[Originally published in 2020 by Brian Creath, president of Cohesion.]
Three Weeks Ago:
My prospective client looked up and confidently said: "The last brand consultants I talked to worked with Coke for 25 years. I’m thinking about hiring them."
"Well, that’s your prerogative," I said. "But unless you’re repositioning Coke, or building sales messaging for one of its competitors, I’m not sure I see the relevance?"
"How many brands have you positioned?" asked my prospect.
"A hundred and fifty, plus," I answered. "In more than 50 business categories (including yours) for more than 25 years. Several of the companies much larger than Coke.**"
"Won awards, too," I said.
She paused and looked down. "But it’s Coke…"
Today:
Well, the good news is that Cohesion is still chasing this business. Fingers crossed. Two big takeaways for me: 1) Even though I build them for a living, never forget the true power of a brand: it nearly kept us from being a contender for this business; 2) Never underestimate our (my) need to continue translating the value of our diverse, decades-proven, every-shape-and-size, client experience.
The fact is, most of our clients have only positioned two, or three companies — or brands in their career.† Which makes sense: they were busy running companies and building marketing departments.
But we’ve positioned more than 150.
Contact us. We’ll make you a hero.
Brian Creath is the president and founder of Cohesion, a strategic brand consultancy that helps organizations position, package and articulate the essence and direction of businesses, brands, solutions and issues. Since 1999, our work has created new value and revenue for more than 150 organizations, including Fortune 500 corporations, mid-market companies and innovative small businesses.
* Coke is a registered trademark of the Coca-Cola company.
** Coke currently ranks #85 on the Fortune 500
† In full transparency, I did have a client who had worked to position more than 25 brands. More than 15 of them, with our help.