By the time he was in his early twenties, BJ Cunningham owed his bank £876,000. His business importing classic cars had hit the brakes when the market collapsed. Bravely, Barclays lent him more money to start another venture. Alastair Gilmour reports on tenacity, belief, and the power of branding and communicating. *********
 After graduating in product design and travelling to the Far East, teeenager BJ Cunningham started his first enterprise importing classic cars and Harley Davidson motorbikes from Los Angeles to London. This stopped abruptly when the market collapsed. "I was £876,000 overdrawn at 22-and-a-half years old," he says. "People who were buying imported classic cars were taking advantage of a tax loophole to avoid capital gains tax. When that loophole was closed, the market fell out of bed. I genuinely thought a Ferrari was worth £2.5m. "I went to my father for advice - he's great. He said, 'BJ, you're on your own'. It wakes you up - it's scary but you're still alive, still breathing. You're losing £10,000 a month interest, but so what, what can they do? I thought someone will still buy me a drink, I could blag a job. I didn't curl up and die." Taking his considerable debt with him, BJ decided to launch Death Cigarettes, positioning them as "the honest smoke" (basically, with the message that if you smoked these things you're going to die and die horribly). "The idea came from one of those times when you're having a laugh with your mates over a pint in the pub," he says. "We were coming up with the daftest business ideas we could, like wouldn't it be great if there was a beer called Piss, and Death cigarettes. I woke up next morning still laughing, so I took the idea to Barclays Bank. Your relationship with your banker is crucially important. "They hedged their bet, saying we'll give you the money if you can find someone to manufacture them - they thought no-one would. It took me six months and there were long periods of time where I was biting the carpet. Then I found a guy in a coffee shop in Amsterdam and he was telling me that he had inherited a cigarette factory from his father - at the same time as he had found religion. I offered him the opportunity to profit from the truth. He said 'Amen'." His Enlightened Tobacco Company plc, which he describes as "a vertical learning curve", culminated after five years in a spectacular tax arbitrage scheme, threatening to overturn the tobacco industry and truly open up Europe for the consumer. It took him to the doors of the European Court of Justice, where he found himself up against the combined might of the tobacco industry and every member state of the EU. He lost. The learning curve, however, started to make sense. "I'd definitely do it again," he says. "It's very rare in life you get the chance to wind up all the people you want to wind up - governments, taxmen, politicians. "They said you are right in law, but the law never meant for you to be right, so you are wrong. I learnt lessons; I learnt about belief and to respect other people's truth. I also learnt about borders and boundaries - an American Indian saying goes: 'Show me where the wind stops and I'll show you a boundary'. "It taught me simple things like I couldn't sell a product until it's on the shelf - not from a distance. And it taught me about brands, marketing and position; the difference between an idea and a product; what's your point and why should anyone care?" Then, with a growing reputation for challenging norms, BJ set up a brand marketing agency built on his experience in business and the philosophy of Corporate Religion. Cients included Volkswagen, B&O, Fairline Boats and Nokia. Now that has been sold, he is currently developing the luxury shoe designer Georgina Goodman, who happens to be his wife. He says: "It's a £2m-a-year business in hand-made shoes, with customers such as Jerry Hall. Manolo Blahnik has described Georgina as 'the next Manolo Blahnik'." BJ is now channelling his energy into his latest venture and taking his corporate learning into the SME market. In his usual provocative style he will challenge business owners and entrepreneurs to re-examine the truth and their brand. He continues to work as an independent brand marketing consultant and has become a much sought-after keynote and after-dinner speaker for international conferences and events. BJ uses the Death cigarette brand to illustrate the power of provocation and how to flip a conservative market. In typically entertaining fashion, he also demonstrates that authentic and powerful branding demands the truth. The future is about market depth and involvement, not just awareness. Presentations focus on his belief that companies are like people. Each one of us is made up of three separate perspectives - how we perceive ourselves, how others perceive us, and how we want to be perceived. The closer these perspectives are, the stronger we are. Companies are the same - if a company perceives itself in the same way as others perceive it and it wants to be perceived, then it is strong. He says: "Authentic and powerful branding demands The Truth. The future is about market depth and involvement, not market width and awareness. "People think branding is all about recognition - it's not. My grandmother might recognise Nike as a brand but there's no way she's going to go out and buy a pair of trainers. "The Body Shop doesn't sell shampoo and soap - it sells Caring and Ethical Business. Harley-Davidson doesn't sell motorbikes - it sells Freedom. So, what does your brand say to the world?" BJ brings the same authenticity and passion to his teaching as he does to his business. His Brand Evolution workshops are like no others. His lively, incisive and provocative style makes you think about your brand in a completely new way. His intense one-day Branding MasterClass helps to get to the heart of who you really are, what your business is all about, and what you want it to say to the world. It's for serious business people who want to maximise their market potential. You learn what a brand is, how it works and why it's important. Then, working with a mix of theory, case studies and interactive exercises, you achieve a clarity about your brand and renew your enthusiasm for building and transforming it. At the end of the day, you will leave with a solid description of your brand DNA - a concise, compelling concept that expresses your brand and its key sales messages. You will also have the foundation of a strategy map for brand communications, market research and a toolkit that you can take back to cascade through your organisation.
BJ Cunningham's next Brand Evolution workshop is on Saturday July 29 at One Aldwych, just off the Strand in London. For further information, call 0845 3631036 or visit www.brandevolutionworkshop.com
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