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Strategy Notes

Strategy Note 8: The Party Test

Strategy Note 8: The Party Test

Your brand has a personality whether you chose it or not. The way you write your emails. The colors on your website. The speed of your responses. The words you use when you explain what you do. The tone of your social media. The experience of navigating your checkout process.

Strategy Note 7: The Boredom Problem

Strategy Note 7: The Boredom Problem

Consistency builds recognition. Changing your message every time you see something new that works for someone else builds confusion. I understand the temptation. You see a competitor's post perform well and wonder if you should try their approach. You read advice about pivoting your positioning and wonder if

Strategy Note 6: People Buy Feelings

Strategy Note 6: People Buy Feelings

People buy feelings, not features. Many businesses list specifications and capabilities as if their audience were making spreadsheet decisions. Storage capacity. Response time. Number of sessions included. The quantifiable, comparable, logical details that seem like they should matter most. Meanwhile, the brands that create devoted followings don’t focus exclusively

Strategy Note 5: Copying Is Surrender

Copying your competitors feels like strategy but functions as surrender. The logic seems reasonable. Someone else has figured out what works. They have tested messaging, validated positioning, proven that a market exists. Why reinvent the wheel when you can study what succeeds and replicate it? Because replication makes you a

Strategy Note 4: The Concept You Own

The brands that live rent-free in your mind share something in common: they have made themselves synonymous with a single concept and built an empire inside it. Volvo became shorthand for safety. Tesla, for innovation. These associations did not happen by accident—they emerged from years of consistent repetition until

Strategy Note 3: Strategy Problems Wearing Marketing Costumes

There is a pattern I see repeatedly in businesses that are struggling to gain traction despite doing everything "right." They are posting consistently. They have a presence on the platforms where their audience supposedly spends time. They have invested in professional visuals and decent copy. They are showing

Strategy Note 2: Three Questions Worth Sitting With

There are three questions worth sitting with if your brand has never truly answered them. These questions require honesty, and honesty requires sitting with discomfort long enough to find the real answer rather than the convenient one. Who are you for? The obvious, but unhelpful answer is a demographic category.