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Clarity and Chaos

Clarity and Chaos is a B2B marketing newsletter for leaders who already know the playbook but want better judgment. Each issue examines real companies, real decisions, and the moments when positioning stopped being optional.

Split visual showing two moments side by side, on the left a stack of papers labeled ‘When teams explain’ with the line ‘Still explaining,’ on the right a single card reading ‘Already decided’ under ‘When buyers decide,’ with the caption ‘Same moment. Dif
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When Category Leaders Stop Explaining Themselves

Issue #4 When Category Leaders Stop Explaining Themselves The moment leaders feel something slipping It often begins in a meeting that feels ordinary. A leadership team reviews a slowing pipeline, notices deals stretching longer than before, and asks a familiar question that feels responsible in the moment: are we explaining this clearly enough. The room nods. Marketing is asked to add context. Sales decks grow heavier. Websites expand. The instinct is almost automatic, because when attention...

Issue #3 IBM: When Authority Stopped Converting to Relevance When certainty feels permanent For decades, IBM did not need to introduce itself. Its name alone carried certainty. Governments trusted it with national systems, enterprises depended on it to run their most critical operations, and boards felt reassured when its logo appeared on contracts. IBM was not just a technology company, it was an institution, woven into how large organizations understood reliability, seriousness, and...

Issue #2 When Clarity Inside Creates Confusion Outside The moment clarity stops protecting you The first sign is not confusion.It is confidence. Inside the organization, the story feels settled. Leadership agrees on what the company is becoming. The decks are aligned. The language is consistent. Teams repeat the same narrative across meetings without friction. There is a quiet satisfaction in that alignment, the sense that clarity has finally been achieved. Then something uncomfortable...

Issue #1 How Markets Forced Marketing to Grow Up How Positioning Became a Survival Discipline For most of modern marketing history, leaders believed they were in control. If the product was strong, the message was clear, and the advertising was creative enough, the market would respond. Visibility felt like leverage. Repetition felt like insurance. Marketing, at its core, felt like a system that rewarded effort. This belief was not naïve. It was earned. For decades, markets were smaller,...