The problem
When your team gives five answers, buyers and AI hear noise.
Ask five people at your company why a buyer should choose you over your closest competitor. You’ll get five different answers, and every one of them ends up somewhere: the homepage, the sales deck, an agency brief, a LinkedIn profile.
In Harvard Business Review, two strategy professors found most executives can’t state their strategy in a simple sentence. “If they can’t, neither can anyone else.” Today, anyone else includes AI.Collis & Rukstad, “Can You Say What Your Strategy Is?” HBR, 2008
- Your homepage could swap logos with a competitor’s and nobody would notice.
- You’ve rewritten the agency’s copy yourself. Again.
- You’re about to redesign the website, and nobody has written down what it should say.
- Ask ChatGPT who to hire in your category. You’re missing, or described in words that fit three competitors.
Why it matters more now
If your team can’t say why you win, neither can AI.
Google ranked your pages one at a time. AI reads everything written about you, pulls it into one picture, and checks that picture against what others say. When it all agrees, you get named. When it doesn’t, you aren’t misrepresented. You’re just not mentioned. Read the research behind it.
- InvisibleNot in the answer.
- FindableConfirmed if someone names you.
- NamedOn the shortlist, described generically.
- RecommendedNamed in your own terms. This is the goal.
Why brand pays
Brand is what lets you charge more.
Every business has three levels. Cost is what it takes to deliver. Price is what you charge. Perceived value is what the buyer believes it’s worth, and it has to sit above price or nobody buys. A clear brand raises perceived value, so you can charge more, win more often, or both. The workshop is where you decide what that brand is. More on brand.
Where you stand
Find the ground only you can own.
Your sweet spot sits where customers’ needs meet what you do well, in the space competitors don’t cover. It’s what AI and buyers are trying to understand about your company, and it’s what the workshop’s Distill phase defines. See how it’s found.
How it works
Ten work sessions. Each one ends in a decision.
Every engagement answers all ten. How deep each one goes depends on your company and your category.
Discover
See where you stand
- 01Where does our own team disagree about who we are?
- 02What do our website and AI say about us today?
- 03What is the buyer actually trying to fix, in their words?
- 04What state is our category in, and where does everyone sound the same?
Distill
Decide where you can win
- 05What ground can we credibly own?
- 06Which features matter, and what do they change for the buyer?
- 07What is the one thing we’ll be known for?
Design
Turn the decision into words people repeat, and fund it
- 08What is our core claim, and can we prove every word?
- 09Which claim leads in which channel, and what has to go?
- 10What does each team and agency need to act on it, and what’s the budget?
We interview first, then we work it out together. We talk to your people before each session and bring drafts built from their own words. In the room, your team pushes back and decides.
What you walk out with: a complete brand strategy and the budget to act on it, not a tagline. TrendMiner’s ran 40 pages.
- Competitive audit
- Brand foundation
- Claim framework
- Messaging briefs
Before and after
Same companies. Different words. Better numbers.
- 64%lower cost per click, same ad budgetTouchPoint Software · Church management software
10Louder helped our software company hone our messaging and competitive positioning. With the same paid budget, our clicks increased by 42%, and CPC dropped by 64%.
- 3.7×higher landing page conversionEschbach · Industrial SaaS
The Brand Truth Workshop is one of the best marketing investments we’ve ever made.
- +213%qualified calls from the homepageSelect Sand & Gravel · Aggregates supplier
From “sand, gravel, fill dirt, crushed stone and topsoil delivery” to “We help you win the bid.”
- +123%lead-to-qualified-lead conversion, same budgetSMU Cybersecurity Online Master’s · Higher education
We’ve applied the workshop’s output to everything from our website redesign, to our content strategy, to our various landing page designs. The Brand Truth Workshop is well worth the investment.
In their words
What clients said afterward.
“Throughout my career, I’ve done a number of brand strategy workshops all over the world. The Brand Truth Workshop was by far the best that I’ve participated in.”
David Goldstone, World Cinema
“The workshop’s output was a crystal clear brand architecture, which we have used to guide the website launch for the new entity, the website redesign for the existing entity, and the overall go-to-market strategy for both entities.”
Kyle Kennedy, President and CEO, COPC Global Consulting
“The workshop helped us get clarity and cohesion around our brand identity. We are a group of five distinctive but very complementary companies that had been struggling with how to tell our collective story.”
Jeff Haynes, CEO, The Haute Companies
“Brad’s facilitation skills ensured every voice was heard, fostering strong collaboration across Europe and the U.S.”
Rob Azevedo, Head of Product, TrendMiner
“Even though the workshop was conducted remotely (we had team members in different cities and continents), Brad kept everyone engaged the entire time.”
Bradley Boggs, COO, Chameleon Design & Manufacturing
“Brad’s Brand Truth Workshop has always been an excellent investment and a highlight for my team.”
Rodney Kight, Chief Marketing Officer, Feeder’s Pet Supply
Your guide
Brad B McCormick
Instructor of Digital Marketing Strategy and Performance Management, Southern Methodist University
Founder of 10Louder and past president of the Dallas chapter of the American Marketing Association. Before brand strategy, he led change management as a digital transformation consultant for Dell and NTT Data, which is where he learned that alignment is built, not announced.
More than 26 years of digital marketing with some of the biggest brands in the world. Author of Signal Over Noise, the research behind this workshop. More about Brad.
Brands Brad has worked with: McDonald’s, LEGO, FedEx, Cisco, HP, Capital One, Johnson & Johnson, Samsung HVAC, IndyCar. Brand Truth Workshop clients include FedEx Office.
Pricing
Ten work sessions. You choose who runs them.
When Brad ran this work inside big agencies, it cost clients $80,000 to $100,000 or more. Same method, rebuilt for companies of 10 to 500 people. Do It Yourself and Done With You are fixed prices. Done For You is scoped on the first call.
- Free AI brand scanA 30-minute call. See what AI says about you vs. your competitors.
- AI Brand Visibility Diagnostic, $2,500A 100-point grade of how AI sees you, and what to fix. Every dollar counts toward Done With You or Done For You.
- The Brand Truth WorkshopTen sessions, one strategy, a funded plan.
Do It Yourself
$4,500Two months of accessYour facilitator runs the sessions with our playbook and videos: the same brand strategy curriculum Brad teaches in SMU’s Digital Marketing Strategy course.
- Where most teams start
Done With You
$13,50090 daysYour facilitator runs the sessions. We coach your team through every step, then synthesize.
Done For You
From $25,500Per audienceWe run the sessions, then synthesize and deliver.
Our commitment: you approve every phase before the next one starts. We don’t finalize a claim until the people who have to use it can explain and defend it. Fixed scope, 50% at start and 50% at midpoint.
It’s also backed by our guarantee: agree to ten principles, and we guarantee our part.
We’ll tell you if you don’t need us.
- If your team already repeats one claim, skip to execution.
- If nobody can give this a few hours over the next two months, wait until they can.
Keep reading
Common questions
- We’re about to redesign our website. Should we do this first?
- Yes. A website amplifies whatever you’ve decided to say. If nobody has written down why a buyer should choose you, the designer and copywriter will guess, and the new site will say what the old one said, only prettier.
- What if we’re honestly not that different?
- Then the workshop is built for you. In mature categories the goal isn’t to invent a difference. It’s to be the one buyers remember and AI can describe in your terms.
- Is this AI SEO?
- No. It’s the decision AI SEO needs before it can work. Visibility tactics amplify whatever you already say. This decides what that is.
- How much of our team’s time does it take?
- Most people give a short survey and a one-hour interview. The core group joins a small number of working sessions. We give you an exact plan on the first call.
- Where does the $2,500 diagnostic fit?
- It’s the first paid step. The AI Brand Visibility Diagnostic grades how AI sees you today on a 100-point scale and shows what to fix. Every dollar of it counts toward Done With You or Done For You.