Susan L. Heller

Over most of her 30 years as a trademark and branding attorney, Susan Heller's responsibilities for her clients were to select, clear and register trademarks, build a global footprint for the clients by filing marks in many countries, expand the efforts to entire product lines, enforce trademarks and names, and then help the clients monetize marks and brands through licensing and other partnerships to increase brand equity and value.

"Now that's not enough," Heller said. "Now we have to work on the messaging of the brand." A new trend in the last few years has "caused a pivot in branding" that's affecting all her work.

"Consumers have become ... strident in demanding that goods and services that they buy and that they use ... align with or represent their personal values," she said. "They're making decisions based on what a brand stands for."

Now, Heller is helping her clients declare their values through messaging and branding. One big example is ESG or environmental, social and governance policies. Consumers want to know where businesses stand on social justice and whether corporate investments impact the community.

"They're holding companies' feet to the fire," Heller said. She is now working with three clients to create trademarks and branding specifically for their ESG programs, apart from their products. "Some pretty well-known brands are working literally only on their ESG initiatives to come up with separate branding."

Actually, Heller has become one of those consumers herself. Recently when she was deciding between two similar brands of hardwood floors to buy, she picked the one that advertised its social responsibility, she said.

One longtime client is Tishman Speyer, the real estate firm that owns New York landmarks such as Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall and the Rainbow Room. Last year, Heller helped the company create a new "Roxy the Owl" brand for a mascot modeled on a tiny owl that was discovered clinging to a branch of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in 2020. "Kids love it," she said.

"You can be more than just a core product or service," she noted. In addition to creating the Roxy brand, Tishman was the first developer to brand its concierge service.

Heller also advises Shein, which is the largest online-only fashion company in the world, and Western Digital and its SanDisk brand.

A newer client is Plantible Foods Inc., which produces plant-based protein products. She is advising the company about strategic trademark positioning and about the best timing to file its marks for registration.

Outside of work, Heller sits on the boards of UCI's law and business schools and is the vice president of the board of directors of Human Options, which helps survivors of domestic violence.

Interestingly, both Human Options and the UCI business school were working on redoing their branding when she joined their boards. "In my world, ... it all comes down to branding."

-- Don DeBenedictis