Coats Digital Grows Using Mar.kology Magic

The Challenge

Coats Digital operates in a globally complex sales environment, serving fashion and apparel manufacturers across multiple regions, cultures, and commercial maturity levels.

The challenge was not product quality it was language alignment.

Key issues identified:

• Sales teams were defaulting to global, generic messaging
• Regional sales teams were not selling confidently in markets where language felt misaligned
• Cultural and social nuances were being unintentionally overlooked
• Messaging worked in some regions, but quietly failed in others
• Internal teams felt disconnected between global strategy and local reality

The result:
Sales conversations stalled not because the solution lacked value, but because the language didn’t land.

Mar.kology™ Insight: Why This was Happening

Using the Mar.kology™ lens, the root issue became clear:

People don’t reject products they disengage from language that doesn’t feel like it understands them.

In global B2B environments:

• Buyers assess cultural respect before product merit
• Sales teams disengage when language feels imposed rather than owned
• Confidence drops when scripts don’t match lived market realities

This was not a marketing failure.
It was a psychological and cultural alignment gap.

Strategic Approach

Rather than starting with copy or visuals, the work began with active listening and team bridging.

Core principles applied:

• Listen before positioning
• Understand what sales teams were avoiding selling and why
• Identify cultural and social friction points in conversations
• Translate product value into regionally resonant language

This required deep collaboration across:

• Global leadership
• Regional sales teams
• Marketing stakeholders
• Local market realities

The role was not to dictate messaging but to co-create language that sales teams could confidently use.

Rebrand & Local Website Strategy

The local website rebrand was approached as a sales confidence tool, not just a visual refresh.

Key decisions included:

• Reframing value propositions through regional business priorities
• Adjusting tone to match cultural expectations (direct vs relational, efficiency vs partnership)
• Removing jargon that worked globally but failed locally
• Designing pages to support sales conversations, not just awareness

The site became: A shared reference point sales teams could trust not a corporate artifact they avoided.

Through collaborative workshops and iterative feedback, a set of six sales language assets was developed.

These assets were designed to:

• Support culturally sensitive conversations
• Reduce friction in first meetings
• Increase sales team confidence
• Adapt to social norms without diluting product value

The 6 Assets Included:

1. Opening Conversation Framework
   How to start conversations respectfully across cultures
2. Value Translation Guide
   Turning product features into locally relevant outcomes
3. Objection Language Map
   Responding to resistance shaped by cultural context
4. Trust-Building Narratives
   Stories that signal partnership, not pressure
5. Decision-Making Alignment Language
   Adapting to hierarchical vs consensus-based cultures
6. Closing & Continuation Scripts
   Ending conversations in a culturally appropriate way

Each asset accounted for:

• Cultural norms
• Social dynamics
• Power distance
• Communication styles
• Market maturity

Collaboration as a Strategic Tool

A critical success factor was intentional collaboration.

Instead of separating:

• Global vs local
• Marketing vs sales
• Strategy vs execution

The process bridged teams, creating shared ownership of the language.

This had a secondary but powerful effect: Sales teams felt seen, heard and respected which directly increased adoption of the assets.

Outcome & Impact

As a result of the Mar.kology™-led approach:

• Sales teams gained confidence using the new language
• Previously underperforming regions became more engaged
• Sales assets were used, not ignored
• Internal alignment improved between global and regional teams
• Messaging respected cultural and social realities without fragmenting the brand

Most importantly, the organization shifted from: “Here’s what we want to say globally” to “Here’s how our audience needs to hear it locally”

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