A strategy-first practice.
We develop the thinking, shape the creative and guide how brands show up in the world.
What We Do
From the thinking to the making.
We work with brands and founders to define their position, develop their narrative and shape how their ideas come to life. Our work spans brand strategy, creative direction and go-to-market, connecting the thinking behind a brand with how it shows up in the world.
What are you building?
Areas of Focus
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Define what distinguishes your brand, where it stands in the market and how it connects with the people it serves. Establish a strategic foundation that informs business decisions, brand expression and growth.
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Develop the stories, messaging and voice that define how your brand communicates. Build a cohesive verbal identity that expresses what the brand stands for and connects with its audience.
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Develop strategies for launching brands, introducing new offerings and entering new markets. Align positioning, audience, channels and activation to create a considered path from strategy to market.
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Translate brand and business objectives into creative concepts, campaigns and experiences. Establish the strategic direction that informs creative development and guides how ideas are brought to life.
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Lead the development and rollout of campaigns and brand launches, from creative direction and messaging to partnerships and market activations. Bring the right elements together to create meaningful moments for brands and their audiences.
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Partner with founders and leadership teams to navigate growth, change and new opportunities. Provide senior-level strategic counsel, informed perspective and ongoing guidance as business needs and priorities evolve.
Engagements
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A Defined Project
For brands building something new, evolving what exists or pursuing a specific opportunity. A focused engagement shaped around a distinct business need and strategic objective.
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Ongoing Engagements
Continued strategic leadership for brands navigating growth, change and new opportunities. An embedded partnership offering senior-level perspective and direction as priorities evolve.
In Practice
The work takes shape across different industries, business challenges and stages of growth.
From emerging brands finding their place in the market to established businesses navigating change, each engagement calls for its own perspective, approach and strategic considerations
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Developed the positioning, narrative and communications strategy supporting the introduction and adoption of an enterprise AI platform. The work focused on translating complex technology into a compelling, accessible narrative that could build understanding, establish trust and support adoption across the organization.
Selected Deliverables
Positioning & Messaging Framework
Adoption Narrative
Executive Communications
Launch Strategy
Internal Campaign Development
Content & Communications Planning
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Partnered with a founder-led brand to define its positioning, develop a more distinctive narrative and strengthen the connection between its product offering, brand identity and customer experience.
Selected Deliverables
Brand Positioning
Audience Insights
Messaging Framework
Narrative Development
Brand Storytelling
Growth Recommendations
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Partnered with a founder-led brand to define its market position, develop a more distinctive brand narrative and strengthen the relationship between its product offering, brand identity and customer experience.
Selected Deliverables
Brand Positioning
Audience Insights
Messaging Framework
Narrative Development
Brand Storytelling
Growth Recommendations
The
Perspective
Gentillon Strategy is founded on a perspective shaped by years of experience across luxury, editorial, enterprise technology and emerging AI. Different industries, audiences and measures of success.
What connects them is an interest in how people understand, experience and connect with brands, products and ideas.
The questions may be similar, but the answers rarely are. Each business brings its own ambitions, challenges and opportunities. The work might call for positioning, a new narrative, a campaign or an entirely different approach.
The work changes. The underlying challenge doesn't.
About
Gentillon Strategy is an independent, strategy-first practice working across brand, narrative and creative.
Founded by Sarah Gentillon, the practice brings together strategic thinking, editorial sensibility and commercial perspective to help brands and businesses define their direction and bring ideas to life.
We partner with founders, brands and leadership teams at different stages of development, from building something new to evolving what already exists.
Our work is shaped by the belief that strategy should inform not only what a brand communicates, but what it creates, how it connects and where it goes next.
Writing (Between Markets)
Sarah writes Between Markets, a newsletter exploring work, ambition, identity and the spaces in between.
Part personal reflection, part exploration of modern life, it considers reinvention, creativity and the evolving definitions of success as we grow and change.
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Sarah Gentillon is interested in the stories people choose to build and the reasons others choose to believe in them.
Born in Haiti and based in New York, her perspective has been shaped by moving between worlds—editorial and corporate, creative and strategic, founder-led and enterprise. Over the past 15 years, that perspective has informed work spanning fashion, luxury, hospitality, consumer brands and technology.
She is particularly drawn to moments of growth, change and possibility, when ideas are still taking shape and new directions are being considered. Her work sits at the intersection of narrative, positioning, brand and culture, bringing strategic thinking and creative instinct to the development of brands and businesses.
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Ralph Lauren
Nike
Amazon Fashion
Zegna
YSL Beauty
Neiman Marcus
Vogue
GQ
Vanity Fair
Essence