Deb Kelly ’68 discusses branding in Harder Lecture

Branding expert Deb Kelly ’68 joined a long list of business luminaries in delivering the 35th annual F. William Harder Lecture and sharing her insights with Skidmore students. 

In her lecture, Kelly, a partner at Denver-based strategic-creative consultancy Genesis Inc. told “a brand story” about a how a small brand agency is helping a space technologies company called Maxar pull several brands together into a cohesive construct, creating awareness of the formation of something new and more powerful.  

“This is a brand journey. It’s a story about a company that was very much so ‘old economy’ and … tried to become ‘new economy,’” she said. 

Kelly, who has held leadership positions at Fortune 500 companies, such as Quaker Oats and Lowe’s, said her liberal arts education has also influenced her perspective on business. 

“Having access to different fields of learning and therefore being open to learning new things” is important, Kelly said, “because in business, you may be focused on a particular industry or a particular company or some particular skills. But it's surprising to me how often there are adjacencies or something that you hadn't actually thought about before, and you have to develop the skill to want to learn something new.” 

Kelly also outlined changes to marketing strategies in recent years.  

“I think the biggest thing that's happened is that there is social democracy in the value of a brand. All stakeholders have an opinion about brands, and they are not afraid to talk about it,” she said.