Growth has stalled
Understand what is holding growth back and where the greatest opportunities may exist.
Stalled growth is usually diagnosed late. By the time it shows up in the numbers, several quarters of investment have already been committed to the previous plan.
The instinctive response is to add activity. More campaigns, more channels, more spend. That can work. It can also disguise the actual constraint for another year.
"We need to spend more."
Sometimes true. But spending more on a channel that has already saturated its addressable audience buys volume, not growth.
"It's a brand problem."
It might be. It might equally be pricing, product fit, sales capacity, or a customer segment that quietly stopped being profitable.
"The market has slowed."
Check whether competitors slowed at the same rate. If they didn't, the market isn't the explanation.
Anton's perspective
More marketing isn't necessarily the answer. Better decisions usually are.
Most stalled-growth conversations start with channels. That's the last place I'd look. I'd rather start with who you're selling to, what they're worth, and whether that's changed in the last two years, because it usually has.
The uncomfortable finding is often that growth hasn't stalled evenly. One part of the business is still growing well and being subsidised by a part that isn't. Averages hide that.
Break growth into volume, price, mix and retention. Most 'growth problems' turn out to live in one of those four.
Which segments grew, which shrank, and what did each contribute commercially rather than in leads?
Identify the single biggest limiting factor and design a small, fast way to check whether relieving it moves anything.
Move investment toward the constraint and give it long enough to read. Half-committed reallocation reads as noise.
Evidence
Altius Group
A health and wellbeing group whose growth had flattened. We repositioned the business around "Elevating Wellbeing" and rebuilt the commercial story behind it. The group grew three times over the following two years.
Lyndon Brill, COO / CFO / Head of Group Services, Altius Group
Read the full Altius Group story →Floral Image
Founded in Adelaide in 2000 and expanding hard. Repositioned to "Designer Flowers, Refreshed Monthly" so franchise growth had a single proposition behind it. Delivered with partner agency Throttl.
Read the full Floral Image story →Usually weeks, not months. Most of the answer sits in data you already have, sales, customer and campaign data, it just hasn't been looked at together.
Start with what growth actually looks like for the business, not with channels or campaigns. I use customer value work to find out which customers, segments and opportunities create the most commercial value, then prioritise investment against that rather than against whatever's easiest to activate. Strategy is most useful when it's connected to a measurable result, not when it's generating activity.
No. The first conversation is about what's happening and what you're trying to achieve. Data comes later, if it's useful.
Identify which customers create value, where growth exists and where investment should be prioritised.
Determine whether marketing investment is creating sufficient commercial value.
Reconnect marketing with commercial objectives and future growth.
No brief required. Start with the situation you're facing.
