About Us
Sharpen Your Message is a proprietary service of Kothe Marketing Consulting, which is owned by Jim Kothe. Who is Jim Kothe?

The “Cliff Notes” Version:
A Stanford Business School MBA and former Clorox Company Brand Manager, Jim was also the principle owner of a leading regional advertising agency before starting Kothe Marketing Consulting. He has over 38 years of brand marketing experience.

The “Whole 9 Yards” Version:
Jim Kothe’s marketing career of over 36 years has been focused on brand marketing: creating a new brand; increasing momentum for an existing brand; and revitalizing a tired brand. The products and/or services may have changed over time, but the fundamental principles of branding have been learned, practiced and re-fined. Jim Kothe brings this wealth of experience to your brand, for your product and/or service. Here are a few of the “branding” highlights in his career/life:

The Clorox Company
Jim spent seven years at The Clorox Company, Oakland, CA, as a Brand Manager,where he was responsible for the national marketing, advertising and sales promotion activities on a variety of familiar household consumer brands, including:
 
The Clorox Company, which the Supreme Court divested from Proctor & Gamble shortly before my arrival, was where I cut my teeth on packaged goods marketing. It was an excellent training ground, with big national marketing budgets and talented, major-league professional resources, both inside and outside the company. I trust you’ve both used and loved “my” brands!

Kothe Howard Marketing Communications
A full service, regional advertising agency located in Charlotte, NC, Kothe Howard Marketing Communications served a variety of clients, in both the consumer and business-to-business categories.

Major Regional Brands:
We had a unique opportunity to handle the marketing
communications for two new sports franchises. We worked with sports marketing guru, Max Muhleman, to help land a NBA team in Charlotte for prospective owner, George Shinn, and then later with Max and the Richardson family to successfully acquire a NFL team for the Carolinas. We marketed and sold over 50,000 PSLs…then a whole new concept in season ticket sales. The Personal Seat License, an invention of Max Muhleman, helped fund the Carolina Panthers’ new stadium. The “PSL” is now a well known and universally understood concept, and is used throughout the country as a common fund raising technique…but we were the ones who had to promote it for the first time.

Speaking of franchises, you haven’t lived until you’ve worked on a co-op advertising account, which we did with a group of 20 McDonald’s owner/operators in central North Carolina. It’s a unique marketing and client/agency relationship experience!

National Retail Brands:
It’s not often a regional advertising agency gets to handle a national account, but we served as the agency that turned the National Auto Parts Association into the national brand you know as NAPA auto parts.

We also handled the advertising for the nation’s leader in children’s portrait photography (PCA International), doing business as the Wal-Mart Portrait Studios. This was major league retail brand marketing, built on the reputation of the host store.

National Business-To-Business Marketing:

Our mantra was that “businesses don’t buy products or services, people do!” Therefore, we successfully applied the discipline of consumer marketing to our “B to B” accounts. Whether we were creating trade advertising or planning a national sales conference, the fundamentals didn’t (and shouldn’t) change… we were marketing and selling to people!

Kothe Marketing Consulting
With a singular focus on increasing a client’s sales through improved marketing communications, Kothe Marketing Consulting provides business owners a one-on-one consulting/coaching service. Clients have been both product and service oriented companies.
   
Freed from the “slings and arrows” of running my own small business with its numerous personnel and management issues, this consultancy has enabled me to provide my clients with a highly personal marketing service. I target business owners who do not have a senior marketing professional on staff, or the outside resources of a sophisticated advertising agency. I personally lead the client through a tried and true process I have refined over my 36 year career. I call it “Sharpen Your Message” and its purpose is to increase your sales!

A Personal Aside
As stated above, this Sharpen Your Message service is very much a one-on-one consultancy. I lead it, but I work through it together with the client, therefore, it is important that we “get along.” It is only fair that you understand, as Paul Harvey would say: “the rest of the story.” Just exactly what kind of fellow will you be dealing with?

First, you must know that I was born in Oklahoma…and, while I didn’t go to school there, I’m an avid fan of OU football (“Sooner born, Sooner bred, and when I die I’m a Sooner dead!”)

I’m an Elder in the Presbyterian Church
and an active member of Rotary International.

Over the years I’ve taught marketing courses as an Adjunct Professor at several of the major colleges in the Charlotte, NC area. I enjoy teaching as I find that while clients don’t tend to listen, students do!

My wife, Bev, and I met at Vanderbilt in the 1960s, back when music was really good! We have two grown children, both living and working in California. Now we’re empty nesters, enjoying the benefits of a down-sized, townhouse lifestyle, and the joy of watching our first grandchild, Elizabeth, learn to walk, talk and grow-up in this crazy world.

A Final Comment
If you’ve read this far, you certainly know something about me and the brands that have been part of my marketing career and life. I truly have been “branded.” Now, I’d like to learn about you and your situation, your product or service, your brand…so that together we can “sharpen your message” to increase your sales!
I hope you will contact me.