Q. Why is it important for businesses to have a branding strategy?

A. What (my business partner) Brook (Gramann) and I excel at is helping clients look at their business from a different perspective and giving them a critical third eye to look at their business. So we're able to help clients see their own business in a new way, to organize and bring intangibles to life. Product guarantees are a good example. Some companies have a 100 percent guarantee and they never tell anyone. Hawaiian Host was such a client. They are very careful about quality control. If anyone had a complaint they would give them a new box of chocolates, but they never told anyone about their guarantee. So one of the things we did was bring their guarantee to light. Every business has a story and we help them find their story and tell it.

Q. You also work with businesses on internal issues, such as employee morale. How does that relate to branding?

A. Your employee really is the frontline for your brand, even if you are in a manufacturing line because how they feel about the work they do and what they communicate to other people about the company is really, really important to the company's survival. Also, to get better employees in a tight market like this you want your employees to be able to articulate what it is you do and why you have a good place to work, and why they're happy there.

Q. How do you deal with a business that has an inferior product or service?

A. What we do is we focus on the positive of a business. It's not that we ignore the negatives, but building a brand and looking at the values of a company is really about focusing on what's good about the company and expanding that. Not so it edges out the negative, but so that people can be inspired and feel good about the values of the company. There are strategies for people when you sort of have nothing to offer or less to offer than the competition. When Burger King was the No. 2 in fast food, they focused on the one weakness McDonalds had and said, "Have it your way," which was the one thing McDonalds couldn't do. Often times when you have a product that is weak or truly inferior to the leader in the marketplace, first of all you have to focus on improving the product, but secondly, usually in a competitive framework you can find something wrong with the leader and focus on how you do it better.

Q. You worked with the Hawaii State Judiciary on branding the concept of mediation. What kind of experience was that?

A. It was really interesting because I was part of a very successful mediation myself, and both Brook and I trained in the Neighborhood Justice Center to become volunteer mediators some years ago. Working on having people appreciate the value of mediation was really interesting because most people regard it as a secondary choice, especially when there is a lot at stake. Elizabeth Kent, who is the head of the Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution, came to us to look at the idea of why you would select mediation.

Q. What did you recommend?

A. The way they approached it, for instance, in their television commercials and their PSAs was to show two people at a table with a sort of lawyer looking dressed person helping them have a discussion. The real thing about mediation is that you get a chance to express yourself individually and you also get a chance to respect yourself. So instead of showing people on either side of a table, you might show somebody talking about how really furious they were for some stupid reason — which is why we all get mad — and then showing how they could solve the problem by using a mediator to help them.

Q. You have worked for several large advertising agencies. Why did you decide to go out on your own?

A. We thought that small businesses in Hawai'i didn't get the kind of value out of even their own marketing departments because in small businesses the marketing guy is also the president of the company, and he's also the HR guy. We thought that it was possible to apply the disciplines that big businesses use to small businesses and help them use their marketing dollars in a much more efficient way. We also felt that often times clients didn't get the right answers (from the larger agencies).

Q. You suffered a serious heart attack several years ago and had to have emergency quadruple bypass surgery. Has that changed your life personally or professionally?

A. Not appreciably. It should have changed it a lot more than it has. I do all the things my doctors tell me, but I also probably work a lot harder than I should. We started a second business, Lanikai Bath and Body, which is being run by my son and a couple of our friends. We have seven or eight people working for us so that we're not directly involved in the day-to-day business.

Q. What was the inspiration behind it?