PO & Co.

How can you sell products and services if you're ignored in the first place?

PO&Co. helps small-to-medium-size companies spring from their sales plateaus and increase revenue through effective marketing free of buzzwords, shiny objects, and black boxes.

Marketing Consultant & Fractional CMO

Common Giant

Common Giant is a growth-minded branding agency that digs deep into marketing strategy to produce stunning creative execution.

Common Giant was founded in 2012 to My role with Common Giant is to help grow the brand strategy framework for the agency and evangelize the company's brand. 

As of 2021, I have moved out of day-to-day operations to focus on brand growth at SFW.

Founder, Board Member, and Partner

Common Giant is a brand growth agency that digs deep into marketing strategy to produce stunning creative execution for companies who want to become legendary.

Common Giant stands tall with expertise in brand strategy, creative execution, and strategic communication. Our ethos is not only about delivering collaborative, successful brands and campaigns for our clients, it is also about building committed partnerships. We’ve worked globally with clients in the software technology, medical technology, consumer packaged goods, food, and retail industries.

At Common Giant, we channel our partners’ visions into projects that are inspired, clear, and concise. We bring our team’s full range of talents to generate a signature agency experience.

Founder and Chief Creative Officer

The YEC is a selective, invite-only group of like-minded peers and entrepreneurs from nearly every industry. YEC has been honored by Nasdaq, The White House and has been recognized in media outlets worldwide.

Member

Sales Factory

Sales Factory is a retail-focused agency compelled to succeed by a data-driven integrated approach for home retail brands eager to learn, grow, and win.

My focus is to develop winning brand strategies that drive business growth for our clients.

Vice President of Brand Strategy

Piedmont Opera

The mission of Piedmont Opera is to create operatic productions of the highest artistic quality to enrich our community and to advance the art form.

Our Vision is to be the finest opera company of our size in the nation and acknowledged as the best at what we do.

Board Member

iCan House

iCan House supports and enhances the lives of those with social challenges by teaching social skills, educational opportunities and provide a source of educational resources and networks. 

In our community, there exists a large population who live their daily lives with autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, PDD-NOS, and other social disorders. As they grow and experience a world created with rules that they may not understand, it is imperative that these unique individuals are provided with positive social models that care to help them grasp the social world in which they must live in.

Together we are stronger. A support system of parents, professionals and advocates will help us succeed and provide our loved ones with the best chance to get the most out of life. Let's chat and see how I can help.

The Variable

Formerly known as PAVE Creative Group, The Variable is a digitally informed marketing think tank that is committed to turning the traditional agency-client relationship on its head. We like MadMen here. But we're more like MathMen (and women, of course). In that spirit, The Variable thinks agencies should stop being cost centers and start being revenue generators.

Specialties –
Business Strategy, Digitally Informed Advertising, Brand Development, Innovation Development

Art Director

PAVE Creative Group

Designer / Art Director

Freelance Graphic Designer / Art Director

Freelance Art Director

Crobar Creative Leverage

Marketing consultant, Fractional CMO, brand strategy, energetic speaker, foodie, soccer player, and proud Dad

I love marketing and building brands. Friends, colleagues, and clients feel that energy from the first moment of interaction. It all begins with curiosity and evolves into a blend of strategic thinking and creative magic to construct brands through effective marketing.

Over the past two decades, I've led marketing initiatives for a diverse range of companies across various industries and sizes, including technology, medtech, consumer goods, and professional services, catering to both B2C and B2B sectors.

In 2012, I founded Common Giant, specializing in crafting branding and marketing for companies that understand that brand is a competitive advantage in a world full of commodities and a marketplace competing on price.

During my career, I’ve worked client-side managing retail stores up to $52MM, served on the agency side as VP of Brand Strategy, successfully launched an agency with global clients, started a marketing consultancy, and served as fractional CMO for multiple businesses. 

Throughout my career, I’ve believed in these four pillars:

1 - Marketing is a business practice. 
Successful businesses use marketing beyond promotion, as a series of business levers to pull for higher profits.

2 - Know the customer as much as you know yourself.
We’re in business to sell products and services. But it’s hard to sell something customers don’t want or why they should buy from you. Get to know what, how, and where they’ll buy.

3 - Grow the orchard while you sell the fruit.
A small percentage of your current target audience is ready to buy. Sell when they’re ready and invest in the brand long-term to sell a lot more.

4 - Boring is expensive.
Boring is forgettable and less effective. Being ignored means being forgotten and spending more for attention. Boring is bad for business.


Now that you’ve read this excruciatingly verbose bio, I’d like to add that, in addition to my professional endeavors, I am an enthusiastic keynote speaker, delivering engaging talks on branding, marketing, creative problem-solving in business, and effective marketing strategies to audiences of all sizes.

Phillip Oakley

As people discuss the business decline of McDonald's and Wendy's, and blame it on brand promise or not making customers "feel" something, we need to keep in mind that prices outpaced inflation, and (for most), quality declined to maximize profits. 

Providing decent food for the value is the bottom rung of the consumer benefit ladder. You need a solid first rung before climbing up to the feels.

Once that bottom rung breaks, just as Domino's faced years ago, you must slide back to the ground to fix it. 

Or customers won't care to ask "Where's the Beef?"

Stand Tall.

Mixing strategy and creativity to build brands through effective marketing. Energetic speaker, foodie, soccer player, and proud Dad.

Did you know 30-year-old sonic branding for Mentos is so powerful, it can burn a Michael McDonald Yacht Rock earworm straight out of your brain?

I have a confession to make: I quite like Yacht Rock. 

My wife and I have been enjoying more than our fair share of The Doobie Brothers, Christopher Cross, and Steely Dan of late. For some reason, Michael McDonald has cameos in loads of them. 

One night last week, I couldn't get to sleep. I was being haunted by Michael McDonald. If you've heard the song "Ride Like the Wind," you know why: 

🎶 I've got such a long way to go 🎶

It had to stop. (Such a long way to go)

So I turned to ... The Freshmaker. And it works every single time. 🎶Doo doo doo doo, doo doo, doo wah! 🎶

Loads of smart people talk about brand codes and distinctive brand assets here on this platform. But I'll fly the Mentos flag any day as being one of the most powerful assets that's still an easy recall. 

Bookmark this post, so next time there's an unwanted song stuck your head you can freshen up with this commercial (one of many, might I add). How many of their TV spots do you remember? 

Nothing gets to you, staying fresh, staying cool, with Mentos, fresh and fuuuuuuull of life!

Stand Tall.

“I hate those things.” After overhearing three different customers share the same opinion in two days, the visiting district manager removed the virtual tellers from my local bank, for good reason. 

First off, good on the area manager for being in the branches to see how customers interact. 

Secondly, good on them to recognize tech was getting in the way of helping the customer, and hurting the brand. 

This was a video teller interface. You would walk into the branch, not speak to a human, visit a kiosk and push a button to summon a remote teller who would assist you via video. And when they finish your transaction, they can move on to someone else in another city.

Sounds a bit dystopian. And while the tellers were trained well, it just felt disconnected.

I’m sure decisions makers tried to level the playing field with larger banks through technology. And I’m willing to bet this idea was presented in a deck along with the words “digital transformation” in the mid-2010s.

But in the end, it actually removed what makes small local branches better: help.

Help from a real human. 

Know your brand by recognizing what customers need from the different touchpoints of your business. Especially the points where they seek real human interaction. 

If it can be outsourced to a screen, it can be outsourced to AI. 

Stand Tall.

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“I went back to the BMX* deck, and I gotta say, I didn’t realize how much you’d nailed it. It had everything I needed to get focused.” — Our client, while making decisions on a campaign. 

Loads of people bash “brand strategy decks” on this platform. It’s easy, of course. 

Tales of 200-page decks of fluff. Performance art named strategy. Platitudes meant for break room walls that promote eye-rolling responses. 

But a good deck, meant to be a reference point not a performance, is distilled thinking that connects brand strategy to the business. 

It’s a point of focus used to make concerted business and marketing decisions, measured on value, not page count 

*The BMX is our Brand Matrix guide. It’s distilled into one page for a valuable, quick reference. We encourage clients to print and post it near their desk, so it’s ready to see and use.  

Stand Tall.

Want to find out how much you know about your customers and category? Prompt ChatGippity to ask YOU questions about the market you’re in.

Most of us who grew up in the 1970s or 1980s can recall that the Fruit of the Loom logo used to feature a cornucopia, a horn-shaped basket spilling out apples and grapes. Except it never did. 

There was never a cornucopia. Not once. Not ever.

Yes, I checked. I scraped the interwebs. Snopes confirmed it.

My childhood memories are lying to me.

If you remember the cornucopia, you’re in the collective hallucination with me, in what’s known as the Mandela Effect. It’s when a large group of people confidently remembers something that never existed.

But here’s what’s fascinating from a brand perspective: Fruit of the Loom built such powerful mental associations that we invented missing details, giving fruit leaves more importance than they called for. 

The logo felt like it should have a cornucopia. The imagery of abundance and nostalgia was so strong that our brains filled in the blanks. That’s brand memory at work.

Distinctive assets so sticky they expanded themselves in the public imagination. And even with several major refreshes over 100 years, the logo stayed consistent enough to be recognized through every iteration.

Or maybe it’s just crazy pills passed out by the bucketload.

Every brand should hope to be remembered so vividly that people recall things that were never even there.

Stand Tall.

📸: Snopes

“It’s a workshop for startup incubators, of course we have to use acronyms.” - Tongue in cheek client comment. I chuckled at this smart, self-aware comment by one of our clients in a brand workshop this Thursday. 

Sometimes, it seems today’s business world makes up comments on the fly. 

What’s your CAGR from your COGS?

Is your POS communicating your TOS to land your SLA?

And if your brand doesn’t know its COGS, how can your sales team understand its BANT?

How about your OAR? ELO? KLF? REM? POD? INXS? NWA? TLC? EMF? RUN-DMC?

LMFAO!

Isn’t the inside speak exhausting? It sounds like my mixtape playlist from 1992.

Speak clearly and lose the jargon if you want to connect with your target audience. They’ll appreciate the lack of need for an FAQ, IMO. 

Because if you overuse acronyms and insider terms, they’ll look at you like ODB. 

Speak the language of your customers. 

Stand Tall.

Factory 39

Co-Founder, Full-Stack Brand Builder, Design Lead

Balabook

Balabook is designed to completely change the way you do your accounting, allowing accountants to do less manual entries and giving businesses complete real-time financial control from anywhere, any time.

Our purpose is to help SMEs grow and spend less time and money on accounting with features like:

- Custom invoices
- Powerful compliant reports
- AI expense & bills
- Multi-company
- Global and local bank integration
- Automated VAT
- Automated payrolls
- Automated multi-currency
- Full data encryption

Plus many more in development...

Simple, compliant, and perfect for business owners and accountants, Balabook is made for Cyprus in Cyprus by a team trusted by global tech giants.

Co-Founder

Helping companies going through a transition make that transition successful by aligning the whole organisation and crafting an actionable plan that turns vision into reality. All of this in days, not months.

 Business Transformation Strategist

Made in Cyprus

As the creator and host of Made in Cyprus, I lead insightful conversations with key figures shaping Cyprus’s business, technology, and cultural landscape. My role involves in-depth research and preparation to engage experts, entrepreneurs, and change-makers, highlighting their contributions to the island’s dynamic economy and sharing the unique perspectives that Cyprus offers to global audiences.

My purpose is to shape the new brand of Cyprus and promote our lovely island in the world...because we are mitsi alla rotsi (small but mighty).

Founder and Host

Naked Ideas®

Full-Stack Brand Consultant & Strategist

Tumo Center for Creative Technologies

I lead creative brand workshops and learning labs.

Temporary Workshop Leader

Anyscript Ltd

Co-founder & Design Director

Maven

Maven Featured Instructor

Design Motive

Iconography, Advertising, Web Design, Intranet Design, Editorial Design, Art Working, Art Directing, Branding, Photo Editing, PPT Templates, CMS, Packaging, Illustration, Basic IT, ADV

Senior brand Designer

MusicArts

MusicArts is a platform dedicated to boost the careers of aspiring creatives, by providing a wider exposure to industry professionals and art enthusiasts. Our monthly events will showcase a mix of live music, DJ sets, visual and performing arts, in a bespoke collaboration for the night, to bring the spotlight on the powerful synergy that connects all art disciplines.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1760046604207719/

"Product is the ticket to play.
Brand is how you win the game."

I help businesses with good products stop being overlooked and start dominating their markets.

Through a clarity-driven, no-BS approach to strategy-led branding, I turn strong offerings into brands that captivate, connect, and thrive globally.

With the support of a talented international team, I’ve had the privilege of transforming good products into unforgettable brands...collaborating with industry icons like FIFA, Dr. Oetker, BT, and Ebay, as well as ambitious scale-ups in Tech, MedTech, Gaming, and SaaS.

Along the way, I’ve picked up a few awards, had a lot of fun with incredible client teams, and even shared insights on stages like TEDx, The Global Marketing Summit, and Reflect Festival.

No jargon, no fluff...just strategy, clarity, and branding that actually works (with maybe a bit of humour too).

Because at the end of the day, it’s not about me... or even you.
It’s about building brands that sell, stand out, and make an impact.

Stop Hiding.
Start Branding.

Martin Zarian

WTF is wrong with designers?
They are losing their minds over the Utah Olympics logo, and it's embarrassing.

Every design post is having a meltdown. LinkedIn is flooded with hot takes about "yet another bad design." 

This isn't design critique.
It's pure fantasy.

It's a waste of oxygen from, people who've never designed anything harder than a coffee shop poster.

You think it's bad design?

Tell me you've never sat through 47 rounds of stakeholder feedback without telling me. Tell me you've never had to balance Olympic committee politics, accessibility requirements, reproduction constraints, cultural sensitivities across 200+ nations, and a budget that's been slashed three times.

Tell me you've never had to capture Utah's entire cultural and historical landscape while being distinctive from every other Olympic edition in history. Tell me you've never had to embed strategic business goals into a mark that also needs to drive tourism, merchandise sales, and national pride.

Tell me you've never had to make something creatively bold enough to stand out, yet safe enough to not become a political shit storm.

The logo needs to work on everything from a tiny badge to a stadium banner. It needs to represent Utah's complex identity without being cliché. It needs to be unique among 100+ years of Olympic branding while still feeling Olympic. It needs to drive a creative vision across thousands of touchpoints while surviving manufacturing constraints in every possible material.

But sure, it's "ugly" according to your design blog aesthetics.
Or "Let me fix it while I pet my french bulldog"

Real design lives in constraints... and it's too early to judge what we don't know yet.

The real tragedy? We're teaching young designers that design is about having opinions, not solving problems.

That's the difference between being a designer on Social Media and actually designing in the real world.

Stop Hiding, Start Branding. Full-Stack Brand Builder for ambitious companies in complex B2B markets | No-BS strategy, brand, branding, and activation. PS: I love pickle juice.

Marketing isn’t dying.
It’s just forgetting why it exists.

What used to be the most creative room in the building has turned into a reporting centre. Endless dashboards, campaigns, optimisations.
Lots of motion. Little meaning.

AI didn’t replace marketers, it just exposed the ones running on autopilot.
We’ve confused speed with strategy and output with impact.

The irony is, marketing has never had more tools, data or access to consumers.
And yet, most brands sound identical.
Same tone. Same tactics. Same tired playbook.

We live in an age of terrific abundance, yet the reality is that the best brands aren’t doing more.

They’re doing less, just more coherently.
They’ve built systems that learn, not calendars that expire.

Nike didn’t chase trends. It repeated one truth until it became muscle memory.
Duolingo isn’t “disruptive”. It’s just relentlessly consistent.
Liquid Death isn’t selling water. It’s selling identity and WTF moments

We must not forget the basics, because even if things are moving faster than ever and technology is giving steroids to marketing teams,the basics are still what build long-term value.

Research from Binet and Field keeps proving the same, old, point:
→ Brands that balance long-term storytelling with short-term activation grow faster and stay top-of-mind longer.

You don’t need new hacks. You need structure.
AI won’t write your strategy or decide what your brand stands for.

- It will only scale whatever thinking already exists...good, bad or BS.
- If your brand is confused, AI will spread that confusion faster.
- If your brand is clear, it’ll scale that clarity beautifully.

The future of marketing isn’t automation.
It’s intelligence...human-led, system-supported, brand-driven.

Because technology won’t replace marketers.
It’ll just replace the ones who stopped thinking.

Martin Zarian | The Death Or Marketing

Your product is incredible.
Your features are unmatched.
Your demo kills.

So why did you lose to someone charging 30% more?

Because you're fighting yesterday's war with yesterday's weapons.
Welcome to 2025, where the best product loses every day.

Harsh? Let me prove it:

Last week, a founder DM'd me: "We have 2x the features of our competitor, better pricing, better support. They have 70% market share. We have 3%. What the f*** is happening?"

What's happening is simple:
They built a product.
Their competitor built a brand.

The uncomfortable truth nobody discusses:
• 95% of B2B buyers think you're interchangeable
• 83% won't even talk to you until they've already decided
• 70% of purchases are emotional, not logical
• The "best" solution wins 14% of the time
• The best-known brand wins 74% of the time

You're not losing to better products.
You're losing to better stories.

The old world was simple:
Better product = More sales
Better features = Higher price
Better tech = Market leader

The new world is brutal:
Better product = So what?
Better features = Copied in 3 months
Better tech = Nobody cares

Because AI democratized "better."
Everyone has "cutting-edge solutions."
Everyone claims "revolutionary innovation."
Everyone promises "unprecedented ROI."

And everyone sounds exactly the same.

Here's what actually wins in 2025:

MEMORY beats FEATURES
When buyers can't differentiate, they choose what they remember.
Not what's best. What's familiar.

TRUST beats SPECS
Nobody reads your 47-page feature comparison.
They read your customer's LinkedIn posts.

FEELING beats LOGIC
That CFO buying your software?
They're not buying efficiency.
They're buying career insurance.

CLARITY beats EVERYTHING
In a world of infinite choice, confusion is death.
The clearest story wins. Period.

The companies crushing it understand:
→ Brand is not your logo
→ Brand is not your tagline
→ Brand is not your marketing

Brand is the accumulated memory of every interaction.
It's why someone chooses you when the spreadsheet says they shouldn't.

The math is undeniable:
Strong B2B brands see:
• 31% higher valuations
• 2.5x faster growth
• 60% higher win rates
• 50% shorter sales cycles
• 74% lower acquisition costs

Weak B2B brands see:
• Commoditized pricing
• Endless feature wars
• 18-month sales cycles
• "Let me think about it"
• Death by procurement

So here's your choice:

Keep building better mousetraps.
Keep adding features.
Keep lowering prices.
Keep wondering why nobody notices.

Or realize:
The game changed.
The rules changed.
The buyers changed.

Your product opens doors.
Your brand closes deals.

In 2025 onwards, that's not philosophy.
That's strategy.

Build accordingly.

taplio

The Battle

Phillip Oakley

Martin Zarian

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The Battle

Phillip Oakley

Martin Zarian

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