DARLING 

A woman smiling outdoors with green trees and sunlight in the background, wearing a blue striped shirt.

STRATEGIES

ARIELLE KOUFFMAN

Brand & Growth Strategist

Hi, I’m Arielle Kouffman — a brand and growth strategist for CPG brands ready to scale with clarity.

I help emerging consumer brands turn early traction into sustainable, profitable growth by uniting brand strategy, product innovation, subscriptions, retail, and DTC into one focused system.

With the discipline of a Fortune 500 marketer and the scrappy instincts of a startup operator, I bring the strategy, structure, and leadership scaling brands need — so your brand grows with discipline, not chaos — guided by a system designed to deliver compounding results.

Agencies --> Grow your Bench
Founders --> Grow your Brand

It all started with bees. When my backyard honey didn’t sell, I redesigned the label, rewrote the story, and unknowingly ran my first brand refresh. That spark led to an MBA and a pivot into marketing.

I started my post-MBA career at Clorox, first in sales analytics, then in brand management — where I led cross-functional teams, managed P&Ls, and launched national campaigns — including Clorox Wipes during COVID, the brand’s first compostable wipe, and Kingsford’s challenger strategy on Reddit. At The Washington Post, I overhauled the subscription go-to-market strategy during the election cycle, driving acquisition and retention with a new messaging framework.

Today, I run Darling Strategies — a brand and growth consultancy. I partner with companies like Brita, Burt’s Bees, Fresh Step, and Lata Shop to build brands, unlock growth, and turn ideas into impact.

MY JOURNEY

I help CPG brands with traction scale with clarity — by turning scattered marketing efforts into a focused growth system. With experience across Fortune 500s and startups, I bring the structure of classical brand management and the adaptability of a founder. My work spans brand strategy, product innovation, subscriptions, DTC, retail, and full-funnel growth — so I don’t just optimize one part of the business, I align the whole thing.

Clients work with me when:

  • They’ve outgrown scrappy growth and need a strategic lead

  • Their teams or agencies are executing, but lack a clear plan

  • They want to scale profitably without losing what makes the brand resonate

From backyard honey to household names, I’ve learned that sustainable growth isn’t about doing more — it’s about doing the right things, in the right order, with a strategy built to scale.

MY VALUE ADD

Problems I Solve

Fragmented Growth

Channels and agencies work in silos. Campaigns, media, and pulse periods create activity but don’t ladder up to a repeatable growth model.

Weak Brand & Product Foundations

Positioning isn’t sharp enough to fuel growth or innovation. Launches happen ad hoc, without a systematic process.

Disconnected Revenue Streams

Retail, DTC, and subscriptions operate in isolation, leaking revenue at key funnel moments across acquisition, engagement and retention.

Brands I’ve partnered with

Clorox logo with red, blue, and yellow diamond shape background
Burt's Bees logo with red text on a yellow background.
Close-up of Clorox Scentiva product label showing the Clorox logo and product name.
BRITA logo with water droplet icon
The word 'data' written in white lowercase letters with a stylized font on a black background.
Logo for Fresh Step cat litter with blue shield and yellow border.
Logo of The Washington Post newspaper.
Camp Chef logo with a flame over a fire pit and red and black text
King Ford logo with blue text on a white background, outlined in red and blue.
Estée Lauder logo with a stylized 'E' and 'L' in a square, gold and navy colors.

My Areas of Expertise

  • A woman with shoulder-length brown hair wearing a gray sweater and carrying a black shoulder bag, standing in front of grocery store shelves stocked with canned soup and other canned goods.

    Brand Strategy & Messaging

    Clarify your edge. Cut through the noise.

  • A person holding a brown subscription box wrapped with a string, labeled "Subscription Box" on a purple and white paper.

    DTC & Subscription Strategy

    Make it sticky. Make it scale.

    Not sure where to start?
    Take the Subscription Maturity Quiz

  • Aisle in a grocery store with shelves stocked with chocolate, sweets, biscuits, cereal bars, and other snacks, and a sign overhead indicating aisle 16.

    Product Innovation & Sell In Strategy

    Launch with purpose. Win at retail.

  • Young green seedlings sprouting in a tray of dark soil, placed on a wooden surface.

    Strategic Growth Systems

    Turn traction into repeatable, profitable growth.

Explore my Services

Previous Work

  • A dinner table with wine glasses, bowls of green olives and red grapes, a loaf of bread, and a can of fish in a tin. Blurred people are in the background, holding wine glasses in a cozy, warmly lit setting.

    Lata Shop's DTC Strategy

  • Man with beard, glasses, and baseball cap holding a handwritten sign and a bag of Hickory Pellets outdoors with green trees in the background.

    Kingsford's first Reddit AMA

  • Screens from The Washington Post's election results website displaying various graphs, maps, and data related to the 2024 presidential election including a rate forecast, live dashboard, state-by-state results, county-level vote margins compared to 2020, and candidate comparisons.

    WaPo's Election Go-to-Market Strategy

  • Bathroom with a glass mirror displaying a person in a green blazer and shirt, a flower arrangement in a pink vase, a pink soap dispenser, and a container of scented product on the countertop. Overlaid text promotes joining the #YasClean challenge.

    Clorox's 1st TikTok Campaign Goes Viral

  • A young boy making a funny face with his fingers pulling his cheeks apart while a person presses on his face, near a container of Clorox disinfecting wipes, at a wooden table.

    Clorox's Brand Equity Campaign

  • Image of two containers of Clorox Compostable Wipes, one labeled Simply Lemon and the other labeled Free & Clear, with a blue circle that says New, and the caption "When it counts, trust Clorox" below.

    Clorox Launches 1st Compostable Wipe

  • Shelves of disinfecting wipes and cleaning products in a retail store with a sign that says 'Expect More. Pay Less.'

    Clorox Scentiva Repositioning & Packaging

  • BRITA water filtration pitcher with a pink lid and handle, featuring a box label highlighting filter benefits and capacities.

    Brita's Color Strategy

Explore My Work

I built a Subscription Maturity Quiz to help founders and marketers benchmark their business, uncover blind spots, and identify the most impactful levers for growth.

Do you know where your subscription business stands?

Take the Quiz

(it’s free)