About Kurt Bartolich
BrandCertain Founder, Author, and Speaker
Kurt Bartolich is a brand positioning professional who believes most brands don’t have a marketing problem—they have a clarity problem. As founder of BrandCertain, he has spent more than 16 years helping organizations cut through noise, challenge assumptions, and reclaim the strategic discipline of positioning that branding often overshadows.
His national consumer brand studies have become a rare, independent lens into what people actually want brands to be today—above all, honest—and his work calls out the industry’s bad habits: conflating branding with brand, forgetting that brand is delivered through behavior—not claims—and chasing trends that compromise trust.
His clients range from health systems and colleges to consumer and media brands, but his philosophy never wavers: positioning first. Everything else second.
A former media marketing and agency veteran, Kurt has seen firsthand how easily brands drift when strategy takes a back seat. Analyst, advisor, and truth-teller, he is committed to helping leaders build brands that behave with intention—not impulse.
Kurt is the author of The Brand Reckoning: How Brand is Broken and How to Fix It (2026) and You Can’t Ride Two Horses with One Ass (2016), a candid exploration of strategic focus and decision-making that has become a trusted resource for leaders. He is also a keynote and conference speaker known for his clear, unfiltered, and research-backed perspective on brand strategy.
He lives in the greater Kansas City area and dedicates his work and free time to his church and his family—especially his daughter, son-in-law, and grandson, who remind him daily that faith, selflessness, and consistency matter in every corner of life.
Ready to Position Your Brand for Growth?
Let’s talk about how research-driven brand positioning can give you a competitive edge.