Independent marketing intelligence and investment strategy
Put your marketing
where it matters most.
We help established businesses decide where marketing deserves investment — through independent analysis of what is working, what needs to change and where the strongest opportunities sit.
Choose your perspective
Who we work with
Owner-led businesses and marketing leaders.
Whether marketing sits with the owner or an internal team, we bring an independent perspective to the decisions that shape its direction.
Owner-led businesses
You’re weighing up a new market, a change of direction or a major investment — without senior marketing expertise in-house.
Explore the owner-led approachMarketing leaders
You’re allocating budget, balancing competing priorities or strengthening a recommendation before presenting it to the wider business.
Explore the marketing-leader approachWhen to engage
Bring us in before you commit.
When the investment matters, but you need a stronger basis for the decision.
Allocating or reallocating budget
Several priorities are competing for investment. You need to determine which deserve funding first.
Entering a new market or customer group
The opportunity looks promising, but what it will take to win those customers needs closer examination.
Planning a major commitment
A website, campaign or repositioning is on the table. You need to know whether it addresses the right problem.
Questioning what is holding growth back
Results aren’t where you need them to be, and it isn’t obvious what should change.
What we examine
The right marketing decision starts with the business.
We analyse five connected areas to understand what is influencing performance and what the next investment needs to address.
Business
Your commercial objectives, current position and the constraints shaping the decision.
Offer
What you sell, the value it offers and which products or services deserve attention.
Market
Demand, competition and the conditions that could strengthen or limit the opportunity.
Customers
What matters to your customers, how they choose and what influences their decisions.
Marketing
How your channels, campaigns and creative are performing against the objectives they need to support.
Sometimes the right marketing decision isn’t to spend more.
Our recommendations aren’t limited to work we can deliver. Delivery and any coordination or oversight are optional and agreed separately.
What you get
Findings, priorities and recommendations you can act on.
A written report and implementation brief you can use to set priorities, direct delivery and decide what to commit to next.
Findings
What the evidence shows about performance, opportunities and the factors limiting progress.
Priorities
Where to focus first, what depends on other work and what can wait.
Recommendations
Specific actions matched to your objectives, resources and the decision ahead.
Decision rationale
The evidence, assumptions and trade-offs behind each recommendation.
The strategy engagement
From question to recommendation in four steps.
Close enough to understand the business. Independent enough to challenge the assumptions.
01 Qualify
A free 30-minute call to understand the decision and whether our analysis is the right fit.
02 Define
We use your knowledge of the business to agree the question, the focus and the evidence needed.
03 Analyse
We test assumptions against the evidence to understand what is influencing performance and where action is justified.
04 Recommend
We present the findings, priorities and recommended actions, with the reasoning behind them.
Insights
Thinking behind better marketing decisions.
Explore the assumptions, trade-offs and evidence behind decisions about budgets, campaigns and growth.
When Marketing Decisions Still Come Back to the Owner
Why growing owner-led businesses can have plenty of marketing activity but still lack a clear basis for deciding what deserves attention and investment next.
Read the article
Your Marketing Budget Shouldn’t Start With Last Year’s Spreadsheet
How to challenge inherited marketing spend, compare competing opportunities and allocate budget around where the strongest commercial case sits.
Read the article
Before You Invest More in Marketing, Know What Needs to Change
How to identify the commercial problem behind your marketing, compare competing opportunities and decide where investment has the strongest case.
Read the articleFAQs
Frequently asked questions
When should we get an independent view of our marketing?
When the decision is significant enough that getting it wrong would cost time, money or momentum. That might be a new audience, a website rebuild, a larger advertising investment or the next annual budget. We start by understanding the question and the stakes. If a deeper engagement would not be proportionate, we will say so.
What will we receive at the end of a strategy engagement?
A written report setting out the question we investigated, the evidence, what we found and what we recommend. It explains which priorities deserve investment, what can wait and the reasoning behind those choices. We present the findings in a 60-minute session so you can challenge the conclusions and discuss the practical next steps.
How much does a marketing strategy engagement cost?
Engagements start at £1,250. The fee depends on the question, the complexity of the business and the evidence needed to answer it. After the initial conversation, we define the scope and fee in a proposal before paid work begins. Any implementation is quoted separately.
Do we have to use you to implement the recommendations?
No. The recommendations are yours to use with your own team, existing providers or another specialist. If you would like us to help with implementation, we can scope and quote that work separately after the strategic recommendation is clear.
Start with a 30-minute conversation.
Bring us the decision you're working through. We'll use the session to understand where the uncertainty is and establish whether we can help.
Book a 30-minute call