Helping brands’
insides match
their outsides.
After a decade working in brand and organizational strategy, I got jaded about how much energy was spent putting lipstick on a pig. How often we shout promises and values from the rooftop — without actually living them.
Now, I’m on a quest to build brands whose insides match their outsides. Because winning over consumers and employees requires more than slick advertising: it requires living up to what you say.
I’m Mary Gray.
What does it mean to match brands' insides to their outsides?
Let's start with what a brand actually is. My definition: how people talk about you when you're not in the room.
Most organizations try to influence that through two things — brand identity (logo, colors, tone of voice) and advertising (campaigns, messaging, "Buy this!" moments). Both matter. But they're only a fraction of what shapes how people think about you.
The most powerful — and most overlooked — piece is behavior. What you do. What you invest in. How your team treats customers when no one's watching.
Here's the problem: most organizations invest heavily in telling a compelling story about who they are, then act in ways that quietly contradict it. We’ve all seen it. The brand that promises simplicity whose internal processes are chaos. The company that champions innovation but punishes people for taking risks. When there's a gap between what you say and what you do, people notice. And even if they can't name it, trust erodes.
That gap is what I fix.
I help organizations get clear about what they actually stand for, then make sure their internal behavior — culture, operations, decision-making — reflects it. So the story you tell the world matches the experience of the people who work for you and buy from you.