We help Fortune 500 companies, startups & non-profits solve brand, business & comms problems.
Clients call with questions like:
What new products should we create & innovate?
What is the future of my category?
How can we find & capture new customers?
We built something - how should we position it?
Can you help my team work more strategically?
We tackle these problems with tools like:
Brand Positioning & Architecture
Customer & Competitive Insights
Qualitative Research
(focus groups, in-home ethnographies, co-creation workshops, shop-alongs, etc...)
Quantitative Research
Business & Innovation Strategy
Internal Strategic Workshops
Below are some projects & clients.
Reach out for a full client list and work samples.
Recent Projects
Global research study of teenagers for the Nike Brand Innovation Lab
B2B sales strategy for Google Cloud Platform
National study & strategy about immigration for Unbound Philanthropy
New product development for Chobani
Brand architecture for Austin East Ciders
ROI analysis of a Formula 1 sponsorship
Internal strategy for Rockefeller Capital Management
Strategy for annual 'Year in Music’ execution by Spotify
In-Home ethnographies with die-hard basketball fans for the NBA
Strategic workshops with the in-house creative team at Spectrum
Digital innovation strategy for a P&G cosmetics brand
Clients
Bio
Michael Hastings-Black is a business and brand strategist. His clients range from startups to non-profits to F500 corporations.
He teaches a course about research at Parsons in their Masters of Strategic Design program.
Prior to consulting, Michael was in-house with Apple as a Creative Strategist. He worked with B2B Sales and Product teams and led a cultural and technological insights program to help F500 brands work within the Apple ecosystem
A frequent speaker at academic and industry conferences, he was a Keynote speaker at the Global Islamic Marketing Conference in Abu Dhabi and won the inaugural grand prize at London’s Power to the Pixel. His work has been covered by Vogue, The Washington Post, MSNBC, Ad Age, Fader and more.
When fresh out of college, Michael worked as an Urban Planner for the NYC Parks Department. He designed and managed a citywide volunteer program that helped communities get more street trees.
Michael holds a BA in English from Bowdoin College and studied urban planning and cultural anthropology with M.I.T. while living in India, South Africa and Brazil.
Michael lives in DC with his family & can be found in the kitchen, picking vintage or planning a scuba diving trip.
