- e.l.f. Beauty
- L'Oréal Paris
- The Body Shop
- Garnier
- Ghost Democracy
- Pacifica
- Verishop
The DRM Difference
Most engagements produce decks.
We produce outcomes.
DRM operates at the intersection of diagnosis, creative intervention, and execution — the three moments where most consultants hand you a document and walk away.
- We find the break in the system, build the fix, and stay until it works.
- Embedded inside the business — not observing from outside it.
- One accountable partner from first diagnosis to final output.
- We don't hand you a strategy and leave.
When to bring us in
- You're preparing to raise — and the story isn't landing the way the business deserves.
- You've outgrown your positioning — the brand that got you here is limiting where you go next.
- You're entering a new market — and need to know what version of yourself belongs there.
- The team is misaligned — everyone has a different answer to "what do we do and who is it for?"
- Something is stuck — and you've been waiting for it to resolve on its own.
What we do
Brand growth stalls.
We untangle it.
Too many voices in the room. Too many directions at once. The strategy made sense on paper until it met reality — and nobody agreed on what reality was.
It ends up looking like a tangled ball of Christmas lights: somewhere in there is a working system, but you can't find the start of the thread.
We find it.
How we do it
Three moves. Always in this order.
01
DIAGNOSE
The real problem is rarely the stated problem.
Before we build anything, we map the system. Where growth is stalling, why current positioning isn't converting, what the market actually sees versus what you think it sees. Most engagements skip this step. We make it non-negotiable.
02
INTERVENE
A new direction is only useful if it's the right one.
We develop the strategic and creative framework — positioning, narrative architecture, visual and verbal identity — that gives every downstream decision a fixed point to orient around. Every move tested against the diagnosis.
03
EXECUTE
Strategy without output is just expensive thinking.
We build the deliverables that put the strategy into the world: the pitch, the site, the campaign, the sales narrative. And we stay in the room through launch — because that's where most strategies quietly fall apart.
Portfolio
No vanity case studies.
Just the kind of real-life problems we solve every day.
01
Situation
Products had momentum, but unclear brand identity stalled growth.
Intervention
Full brand repositioning + strategic roadmap.
Result
Established brand book, launched largest brand awareness campaign globally. 2× revenue in 2 years.
02
Situation
Overproliferated product assortment, retail decline, muddled brand positioning.
Intervention
Ruthless prioritization of where to win, hero categories, GTM clarity and org alignment.
Result
Refocused growth across right-to-win categories and new retailers (launched in Walmart 2026).
03
Situation
Identified a consumer, category, and cultural white space to launch a skincare brand from scratch.
Intervention
End-to-end ideation to GTM execution in 7 months (brand identity, product development, growth strategy, etc).
Result
DTC launch with 40% returning consumers (2× industry benchmark), retail expansion to 9+ stores in NY, CA. Exited successfully in 2023.
Different companies.Same pattern.
- A brand that outpaced its story
- A team that lost alignment between growth and scale
- A gap between what the business does and what the world understands it to do
- We close that gap.
If this sounds familiar, that's the signal. Let's talk →
Select impact
- Turned "we have a lot going on" into "this is the plan"
- Took brands from scattered to sharp
- Helped great products finally get noticed and sold
- Made teams faster by making things clearer
If something feels stuck —
we've probably seen it before.
Let's find it and fix it.
About
Built by an operator,
not an observer.
Deus Rex Machina exists for one reason: to fix what's holding businesses back. Most businesses don't need more ideas. They need fewer, better ones — actually executed.
Founded by Rex Chou, bringing 20+ years of brand-building and marketing leadership across global beauty and CPG.
deus ex machina (noun)
A narrative device in which a previously unsolvable problem is suddenly resolved by an unexpected occurrence. Throughout Rex's career, he has joined brands at inflection points — turnarounds, repositioning, moments when strategy and execution aren't connecting. Deus Rex Machina was built for exactly that. Not to produce pretty decks — to deliver unexpected, operator-led intervention.
"If you want another agency and a pretty 60-slide deck, there are plenty of options. We'd be happy to provide recommendations. If you want the problem solved, we should talk."Let's connect
Career
L'Oréal USA
Garnier Fructis Brand Management
L'Oréal Spain
L'Oréal Paris Skincare, Garnier Skin & Bodycare
Spain + Portugal markets
The Body Shop
Global Innovation Product Development
Taskforce for sale to Natura
Garnier SkinActive
Rebrand & Turnaround
L'Oréal USA
Head of Marketing & Coaching Upskilling, North America
Ghost Democracy
Founder
$5M+ DTC. Exited 2023.
e.l.f. Beauty
Brand Director, e.l.f. SKIN
Doubled the business in 2 years
We believe
- Most brands don't have a strategy problem — they have a clarity problem
- Growth stalls when priorities are diluted
- Execution fails when ownership is unclear
- Most teams are overworking and under-deciding
- The answer is almost always simpler than everyone thinks
How we work
- Embedded, not external
- Focused, not scattered
- Cut what doesn't work, double down on what does
- Accountable in execution — stay until it's working
Career
20+ years.
Two continents. One thread.
Hover a location to explore each role.
e.l.f. Beauty
e.l.f. SKIN Brand Director
2× revenue in 2 years
Ghost Democracy
Founder
$5M+ DTC. Exited 2023.
L'Oréal USA
Head of Marketing & Coaching Upskilling, North America
Garnier SkinActive
Rebrand & Turnaround
L'Oréal USA
Garnier Fructis Brand Management
The Body Shop
Global Innovation Product Development
Taskforce for sale to Natura
Pacifica Beauty
Fractional CMO
L'Oréal Spain
L'Oréal Paris Skincare, Garnier Skin & Bodycare
Spain + Portugal markets
Contact
Let's find it
and fix it.
No pitch. No pressure. Just a transparent conversation about what's going on and whether we can help.
We keep our roster intentionally small. Fewer clients, bigger impact. If it's a fit, we move quickly.
We'll be in touch.
No pitch, no pressure — exactly as promised. We'll reach out if it's a fit.