Added Value Further Enhances Position in Brand Strategy & Innovation

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 6, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- With a commitment to a legacy of innovation for the world's most iconic brands, the brand development and marketing insight consultancy, Added Value, is marking 2011 as a year of forward focused change in support of growth initiatives.

As of the first of the year, Cheskin Added Value's CEO and co-founder Darrel Rhea, visionary and leader in the field of innovation and design thinking, will move on from the firm to pursue his passion for organizational consulting. Jonathan Hall, current head of Added Value's Paris office, will be taking the role of Executive Vice President, Managing Director of Cheskin Added Value in March, and will lead the Added Value NA Brand Strategy and Innovation practice. Hall will also be joining Added Value's North American leadership team.

Prior to joining Added Value in 2005 as Global Client Managing Director, Hall spent his 20-year career on innovation and brand strategy development for private, public and third sector organizations across the world. His experience ranges from multi-national packaged goods, financial services, technology and pharma to retail and luxury businesses among others. Hall graduated from Oxford University and is a long-standing member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Brand Management.

Added Value NA CEO Maggie Taylor says, "We look forward to our relationship evolving as Darrel begins his new endeavor, and we're extremely fortunate that Jonathan will bring his extraordinary intellect, creativity and business savvy to our group."

Jonathan Hall adds, "For decades, Cheskin Added Value has been highly regarded for their fresh perspectives and bold approaches to addressing clients' innovation challenges. I'm looking forward to leading this top-notch team and furthering the goal of building our reputation and capability as leaders in the marketing consultancy arena."

Added Value has recently launched several new approaches to tackling clients' toughest marketing challenges, including OpFinder™,, and CharacterLab™.  Says Taylor, "Within Added Value, we routinely challenge our assumptions and seek out opportunities to evolve our business. We are very proud of our accomplishments in 2010, and the successes we were able to achieve for our clients, especially in the areas of multicultural marketing and cultural insights, brand and product development, and market opportunity consulting.  We anticipate that 2011 will build upon this momentum considerably – we're very excited to see what the future will bring."  

For more information, contact Denise Klarquist at 415-269-7962 or [email protected].

About Added Value

Added Value, www.added-value.com, provides consultancy on brand development and marketing insight for iconic brands, both big and small, around the world. They help solve clients' central marketing questions about market, equity, positioning, innovation and communications.

Many clients are Fortune 500 companies, such as AT&T, Microsoft, Ford, HSBC, Allianz, and P&G, but they work with start-ups and challenger brands too.

The company has 22 offices in 14 countries, yet their experience spreads across 150 markets worldwide and across all industry sectors.

Added Value operates under the business names Added Value, Icon Added Value, Oracle Added Value, Cheskin Added Value, AV-Stratosfera and Added Value Saffron Hill.

Added Value is now one of the largest operations within WPP's Kantar division www.kantar.com, a wholly-owned subsidiary of WPP plc. WPP is the world leader in marketing communications services, employing 135,000 people (including associates) in 2,400 offices in 107 countries. For more information, visit www.wpp.com.

SOURCE Added Value