The Narrative Clarity Diagnostic
Why has our marketing stopped working?
Short answer
When marketing stops working in an established company, the cause is rarely the campaign itself. Usually the company has changed and its story hasn’t: it has grown, shifted direction, or entered a new market, while its positioning and message still describe the past. The Narrative Clarity Diagnostic finds where that gap is, and what to fix first.
Is this you?
- Activity is high, but results keep fading
- You’ve increased the budget, and nothing changed
- You’ve changed agencies, and the problem moved with you
- Leadership, sales and marketing describe the company in different ways
- The market still sees the company you were, not the one you’ve become
Why it happens
Most companies don’t notice the moment their marketing stops working. The campaigns continue, reports still show activity, and the budget is spent. But somewhere along the way, what the company says stopped matching what it is, where it is going, or what its buyers need to hear.
From the inside, this is hard to see. The message feels familiar, so it still feels right. That is why more spend, a new agency or a new logo rarely fixes it: they amplify a story that no longer works.
How I work on this
- Listen: conversations with leadership and, where useful, sales, marketing and partners, to understand the company’s story and where it wants to go.
- Diagnose: a structured review of positioning, message, market approach, customer journey and how teams and partners work together, to find where you’re not being seen, where you’re misunderstood, and why.
- Narrative: a clear direction for the story the company needs to tell, to the people it needs to reach.
- System: a prioritised roadmap for who delivers it, where, when and how.
What you get
- A clear picture of where your positioning, message and market approach are working, and where they are not
- The gaps between how you see yourselves and how your market sees you
- A prioritised roadmap: what to fix first, what to stop, and what to build
- The option to have me direct the execution with my specialist network
FAQs
How long does the diagnostic take?
It depends on the size of the company and how many people need to be heard. The scope and timeline are agreed after the first clarity conversation.
Who needs to be involved?
At minimum, the person who owns the company’s direction. In most cases, a few key decision-makers from leadership, sales and marketing give a fuller picture.
Is this a marketing audit?
Not only. A marketing audit looks at channels and performance. The diagnostic looks at why the company is or isn’t being understood and chosen, which includes marketing, but also positioning, message, customer journey and how teams work together.
What happens after the diagnostic?
You can take the roadmap to your own team or agency, or I can direct the execution with a specialist network, so you have one point of accountability for the result.