Case studies5
Larkfield Credit Union
Positioning & naming · 2024
Four regional credit unions merged and could not agree on what the combined thing was for. I ran nine weeks of member and staff interviews, found that the only claim all four could honestly make was speed of decision, and built the position on that. New name, new proposition, one 14-page document. Member attrition through the merger came in at 3%, against a board forecast of 11%.
Quillmark
Naming & verbal identity · 2023
A legal-tech company with a name their own salespeople mispronounced. We ran a proper linguistic screen across five markets, shortlisted eleven candidates, and cleared three. The one they chose was not my favourite — it was the one their general counsel could defend in a trademark dispute, which is the better test.
okonkwostrategy.example/quillmarkNorthwater Outfitters
Brand architecture · 2022
Thirty years of acquisitions had left them with fourteen sub-brands and no rule for making a fifteenth. I mapped what each one actually earned, retired six, and wrote a two-page decision rule for launching anything new. They have used it three times since without calling me, which is the outcome I sell.
Fable Health
Messaging & launch strategy · 2021
A menopause care startup whose founders were, understandably, tired of being told to sound softer. We built the messaging around clinical specificity instead of reassurance and tested it against both audiences. Trial-to-paid conversion moved from 9% to 17% over the following two quarters.
The Positioning Audit
Productised diagnostic · ongoing
A fixed-scope, three-week engagement I built after losing two pitches to companies that were not ready for a full rebrand. It ends with a written verdict on whether they need one at all. Roughly a third of the time the answer is no, and I say so in the deck.
okonkwostrategy.example/auditExperience13
2020 — Present
Principal
- Independent positioning, naming and messaging practice — roughly eight engagements a year.
- Clients across financial services, healthcare and outdoor retail; most arrive mid-merger or mid-panic.
- Work with a standing bench of three designers and a trademark lawyer rather than carrying staff.
2017 — 2020
Strategy Director
- Led strategy on rebrands for eleven clients, including two national retailers.
- Built the studio's naming practice from a side offer into about a fifth of revenue.
- Sat in on new business and learned to say no to work that would have gone badly.
2015 — 2017
Brand Strategist
- Research, positioning and messaging for consumer packaged-goods clients.
- Ran about forty focus groups and stopped believing in focus groups.
2013 — 2015
Copywriter
Campaign and brand copy for mid-market clients. The job where I learned that a sentence a client cannot repeat from memory is a sentence that will not survive.
Practice
Strategy
Positioning, brand architecture, competitive audits, messaging frameworks, launch planning
Naming
Naming, linguistic screening, trademark pre-clearance, verbal identity, tone of voice
Research
Stakeholder interviews, message testing, category analysis, workshop facilitation
Languages
English (native), French (fluent), Igbo (conversational)
Clients
Tess spent two days telling our board things we had paid three other firms not to. The merger held together because someone finally wrote down what we were agreeing to.
She turned down our first brief and told us why. The second brief was better and so was everything after it.
I have designed against a lot of strategy decks. Hers are the only ones I have never had to quietly ignore.
Education
Concordia University, Montréal
MA Communication Studies
Thesis on category-entry language in regulated markets.
University of Toronto
BA Linguistics
Writing & teaching
2023
Say It Once
A short book on why messaging documents get ignored. About 6,000 copies, no publisher, no regrets.
2021 — Present
Positioning for Founders
Two sessions a cohort. Mostly spent arguing that a category is a choice, not a fact.
2019 — Present
The Middle Draft
About 4,800 subscribers. Roughly half my inbound work arrives through it.