I am speaking today with Gary Adams, director of integrated sales and marketing for SAP's consumer products industry unit. Gary is simply one of the best people I've ever spoken to about brands, branding, and brand value.

What is making this program useful to listeners is that Gary is talking from a practical perspective on how to get your brand to work for you. His real-world advice and comments are spot on. What has stuck out the most for me is his comments on how to manage a brand -- especially in a Web 2.0 marketplace. He hit the mark noting that the real challenge in growing our brands is to understand and read the signals of consumer behavior. These insights, he believes, give us the best information as to the strength of our contract with consumers -- which ultimately drives to our brand's value and bottom line.

What I think listeners will enjoy is Gary's comments about the value of automating much of the measuring and data gathering in the marketing effort so that this information -- this consumer insight -- is readily available and we can make quicker decisions. More than once Gary commented on the importance of speed as a factor of success in increasing brand value. Without the ability to quickly adjust brand messaging, and sales and marketing tactics to consumer insight, our companies run the risk of being overtaken by the competition.