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 Wilkins Conundrum: Shifting from Stalwart to Staple

James leans forward. “So we dumb down the product?” “No,” Mara counters. “We reframe it. We stop selling strength . We start selling certainty .”

The room divides.

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.”

Wilkins Headquarters, 12th Floor Strategy Room, 8:00 AM