist of a specific product or a service; it also includes a thought process and an innovation as well. Today, the A-listers are cognizant of the significance of branding and self-promotion and prefer hiring a consultant rather than taking matters into their hands. Although people from all industries need a reputable branding consultant, it is mainly the media industry and politics that need the best and the most effective branding techniques. And Aquiles is just the right person for that.
Born on June 29th, 1962, in Caracas, Aquiles Este developed a deep interest in advertising and branding as he matured. He was always intrigued by the various concepts and techniques that led the ad producing agencies to create a compelling advertisement. His curiousness showed him the way to the Universidad Central de Venezuela, where he studied journalism and advertising. Este later went to Universidade de São Paulo, the best college in Latam, where he obtained a doctorate’s degree in Semiotics in 1988.
In 1992, Aquiles returned to Caracas and joined ProDiseño, one of the most celebrated design schools in Latin America, as the dean. Under his direction and professional tactical solutions, the school won the prestigious International Design Magazine Annual Design Review in 2000. Having studied branding as a major, Este taught Corporate Branding at ‘Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración’ (IESA), one of Latin America’s leading business schools.
Aquiles was not someone who settled easily. He believed in constantly moving, traveling, and learning new things. He has collaborated with New York University’s linguist, Ray C. Dougherty, to work on Computational Linguistics and the pioneering field of Natural Language Analytics. As a visiting scholar and faculty member at NYU’s Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, Este conducted a research project on the interrelation between Charles S. Peirce’s concept of sign replication and Marshall McLuhan’s media theories. This research was conducted under the supervision of one of the founders of Media Ecology studies, Neil Postman – a world renown media critic.
When Branding for a client, Este submerged himself in the brand completely. He invested his precious time in the brand so much so that he could design a blueprint of the brand with his eyes closed. He devised productive solutions for the brands to develop campaigns and content that align with the brand objective that proved to be crucial to the brand’s success.
Being a qualified world-class individual, Aquiles was a treasure full of knowledge and expertise. He used his skills as bait and entered the United States in 2009 under the EB1-A program, a subcategory of visas reserved for those with sustained international acclaim. He chose Miami as his humble abode and has resided there ever since.
Exploring the field of brand consultancy
Este was exceptional at what he did and proved himself time and again with this work. He began his career as Creative Vice President for the Lowe network, known today as MullenLowe. The ad creation industry did not lure him, and he quickly got disappointed with it. Aquiles says, “Ad men only deal with three audiences: customers, shareholders, and competitors, while branding is about devising a message for all the audiences involved in the complex process of corporate communications. Branding is also about understanding the different types of sectors and their combinations.”
He has positioned, implemented, and monitored brands in three continents and almost all categories commercial, political, personal, destination brands, and what he calls ‘polimercial’ brands. When writing for the New York Times, Aquiles shared his opinion on ‘polimercial branding’; he said, “We fully entered the age of ‘polimercial’ marketing, days in which most service and product companies will be forced to position themselves on political and social issues and politicians, in full exercise of the office, will shamelessly embrace the topics and techniques of commercial promotion.”
This learned individual had an untamed soul. He believed in freedom of speech and condemned the traditional methods of advertisement. His spirit and dedication towards branding led him to launch his own branding agency called ‘SEMIoTICS’ – focused on data-driven branding.
Aquiles’s branding agency has a unique approach to the subject. He uses predictive analytics to provide effective and successful solutions to ‘polimercial’ brands. His world-class, hand-picked team of excellent linguistics, semioticians, and creative directors use Big Data to excite and compel people with rigorous analysis and cutting-edge technology to provide branding services to multiple influential leaders worldwide. In 2016, a British consultancy, Social Data Intelligence, predicted the United States National Election results using one of Aquiles Este’s social listening conceptual frameworks.
Throughout his life, Aquiles’ has consulted for Regional Brands (J&J, DirecTV, Renault); Place Brands (Belize, Panama) Political Brands (Danilo Medina, María Corina Machado) and Polimercial Brands such as Fluent, one of the top Medical Cannabis companies in the World.
Aquiles Este serves as an inspirational personality for all who aspire to establish themselves in the field of branding and advertisement, teaching and lecturing Brand Content Management at University of Miami Business School, and around the world. His distinctive approach to integrating Big Data into branding makes him a pioneering brand consultant.
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