Marketing is positioning.
​Positioning is difference.

We are two seasoned thinkers who can quickly get to the crux of your challenge to focus on the solution.

If you don’t like complete honesty and intense debate, we are not for you. If you work with us, we owe you our POV, strongly argued. Anything less is dishonest.

We will learn your business, but will never understand it the way you do. One plus one can equal three. Working with us means rolling-up your intellectual sleeves and diving in.

We see every assignment as unique, and our process is tailored to your challenge. It can play out over an intensive two-day workshop, or up to a 12-week engagement. ​But don’t hire us for our methodologies, hire us because we have a proven track record of creating strategies that make a difference.

We have no desire to build a traditional, hierarchical company. Our strengths and weaknesses offset one another (we’ll let you figure out what they are), and we work best when we are both actively engaged on the puzzle. We don’t outsource elements of the work – we are hands on throughout and only take on as much work as the two of us can handle.

After careers in brand management, advertising and consulting, we both discovered that we’re only actually good at strategy. For the past 15 years we’ve worked together on marketing strategy – constantly building and debating – both sure we won every argument! We’re not in this to help our clients do a bit better – we’re in it to make a lasting difference.

Austin has run a CPG marketing and sales team, run three advertising agencies and built a nationally recognized marketing strategy business from the ground up. He has advised clients such as Disney, Boeing, Nike, ESPN, NBC, YouTube, Levi Strauss, Westin, Amazon, Facebook, Visa and Unilever. He is also the “almost best-selling” author of “Brand is a Four Letter Word – Marketing and the Art of Positioning”, and the recently published “Find Your Difference = Challenging Conformity in Business and in Life”.

Alpa cut her teeth in brand management in Europe and was enticed to move to New York where she rose from intern to lead the strategy group of an award winning marketing strategy firm. She has advised F100 executives, visionary entrepreneurs, culture shapers and creative geniuses at organizations clients such as Disney, Cirque du Soleil, Viacom, Hearst, Anheuser Busch In-Bev, Estée Lauder, Pepsico, Calvin Klein, Unilever and UNICEF USA. She guest lectures at Masters programs at NYU and Columbia University and volunteers extensively with entrepreneurs in conflict zones across the globe.

While every project is unique, we see ourselves as specialists in five related areas of marketing strategy:

We firmly believe that marketing is positioning, and positioning strategy sits at the heart of what we do, influencing almost every project we take on.

We see purpose as an extension of the way we think about positioning. Why does the world need your business or brand? What is the unique contribution you can make to this world we live in? A purpose is not a charity, it is a way to focus, guide and inspire the efforts of your organization. It is your why.

We see brand architecture as a positioning puzzle to be solved. How do we best organize the working pieces, how do we position each against its competitive set, and how do we position them so that their unique role is crystal clear.

We see innovation as a discipline in desperate need of strategic direction. The “innovation business” seems to work on an underlying belief that “more is better” – an idea we find dangerous. When it comes to innovation, a few, big, truly unique, strategically driven ideas is what you are looking for. Our mantra is “fewer, bigger, bolder bets”. This forces you to focus on a limited set of ideas that can create impact. It allows you to iterate and perfect both the product and the way it’s taken to market. Most businesses have “permission” for a wide range of action, but only a few innovations will generate true power and scale.

We approach insights as a critical input to inspire, pressure-test and optimize our thinking. We take a hypothesis driven approach to both qualitative and quantitative research to avoid fishing expeditions and ensure actionable insights – those that can drive differentiated strategy and tactics.