Michael Polk has spent four decades building consumer brands across companies like Unilever, Kraft Foods, and Newell Brands. His current role as CEO of Implus has given him a laboratory for testing what he considers the fundamental principle of brand development: product differentiation drives brand success.

“Great products lead to great brands,” Polk said in a recent interview. “You have to have a product line that is differentiated from a product delivery standpoint and relevant to a target audience for you to be able to build a great brand.”

Product Development as Brand Foundation

The principle traces back to Polk’s tenure at Unilever, where his team managed one of their biggest brands, Dove. Dove’s soap uniquely contained a quarter cup of moisturizer and cream in every bar, setting it apart from traditional soaps that stripped skin of natural oils. This functional difference, where Dove soap delivered a moisturization benefit while cleaning, was a significant product-level differentiation that addressed a specific consumer need.

At Implus, which distributes 16 brands across footwear accessories, hosiery, and fitness categories, the same principle guides development. The company acquired Balega running socks in 2015 from South African founders who designed the product based on their own experience running the Comrades Marathon, one of the world’s most demanding races.

“What makes Balega different is its fit, the yarn, the specific design, and the quality assurance,” Polk explained. “We inspect every pair of socks, so we don’t let any product out to the consumer without having gone through that kind of rigor.”

The socks address specific pain points for runners: blisters, slippage, and bunching during runs. The heel cup, instep, and toe box receive particular design attention. For athletes whose performance depends partly on footwear comfort, these functional differences matter.

Marketing Without Mass Media Budgets

Large consumer goods companies can deploy advertising to build awareness quickly. Unilever, where Polk previously led product development and marketing globally, operated with a 5 billion euro advertising budget. Smaller companies require different approaches.

The Implus team focuses on what Polk calls “consumer moments that matter.” Around major marathons in New York, Chicago, Boston, and London, Balega releases limited-edition socks at race expositions. Runners purchase products right before these competitions, when the purchase decision has an immediate effect on performance.

“We place the product in highly relevant situations, place the brand, and then we’ve built a network of influencers and ambassadors that are telling their own user-generated stories,” Polk said.

This peer-to-peer marketing approach extends across Implus’s portfolio. SKLZ, the company’s sports training brand, partners with coaches who influence young athletes and their parents. Harbinger, which produces weightlifting gloves and straps, works with athletes who demonstrate the strength development its target customers pursue.

The strategy recently produced dramatic results when an influencer posted about an SKLZ product on TikTok. The video went viral, generating $60,000 in sales within 36 hours—significant volume for a mid-sized company competing against larger competitors.

Distribution and Scale Advantages

Implus distributes products through 80,000 retail outlets across more than 70 countries. The portfolio includes Yaktrax traction devices, TriggerPoint recovery tools, RockTape therapeutic tape, and Spenco insoles alongside Balega and SKLZ.

Michael Polk joined Implus in 2020 following eight years as CEO of Newell Brands, where he completed 35 acquisitions and divestitures while expanding e-commerce from 9% to over 20% of total revenue. His experience scaling digital commerce channels now informs Implus’s retail strategy.

“The future leveragability of these approaches is increasing for small companies,” Polk said, referring to influencer marketing and peer-to-peer advocacy. “The value of it to a small company is it eliminates the scale advantage some of our bigger competitors have.”

The emphasis on product differentiation combined with targeted marketing represents what Polk describes as throwing a pebble in a pond—reaching broad audiences through carefully placed initial impact points rather than blanket coverage.

“You can reach a lot of people if your pebble is the right pebble, you throw it in the pond, in the right pond with the right catalyst and storyline,” Polk said. “The word spreads.”

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