Richard Sauerman
Global Brand Guru
Since 2014.
Who the heck is Richard Sauerman, The Brand Guy?
Richard Sauerman is known as The Brand Guy and has been ranked in the Global Top 30 Brand Gurus since 2014 (ranked 13th in 2025).
He has 35 years experience working on brands at some of the world’s greatest advertising agencies (Saatchi & Saatchi, Ogilvy & Mather, DDB, McCann Erickson) as well as in his own business, from global brands (Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Levis, Streets, Toyota, Nescafe, Vodafone) to Australian brands (Arnott’s, CSIRO, QBE, Data61, Surf Lifesaving Australia, Breast Cancer Trials, Tourism Australia, Mortgage Choice) to start-ups (LeukBook, T-shirt Ventures) and pro-bono clients (Maturious).
He works closely with CEOs and Executive, HR and Marketing teams to provide guidance for rebooting and reshaping their brands and business, and he is an Advisory Board member for a fashion start-up.
Richard has published two books, appears in the media on brand related stories, and he is a sought-after keynote speaker and facilitator in Australian and abroad. He is the oldest groom ever on MAFS (Season 11), a radical, rare and unique experience that taught him many life lessons.
Richard pioneered a new way to do branding.
Richard pioneered a new way to do branding, where everything you do and say as a business or organisation is driven by and aligned to your brand strategy and purpose: the way you do business, the way you treat your people, the way you treat your customers and suppliers, your products and services, as well as [and not just] your marketing communications.
Your brand is not something the Marketing Department adds to your business, your brand is the reason your business exists. Your brand is the Purpose, Vision, Mission, and Values that propel everything your business, company or organisation says and does. This makes branding a leadership matter, not a marketing one.
Purpose, differentiation, and conviction: the ingredients of a powerful brand positioning.
The brutal reality of today’s over-saturated brand world is this: If you don’t stand for something you’re dead, it’s just a matter of time. Do you know what your brand stands for? Is your marketplace positioning unique? Does your brand essence resonate with your people? Is your brand strategy, vision and values driving your company culture? Do you have a clear and powerfully articulated brand purpose that drives engagement and customer loyalty? Does your brand matter, and if so, why?
If you don’t know the answers to these questions then nobody else will know either, and nobody else will care. In order to create a powerful brand and maintain successful strategic brand management - both inside your business (brand on the inside) and outside in the marketplace (brand on the outside) - you need purpose, differentiation and conviction.
Products, organisations and companies Richard has branded.
Richard has created brands from the ground up and rebooted and reshaped brands and businesses in Australia and internationally: from some of the most established brands in the world to some of the most highly disruptive startups.
Richard has worked on over 200 brands in his career, from insurance to financial services, healthcare, recruitment, technology, legal firms, R&D organisations, disability services, construction and manufacturing, arts and museums, industry associations, solar energy, horticulture and fashion.
Some clients are looking to sharpen the saw when it comes to their brand and branding, other clients are looking to evolve their brand to reflect a change in their business, and some are looking for a complete transition or reinvention of their brand and business.
Richard's unique proprietary branding methodology works for all clients, whatever your industry or your branding requirements.
Richard is a stand out keynote speaker and facilitator.
Richard has developed an intuitive sense of what makes people tick over his brand consultant and communications career and has been using his insights, creativity and experience to challenge, engage and motivate audiences for twenty years.
He delivers keynote talks and runs workshops on Real YOU, Power Branding, Branding the Inside, and Business as UNusual.
Richard's keynotes and workshops are a wake up call for people at work. His style is energetic, passionate, empathetic, and ruthlessly honest. He’s an enemy of mediocrity, a challenger of norms and conventional thinking, and a champion of people.
His speaking clients include Clayton Utz, AMP, CBA, TAFE, Fitness First, Foxtel Media, Nestle, Surf Lifesaving Australia, News Corp, Prospa, Munich Re and American Express.
Richard Sauerman, Author
Are You Living Your Résumé or Your Eulogy?
This book is for people all over the world who are just like you. They too want peace and love. They have dreams that would make you gasp. They have secrets you wouldn’t believe. They are different in ways you couldn’t imagine. They wish and they dream and they yearn, and they look out the window whenever they’re in a car or on a train, and they watch the people on the streets and wonder if there are people out there like them. They’re like you, and you could say anything to them and they would understand. And so right now, as you’re sitting here reading these words, I’m writing this for you and for me so we feel less boxed in and more free to be.
