In Search of the Perfect Key Lime Pie:
Observations on building great brands, keeping your promises, and creating margin.
By Chris McAdoo,
CXO, Knoxville Entrepreneur Center
When I was a kid, I spent a lot of weekends at grandma’s house. We’d hang out, watch cartoons, maybe walk around the neighborhood, or watch Golden Girls (That sounds like a pretty solid Saturday, right?). She always promised to take care of me, and she kept that promise for years, delivered in a cold, perfect, aluminum pan: Key Lime Pie. Was this round lime-green treasure chest of sugar-filled goodness a home-made super secret family recipe…or was it gas station pie? Honestly, I couldn’t care less. I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since and can’t help myself but order it when I see it on any menu, anywhere. And I’m disappointed every time.
Before joining Knoxville Entrepreneur Center, I spent the better part of two decades building a successful brand design studio and serving as creative director for one of the best agencies in the Southeast. I’ve worked with nonprofits, scrappy startups, and billion-dollar companies, and while every client has been unique, everyone shares a common goal: They wanted a bigger piece of the pie. They wanted to create MARGIN, and I’m not just talking about financials.
I’m talking about brand margin. And no, a brand isn’t just your logo or color scheme (although they are a part of the story. More on that in a bit). A brand margin is the clarity, consistency, and trust created when you deliver on a promise to a customer. Every time you get to turn conversations that start with “So…what exactly do you do again?” into “I already know what you do, and I know why you’re the one to do it.” you create margin. You’re condensing time, creating energy, and commanding attention, and a thoughtful brand does the work when you’re not even in the room.
World-renowned brand and marketing expert Seth Godin defines brand as “the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships, that taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”
In other words: a brand is a reason to take action. People only have so much time, money, and attention. Your brand helps them decide where to place their bet.
Bill and Tommy’s Big Adventures in Branding
On a recent episode of the Big Ideas Welcome podcast, I got the chance to talk with Tommy Nguyen (Co-Founder of StoragePug) and Bill Malkes (Serial Entrepreneur and founder of GridSmart). They’ve both built successful companies in what most people would consider boring industries, and they did it by treating their brands as a foundational piece of strategy, not just window dressing.
Tommy and Storage Pug made a surprisingly simple, personality-driven promise to their growing list of self-storage customers. Tommy said, “From day one, we said: we’re just gonna out-love our customer better than you can out-love yours.” Everything they build – including their now famous purple visual identity and their award-winning software, all the way down to how they answer the phone – always feels “Fun, Fast, and Familiar”. Those three words don’t just live on a wall in the back of their building – they’re baked into every product, every customer interaction, andinto the hiring of every employee. Oh, and I should mention that they’ve also built a $10 Million Dollar business along the way.
Bill Malkes, founder of GridSmart, took a different approach to the traffic management industry. In a space dominated by bureaucracy, grayscale branding, and buzzword-filled product sheets, Bill chose bold over bland. With a tagline like “Traffic Control Freaks,” GridSmart wasn’t just introducing technology: they were introducing a point of view. As Bill put it on the podcast, “If someone rolled their eyes at our brand or didn’t get it, that was the validation. If it strikes a nerve, it’s working.”
GridSmart wasn’t built to win everyone.
It was built to connect with the people who actually wanted something better. From the high-contrast black-and-yellow aesthetic to its unapologetic voice and culture, GridSmart challenged everything people expected from a legacy industry. And it worked. GridSmart went global, became a category leader, and was ultimately successfully acquired. Not by playing it safe, but by creating a business and brand that knew exactly who it was for, and wasn’t afraid to lead with it.
What makes a strong brand?
Throughout my career, I’ve learned a lot from folks like Tommy and Bill – and from fellow creatives and strategists like Lindsey Brine and Jennie Andrews, who are never afraid to take big leaps and push boundaries. They helped define four qualities of an effective brand that continue to ring true. Ask yourself how your brand stacks up:
Are you Easily Recognizable? If your brand looks, sounds, or feels like everyone else, congratulations: you’ve officially blended into the background. Being recognizable is all about being distinct. Your voice, your visuals, your value proposition and calls-to-action should feel like you the second someone sees it. There’s a reason everyone in Knoxville is familiar with a certain shade of Volunteer orange.
Are you easily remembered? Great brands don’t just bring people back; they bring 70,000 of their friends along for the Savannah Bananas at Titans Stadium. You don’t need a million-dollar marketing budget to be memorable, but you do need to show up in a way that resonates with the people you want to serve, and while you’re at it, deliver a message your audience can actually repeat.
Are you true to yourself? A brand that’s true to itself doesn’t just chase trends and shapeshift depending on the room. It doesn’t try to be everything to everyone and make promises it can’t keep. From Liquid Death’s tagline (“Murder Your Thirst”) to their absurdist marketing campaigns, they’re all in on the joke, and the mission to kill plastic.That kind of clarity (and personality) builds trust and loyalty. Internally and externally.
Are you Consistent? Clever will get you noticed. But consistent gets you remembered — and trusted. If your website sounds one way, your customer service sounds another, and your social media is all over the place… guess what? You’re confusing people. Consistency is all about creating rhythm. It’s about showing up with the same energy, the same tone, and the same set of values from the handshake to the invoice to the Instagram post. Do you think Chick-Fil A’s common refrain, “My Pleasure”, happened by accident?
The barrier to looking “legit” has never been lower. Which means the real competitive edge isn’t just about access to Canva (although yes, that helps). You need to know what keeps your customers up at night, what they’re afraid to admit in meetings, and what really drives their decisions. This is hard work, and that’s what separates a strong brand from the sea of sameness that dominates every industry. A thoughtful brand that listens to customers and speaks their language creates…you guessed it: margin.
Final Thoughts and a Challenge
You can’t out-design confusion, and you can’t out-market misalignment. If you’re unclear about who you are, your customers will be too. If you don’t know what makes you different, your competitors will decide for you. An effective brand is built on promises made, and more importantly, promises kept – every day – in small, specific ways.
Your brand is built and reinforced in small, specific moments: when someone finds exactly what they need on your website, when a team member delivers on your tone of voice in real time, and when a customer walks away thinking, “They really get me.” That’s your brand.
So, why am I always disappointed whenever I have a new chance to pursue Key Lime Pie excellence? Because it’s not about the pie, my friend. It’s about the memories and the feelings attached to every bite that can’t be recreated. It’s about the brown chair in the corner of the living room where we’d eat off those funny old plates that seemed so delicate and yet so sturdy at the same time. It’s about the Golden Girls, and summer afternoons in Fountain City, and a kid that was well taken care of, and always got dessert without even asking. My grandma, Louise Fort, wouldn’t have cared to be a brand influencer, but she could have totally pulled it off. That’s her brand.
Now, go build YOUR brand.
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About the Author: Chris McAdoo is Chief Experience Officer at the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center, where he helps companies define their voice, sharpen their brand, and grow with purpose. A seasoned creative director and entrepreneur, Chris blends strategic clarity with creative energy to guide rebrands, campaigns, and founder storytelling. He’s also the host of Big Ideas Welcome and a nationally collected visual artist.
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Know your brand. Own your voice. Grow your impact.
BrandCamp is happening @ KEC June 23rd, facilitated by Chris McAdoo. Applications are open through June 5th!
If you’ve ever said, “I know what we do… I just don’t know how to say it”…KEC’s Brandcamp is for you. Whether you’re just getting started in business, building a startup, or growing a family business, you’ll get a crash-course in brand and you’ll leave with important skills:
- Know yourself. Communicate your value with clarity and conviction.
- Serve your audience. Understand the needs of decision-makers, and how to meet them where they are.
- Own your voice. Develop language and messaging that clearly reflects your unique value proposition.
- Understand your competition. Craft a positioning strategy that sticks and scales.
Visit https://knoxec.com/what-we-do/programs/brandcamp/ to learn more and register (seats are limited!)
