Marketing Strategy Consulting

Lou Gerstner walked into IBM in 1993 expecting a strategy problem. What he found was worse. Here's what leaders need to learn: Every division had a strategy. Every executive had a vision. Every team was chasing a different goal. Engineering was building for one future. Sales was selling into another. Marketing had its own roadmap entirely. At his first exec meeting, each leader presented different success metrics: Revenue. Market share. Innovation. NPS. Same company, completely different definitions of winning. Gerstner didn’t write a new strategy. He did something more powerful: He mandated one framework for priorities. Same metrics. Same language. Same scorecard. Within 6 months, misalignment became visible. Within a year, IBM started moving as one. I saw the same pattern play out in a Fortune 500 basement. The quarterly review was nearly over when the Head of Ops paused: “I need to be honest. I don’t even know what our top 3 priorities are right now.” Silence. Then heads nodded. The CMO had been focused on brand. Sales thought revenue was the priority. The CTO was deep in infrastructure rebuild. The CFO was chasing cost control. 9 executives. 27 different priorities. 3 overlaps. That’s not a team. That’s a collection of soloists. Strategy isn’t the problem. Alignment is. Everyone knows the strategy. But what are they actually optimizing for this week? I’ve seen it again and again: • Monday: “Retention is everything” • Friday: Sales signs three bad-fit clients to hit quota • Product starts chasing new features • Success never gets the memo 5 days. Alignment gone. So how do you fix it? 1. Make priorities visible weekly Every Monday: top 3 org-wide priorities, posted publicly. No guessing. No side quests. 2. Create explicit handoffs Marketing, sales, product, and success - define the exact criteria for every handoff. Spotify did this. Discovered 40% of handoffs had misaligned expectations. 3. Run weekly alignment checks One question: What are you optimizing for this week? If it doesn’t match the org’s top 3, you catch drift instantly. 4. One source of truth No more 50 dashboards. Microsoft did this with their Customer Success Score. Every division had to contribute to the same North Star. Alignment doesn’t happen by accident. It deteriorates by default. Great companies don’t assume alignment. They build it systematically. That Fortune 500 team? 6 months later, they went from 27 priorities to 3. Revenue grew 18%. Engagement jumped 43% → 71%. All because they stopped guessing. Want more research-backed frameworks like this? Join 11,000+ execs who get our newsletter every week: 👉 https://lnkd.in/en9vxeNk

H2 is here: time to audit your brand like a cfo would Here's how: the CFO edition. Let’s not sugar-coat it. • If your brand isn’t remembered, it’s not chosen. • If it’s not trusted, it’s not bought. • If it’s not consistent, it’s not credible. • If it’s not tracked, it’s not understood at C-level. And if it’s none of those… you’re burning money. If you’re leading a business (not just a brand team), here’s the brutal truth: Your brand just played H1. Time to check the scoreboard and reset for H2. Ball in the centre. Let’s go. Let’s look how to audit your brand in 4 steps: 1. Identity & Consistency → Ask: • Does your brand look and sound consistent everywhere? • Are you building trust or confusion? → Look at: • Visuals, tone, decks, social, email, signage...does it all feel like one brand? → Metric Check: • Visual consistency rate • Template adoption • Tone alignment across channels 2. Positioning & Differentiation → Ask: • Is your value prop still relevant? • Are you leading with value — or shouting features? → Run: • Messaging audit • 3-word perception survey • Alignment workshop → Metric Check: • Share of Voice (Brand24) • Branded Search (Google Trends) • Consideration tracking (Tracksuit) This is the CFO’s territory: Are you spending to be seen, or to be remembered? 3. Messaging & Resonance → Ask: • Is your story consistent or reinvented every time? • Is everyone telling the same thing? • Are our campaigns sticking? → Look at: • Top/bottom content, sales pitch, internal message match → Metric Check: • Message alignment • Sentiment (Brand24) • Recall (Tracksuit) 4. Internal Branding: External strength starts inside. → Ask: • Does everyone know what we stand for — and why we matter? • Is purpose guiding real decisions? →Look at: • Comms, onboarding, values in action, leadership tone →Metric Check: • Brand clarity pulse • Template use • Training coverage • Leadership alignment Your brand isn’t fluff. It’s a business asset. So TRACK IT. That’s how your CFO sees the value, in margins, shorter sales cycles, reduced churn, stronger pricing, and better talent. The data says: • Strong recall = faster closes (Harvard Business Review) • Consistent brands = 33% higher revenue (Forbes) • Positive sentiment = price advantage (Kantar) • Brands tracked well = outperform peers (Forbes) Sooo the question isn’t: “Do we have a brand?” It’s: Is our brand working as a business tool?

Logos don’t move markets. Big ideas do. Design works better when it reinforces something bigger, an idea people already believe in and are ready to champion. When we rebranded a legacy watch brand, we didn’t start with the identity. We began by finding their Idea Worth Rallying Around®. That idea became 'Love Every Second.' And it turned a 50-year-old company’s first rebrand into a revenue driver. How the right big idea changes everything: → The discovery was in the culture Through audits, competitor analysis, and stakeholder interviews, we uncovered something interesting: Armitron’s team didn’t see time as a measurement but as a tapestry of memories, experiences, and emotions. → The idea had to bridge generations Armitron thrived for 50 years with Boomers and Gen X. But they needed Millennials and Gen Z. We needed to honor heritage while speaking a new language. Love Every Second worked because it resonated with a 60-year-old remembering their first watch and a 25-year-old documenting life on Instagram. → Words came before visuals We built voice pillars—Positive, Human, Partnering. That verbal foundation guided every decision: ↳ A logo that nodded to 1975 while feeling fresh. ↳ Photography that celebrated moments over mechanisms. → The idea inspired the organization Their CMO said: “Love Every Second isn’t just a tagline; it’s our internal north star now.” Teams used it in meetings. Customer service adopted it. Product development referenced it. You know you’ve found the right idea when it’s championed across the organization. → Results proved the strategy ↳ DTC revenue grew significantly ↳ Successfully reached Gen Z buyers ↳ Team alignment improved ↳ First rebrand in 50 years positioned them for the next 50 Here's what most rebrands get wrong: ↳ They start with what looks cool instead of what drives business. ↳ They brainstorm taglines instead of anchoring to a deeper truth. ↳ They change the surface without capturing the spirit. Your brand either reinforces your market position or undermines it. The difference? Start with an idea your people love, and your audience will champion.

Internal vs. External Comms: Who’s Fooling Who? Internal comms keeps the house in order; External comms tells the neighbors how tidy it is. Let me paint you a few familiar scenes: Scene 1: The MD is on Arise/Channels declaring the company’s bold new sustainability agenda. Meanwhile, in the office canteen, staff are sipping water from single-use plastics, wondering, “Which company is he talking about again?” Scene 2: HR circulates a memo about “cost discipline and lean operations.” On the same day, Marketing/Comms unveils a multi-million naira glitzy campaign. Staff group chats go wild, external stakeholders soon follow. Scene 3: Externally, a brand is hyping its “people-first culture.” Internally, no one has had a town hall in months, and line managers dodge tough questions. We laugh, but here’s the rub: these scenarios aren’t fiction—they’re everyday disconnects when internal and external comms don’t talk to each other. And that’s what fascinates me. Internal comms and external comms are often treated like distant cousins who only meet at weddings. Yet, they’re siblings. One feeds the other. When they’re out of sync, it shows—fast. In my experience: Ignore internal comms and employees quietly become your loudest “anti-influencers.” They’ll fact-check the glossy ad campaign before your customers even blink. Ignore external comms and the world either never hears your story, or worse, hears a distorted version from someone else. The real win happens when both are aligned: Staff are briefed before the press release drops. Campaigns are tested internally so the people living the brand story can actually stand by it. Messaging is consistent—whether it’s on a billboard, in the media, or in a staff WhatsApp group. Here’s my curiosity: how do we design comms strategies where employees don’t just receive the memo, but become the memo? Because in the end: Internal comms fuels credibility. External comms amplifies it. So maybe the question isn’t “internal versus external”—it’s: how do you get the two to sing in harmony? After all, your brand’s leaks don’t start in the press—they start in the pantry.

Internal comms brand is built on Tuesdays, not town halls Town halls get a lot of attention in internal comms. And don’t get me wrong – they matter. They’re visible, they feel important, and they’re often the moment leadership shows up. But they’re not where your internal brand is really built. That happens on ordinary days. A random Tuesday. In the way a message is phrased. In what gets repeated. In what quietly gets ignored. It’s built when managers talk to their teams – and they understand what they're sharing because they learned it from a thoughtful manager pack. When priorities don’t suddenly change because nobody can agree on sticking to the plan. When the message feels familiar instead of surprising because Canva has a new filter and now the design is suddenly "more creative". Most culture isn’t shaped in big moments. It’s shaped in small, repeated interactions that barely register at the time. That’s why consistency matters so much. Not because it looks good, but because it creates a sense of reliability. People know what to expect. Familiarity = Trust. Town halls can set direction. But Tuesdays are where people decide whether they believe it. And that decision is shaped by what you repeat, calmly and consistently, long after the big moment has passed.

When you hire for internal communications matters just as much as deciding what team they sit on. It's one of those roles that can really fit into a lot of places... HR, corporate comms/PR, operations, even the C-Suite next to executive leadership. And all technically work, can find success, and even get that coveted "seat at the table" 😉 but there's a home that not only connects departments, but also gives internal comms the influence and visibility it needs: ✨ marketing ✨ Here’s a few reasons why IC thrives there: ✨ Consistency + credibility of brand – Employees deserve the same clarity, inspiration, and storytelling we work so hard to deliver externally. When IC is aligned with marketing, what we say internally matches (and strengthens!) what we share externally. ✨ Channel expertise – Marketing brings the tools of segmentation, distribution, and measurement, helping IC move beyond “all company emails” to thoughtful campaigns that actually land. ✨ Cross-functional visibility – Because marketing partners with nearly every team, IC gains the perspective to connect dots and highlight stories across the org. ... to name a few! Placing IC on the marketing team makes a clear statement: this isn’t just a function to manage — it’s a brand-building, culture-shaping role that helps employees feel connected, inspired, and proud to be part of your story.

Many employees tell us they learn more about their firm from LinkedIn posts than from being inside the business itself. In Professional Services, that signals a serious disconnect. When the external brand story runs ahead of the internal reality, sentiment erodes fast. People feel like spectators instead of participants, and in a business where culture and client impact rely on engaged teams, that gap is costly. The best firms close this gap by communicating and integrating with equal intensity inside and out. They treat employees as the first audience, ensuring the story shared externally is already believed, lived, and reinforced internally. The strongest brand equity comes when sentiment inside the firm matches the story told outside. Because in this industry, the market rarely sees you as better than your people feel you are.

What you say about your brand must match what people experience 🎁 ✏️ Let me explain this with a simple example. 🎈Imagine this: ↳You go to a restaurant you’ve never been to before. ↳ Someone you trust keeps talking about how amazing it is. - They’re incredible. - The service is top-notch. - The food is outstanding. 🔔 So naturally… you expect a great experience. 🔍 Now compare that to another restaurant. You didn’t hear about it from anyone. 📢 You just saw an advertisement. The ad looks polished. Promises are bold. ✅ Everything looks perfect. ✅ So you walk in. And within seconds, the first interaction feels off. ❌ No greeting. No warmth. No clarity. ❌ From the entrance… to the service… to the food… ❌ Nothing matches what was promised. 🔚 And that’s where most brands experience fail. 👉 The promise doesn’t match the experience.  ⚠️ Here’s the truth most businesses ignore: Successful brands don’t tell people what to feel. 🔖 They engineer experiences that make people feel it naturally. Branding is notjust another : 🚫 A logo 🚫 A slogan 🚫 A social media campaign 🚫 A “premium” aesthetic Branding is: ✅  The first response time ✅  The tone of your DM replies ✅  The onboarding process ✅  The product quality ✅  The customer service behavior ✅  The follow-up after the sale ✅  Your marketing creates expectations. ✅  Your operations must deliver them. If they don’t align, your audience won’t just leave… They’ll talk. And not in your favor. For business owners & marketers: ⚠️ Before you scale ads… ⚠️ Before you increase content output… ⚠️ Before you chase vanity metrics… 📝 Ask yourself: ❓ Does our internal experience match our external messaging? 📩 Because in 2026 and beyond, attention is cheap. 🔰 But trust is everything. If you’re building a brand right now: ↳ Are you overpromising? ↳ Are you under-delivering? ↳ Or are you intentionally designing every touchpoint? Let’s discuss 👇 🗨 What’s one brand you’ve experienced that truly matched its promise? #BrandStrategy #CustomerExperience #ExperienceMarketing

Without internal alignment, your brand will fracture externally. The best brands start from the inside out. Your logo might be beautiful. Your messaging might be sharp. But if your team doesn’t understand or embody the brand — it shows. Employees are brand ambassadors… whether trained or not. And misalignment internally always leaks into the customer experience. → Framework Model: The Inside-Out Brand Alignment Loop 1. Belief → Do employees understand the “why” behind the brand? 2. Behavior → Are they empowered to act in alignment with it? 3. Experience → Is the culture felt at every customer touchpoint? → When those three break down, you get: ↳ Inconsistent messaging ↳ Brand promises not lived out ↳ Confused teams = confused customers Let’s flip that. → Things to put into motion: ↳ Make brand onboarding part of team onboarding. ↳ Share brand values as decision filters — not wall posters. ↳ Use internal language that mirrors your external promise. When your people get it, your customers feel it. Clarity becomes culture. And culture becomes competitive edge. → 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂: Does your team understand your brand as well as your customers do? → 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲: What’s the biggest barrier to internal brand alignment? A) Vague mission/values B) Siloed departments C) Leadership disconnect D) No consistent training → Vote + add your own experience in the comments. → Let’s unpack it ⬇️

Your internal team gets one story. Your customers and the media get another. And somehow, leadership is surprised when neither group really gets you. Unfortunately, this disconnect isn't uncommon. Companies running two separate communication tracks, where one tells the world you're innovative and customer-focused, while employees hear about cost cuts in all-hands meetings. That's two teams, two messages, zero alignment. When your internal and external messages don't line up, people notice. Your team questions if leadership believes what they're selling. Customers sense something's off. Most companies treat internal and external comms like separate departments. But your employees are your brand's biggest truth-tellers. The solution isn't just better messaging. It's getting aligned on what your story actually is. Here's how to start: ↳ Map what you're actually saying. Put your last three internal presentations next to your last three external campaigns. Same story? ↳ Get both teams talking. Share insights regularly. Where are the gaps between employee sentiment and customer feedback? ↳ Test your story. Before launching that campaign or company email, share it with the other team. Does it feel consistent? Need help? Let AI spot what you're missing. Use it to analyze employee surveys alongside customer feedback. It can flag messaging misalignment and suggest ways to bridge the disconnect. When your people and customers hear the same authentic story, communication stops feeling like spin and starts building real trust.