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eve@efconsulting.co.uk · +44 (0)7872 835069 · Bridgnorth, Shropshire
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Skip the foundations and you end up paying twice. Discovery is the two to four weeks that makes everything after it cheaper, faster and more likely to work.
So many businesses skip the foundational work. The strategy, the positioning, the planning feel slow. There are campaigns to run, products to launch, targets to hit. So it gets skipped, or deferred, or done superficially, and the business jumps straight to tactics because tactics feel like action.
The result is familiar: campaigns that miss because the messaging was never defined, budget on channels that were never right for the audience, a brand that looks slightly different everywhere. Eventually someone suggests going back to do the foundational work. Only now there is remedial work on top of it. You pay twice.
Growth doesn’t come from guesswork. It starts with asking the right questions, challenging assumptions, and creating clarity. In a Full Discovery, that means spending time with the people who know the business best, and then looking at it from the outside.
Where the business is, where you want it to go, what has and hasn’t worked, and what you believe about your customers.
The people on the road know what the market is saying. What they hear, what they need, what gets in the way.
Distributors, retailers, designers: why they buy, why they don’t, and what they’d say about you to a colleague.
Website, imagery, literature, channels, data. Strengths, gaps and what can be reused.
Who you are really up against, how they are positioned and priced, and where the gap is.
From the project archive · Triangle
An excerpt from Triangle’s 2025/2026 content strategy: three complementary roles for content, connected to the buyer’s journey.
Attracts prospects researching solutions
Nurtures and builds relationships over time
Converts warm prospects into sales opportunities
Seven layers, in the order I work through them. Each one depends on the one before it, which is why the sequence matters more than the speed.
What the business needs marketing to do: turnover, new accounts, specification, a new market. The constraints that come with it: budget, people, the trade calendar.
You receive. Agreed objectives and the measures that will tell us if we got there.
Who you are really competing with for the same specifier, the same shelf, the same project. How they position and price themselves.
You receive. A competitor and market review, with the gap you can own.
The distinct groups that decide whether your product sells: distributors, independent retailers, contractors, architects and designers, end users. What each one needs to hear, and in what order.
You receive. An audience map with a message and a reason to act for each.
Positioning, key messages and tone of voice that are true to the business and distinct in the market. Inspiration first, specification detail second, where designers are the audience.
You receive. Positioning, messaging and tone of voice guidelines.
Which channels earn their place for these audiences, which shows and titles matter, and what we will not spend on.
You receive. A channel strategy with priorities, and a trade calendar.
A six-month communications plan for each channel, built around the key events, with who does what and when.
You receive. The six-month plan, ready to run.
Monthly reporting against the objectives, honest reviews, and the confidence to stop things that aren’t working.
You receive. A reporting rhythm and a review at six months.
Two depths of discovery. The right one depends on how much is already known and how much is riding on the answer.
One-off · Around two weeks
A starting point to get you to market with confidence.
Fee quoted in conversation.
One-off · Around four weeks
Everything in the Marketing Review, taken deeper.
Fee quoted in conversation.
A written strategy you can take away and run yourselves, or ask me to lead.
Every plan is built around the client’s own calendar. This is the shape of one, for an imagined flooring brand with a spring show and a new range in the autumn. It is an example, not a client’s plan.
| Channel | Month 1 | Month 2 | Month 3 | Month 4 | Month 5 | Month 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trade PR | Launch release | Show preview | Show review | New range release | Project feature | |
| Social | Foundations | Show build-up | Live from the stand | Projects | Range teaser | Range launch |
| Database clean | Show invitation | Follow-up | Retailer update | Specifier update | Range launch | |
| Shows and events | Stand brief | Pre-show | Spring show | Autumn planning | ||
| Sales support | Toolkit audit | Show materials | Lead handover | Retailer POS | Range samples | Specifier pack |
| Review | Baseline | Quarter review | Six-month review |
Some clients take the strategy and run it themselves. Some keep me on to lead implementation, with the account manager and specialist partners behind me. Either is fine. The strategy is written so it works both ways: a complete, senior-level plan to run with, regardless of what happens next.
“Working with Eve has been a game changer. Her strategic insight hasn’t just improved our marketing; it’s helped us reshape the direction of our business. From lead generation to brand clarity, her ongoing consultancy has given us the confidence and capability to scale effectively.”
Who buys and who specifies, how they decide, where the product sits against the alternatives, what it should say to each audience, which channels actually reach them, and a plan with objectives, KPIs and a budget that matches the ambition. The Strategy Blueprint on this page is that list, in order.
Specifiers choose early and rarely change their minds, so the work is done before the project exists: technical information that is easy to find and trust, samples and CPD where they help, case studies of installed work, and a consistent presence in the titles and directories designers use. It is patient marketing, measured in projects won over years rather than clicks this month.
05 · Behind the Thinking
Eve’s own writing on the thinking behind this work.
4 June 2026
Should You Rebrand? Why ‘Feeling Stale’ Isn’t Always the AnswerRebranding is one of the most expensive decisions a business can make. Before you pull the trigger, it’s worth asking a more important question: is your brand actually broken, or does it just feel that way to you?
4 May 2026
The One Marketing Non-Negotiable Every Growing Business Needs to Get RightAsk ten marketers what their non-negotiable is and you will get ten different answers. Mine is always the same: branding. Here is why it underpins everything else you do.
Before you decide
Useful preparation
06 · Start a conversation
Tell me about the business and I’ll tell you which depth of discovery makes sense, or whether you need it at all.
