“Say it well.”

You have a business, a vision.
It's just not fully articulated.

That salient story has yet to surface…

Illustration of a red salmon swimming upstream, stylized and detailed with scales and fins.

Strategic brand words


For:

  • Seeking a position that drives messaging.

  • Wanting more firepower and a ‘second brain’ ally.

  • Building frameworks that secure organisational buy-in.

  • Renewing relevance in competitive markets.

  • Wanting an outside view into a client’s internal identity to inform strategic thinking.

    A secret weapon to enhance the delivery of brand-aligned strategy.

  • Wanting to turn vision into a market-defining position.

We’re going upstream to define what sets you apart

and understand the invisible forces and instincts
that shape your mission

and give clarity to your market position.

Unpacking

  1. Mission and manifesto

  2. Brand blueprint

  3. Promise and proposition

  4. Strategic design narrative

  5. Employee engagement theme

  6. Market-facing endline

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Imagine your brand on a page, to steer your business and reel in your brand team.

Jump into my Upstream Swim™ to start navigating your way forward >>

Cogent clarity

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  • Aligns people, sharpens focus, and helps with decision-making.

    Unified around a "rallying cry", a "shared understanding" turns an organisation into a cohesive body executing on one narrative.

  • Messaging to live beyond shorter-term tactics to build loyalty and a sense of constancy.

    Winning "hearts and minds" can build trust over time, where teams don’t just buy or work for the brand; they believe in it.

  • Helps distinguish business brands and stand for something useful, relevant and needed.

  • Leading with purpose can create a sense of meaning and belonging.

    An ambitious, inspiring narrative draws in prospects, talent, and partners who want to be part of something.

    This gravitational pull can make you a category leader.

  • A well-articulated position sets a unique, defensible position - your moat - that is hard to encroach upon and replicate.

Why it may matter

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  • "A showstopper"

    Dave - wanted to share something that happened yesterday. I was asked to present to Laurene Powell Jobs. She is looking into ways to educate, inform and enlighten folks on education, gun control and immigration reform.

    Our vision statement and belief in inspiring each other to go beyond what we already know to make our world more interesting was a showstopper.

    It was really powerful to talk to this within the context of why we are building this platform and how it ties into what she is working on. Anyway - thank you for guiding us through the exercise.

    - Mark Bartels, CEO, StumbleUpon Inc. US

  • "an inspiration to the business"

    Great to work wth you in 2024 Dave. Such an inspiration to the business. Indeed to the team - most collaborative thorough brand evolution process I’ve ever been involved with. Thank you.


    - Jane Kirkup, Marketing Director, GreenAcres Living Memorial Parks, UK

  • "THE key success factor"

    Dave was able to put together the story and identity of our brand when others were still trying to figure out what we do...His ability to get to the core was THE key success factor in our rebranding.

    - Max Armbruster, CEO and Founder, Edgilis Consulting, SG

  • "Facilitation skills (are) bar none"

    Dave's calm, reassuring manner helped to create a safe space for the leaders to explore and debate opposing opinions for the first time.

    Dave's facilitation skills are bar none. He was able to bring together strongly held disparate views with ease to help create a shared understanding amongst the board.

    This ultimately resulted in a refreshed vision, mission and values document that guides the charity and has enabled the Executive Director to make more effective decisions around purpose, programming and partnerships.

    - Lisa Gainer, Social Impact CEO, TalentTrust, SG

  • "identifies the real truth"

    Dave is an astute thinker who has an uncanny ability to remove all ambiguity and identify the real truth in a brand; always expertly delivered through compelling storytelling.

    - David Blyth, MD, Brand Union Africa, SA

  • "vehicles for morale and self-discovery."

    Dave help us build a company’s mission, a soul, a rallying cry for internal teams in need of purpose... and a magnetic beacon for our users.

    He was elegant on his approach to corporate culture, and well-versed and convincing with his researched opinions.

    His strategic mind was crucial to help us build customer trust over time, and craft value messages with a shelf life longer than just the next quarter, (and) his presentations became vehicles for morale and self-discovery.

    - David Gómez-Rosado, Exec. Director Experience, StumbleUpon Inc. US

  • "clear and impactful"

    Dave is a masterful facilitator who helped the CampusImpact board articulate a vision for the next 3 years, and the strategy we would take to get there.

    It was no easy feat, considering that we had strong personalities on the board. Thanks to Dave’s clear and impactful communication, the board was able to come together behind a common vision.

    This also empowered the management team and we tripled our staff component, growing from an organisation with Total Operating Expenditure of around $500,000 to an organisation with TOE of $1.2 million today.


    - Elysa Chen, Executive Director, CampusImpact, SG

  • "an artists eye, a marketers mindset"

    Dave combines an artists eye, a marketers mindset and design thinking to produce solutions that deliver above expectations. What I value most is that while Dave clearly does his research- he is also a keen listener. The result is he often understands the product as well (and sometimes better) than the owners.

    - Dr James Andrade, Head, Catapult Executive Leadership & Innovation Institute

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