Positioning Intensive
$2,500–$3,500The fastest way to get unstuck. I find your unserved layer, name the one customer who matters, and write your positioning and message so the whole business points the same direction.
Start hereBrand & Market Strategist · Birmingham, AL
I find the gap, build the blueprint — you execute.
I'm Kamesha. I research the market, find the unserved layer, name the customer who matters, and define how you'll know it worked — then I write it so it's actually said. You and your team build from there.
I sell the thinking, not the doing.
Most people get handed the execution because they're capable of it. I do one thing instead, all the way: I decide what's worth doing and why — and hand it over clear enough to build.
What I deliver
The decision, written to hand off
- The unserved layer in your market, named
- The one customer who matters, defined
- Positioning, message, and voice
- The go-to-market plan and how you'll measure it
- A blueprint your team can build without guessing
What stays with you
The execution — on purpose
- Design and finished visuals → your designer
- Development and the codebase → your engineer
- Ongoing marketing and day-to-day → your team
- Running the system once it's built
- (No retainer, no standing meetings, no residuals)
The boundary isn't a limitation — it's the point. A clean hand-off is what keeps the thinking sharp and the fee worth it.
Who this is for — and why they call me.
I work best with people building something specific into a market that doesn't quite serve it yet.
This is for you if…
- You're launching a product or brand into a specific or underserved niche
- You're a mission-driven, women's-health, faith-based, or community-serving brand
- You own or broker commercial space that needs a market story so tenants can picture the business, not the vacancy
- You're a developer or housing partner who needs positioning and partnership paths that earn a city's trust
- You're a founder, small team, or nonprofit deciding what to do before you spend on the doing
- You feel a gap in your market you can't quite name
- You want strategy written well enough to use the day you get it
This isn't for you if…
- You need someone to run your day-to-day marketing
- You want ongoing social media or content management
- You're looking to hand off execution and check out
- You want a vendor, not a decision
I find the gap others miss
Real research and segmentation to name the unserved layer and the one customer who matters — not a generic "audience."
I write it so it's usable
Most strategists hand off a deck for you to translate. You get the positioning, message, and voice already written, in language you can use that day.
I hand it off clean
Flat fee, scoped up front, delivered and done. No retainer, no standing meetings — the boundary is what keeps the thinking sharp.
Ways to work together.
Every engagement is a flat fee, scoped up front, and handed off when it's done. You always know where it ends — and what it starts at.
Start here
Strategy Snapshot
One page: the three biggest gaps I see in your brand or market, and the first move I'd make. A low-risk way to see how I think before a larger project.
Brand & Go-to-Market Blueprint
$6,500–$12,000The full strategy, start to buildable. Market and audience research, the positioning, the channel plan, the unit economics where they matter, and the metrics that tell you it's working — assembled into one document your team can execute from.
Start hereVacancy Brief · Ready-to-Launch
Flat fee · quoted in 2 business daysFor commercial brokers and property owners. I research the market around your vacant space — demographics, traffic, competition — and deliver three scored tenant concepts with one-page plans, so prospects can picture the business and say yes sooner.
See Ready-to-Launch Read a sample briefGrant Writing & Funding Strategy
$3,500–$5,000For nonprofits and mission-driven organizations. I research the fit, build the case, and write the proposal — needs assessment, goals, work plan, and budget — submission-ready to the funder's requirements.
Start hereCommission a Blueprint
Custom · quoted per projectA gap that doesn't fit the list above? Bring it. I build the blueprint for your specific problem and hand it off — market entry, a launch system, a platform structure, whatever the decision actually is.
Tell me the gapPrices are ranges. Final fee depends on scope and how much research the decision needs — you'll get a flat number before we begin, never a meter running. Each quarter I also take one community project at a reduced fee.
How a project runs.
Five stages, each with a deliverable, ending in something you can build from. No open-ended engagements.
01
Discovery & gap analysis
I study the problem and the people it affects to find where the logic breaks or the market goes unserved — the gap everyone feels but no one has named.
Deliverable: a written assessment
02
Positioning & audience
I name the one customer who matters and define exactly where you sit in the market and why — the decision everything else hangs on.
Deliverable: positioning & the customer, defined
03
The plan & the message
Channels, sequence, and the words themselves — written in a voice that's actually good, so what you decided is what gets said.
Deliverable: the go-to-market plan & core copy
04
Evidence & reasoning
Every major call is grounded in research, and the reasoning is written down — so the plan can be judged on why, not just what, and defended after I'm gone.
Deliverable: the evidence & rationale, in writing
05
Buildable hand-off
Everything assembled into one blueprint your team can execute without guessing, plus a record of why it's built the way it is.
Deliverable: the complete blueprint & hand-off spec
Then I hand it to you, and I'm done. You build. That's the whole arrangement.
Community Project · one each quarter
One project a quarter, for the community.
Each quarter I take on one project for a community organization at a reduced fee — chosen on purpose, so the work goes where it can do the most good.
- Nonprofits, churches, neighborhood associations and community-serving small businesses
- A defined gap: a launch, a grant, a positioning problem, a space that won't lease
- Applications are reviewed at the start of each quarter; one is selected
Thank you — I'll be in touch when the next quarter's selection is made.
Selected work.
Execution work shows what someone can build. Strategy work shows how they decide. Every figure below is sourced, every assumption is labeled — and in two of these I argued against my own recommendation.
Own venture · built, launching
You Are Seen
A greeting-card brand for disenfranchised grief — POI, infertility, and pregnancy loss · zero to launch
My own brand, built from zero. I found the unserved layer — a real grief almost no one makes cards for — named the exact customer, and built the entire go-to-market: naming, positioning, brand story, store, content, and launch plan.
The decision behind it
The gap
Sympathy cards are built for death. Nothing on the shelf named early menopause, infertility, or the grief that doesn't show.
The move
Named one precise customer, positioned the brand around "the losses that don't show," and chose an evergreen, search-led channel plan over paid ads.
What it produced
A complete, buildable brand — name, story, store, catalog, and go-to-market — ready to run.
Sample brief · Ready-to-Launch
Forestdale Vacancy Brief
A vacant former quick-service restaurant · Forestdale, Birmingham, AL
A built drive-thru on a 20,000+ vehicle corridor — and no sit-down breakfast within 6.6 miles. The building was being marketed as a vacancy instead of as the business it was built for.
The decision behind it
The gap
Close-in breakfast was all drive-thru fast food; every sit-down option in the listings was 6.6 miles or more away.
The move
Lead the listing with the drive-thru and the gap, and market first to breakfast operators, backed by three scored tenant concepts.
The evidence
ACS 2024 census data, broker-reported traffic counts, and a mapped competitive set, with every margin of error disclosed.
Strategy project · Market validation
Magic City Connect
A community-owned business-discovery platform for Birmingham's 99 neighborhoods · go-to-market, financial model & market validation
Found the unserved layer the generic platforms structurally can't reach — hyperlocal discovery that turns local exploration into community ownership — and validated it before a line of code was written.
The decision behind it
The gap
Yelp and Google extract value and flatten every city into the same generic listings. Meanwhile Birmingham residents wanted to invest in their own neighborhoods and had no vehicle to. The gap wasn't discovery — it was ownership.
The move
A community-owned (B-Corporation) platform built around Birmingham's 99-neighborhood civic structure, committing a fixed share of profits to neighborhood projects — differentiated from the incumbents by the one thing they can't copy: local profit-sharing.
The evidence
Backed before building: 423 resident surveys, 37 interviews, focus groups, plus a full financial model — LTV/CAC, break-even, and sensitivity analysis — so the strategy rested on validated demand, not assumption.
Academic case study · Grant proposal
Aroostook Harvest Hub
A USDA Community Food Projects proposal · $125,000 request with a 1:1 match · rural northern Maine
Built the case for a food hub in a county where residents struggle to reach the food grown around them — written to the funder's RFA, with a 12-month work plan and budget.
The decision behind it
The gap
Farmland that supports specialty crops next to some of the state's highest food insecurity and SNAP rates, separated by long distances to full-service grocery stores.
The move
A community food project written to the program's exact requirements: needs assessment, measurable goals, a staged work plan, and a matched budget.
Academic case study
Braiding the Gap
Market-entry analysis · automated hair-braiding technology in East & Southern Africa
Recommended entry — but only on the condition that African braiders held real equity as paid co-designers, not a distribution relationship.
The decision behind it
The gap
Two funded startups building for African-textured hair, neither entering the African market — an opening confirmed by research, not assumed.
The move
A phased, tiered-pricing entry — but gated behind local ownership, because primary research showed the real objection was distrust of who would own it.
The judgment
Without that condition, my recommendation was not to enter, however good the economics looked.
Academic case study
Black+Decker FORGE
New-product marketing plan · written as a case study on Stanley Black & Decker
I started by searching the brand's own site for "women" and finding nothing. The gap wasn't in the market data — it was in the company.
The decision behind it
The gap
A documented, high-value buyer the market's tools weren't built for — sitting in an empty middle between novelty kits and male-ergonomic pro lines.
The move
A new product for that buyer, positioned in the uncontested middle, priced to signal real performance.
The evidence
Backed by the company's own benchmarking: a market leader with slow inventory in a declining category needs new categories, not more share.
Academic case study
Kingdom Faith Cards
Social-commerce launch · greeting cards for an underserved faith community
Found an unserved layer inside a proven market — church occasions the big cultural lines skip — and named one precise customer to win first.
The decision behind it
The gap
Proven demand for cultural cards, but specific church occasions — pastor anniversary, First Lady's Day, homegoing — still generic or absent.
The move
Win one churchwoman at four high-stakes, zero-substitute occasions, on an evergreen Pinterest-led plan tied to a calendar that repeats every year.
Academic case study
Visit Portland
Destination IMC campaign · Greater Portland wedding market · $50K budget
Set a defensive goal against a declining national marriage rate instead of an impossible growth one — then found an asset no one was using.
The decision behind it
The gap
A free wedding-planning service the organization offered but almost no one knew about — its own strongest, most underused asset.
The move
Point the whole campaign at that service, inside a defensible 60-mile radius, with spend concentrated in the engagement season instead of spread thin.
Academic case study
Nike Yoga
Brand communication campaign · the "Laptops & Lattes" segment
One data point drove the whole plan: 36% of the segment owns no car — so the campaign lived in transit, not on billboards.
The decision behind it
The gap
A premium wellness sub-brand that couldn't borrow Nike's achievement voice without working against its own positioning.
The move
A transit-first channel plan, and a loyalty play that rewarded an existing behavior instead of discounting — because price-off erodes the exact premium the brand depends on.
Want a blueprint like these — for your gap?
Start a projectMost strategists hand off a deck and disappear — leaving you to translate the strategy into words. I do both. The thing I decide is the thing that gets said.
Writing isn't a side skill here. I've published 54 long-form essays since 2019, and that craft is part of every engagement.
It's why the strategy arrives already written: your positioning, your message, your voice, in language that's ready to use, not a summary someone else has to interpret.
Field Notes
Recent thinking & strategic essays.
Strategy & Innovation
Read essay →
The Best Ideas Aren't New — They're the Gaps Between What You Built
In a mature product ecosystem, the biggest opportunities aren't new features — they're the friction between the ones you already have.
Positioning
Read essay →
What Brand Positioning Actually Means
It isn't your logo, your tagline, or your mission statement. Here's what positioning actually is — and why it's the one decision everything hangs on.
Hiring & Strategy
Read essay →
Should You Hire a Brand Strategist or a Marketing Agency?
A strategist decides what to do; an agency executes it. When to hire each — and why hiring in the wrong order quietly wastes your budget.
About
Hi, I'm Kamesha.
I started in design and commercial art, then spent years in rooms where how something looks and what it actually is were two different things. That's where I learned to read what a client wants before they say it, and to see the gap between the two.
Now I do the part I'm built for: research the market, find what it's missing, and write the plan to fill it — clear enough that your team can build from it the day it arrives.
I also write The Quad Right Blueprint, essays on Human Design for a 1% audience.
Free · 3 minutes
Not sure where your gaps are?
Take the Gap Finder — a quick brand-clarity check that scores where you're clear and where the expensive gaps are hiding, before you spend a dollar on execution.
Take the Gap Finder →Tell me where it breaks down.
A market you can't crack, a launch with no plan behind it, a building that won't lease, a brand that grew without a decision — or an offer above you want to talk through first. A few sentences about where things are stuck is plenty to start.
Thank you — I'll reply within one business day.
Or email me directly: kcogmon@icgpty.com