Brand Manager · Strategy · Integrated Campaigns

Research-Driven Brand Strategy Rooted in Human Insight

I build positioning, messaging, campaigns, and research-backed brand systems that help organizations clarify what they want to be known for, connect with the right audiences, and measure the impact of brand over time.

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Brand strategy with business discipline.

My background combines psychology, public relations, SaaS brand management, audience research, and integrated campaign strategy. I focus on building brand associations that are simple enough to remember, distinct enough to matter, and measurable enough to defend.

Positioning & Messaging

Clarifying what a company should be known for and translating that into messaging systems, campaign narratives, and market-facing language.

Positioning Narrative Messaging

Integrated Campaigns

Developing campaign concepts, creative briefs, channel narratives, and measurement plans across web, email, social, video, PR, and paid media.

Campaign Strategy Creative Briefs Content

Research & Measurement

Using surveys, interviews, reviews, customer data, brand tracking, and sentiment analysis to inform strategy and connect brand activity to business outcomes.

Insights Brand Health Analytics

Selected work.

These case studies are intentionally summarized at a high level to respect confidentiality agreements. They focus on the business challenge, my contribution, and the strategic outcomes without sharing proprietary documents, internal dashboards, customer data, or sensitive company information.

SaaS Brand Positioning

Reframing a fundraising platform as a long-term growth partner.

A strategic positioning initiative designed to shift perception beyond functional fundraising software and build stronger associations around partnership, growth, sustainability, and trust.

Challenge

The brand needed to be perceived as more than a transactional donation tool, especially by more mature organizations with broader growth and operational needs.

My Role

Created and led target audience research and competitive analysis, including research planning, execution, analysis, insight development, and strategy creation. Led brand strategy work around positioning, messaging architecture, audience perception, differentiated value, and cross-functional alignment.

Outcome

Helped strengthen the brand’s strategic direction and create a clearer foundation for campaigns, content, sales enablement, and customer-facing messaging.

Brand Measurement

Building a Brand Health Report Card to make brand performance visible.

A measurement framework built to track awareness, perception, sentiment, favorability, differentiation, and related indicators of brand equity.

Challenge

Brand impact needed to be tracked in a more structured way so leadership could see how awareness and perception were changing over time.

My Role

Created the report card framework, identified key metrics, synthesized data sources, and connected brand indicators to business-relevant outcomes.

Outcome

Elevated brand measurement from anecdotal assessment to a repeatable system for monitoring progress, identifying gaps, and informing strategy.

Integrated Brand Campaign

Developing a campaign platform to make the brand more human and memorable.

A cross-channel brand campaign designed to reinforce emotional connection, clarify the brand’s role, and support awareness across key audiences.

Challenge

The company needed a campaign idea that could express its purpose and value without relying only on feature-led product messaging.

My Role

Developed campaign strategy, messaging direction, creative brief inputs, campaign objectives, and measurement considerations across channels.

Outcome

Created a more cohesive brand narrative that could support social, video, landing page, PR, email, and paid campaign execution.

Audience Research

Turning customer and audience insight into sharper messaging strategy.

A research-driven initiative using surveys, interviews, customer data, and behavioral segmentation to better understand needs, motivations, and message resonance.

Challenge

Messaging needed to reflect how different audiences actually use the platform, what outcomes they value, and what barriers shape consideration.

My Role

Designed research inputs, synthesized findings, identified audience segments, and translated insights into positioning and messaging recommendations.

Outcome

Helped move the brand toward more behavior-based segmentation and stronger audience alignment across campaigns and content.

Competitive Positioning

Creating a clearer point of view in a crowded category.

A competitive positioning effort focused on differentiation, category education, trust, transparency, and sharper articulation of why the brand should be chosen.

Challenge

The market included strong competitors, overlapping feature claims, and pricing narratives that could confuse potential customers.

My Role

Analyzed competitor messaging, identified differentiating themes, and developed strategic recommendations for clearer comparison and education.

Outcome

Supported a stronger, more defensible narrative around transparency, trust, donor experience, and long-term organizational growth.

Product & Launch Messaging

Translating product capabilities into customer-centered stories.

Messaging work designed to connect new product capabilities to customer outcomes, operational value, and a broader brand promise.

Challenge

New capabilities needed to be introduced in a way that went beyond feature lists and made the value meaningful for real users.

My Role

Partnered across brand, product marketing, content, PR, and customer-facing teams to shape outcome-focused messaging and launch narratives.

Outcome

Helped connect product storytelling to the larger brand strategy, making launches more useful, credible, and market-relevant.

Selected impact.

Representative brand performance improvements connected to broader brand, campaign, messaging, and measurement work.

23% Increase in brand awareness
31% Increase in positive sentiment
27% Gain in brand favorability
18% Growth in awareness among mid-to-large nonprofits

How I work.

My work blends strategic brand management, behavioral insight, campaign thinking, and practical execution. I am especially interested in roles where brand strategy is expected to influence reputation, demand, differentiation, and revenue.

Clarify the memory

Define what the brand should be remembered for and reduce competing messages to a focused set of meaningful associations.

Ground it in insight

Use audience research, customer data, competitive analysis, reviews, and behavioral patterns to inform strategy.

Make it campaignable

Turn positioning into creative platforms, messages, briefs, and cross-channel campaign ideas that teams can execute.

Measure what matters

Connect brand activity to leading indicators such as awareness, sentiment, favorability, trust, preference, traffic, and conversion.

Recommendations.

Feedback from leaders and organizations I’ve partnered with across brand strategy, communications, positioning, and research-informed growth initiatives.

“I’ve had the privilege of working closely with Marc, and he is one of the most strategic, creative and forward-thinking brand leaders I’ve met. Marc combines a deep understanding of brand theory with practical execution, consistently translating research and insights into strategies that elevate Donorbox’s positioning and perception.

He was instrumental in developing Donorbox’s first formal positioning framework, establishing clear brand associations, and ensuring alignment across our messaging, campaigns, and customer touchpoints. Marc also brings a rare ability to bridge strategy and collaboration, partnering seamlessly with marketing, product, and leadership teams to move initiatives forward.

Beyond his expertise, Marc’s dedication, creativity, and focus on measurable outcomes have made a lasting impact on our brand. Any organization would benefit from his leadership in brand strategy and communications.”

Ronald Pillay Director of Brand Communications, Donorbox

“Over the last year, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with Marc at Donorbox. He takes a well-honed, analytical approach to brand building, and it’s working. His contributions have increased brand awareness, strengthened our positioning, and helped us more deeply understand our customers’ needs.

Marc takes initiative to set our company up for success. He quickly established foundational processes that we all adopted, like monthly benchmarking and dashboards, to track progress and help our Marketing team make more data-informed decisions.

Marc excels at analyzing data, coming up with practical recommendations and next steps. He is strategic yet resourceful, sharing timely ideas to increase brand equity. Beyond that, Marc is a thoughtful collaborator who brings professionalism, clarity, and creativity to each project. Any organization would be fortunate to have him guiding their brand strategy.”

Sara Guappone Marketing Director, Donorbox

“TOP NOTCH PROFESSIONAL!!! Marc has a way of not just capturing the current organizational design, but also a knack at challenging leaders to take the business plan from good to great! Marc helped us revamp our brand strategy, clarify our identity, and target our community through strategic outreach.

So glad we took the time and allowed Marc to pour into our organization, it’s so much better!”

Dr. Timothy P. Carentz Sr. CEO, Kaiserslautern Military Resiliency Center

“Marc Harmon was very detailed and knowledgeable in his work to create a clear image of our business. He made sure to discuss how we were to best serve more of our clients with exceptional messaging and strategy.

We dug deep into our brand identity and clientele personas. Very helpful and long-lasting information for when we accumulate new staffing to know what our brand and business are all about.”

Sandra Christian Owner & Brand Display Consultant, Skyline Canopies
Confidentiality note: Many projects summarized here were completed in environments where internal strategy documents, research data, customer information, roadmaps, and performance dashboards are confidential. For that reason, case studies are presented as high-level strategic summaries rather than direct reproductions of proprietary work.

Let’s talk about brand strategy that can be remembered, executed, and measured.

Marc Harmon

Brand Manager focused on positioning, messaging, integrated campaigns, research, and measurable brand growth.

Email: marcjharmon@gmail.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/marcjharmon

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