Most brands chase growth like it’s hiding inside a bigger ad budget. But the brands that last usually grow in a quieter way: they deepen the relationship people already have with them. That was the opportunity with Turner Classic Movies (TCM). TCM didn’t need awareness. They were already...
I help leaders stop running marketing like a slot machine. Pull the lever. Launch campaign. Hope it “converts.” Instead, I help them build brands that grow in three directions at once: Depth (Cult Branding)Build belonging with Brand Lovers so loyalty becomes a moat. Spread (Why We Talk)Design talk triggers...
Quick story. We partnered with Thomas Nelson to transform the Bible shopping experience, and it didn’t start with an ad. It started with friction. People wanted to buy a Bible.They were trying.They were getting stuck.And the brand was quietly losing sales without fully seeing why. So we went...
If I walk into a business and I’m trying to understand what’s really going on, I ask this: “What tension in your customer’s life do you help resolve consistently?” Not features.Not demographics.Not your mission statement. Tension. Because tension is where: motivation lives loyalty forms word of mouth sparks premium pricing becomes possible competitors get...
At some point, every marketer hits a wall. I did too. Early on, I thought the job was to be clever:Better headlines. Better campaigns. Better hooks. Sometimes it worked. Then I’d watch a “less clever” brand win anyway. Why? Because customers weren’t choosing the cleverest message.They were choosing the brand that...
Marketing loves neat diagrams. Awareness → Consideration → Conversion. But real buying behavior is messier: pause compare forget re-enter ask a friend get distracted come back weeks later That “messy middle” is where brands win or lose. This is why long-term brand building matters: It creates memory structures that make it easier to choose later. And it’s...
Most companies say they’re customer centered organisations. Then they measure: internal efficiency short-term sales campaign ROAS quarterly targets And customers feel the gap. Customers First came from watching this happen over and over. Customer-first isn't the intention. It’s behavior. It’s what your team does when: a policy collides with a person a process creates friction service is inconvenient “nobody...
A lot of brands try to “build loyalty” with rewards. Points. Discounts. Perks. Those can help, but they’re not a sense of belonging. They’re incentives. Loyalty, the real kind, is closer to what you see in Cult Brands: Customers don’t just buy.They identify. They feel belonging. They feel seen. They feel...
My second book was born from a simple observation: People talk.Constantly.About everything. And it’s not random. In Why We Talk, I explain the core idea:Humans are wired to share what helps us make sense of the world. That means the biggest growth engine is often not an ad platform. It’s...
Here’s a question that reveals whether a brand is playing checkers or chess: Why do the biggest brands in the world still spend hundreds of millions on advertising they can’t track? Nike doesn’t buy billboards, Olympic sponsorships, or global TV expecting a direct conversion tomorrow. Apple doesn’t run...