Strategy decisions
Reconnect marketing with commercial objectives and future growth.
Strategy work is often commissioned when something feels wrong but nobody has named it. The output then answers a question nobody asked.
A strategy that lists everything the organisation would like to do isn't a strategy. It's a wish list with a cover page.
"We need a new strategy."
Perhaps. But check first whether the existing one was ever properly resourced or executed.
"Strategy is a document."
Strategy is a set of choices. The document is just where they're recorded.
"More initiatives means more ambition."
It usually means less focus and slower results.
Anton's perspective
Better questions. Better decisions. Better marketing outcomes. In that order.
The most valuable part of a strategy conversation is usually the argument the leadership team hasn't had yet. My job is often to make that argument happen productively.
Decisions frequently have to be made before the information is perfect. Waiting for certainty is itself a decision, and usually an expensive one.
Establish what decision the strategy actually needs to resolve.
Identify the beliefs the current plan depends on, and check the fragile ones.
Fewer, clearer, with the trade-offs written down.
Move money and people to match the choices, or the strategy is decorative.
AI comes up in almost every one of these conversations now. I've written up the questions I get asked most, and my plain answers, in AI in marketing: where it creates value.
Evidence
Emapta
Positioned as "Your Teams, Your Way," with up to 70% cost savings against vendor-managed outsourcing as the commercial proof point. Brand and digital were rebuilt together rather than sequenced.
Inge Zwick, Executive Director, Emapta
Read the full Emapta story →Altius Group
"Elevating Wellbeing" was not a tagline exercise. It set what the group sold, to whom, and what it stopped doing, and the business tripled in two years.
Read the full Altius Group story →Floral Image
The category language described the material and undersold the offer. Repositioning it as a subscription-shaped service, carried through a full rebrand, logo, vans, uniforms, site, across a franchise network in 80+ cities and 18 countries.
Read the full Floral Image story →The Laptop Initiative
A strategy and positioning workshop moved a charity from "we recycle laptops" to a story about recognition, one platform that had to hold across corporate donors, charity partners and the people receiving the laptops.
Anton recently delivered an outstanding Strategy & Positioning Workshop for our team... His ability to think outside the square helped us unlock new ideas and see our mission with fresh clarity.
Heather Opdam, Strategic Partnerships, The Laptop Initiative
Read the full The Laptop Initiative story →Yes, including strategy and positioning workshops with executive teams, where the value is in the quality of the discussion rather than the size of the output.
Yes. That's most of what an independent advisor is for.
Because they start with tactics instead of strategy. Campaigns and channels get chosen before objectives, customer priorities or positioning are settled, and measurement gets added on afterwards if at all. Most failures trace back to one of a few things: unclear positioning, a shallow understanding of customer value, no strategic focus, or execution that drifts from the plan.
How your business is perceived relative to competitors, and why someone should choose you over the alternative. Not a tagline, the tagline is just where the position gets written down, same as strategy is not the document.
Check it against customer perception, not internal opinion. If customers can't repeat back why they chose you, the positioning isn't landing, whatever the brand guidelines say.
It can, but only when it changes what the business is selling, not just what it's saying. Every positioning story on this site, Altius Group, Emapta, Floral Image, The Laptop Initiative, changed the offer and the sales conversation together. That's the test: did the offer change, not just the words around it.
Understand what is holding growth back and where the greatest opportunities may exist.
Identify which customers create value, where growth exists and where investment should be prioritised.
Challenge assumptions and gain an experienced external view before making an important decision.
No brief required. Start with the situation you're facing.
