About TrueBrand Partners LLC
TrueBrand Partners is primarily a Brand Advisory.
The branding world has changed. Great talent is available and more affordable. Many people now work from home.
We are often brought in as management contemplates a branding program. As senior advisors, we can help management analyze the branding opportunity and help define the steps of a company’s branding process. At times, we take on entire projects.
We are frequently asked to help management develop the RFP, help select which design firms should be in contention, and then act as senior advisors to the Company and Board of Directors as the branding process evolves, particularly on naming alternatives and design.
We are comfortable sitting on Management’s side of the table. (It usually takes an outside perspective and organized process to navigate a branding program within a company.)
John Diefenbach Biography
I am a senior partner of the brand advisory TrueBrand Partners LLC. We guide top management through the frequently delicate process of branding. Often we act in a strictly advisory role, but sometimes we take on entire projects.
I have had the privilege of leading, and building with great teams, two of the four major branding firms in the world, Landor and FutureBrand. I have worked directly with many extraordinary CEOs, and leaders like Nelson Mandela of South Africa, King Hussein of Jordan, Colin Marshall of British Airways, Stig Ramel of the Nobel Foundation, Paul Taubman of PJT Partners, and the Honorable Ray Mabus Secretary of the US Navy.
I was a part of the extraordinary time in the 80s and 90s and early 2000s when the branding world exploded, as deregulation and globalization meant that financial and national infrastructure companies, the world over, sought to change their branding to seek much wider constituencies.
My success has in part been due to my ability and deep experience guiding chief executives and their top management through the often complicated branding process. I continue to work with many of the world’s most innovative designers, as part of the TrueBrand Partners team.
Career Highlights
John Diefenbach CEO, Landor Associates
World Wildlife Fund
Nobel Prize Foundation
Mercedes Benz
Global Dealership
Branding
CocaCola
Package Design
La Caixa Bank
Barcelona, Spain, 1981
Juan Miro
CaixaBank is now the third largest financial institution in Spain, with over 5,000 branches, with a revenue of €4.3 billion (2018). In 1981, La Caixa Bank was a small regional savings bank based in Barcelona, with few branches, but large aspirations. While the bank CEO initially wanted a logo “just like Chase”, a young Landor designer had the extraordinary idea of hiring the artist Juan Miro to create the identity, thus allowing the regional bank to transcend the Catalan region with a unique and now famous identity.
Athens Olympics 2004
Athens, Greece
Wolff Olins & Red Design, based in Athens, won the contract in 2000, to brand the 2004 Olympic games. Together, they sought a unique solution – one that paid homage to the site of the first Olympic games 2000 years ago. The result was to use an olive branch twisted into a circle to form a crown – an idea so simple that every child in the Mediterranean area could duplicate.
British Airways
1984 - 1985
After a series of deep layoffs, Colin Marshall’s difficult task was to revitalize British Airways. Landor was hired first to redesign the interiors of the Concorde, and then a new livery for the entire airline. This famous livery featured the BA coat of arms with the expression ‘To Fly, To Serve’, and a red slash reminiscent of the British Navy watermark. Landor had the idea of using a chronometer above the forward bulkhead, to engage all passengers in the surging takeoff experience. It was decided to feature the British Airways Concorde in all advertising, preempting their archrival Air France, who also had the Concorde.
SAS Airlines
1982
Jan Carlzon, CEO,
with John Diefenbach
1987 – King Hussein, Queen Noor, with John Diefenbach,
Royal Jordanian
Airline
The country of Jordan has an extraordinary role in the diplomacy needed between the West and the Arab world. In 1987, King Hussein decided to change the name of an airline named after his daughter, Alia, to Royal Jordanian Airlines – thus creating the flag carrier that beautifully represents the country of Jordan.
Saudi Arabian
Government with
King Fahd Fahad
Saudi Arabian Airlines
1997
South African Airlines
1994
As the Mandela government came to power, there was an urgency to get rid of all representations of Apartheid, including the springbok gazelle and the color orange. DiefenbachElkins (now FutureBrand) and its South African partner, HerdBuoys, developed this beautiful design, with the slogan “Flying the spirit of the nation to the world.”
John Diefenbach
with South African
Government Representative
American Airlines
2013
FutureBrand & MBLM
Claude Salzberger, Founding Partner, with John Diefenbach, Chairman, MBLM;
Roll-out in Dallas
US Navy
Honorable Ray Mabus, Secretary of the
US Navy, with John Diefenbach, 2012
Brand Diagnostic
At the Pentagon
Sheikh Mohammed
ibn Rashid Al Maktoum
Brand Dubai Competition 2005
TrueBrand & Circle Brand Consultants
TrueBrand Partners
2022 – Senior Partner
MBLM
2012 – 2022, Chairman & Shareholder
Crane and Company, American Airlines, United States Navy, PJT Partners (A Blackstone Group spin-off), First Republic Bank, The FactBank app
TrueBrand
2001 – 2005, Partner & Shareholder
Northwest Airlines, Lufthansa, SE Banken (Sweden), Telecom Italia, ChefsBest, Sunset Development Company, Dubai Tourist Authority
Wolff Olins
1999 – 2001, Partner & Shareholder
Airbus, MasterCard, World Gold Council, Lufthansa, Wells Fargo
Participated in the sale to the Omnicom Group in 2001
FutureBrand
(Previously DiefenbachElkins)
1991 – 1998, CEO & Principal Shareholder
Banco Santander, Bank of Montreal (BMO),
South African Airways, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Kodak, Nestlé, Eg3 Petrol (Argentina), Air Canada,
Malaysia Airlines
As the major shareholder, led the sale of the company to the Interpublic Group (IPG) in 1997
Landor
1973 – 1989, CEO & Principal Shareholder
Safeway, Del Monte, Hyatt, Saturn, JAL, Disney, Coca Cola, Shell, Mercedes Benz, Elf (France), British Airways, ARCO, WWF, Nobel Prize Foundation
As the major shareholder, participated in the sale of the company to Young & Rubicam in 1989
Videos
Technology, and the branding world with it, is indeed in a period of capturing behavior – like putting light in a bottle. Today, we live in a wide world where we have come to expect internet brands to disrupt businesses, often changing the game by inventing or reinventing the way we work and behave. Using new technologies like AI, new brands are constantly emerging. This series highlights companies and entrepreneurial leaders who used technology to innovate, and even to embrace a social purpose for society..
To date, there are four videos in the series:
- Milestones in Global Branding: 1970’s
- Milestones in Global Branding: 1970’s
(with Marco Antonini Interview)
- Milestones in Global Branding:
Disruptive Brands/Disruptive Leaders – 1980’s
- Milestones in Global Branding:
Disruptive Brands/Disruptive Leaders – 1990’s
Videos on Milestones:
Disruptive Leaders – 2000 to 2024 are presently in the development stage. I look forward to sharing them with you.
As a frequent spokesperson for branding and marketing, I have developed a series of video on branding milestones throughout the decades that you can view on this website. I have appeared on NBC’s Today Show and have been featured in Forbes. I have lectured at: Haas School of Business at University of California Berkeley, Darden Business School at University of Virginia, Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania and IESE, Spain’s business school at University of Navarra, Barcelona.
Milestones in Global Branding – 1970’s
Milestones in Global Branding – 1970’s
(with Marco Antonini Interview)
Milestones in Global Branding: Disruptive Brands/Disruptive Leaders – 1980’s
Milestones in Global Branding: Disruptive Brands/Disruptive Leaders – 1990’s
TrueBrand Partners LLC
2242 Steiner Street
San Francisco, CA 94115