Background Information
Scott Bedbury is a genius at unleashing brand potential through innovative products, creative positioning, careful distribution, and strategic partnerships. He has served as a brand architect for twenty years and for some of the world’s most dynamic brands, helping make “Just Do It” part of the global lexicon and tall lattes a part of everyday life for millions.

Bedbury graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from University of Oregon in 1980 and took a product management job for a small foods company. He then moved on to work for the largest advertising agency in Seattle at the time, Cole & Weber (and Ogilvy & Mather affiliate).
In 1987, Bedbury left the advertising-agency business. He joined up with Nike, who at the time was a distant number three behind Reebok and Adidas, to be the worldwide advertising director. Under his leadership Nike won every conceivable advertising and marketing award in the US, Europe, and Asia and grew to a $5 billion corporation. In 1994, he left Nike to write, consult and spend time with his two children.

After starting work on his book, he sent samples of chapter to a handful of CEO’s. When, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz received his sample, he immediately called upon Bedbury and asked him to consider joining him as chief marketing officer. Eventually, Bedbury accepted and in 1995, he became CMO of Starbucks. At Starbucks, he managed to help the emerging regional coffee company to grow to several thousand stores while also introducing the brand into new channels of distribution and opening markets overseas. He helped to redesign Starbucks stores, to enter dozens of new markets, to develop Starbucks Ice Cream and bottle Frappuccino for the grocery channel and to establish a global relationship with United Airlines.

In 1997, he signed from Senior VP-marketing to a position he created called senior VP-brand development at Starbucks. He stepped out of the day-to-day marketing duties, and was then charged with mapping the company’s long term branding and marketing strategy and ultimately giving him new rein to develop new forward-thinking, non-traditional marketing directions.

In 1998, his coffee break ended and Bedbury went on to establish Brandstream, a global brand development consultancy in Seattle, WA. Clients include Coca-Cola, Co., Disney, The Limited, and Levi Strauss & Co. Currently, he remains the CEO of brandstream.

In 2002, he published his book A New Brand World: 8 Principles for Achieving Brand Leadership in the 21st Century. In it, he explains how to apply the principles that grew Nike and Starbucks more than fivefold and established their trademarks as leaders in their categories.

Other achievements include:

  • Speaker for the Leigh Bureau.
  • American Advertising Federation Hall of Achievement inductee
  • Appointed to Board of Directors at Jones Soda Co. (a leader in premium soda, headquartered in Seattle, Washington) in August 2003.
  • Formed the Fricken Company, an umbrella organization for a number of businesses.
  • Received UOAA Outstanding Young Alumni Award in 1997.

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