This is the Q3 strategy session. Around the oblong oak table sit the usual suspects: the data-crunching CMO (Mara), the product-obsessed COO (James), a restless social media manager (Chloe), and the CEO (Arthur), who is already loosening his tie.
The problem is stark. Wilkins, a 90-year-old manufacturer of industrial adhesives and sealants, is the undisputed king of the B2B factory floor. Engineers trust Wilkins. But when those same engineers go home to fix a leaky pipe or build a birdhouse, they reach for a competitor’s duct tape or superglue. Wilkins is the workhorse, not the show pony. The mandate for the session is brutal: Make Wilkins matter to the consumer without losing the industrial fortress.
The smell of stale coffee and fresh marker ink hangs in the air. On the whiteboard, a single phrase is circled in red: “Wilkins: Trusted. But not chosen.”
He turns to face the room. “For 90 years, we’ve sold to engineers who read data sheets. For the next 90, we sell to human beings who are afraid of making a mistake. The strategy isn’t ‘make Wilkins cooler.’ It’s ‘make Wilkins easier to trust in a hurry.’”
Mara kicks off. She clicks a slide titled The Awareness Cliff . “Brand recall for Wilkins in the consumer home improvement sector is 11%. That’s below ‘store brand generic’ at 14%,” she says flatly. “We are the invisible giant. We sell 2 million gallons of industrial epoxy a year, but on Amazon, our one-star reviews come from dads who say, ‘This industrial tube didn’t come with a nozzle.’ We’re selling a jet engine to people who want a bicycle pump.”
“The factory guys aren’t on TikTok. But the Gen Z plumbers and the DIY renovators are . They don’t want ‘tough.’ They want ‘smart.’ They want a brand that doesn’t waste their time. The current packaging looks like a legal document.”