Upstream Marketing: Unlock Growth Using the Combined Principles of Insight, Identity, and Innovation

In Upstream Marketing, authors Tim Koelzer and Kristin Kurth share best practices, research, case studies, and analysis informed by their more than twenty years of experience helping transform client brands and businesses through their work at EquiBrand Consulting, a top management consultancy. The result is a groundbreaking deep-dive into the fundamentals of upstream marketing--the process of identifying and fulfilling customer needs, which relies on the strategic implementation of three core principles: insight, identity, and innovation.

​An invaluable tool for business leaders looking for mindset, strategy, and processes that will help them improve their organization proactively, instead of reactively. Upstream Marketing includes meticulous analysis of seven profile companies, breaking down the values and principles that make them great--and offering some how-to tips you can apply yourself. The authors also draw on examples from their own work with clients to help illustrate how applying the principles of upstream marketing correctly and at the right time can impact the health, growth, and success of any business.

Tim Koelzer is the leading authority on and practitioner of upstream marketing and the three underlying principles of insight, identity, and innovation.

As the co-founder and managing partner of EquiBrand Consulting, Tim leads client engagements in helping companies grow strong brands and businesses. In his role, Tim brings broad and deep professional experience in strategic marketing and planning, brand building and value proposition, business model and new product development. Tim works across a spectrum of companies--from global Fortune 500 companies to venture-backed startups, within business-to-business and business-to-consumer settings.

Industries he's worked in include apparel, automotive, consumer products, financial services, food, healthcare, industrial products, insurance, medical devices, technology and others.

His client list reads like a who's who of top global brands and clients seek him out to help transform their businesses.

Prior to EquiBrand, Tim worked for several other management consulting firms including Accenture, The Cambridge Group, and Prophet, where he directed a range of client engagements. Tim began his career in the advertising industry, in account management at Ogilvy Chicago and media planning with another agency.

Tim received a BA from Michigan State University and an MBA from the J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

Kristin Kurth has an accomplished career in both upstream and downstream marketing. Her perspective comes from working across a wide range of industries including consumer and luxury goods, financial services, automotive, healthcare/biotech, publishing, real estate, hospitality, technology, and for an array of non-profits.

Kristin co-founded EquiBrand Consulting, helping clients from startups to Fortune 100 companies strategize, plan, and launch integrated brand-building initiatives. She has developed an extensive ecosystem of marketing and brand-building partners who contribute to EquiBrand engagements as needed.

Kristin began her career in advertising as a media planner on the Procter & Gamble business. She then worked in account management at BBDO and Ogilvy Chicago on packaged goods businesses, spending the majority of her career at Ogilvy, where she was a Senior Partner/Worldwide Management Supervisor in charge of the Wilson Sporting Goods business globally.

Kristin has a BBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, with specialization in marketing, finance, and economics.

She is an adjunct professor of marketing in the undergraduate and graduate programs of the School of Economics and Business Administration at St. Mary's College in Moraga, California. Kristin has also guest lectured extensively at top MBA programs, including Stanford Graduate School of Business, Haas Business School at University of California Berkeley, Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, and the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business.