A Rescue Horse Was Never Part of the Marketing Plan

When we started KR Squared, I can assure you there was never a meeting where someone said: “One day our content strategy will include office dogs and a rescue horse." Trust me, not once.

There were meetings about clients, production, and  of course, marketing, but zero meetings about livestock.

And yet here we are.

If you've followed us for any length of time, you've probably met the office dogs, and if you've been around recently, you've probably met Sally, the rescue horse we adopted through an incredible equine rescue organization. The funny thing is that people remember them.

In fact, some of the conversations we have with clients, partners, and even complete strangers start with: "Wait... aren't you the company with the dogs?" Or… "How's the horse doing?"

Rarely does someone walk up and say: "I was particularly impressed by your quarterly content strategy framework." (Which is unfortunate because we worked really hard on that.😉)

They remember the little things that make a company feel less like a logo and more like a group of actual people. For years, businesses have been told to focus on their differentiators. Consultants love that word…differentiator.

The irony is that many companies already have those things. They just don't think they're important enough to talk about. You know, the office dog that sits in client meetings, the team tradition that makes absolutely no sense to outsiders, or the founder who's obsessed with a niche hobby.

It’s those things that make people say, "That's interesting."

But alas, businesses often default to sounding exactly like everyone else. We’ve all seen those polished mission statements, and none of us remembers a word of it. There’s nothing worse than corporate messaging that's been reviewed seventeen times and somehow says absolutely nothing.

The brands people actually gravitate toward are the ones that know who they are.

Now, before anyone interprets this as a recommendation to abandon strategy entirely and start posting random photos of animals, let's not get carried away. Strategy still matters a lot.

But strategy works best when it's wrapped around something genuine. Think of it this way. A perfectly designed brand without personality is like a beautifully wrapped gift box with nothing inside. It looks impressive, but eventually people notice.

The businesses that create lasting relationships tend to have both. They have a thoughtful strategy and authentic personalities. The goal isn't to manufacture authenticity. The goal is to stop hiding it.

So for us, sometimes it's the office dogs, sometimes it's the rescue horse, and sometimes it's simply having the confidence to let people see who you really are.

Even if that wasn't part of the marketing plan.