BJ Cunningham: After Dinner Speakers

BJ Cunningham is a charismatic keynote speaker and serial entrepreneur who demonstrates that authentic branding is vital to build and retain customer loyalty. His appealing, honest style combined with his business history ensures that he is an expert in offering insights into customer relations, creating visions and branding strategies. BJ is the perfect after-dinner speaker for a corporate event.

A successful entrepreneur and a council member of Business Superbrands, BJ Cunningham is an acknowledged thought leader in the field of branding, brand marketing and communications.

He is entertaining, positive and inspiring as a keynote  and after dinner  speaker.

In his presentations, BJ shows how authentic branding is vital to build and retain customer loyalty. His message is that a brand is a promise, not a logo; it’s about depth, not awareness. A business must know what it stands for, say this with clarity, and do what it says it will. With wonderfully engaging examples, he shows that customers want to understand the authentic soul of the organisation and become part of its community.

Whilst still a teenager, BJ started his first enterprise, importing classic cars and Harley Davidsons from LA to London. This stopped abruptly when the market collapsed and lost him everything - except his overdraft!

Taking his considerable debt with him, BJ's next move was to launch DEATH Cigarettes - positioned as 'the honest smoke'. He gained such a foothold that the company found itself taking on the combined might of the tobacco industry and every Member State of Europe in the European Court of Justice. On the stage, BJ uses the DEATH brand as a case study to illustrate the power of provocation and how to flip a conservative market.

Applying his verve and growing reputation for challenging norms, BJ went on to establish an Integrated Brand Marketing agency built on his business experience and the philosophy of ‘Corporate Religion’. He won business as diverse as Volkswagen, Canon, Fairline Boats, Korn Ferry and Red Devil, and successfully sold the Agency after three years, in 2001.

A true serial entrepreneur, he and his wife then launched the highly acclaimed Georgina Goodman brand of shoes and accessories from their flagship store in the heart of Mayfair. Major global fashion retailers now stock the luxury brand. Its handmade exclusive designs have attracted celebrity clients and seen profits increase at a rate of 25% per season and growth of over 50% per annum - a phenomenal achievement for an unknown designer competing in a rarefied market.

With his rare combination of business and creative credentials, BJ channels his corporate learning into the SME market. In his usual provocative style, he challenges business owners and entrepreneurs to re-examine the truth and their brand.

His speaking topics include:

- The DEATH brand: the power of provocation & how to flip a conservative market

- Deepening the customer relationship

- Creating a powerful vision

- Marrying internal culture, market position and vision

- Telling the truth