Brand strategy for UK SMEs ready to stop competing on price.
You have a strong business, but customers and colleagues cannot explain why it is the right choice in one clear sentence.
Sound familiar?
The knot.
The offer has evolved, but the story has not. Sales rewrites the pitch for every prospect, marketing fills the gaps with new claims, and different people describe the business in different ways. Buyers are left comparing features and price because the value only becomes clear after a long conversation.
What we do about it
The fix.
Mark Ingleby leads the strategy and creative direction, drawing on 25+ years in brand and campaign work. We interview the people who know the business, examine customers and competitors, then turn the evidence into positioning, messages and an identity your sales and marketing teams can actually use.
What you get.
The deliverables, plainly listed. If it's not here, ask — we'll tell you honestly whether it's included.
- 01 A documented position: ideal customer, category, customer problem, promise and reasons to believe
- 02 Customer, stakeholder and competitor research summarised into the decisions it supports
- 03 A messaging framework with value proposition, audience messages, proof points and objection handling
- 04 A practical voice guide with examples for the website, sales conversations and everyday marketing
- 05 An identity direction that connects the strategy to logo, colour, typography and image choices
- 06 A rollout plan showing what to change first, who owns it and which existing assets can stay
How this one works.
No discovery phases that outlive the project. Just the steps that earn their place.
- 01 Listen & Investigate We interview decision-makers and, where access permits, customers. We review the current offer, sales material, customer language and competing positions before deciding what the brand should say.
- 02 Choose the Position We define the customer, problem, category, promise and evidence. The hard part is choosing what not to claim, so the position is specific enough to guide real decisions.
- 03 Write the Working Story We turn the position into a message hierarchy, audience-specific talking points, proof and objection responses. Your team gets usable words rather than a strategy deck that needs translating.
- 04 Design & Put It to Work We connect the thinking to the visual identity and priority touchpoints, then brief the people responsible for rollout. The final handover records the decisions so the brand stays coherent.
Why this matters
A brand strategy earns its keep when it changes commercial work, not just the logo. Our LMP Group case study records the same research-to-rollout approach across positioning, identity, website and campaign work; the wider programme generated £5M revenue in year one, doubled LinkedIn impressions in three months and increased organic traffic by 25% in 90 days. Those are programme results, not a promise that a rebrand alone produces them.
Who this suits
- Founder-led UK SMEs whose offer has matured faster than their original brand
- B2B and professional-service firms that need to make expertise easier to understand and buy
- Leadership teams preparing for a relaunch, new market, merger or significant growth phase
- Businesses whose sales, marketing and delivery teams currently tell different versions of the story
Proof and useful reading.
Examples and practical guides that help you judge the work before starting a conversation.
The questions everyone asks.
If yours isn't here, ask it — we answer emails within 24 hours.
Q1 What is included in a brand strategy engagement?
The scope can include research, positioning, audience definition, value proposition, message hierarchy, proof points, tone of voice and a rollout plan. Visual identity is the expression of those decisions; we confirm whether it is part of the same project before work starts.
Q2 Who leads the work?
Mark Ingleby leads brand strategy and creative direction. He has more than 25 years of brand and campaign experience. Ben Macdonald joins where the brand needs to connect to websites, systems or a wider commercial change. You work with the principals, not a junior account layer.
Q3 How long does brand strategy take?
A strategy-led engagement usually needs four to six weeks, depending on interview access, the number of audiences and whether visual identity is included. We agree the evidence, decisions and review points in the scope rather than rushing research to meet an arbitrary reveal date.
Q4 How much should we budget?
The published Creative plans currently start at £1,995 one-off. The £4,950 Scale plan includes a messaging framework and complete identity; deeper research, multi-brand work or a larger rollout is scoped separately. You receive a written scope and price before committing.
Q5 How will we judge whether the strategy worked?
We agree observable measures at the start: message consistency, sales-team adoption, buyer comprehension, proposal quality, conversion or campaign performance where tracking exists. Brand work contributes to those outcomes alongside offer, sales and media; we will not claim attribution the evidence cannot support.
Sound like your problem?
Tell us where it hurts. We’ll tell you honestly whether we can help — and what we’d do first.