Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kelley Bowen and Rachel Katz. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Kelley and Rachel thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?
The Brand Set is a full-service branding collective founded by Rachel Katz and Kelley Bowen offering approachable and transparent brand development, marketing strategy, and consulting for businesses and entrepreneurs.
Rachel Katz is a marketing strategist who specializes in helping individuals, teams, and companies identify and implement smarter brand, marketing, and communications efforts. A former marketing executive, Rachel has managed the marketing and PR efforts for some of the strongest hospitality brands in the country, in addition to consulting with lifestyle brands and small business owners.
Kelley Bowen is a creative strategist focused on providing creative direction for branding, art direction, design, and development. Kelley has led creative and visual strategy for some of the world’s largest CPG and retail brands. As a former creative executive in fashion, she has consulted with global corporations and small businesses alike to craft thoughtful and revenue-driving creative assets and brand campaigns.
We created The Brand Set because we know the value a strong brand foundation can have for a company’s long-term success—and how often it is overlooked. We saw an opportunity to combine our individual experiences to offer holistic, full-service brand, creative, and marketing work for businesses of every size in any sector. The Brand Set offers a transparent approach and a clear, guided path to help business-owners and entrepreneurs get set up for success.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?
Kelley:
When I enrolled at the University of Georgia, I had hopes of becoming a sports broadcaster (a rare career dream for women at the time), which positioned me in the Journalism school. My path shifted when I elected an Advertising major, then realized that the program wasn’t as creative as I’d hoped. Defying all of my academic advisors, I added a rigorous Fine Arts undergrad degree to my plate. This required two additional years of college without the added clout of a Master’s degree, but I’ll never regret my decision. I switched my art major from Painting to Graphic Design, which ultimately catapulted me into my creative career.
Upon graduation, I immediately moved to New York City to pursue a career in advertising—in the midst of the Great Recession. Jobs were scarce, so I signed on with a temp agency and took whatever odd jobs I could with enthusiasm and humility. That attitude, and my willingness to get my hands dirty, took me in a direction I hadn’t anticipated: into the world of fashion. After a short stint in corporate communications at Calvin Klein, I was craving a more design-driven role. A two-week temp gig at Tommy Hilfiger morphed into a contract role as a graphic apparel designer. Five years later, I had carved out a new role as the Senior Designer leading graphic design, knitwear design, branding, packaging, and visual merchandising for the North American women’s team. Over the course of a few fun but grueling years, I became a leader on the team that grew the division from scratch to a billion-dollar enterprise.
My husband and I relocated to Atlanta, and took on the role of Head of Creative at Spanx. I was thrilled to join a team of mostly women, designing and marketing products for women. I learned the power of integrated marketing strategies and stayed true to my roots in brand development to lead a rebrand and map out Spanx’s new digital and e-commerce presence.
I soon realized that my wide experience lends itself to a holistic approach, and that I’m clearly most interested in brand building. I founded a creative direction agency, Kelley Bowen Creative, that provided brand and creative strategy to retail, lifestyle, and CPG brands. This path led me a partnership with friend and fellow strategist Rachel Katz called The Brand Set, through which we offer our combined executive-level expertise in creative, marketing, and brand strategy. Our ultimate goal is to build better brands for our clients while fostering a collective wherein we can connect like-minded businesses with one another and reinforce cross-pollination in the entrepreneurial space.
Rachel:
I knew I wanted to work in the restaurant industry and move to New York City from a young age. I majored in Public Relations and Leadership at the University of Florida, it was an ideal intersection for my outgoing personality and love of strategic problem solving (I’ve always been the person to try and solve the problem rather than dwell on it). True to my determined ways, I found internships in New York City that immersed me directly in restaurants, having the opportunity to work under amazing mentors, and with the incomparable chef Marcus Sameulsson. Working for Marcus led me to my first job in NYC with Baltz and Company, a PR agency that specializes in hospitality PR. From there, I transitioned to in-house Marketing and PR roles with restaurant groups in Charlotte, NC and New York City and ultimately had the opportunity to join ESquared Hospitality as Vice President of Marketing, overseeing the marketing, PR and digital efforts for the company’s portfolio of 40+ restaurants around the world.
I’ve been lucky to spend my career building, growing and promoting restaurant and CPG brands. But, the one thing that always stuck out was that while Marketing and Branding are so essential to help a business grow, they are so often overlooked, underfunded or cut altogether because of budget. When my husband and I moved to Atlanta in 2019, I founded a strategic consultancy, RBK + Co, to help businesses understand, identify and implement better marketing strategies; finding the right people to do the job and putting dollars towards the right internal and external efforts.
Amidst the ongoing challenges of the last few years, the need for smarter marketing and branding strategies has become more essential than ever. In an effort to make more full-service consulting efforts available to brands and businesses in need, I partnered with my dear friend and creative branding expert, Kelley Bowen, to launch a brand and strategy collective, The Brand Set. Acting as an extension of a brand’s marketing team, we work to provide holistic brand, marketing and creative strategic services to ensure a brand can be set up for success no matter its size, stage, or scope.
Can you tell us the story behind how’d you met your business partner?
Rachel:
Kelley and I first met at The Lola, a women’s co-working space in Atlanta, though it feels like we’ve known one another for far longer than that. The collaboration of our individual specialties and aligned career experience is what makes us great at our work; but our underlying synchronicity and friendship is honestly what makes The Brand Set so special. We are as equal a partnership I have ever had. We cheer one another on, know the other’s strengths, we make space for what the other person needs, and we trust the skill set and expertise of one another to be efficient in what needs to get done for our business and our clients.
Kelley:
In founding The Brand Set, Rachel and I have embedded collaboration and connection into the fiber of the brand from the beginning. I’m so thrilled to work with someone as intelligent, savvy, and focused as Rachel. Surrounding myself with inspirational thought leaders has only led to positive results, and The Brand Set is the manifestation of that sentiment. Rachel and I are constantly energized when we work together to build and problem solve, and that passion is something we are consistently inspired by to bring to our clients.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
Rachel:
For a long time, I was very into podcasts like “How I Built This.” I always loved hearing how some of our most used and recognized brands got started – especially the trials of founders who were on their 2nd or 3rd business, or got started later in life. I prefer those stories to bring perspective that time is relative and success in not finite. But more so now, it’s been the work I’ve done with my Executive Coach over the years that has made the most impact. The perspective shift, personal and professional development you are thrown into has been a major instigator for not only how I’ve approached work as a business owner, but shifted my longer-term perspective for everything in my life. It’s taught me to learn from my experiences – both good and bad, and use that to craft my own approach that I want to impart on others.
Kelley:
“The Myth of the Nice Girl” by Fran Hauser completely changed my outlook on leadership and how I relate to it. I had admittedly struggled with how to be a woman leader in a “man’s world” (yes, even in fashion). Reading this book reinforced something that had been gnawing at me for some time: the idea that strength and power can coexist with grace and flexibility. Since, I’ve been able to reframe my professional approach to leadership and problem solving, without feeling boxed in by regressive stereotypes about strong female leadership. In doing so, I’ve formed lasting relationships with coworkers, direct reports, clients, and vendors that are founded on the basis of mutual respect. I’m convinced that these connections wouldn’t be as strong (or exist at all) had I not figured out how to be “a boss” in a way that’s true to myself.
Contact Info:
- Website: thebrandset.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/thebrandset
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/the-brand-set
Image Credits
Heidi Harris