Introducing Marka+: Where Brand Strategy Meets What’s Next

What does the “+” mean in Marka+?

It means this is just the beginning.

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At Greenough Communications, we’ve long believed that brand isn’t just identity. It’s action. That belief fuels the formal naming of our BrandLab as Marka+ Lab, a next-generation brand strategy offering designed for companies that want more than a refresh—they want impact.

But what does “Marka” mean?

Derived from the word for mark in several languages and brand in others, Marka represents the origin of identity. Your impression, your signature, your stake in the ground. It’s what defines you in the minds of your audience. It’s the strategic heart of your brand: what it stands for, what it promises, and how it shows up in the world.

And the +? That’s the signal that Marka+ is more than a lab. It’s a launchpad for storytelling, transformation, reputation, and growth. More on this full suite of offerings below!

Greenough’s Marka+ Lab is the space where strategy and storytelling come together. Whether you’re preparing for a product launch, entering a new market, responding to competitive pressure, or navigating a change event, we work alongside you to evolve your story and activate it across every platform that matters.

But our vision for Marka+ doesn’t stop at the brand.

We’re building a suite of specialized services to support you in real-time, with communications programs that drive value far beyond visual identity:

Marka+ AI: AI-powered tools and frameworks to help your team scale messaging, maintain brand voice, move faster from idea to execution, and as our client Botify says, be found.  

• In Action: A recent report of Botify’s (featured in Forbes’ CMO Newsletter, of course 😉) found that 94% of marketing leaders say they are at least somewhat prepared to optimize brand visibility for AI search. But are you? That’s the question we’ve been asking our clients with our Marka+ AI Benchmark analysis. And the postmortem actions are now in full swing!

Marka+ Reputation: Issues response, risk positioning, and stakeholder communications that keep your brand steady when the narrative shifts.

• In Action: So many of our clients had to reshuffle their strategy and how they communicate with key stakeholders when the tariff news hit, hit again, hit again…and continues to hit. This impacted everything from BOD presentations to pricing messaging, and we were there with counsel and a pen. It also kept the media trendjacking engine humming, especially for interos.ai, whose entire business model is to deescalate risk in the supply chain. We loved accompanying CEO Ted Krantz for his Live from MarketSite interview at NASDAQ, where he dives deep into this topic and what’s to come.

Marka+ Employer Brand: Programs that align company culture with the brand promise, helping you attract, engage, and retain top talent.

• In Action: We know that your team should be your biggest fan and is your biggest influence inside and outside your walls. So, when designing the GlobalFoundries brand activation, we were sure to accompany it with a “We Shape What’s Essential” Employer Brand campaign that led the messaging and positioning on their careers page, Glassdoor, intranet and across all internal activations…we had a little fun on social too: What’s a Chip? Eagle eyes will spy our very own Grace Bonacum in this video!

Marka+ Change: Communications strategy and messaging frameworks to guide organizations through transitions like M&A, restructuring, and leadership shifts.

• In Action: Our clients see these changes every day, and it’s intrinsically linked to what we do as practitioners when we’re able to dig in deep and reposition a brand. Take Acrolinx, who is writing the book on AI regulations while also introducing its new CEO, or planning for and celebrating the retirement of John Donohue, the CEO of Arbella Insurance, who is a 15-year client and close partner of ours and has had impressive growth and history as a Boston Business Journal’s Best Places to Work recipient for 16 consecutive years. When we say we’re there for brands milestone moments while creating the moments in between, this is what we’re referring to!

Marka+ Campaigns: Launches and go-to-market activations that turn positioning into performance across earned, owned, and paid media.  

• In Action: Check out the work we’ve done with MIT’s Supply Chain Master’s program, where we combined strategic storytelling with targeted digital activations to boost U.S. applications by 38% in year one and another 10% in year two while simultaneously reducing cost per application by 20%. These results aren’t by chance or even luck, but instead reflect our dedicated approach to act as a steward of your “marka,” bringing storytelling to life across all campaigns to optimize our impact.  

What’s new at Marka+ Lab?

We built Marka+ Lab for brand, marketing, and communications leaders who need traction. Fast.  

And we’re already piloting these approaches with clients across industries—from deep tech and biotech to enterprise SaaS and climate solutions—helping them seize the moment and shape what’s next.

Now, we’re doubling down on speed, relevance, and flexibility. Marka+ Lab is where bold brand campaigns like Shape What’s Essential—a PR Daily finalist for Campaign of the Year—are imagined and brought to life.  

It’s our in-house BrandLab dedicated to building narratives that not only elevate perception but shift entire industries.

This year, we’ve expanded Marka+ Lab to offer:

• A brand architecture sprint to clarify how your products, services, or divisions relate.

• AI-ready content systems to ensure your tone, language, and narratives stay consistent across both human- and machine-generated output.

• A new thought leadership activation model, blending media, social, and executive comms to elevate your experts in crowded markets.

A lab built for what’s now and what’s next.

The days of once-a-decade brand refreshes are gone. Today’s brands need to adapt constantly—to channels, formats, audiences, and technologies. That’s why Marka+ is built for evolution, not just definition.

We work across strategy and execution. Across internal and external communications. Across leadership visibility and brand-level storytelling. And increasingly, we work across human and AI collaboration zones, helping our clients utilize next-generation tools without losing their unique voice.

Your next big moment starts here. Let us help you make your mark!

If you’re looking to evolve your brand or finally make it reflect the work you’re doing, Marka+ Lab is ready. Let’s make moments that move your business forward!

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