BRAND & MARKETING STRATEGY
Stand Out
$5,500 + GST
Your business has evolved. Has your market positioning kept up?
For established Australian businesses, typically with 5–20 people, that need stronger competitive positioning and a more comprehensive brand and marketing strategy.
You've worked hard to build your business. Your products, services and expertise have developed, but your market has changed too.
Competition is stronger, customers have more choice, and communicating what makes your business worth choosing isn't always straightforward.
You may have several products or services, different customer groups and people within your business responsible for sales and marketing. But without a clear strategy, their efforts may not be communicating your business's real competitive strengths.
Stand Out helps you establish a stronger competitive position and build your marketing strategy around it.
I'll take a deeper look at your business, customers and competitors to identify where you can differentiate, what your customers genuinely value and how to communicate that value more effectively.
We'll develop and refine the strategic direction together. You'll receive a comprehensive written Brand & Marketing Strategy, including clear recommendations and a practical roadmap that your business can put to work.
FOR ESTABLISHED SMEs
A stronger market position. A clear direction for your team.
Senior-level strategic marketing expertise, without needing that capability in-house.
Typical size: 5–20 people
Direct contact: one owner or senior leader
With Sara: up to 6 hours via Teams
Includes: written strategy and activation roadmap
01 / THE RIGHT FIT
Is Stand Out right for your business?
Stand Out is designed for established Australian SMEs, typically with 5–20 people, including family-run businesses, specialist distributors and suppliers, professional service firms, and businesses with technical or specialised products and services.
Your business has valuable expertise, products or services, but as it grows, your competitive and marketing challenges become more complex.
You may have someone within the business looking after marketing activities, alongside an established sales function. What you're missing is the senior-level marketing expertise to establish a clear strategy and direction.
- Your business has grown or changed, but your brand positioning and marketing haven't kept pace.
- You're competing against larger businesses, established brands or others offering similar products and services.
- You have several products or services, or serve different customer groups with different needs and buying motivations.
- Your business delivers genuine value, but your marketing isn't clearly communicating what makes you different.
- Your sales and marketing messages aren't consistently reinforcing your competitive strengths.
- You have someone responsible for marketing activities, often alongside other duties, but lack experienced strategic marketing direction.
- You're investing time and resources in marketing without a clear strategy connecting those activities to your business objectives.
- You need an experienced, independent perspective on where your business can compete more effectively and how to communicate its value.
Stand Out is for businesses that have moved beyond the need for a straightforward owner-led marketing plan.
The focus is on understanding your competitive position, developing a stronger proposition and establishing a connected marketing strategy that your people can work from.
Business size is a guide, not a strict cut-off. The complexity of your business and its marketing challenges will determine the most appropriate engagement.
02 / WHY THE DIFFERENCE
Why does Stand Out go deeper?
As your business becomes more established, marketing decisions often become more complicated.
Different customer groups may value different things. Competitors may offer similar products or services but position them in different ways. And the reasons customers choose your business may go well beyond the products or services themselves.
Your salespeople might understand those differences from their conversations with customers, but that knowledge isn't always reflected in your brand positioning, website or marketing.
And while someone within your business may be capable of managing marketing activities, they may not have the experience to develop the underlying strategy.
That's where Stand Out adds value.
We'll examine your competitive environment in more detail, identify and prioritise your customer groups, establish what genuinely differentiates your business and explore how the value you deliver can become a meaningful competitive advantage.
We'll then connect that thinking to your brand messaging, sales communications, customer experience and marketing activities.
The result is a comprehensive strategy that helps your business compete more effectively — not simply a longer marketing plan.
03 / THE DELIVERABLE
What exactly do you get?
A comprehensive, personalised Brand & Marketing Strategy document, developed specifically for your business and competitive environment.
01
Business and strategic diagnosis
An assessment of where your business stands today, your objectives and the key commercial, competitive and marketing challenges that need to be addressed.
02
Market and competitive analysis
A detailed review of your agreed priority market and selected competitors, examining how they position themselves, what they offer, where they compete and the opportunities available for your business to differentiate.
03
Customer and buyer insights
Identification and prioritisation of your key customer segments, including their needs, what they value and the factors that influence their buying decisions.
04
Competitive positioning and value propositions
A clear definition of what sets your business apart, why it matters to your customers and what makes your business worth choosing over competing alternatives. Where relevant, we’ll consider how your value proposition needs to be communicated to different customer groups.
05
Delivery and customer experience
An examination of how your business delivers value, the strengths of your customer experience and how these can reinforce your competitive position. Your positioning needs to reflect what your business can genuinely deliver.
06
Brand messaging and proof
Your core brand proposition, supporting messages and the evidence that makes your claims credible. This gives your business a clearer, more consistent way to communicate its value across your website, marketing materials, sales conversations and other customer communications.
07
Marketing strategy
Recommended marketing channels, communication priorities and content direction based on your customers, competitive position, business objectives and available resources. The recommendations will take into account the people and capabilities you already have within your business.
08
Marketing activation roadmap
A prioritised plan showing where to focus first, the key marketing activities to undertake and how to put your strategy into action. The roadmap will give the person responsible for your marketing a clear direction to work from, while helping your business owner or management maintain oversight of the priorities.
One connected strategy. Clear recommendations. Practical next steps.
We'll work through the important strategic decisions together, and I'll personally present and explain your completed strategy so you understand the recommendations and how your business can apply them.
04 / PUTTING IT TO WORK
A strategy your business can actually use
Your completed Brand & Marketing Strategy becomes an ongoing reference point for your business.
It gives your management, sales and marketing activities a clearer strategic direction, helping everyone communicate the value of your business more consistently.
- Guide marketing investment: Make better decisions about which customer groups, opportunities and activities deserve your time and resources.
- Give your internal marketing person clear direction: Equip the person responsible for marketing — even if marketing isn't their area of expertise — with a strategy, key messages, priorities and an actionable roadmap they can work from.
- Support your sales function: Give your salespeople a stronger, more consistent explanation of your competitive strengths, customer value and reasons to choose your business.
- Strengthen your website and content: Communicate a clearer value proposition and consistent messages across your website, marketing materials and customer communications.
- Connect sales and marketing: Make sure your marketing activity reinforces the messages and value propositions that matter in customer buying decisions.
- Work with AI: Use your strategy as a reference for developing marketing content with ChatGPT or other AI tools, where appropriate.
- Make more consistent decisions: Assess new marketing opportunities against your competitive position, business objectives and strategic priorities.
Rather than relying on someone within the business to work out the marketing strategy as they go, you'll have an experienced strategic foundation to guide their work.
And as your business develops, your strategy provides a reference point for future marketing and commercial decisions.
05 / WORKING WITH SARA
How we'll work together
Experienced strategic thinking, developed in partnership with you.
Stand Out is a collaborative strategy engagement, delivered online via Microsoft Teams.
You'll work directly with me throughout the project, with one nominated business owner or senior leader as my main contact.
That person will coordinate business information, decisions and consolidated feedback, keeping the process focused and efficient.
01
Understanding your business
We'll start with an in-depth discovery session to explore your business, objectives, products and services, customers, competitors and current marketing challenges. I'll ask questions, challenge assumptions and help identify the issues and opportunities that matter most. We'll also look at how your business currently approaches marketing and sales, what resources you have available and where better strategic direction could make a difference.
02
Researching and developing your strategy
I'll research your market and competitors, analyse what we've learned and develop an initial strategic direction. We'll work through the emerging findings together, exploring your customer priorities, competitive strengths, positioning and value propositions. Your knowledge of the business and my independent perspective help us test the thinking and make informed strategic decisions.
03
Refining the direction
We'll review and refine the key strategic decisions before the strategy is finalised. This is where we make sure the positioning is credible, commercially relevant and supported by how your business actually operates. We'll also consider how the recommended marketing direction can be carried forward by the people and resources available within your business.
04
Presenting your strategy
I'll personally present your completed Brand & Marketing Strategy, explain the recommendations and walk through the marketing activation roadmap. We'll discuss where to focus first, how to communicate your competitive positioning and how the strategy can guide your internal marketing activities and sales communications. You'll have opportunities to ask questions, challenge ideas and understand the reasoning behind the recommendations.
What’s included
Up to six hours of personal Microsoft Teams strategy sessions, including discovery, collaborative development, refinement and your final strategy presentation.
I'll also undertake the research, analysis and strategy development between our sessions.
06 / OUR APPROACH
The Marketing Sense Brand Strategy Method
One strategic approach, tailored to your business.
Strong competitive positioning isn't simply about developing a clever tagline or creating a more attractive brand.
It's about understanding your market, knowing what customers value, identifying where your business can compete and making sure you deliver on the promises you make.
The Marketing Sense Brand Strategy Method brings these elements together through six connected stages.
- Discover: Understand your business, goals, customers and current challenges.
- Analyse: Review your market, competitors and strategic opportunities.
- Position: Define what makes your business different and worth choosing.
- Define Delivery: Clarify how you deliver value and create a stronger customer experience.
- Communicate: Develop clear messages that connect with the right audience.
- Activate: Turn the strategy into practical marketing priorities and next steps.
The same method underpins Get Clear, Stand Out and The Bigger Picture, with the depth of research, analysis and recommendations tailored to your business needs.
07 / WHY US
Why choose Marketing Sense?
Clear thinking. Real-world experience. Practical strategy.
- Strategic thinking, not just tactics
- I look at the bigger picture to understand what's really holding your marketing back and where the greatest opportunities lie.
- Real-world experience
- Decades of marketing experience and more than 2,000 businesses advised and coached over the past ten years.
- Practical and commercial advice
- Clear, honest recommendations grounded in your business objectives, customers, resources and the realities of the Australian market.
- Collaborative and personal
- You work directly with me. I'll challenge your thinking, share my experience openly and develop your strategy with you.
- Strategies your business can put to work
- You'll have a tailored strategy and practical roadmap that your internal team can use to guide marketing activities, support sales and keep the business focused on the right priorities.
08 / MEET THE STRATEGIST
A little more about me
I'm Sara Berry, founder of Marketing Sense.
One of the things I enjoy most is taking a complicated business or marketing challenge and turning it into a clear, workable strategy.
After decades in marketing and advising and coaching more than 2,000 businesses, I've learned to recognise when the marketing activity a business thinks it needs isn't necessarily the real priority.
Sometimes the underlying problem is the way the business is positioned, which customers it's targeting or how it communicates the value it delivers.
That's why I look at the business before recommending the marketing.
I'm a passionate advocate for Australian businesses, and I bring both senior-level strategic experience and a practical understanding of what it's like to operate in a competitive market.
I also understand that many growing businesses have capable people handling marketing activities without having a senior marketing strategist on the team.
My role is to bring that missing strategic expertise, help you make the important decisions and give your people a clearer direction to work from.
I'll tell you what I think, explain why and challenge assumptions when I believe there's a better way forward.
You'll get my personal attention, experienced strategic judgement and a clear strategy that makes commercial sense for your business.
And we'll have some fun along the way.
In Sara’s words
“One of the things I enjoy most is taking a complicated business or marketing challenge and turning it into a clear, workable strategy.”
09 / WHAT CLIENTS SAY
What my clients say
“She really understands our business and market, and her input has been both strategic and practical.”
“She has an amazing ability to pinpoint her clients' natural strengths and identify their true competitive advantage.”
10 / YOUR INVESTMENT
Stand Out
$5,500 + GST
Senior strategic direction and deeper competitive analysis, developed collaboratively with one key contact.
Indicative timeframe: 4–6 weeks, depending on scheduling, the agreed research scope and the information required.
Your investment includes
- Initial business research and preparation.
- Up to six hours of personal Microsoft Teams strategy sessions with one nominated business owner or senior leader.
- In-depth market, competitor and priority customer research and strategic analysis.
- Collaborative development and refinement of competitive positioning, value propositions, customer experience and brand messaging.
- One comprehensive, personalised written Brand & Marketing Strategy, including a prioritised marketing activation roadmap.
- Personal presentation and practical explanation of the completed strategy, including how it can guide your internal marketing and sales activities.
Why invest in Stand Out?
Stand Out is designed for established businesses whose competitive and marketing challenges require deeper strategic work.
The investment reflects the additional market and competitor research, customer analysis, positioning development and strategic thinking needed to establish a stronger direction for your business.
It also gives your business access to experienced senior-level marketing expertise without needing to have that capability in-house.
You'll have a strategy that connects your competitive position to the way your business communicates, markets and sells — and a practical roadmap to guide the people responsible for putting it into action.
Ready to Stand Out?
If you've built a valuable business but your marketing isn't communicating what makes it worth choosing, let's have a conversation.
I'll get to know a little about your business, the market you're competing in and the challenges you're facing.
Together, we can work out whether Stand Out is the right fit.
Not sure which Brand & Marketing Strategy engagement is right for your business? That’s what our initial conversation is for.
EXPLORE THE OTHER STRATEGY OFFERINGS
For independent business owners and small owner-led businesses, typically with 1–5 people, that have a relatively focused offering and need a clear, practical Brand & Marketing Strategy.
For established businesses, typically with 20+ people, with broader or more complex commercial and marketing challenges requiring senior-level strategic direction.