Our clients and their projects
make it possible for us
to do the work we love.
They challenge us in new ways and keep us growing our expertise and flexibility to take on the latest complication in getting results in the marketplace.
Every client included here has been someone we deeply respect, enjoy conversing with, and love the passion, commitment, and enthusiasm they have for their business and making their mark. They each bring a special something of who they are, who their team is, and what difference they’d like to make.
We are always inspired by the people and businesses we’ve been privileged to help.
Client Stories and Projects
About Kathryn’s work at Amdahl
Marketing Strategy, Plan, Tactics, and Execution
I led the marketing department at Amdahl, a $1.6B company, for the last flagship product launch. I worked for 2 years on a cross-functional team with engineering, manufacturing, service, product management, and research and development to bring a unique product to market for the largest enterprises in the world. My role was to develop the marketing strategy that would bring that new product to market. My marketing team created collateral, I did live analyst interviews, we developed sales presentations to highlight innovations that set the product apart from the competition (IBM at that time). And we organized special customer visits and sales orientation and training. I had a fabulous, deeply experienced, and enthusiastic team. The product was a big success.
About the SRI International Project
Marketing Strategy, Plan, and Tactics
SRI International needed help both re-positioning the IT department to the rest of the organization as well as highlighting the benefits a new system would be delivering to all users.
Kathryn led this effort to develop strategy with groundwork research for evaluating the current positioning of IT and the attitudes towards the new system. Key messaging was developed that aligned with new IT initiatives and also communicated the advantages each type of user would gain from the new system.
The project was successfully deployed and SRI International was pleased with the results.
About the Lockheed Martin Project
Marketing Tactics
The Lockheed Martin project involved coaching a senior team to develop messaging and positioning for an internal product being presented to executives that would positively impact development across the corporation. The resulting presentation was a success.
About the Galapagos Conservancy Project
Marketing Strategy, Positioning, Messaging, and Tactics
The Galapagos Conservancy project involved in-depth research on how the Conservancy was viewed and valued by a variety of constituents. The results of the extensive research were message development with a new focus and call to action based on the story of the Galapagos.
About the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce Project
Marketing Strategy, Messaging, Positioning, and Tactics
The Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce project objective was to understand from the community stakeholders (members and businesses) the unique value the Chamber delivered and what was seen as the Chamber’s most important contributions to individuals, businesses, and the community. Over forty interviews with stakeholders were completed and the results presented to the Chamber Board of Directors. The impact was significant: the Chamber needed to embrace its position as the largest, most influential, and prestigious organization working on behalf of business in Santa Cruz County. This was a challenging message for the humble board and administrators to take in. Delivering this empowering message was a special moment for everyone in the room. A plan to put this into action was also developed as part of a marketing communications team.
About the ROI Communications Project
Social Media Strategy and Calendar
The ROI Communications project involved helping the marketing team understand how to build a campaign content calendar to launch a webinar initiative as well as provide a template to maintain social media engagement. This involved research into the brand experience ROI was creating and the social personality being conveyed.
Client Testimonials
Kathryn gathered great information from our clients to create insightful testimonials and messaging for our collateral materials that was right on target. The customer interview process and debrief was very beneficial in helping us articulate our value proposition in a focused and concise manner, and in developing meaningful content for our website. I highly recommend Kathryn and consider her to be a domain expert in marketing.
Bijan Dastmalchi, Co-Founder, Symphony Consulting, Inc., Sunnyvale, CAKathryn played a huge role in my practice becoming so successful, even in the middle of a recession. She was like my business partner in keeping me ahead of changes and best practices using the internet. My business just kept growing, doubling in a short time, with Kathryn’s marketing so that I couldn’t even handle all the work. That’s what allowed me to bring in a business partner, create a retirement plan, and actually retire, all while the business still continued to prosper. Other chiropractors were even asking me what I was doing to be so successful: it was Kathryn’s work because nobody else was getting these kinds of results. Kathryn gave me so much confidence in my business. She was my ace in the hole.
Dr. Katie Griffin, Santa Cruz NonForce Chiropractors, Santa Cruz, CA Kathryn helped us attract a much larger audience to enjoy the Agricultural History Project Center & Museum and all the activities we have created. She did a thorough job of interviewing people who’ve had a role to play in developing and visiting our events. She used those insights to make specific recommendations that would bring more people to the museum grounds. Part of that was to initiate our successful 2nd Saturday on the Farm year-round series of events. Kathryn was professional, effective, thorough, enthusiastic, and easy to get along with. I highly recommend her for helping launch new programs or initiatives. If we ever had a need for additional marketing help, we would contact Kathryn first.
John Kegebein, CEO, Agricultural History Project & Museum, Watsonville, CAKathryn and Anita did such a great job on improving the SEO on my site that I’m just trying to keep ahead of all the new business for Gourmet To Go Culinary!
Chef Elizabeth Bourget, Gourmet To Go Culinary, Aromas, CAKathryn is amazing! She is an expert in today’s marketing strategies, very current on SEO and is proficient in all aspects of creating a website and supporting collateral (Including the back end software and applications). In addition to her unique and deep expertise, she understands how Sales and Marketing relate, is able to create campaigns with quantifiable results by deep discovery with the client up front. I couldn’t recommend Kathryn more strongly — if you need to boost your business through top marketing strategies, Kathryn is your go-to!
Rita Graziano, MA, CEO Avanti Leadership Group, Executive Coach, San Francisco Bay Area, CAKathryn is an exceptional talent. Strong business sense and intuition. She has an uncanny ability grasp the punch line very quickly and explain it in a very direct, logical way. She has strong analytical modeling skills and also very creative. That is a great balance to possess at the leadership level. We worked together on multiple projects and I was very impressed with her intellectual curiosity and drive to ‘make it right’. Very good listener and consistent behavior through thick and thin…great intangible asset.
Chethan Chandra, Director, Marketing Strategy & Operations, Twilio, Inc., San Francisco Bay Area, CAI worked in a team with Kathryn for Crystal CG creating a US Market Entry plan they had retained us to create. Kathryn is a highly motivated individual and brings a unique perspective that enhances any work produced by the team. She is truly a creative thinker with a strong positive attitude and a highly successful person. The highest recommendation I can give to people is to say I would jump at the opportunity to work with them again. For Kathryn that is definitely true.
Rob Higgins, Executive Consultant, San Francisco Bay Area, CAOur Bay Area Personal Chefs site now ranks for several pages and regularly produces leads for all our chefs. Kathryn and Anita streamlined and redesigned our site to optimize for SEO, as well as developed additional content and backlinks that have helped our search results. We’d definitely recommend their SEO services.
Chef Elizabeth Bourget, President USPCA SF Bay Area Chapter, Bay Area Personal Chefs, San Francisco Bay Area, CAI’ve known Kathryn for many years…starting with her first job at IBM. Her warmth, energy and grasp of the technical has served her and her many clients well. She is the classic “Renaissance Woman,” with an impressive multi-colored, multi-channel, multi-field background…the perfect background for an effective technical-creative consultant.
Allen Tatomer, Senior Project Manager, Digital Marketing Consultant, San Francisco Bay Area, CAKathryn Gorges is a joy to work with. I have always felt deeply heard and supported in my marketing intentions. I can count on her to do the project really well, beautifully, and in a timely fashion. I owe so much of my professional image to her expertise.
Lynda Chaikin, ThetaHealing Master, Instructor and Practitioner, Merciful Heavens ThetaHealing, Santa Cruz, CAAs program chair for Silicon Valley Coach Federation, I engaged Kathryn to present a seminar on personal branding. All of her interactions with me prior to the event were to the highest standards of professionalism, so my expectations of her presentation were high. However, her presentation far exceeded my high expectations. She was clear, accessible, personable, knowledgeable, and informative. Her exercises were not “pro forma,” but rather wonderfully evocative and useful. Even her slides reflected an uncommon skill in communicating the essence, in complete harmony with her verbal presentation. I highly recommend Kathryn as a speaker, and have a strong suspicion that her consulting reflects similar qualities. I’d gladly have her speak for me again!
Dr. Joel Orr, Program Chair Silicon Valley Coach Federation, San Francisco Bay Area, CAKathryn masters the mysterious internet for you. In working with Kathryn, the best of you will be pulled out and she will magically transform your understanding of your strengths and weave them amongst the sites and tie it all together so your internet involvement is comprehensive and truly productive. I love working with her positive energy! She makes work – fun!
Marlene Moebest-Henderson, Real Estate Broker, Chase International, Santa Cruz, CA