Our Work
Developing a business strategy for a new employee benefits application
Benefits Buddy is a specialist employee benefits platform designed for the needs of small businesses that want to improve employee satisfaction and retention through better employee benefits.
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Benefits Buddy had a working product but several unanaswered questions on who to sell it to, through which channels, and on what commercial terms. We took the founders though our Value Lab process.
The written strategy we produced set out the market context and a competitor map that identified the real near-term competitive threats. It narrowed a long list of potential client problems to the priorities worth building a business on, defined the target segments and the people who buy within them. We assessed routes to market, set out a core proposition, and tailored propositions for referral, reseller and white label partners. We delivered an analysis of where value genuinely sits in the product offer, what can be charged for, and outlined a pricing strategy and pricing framework.
Migrating from a licenced software model to SaaS
Orbitvu is an innovative manufacturer of professional imaging systems. These systems use a combination of hardware and sophisticated software to produce very high quality 360 degree images of items as small as jewelry, though to those as big as a car.
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Orbitvu asked us to help them to redesign their software product offer to enable them to transition from a licenced software model to software-as-a-service (SaaS). We undertook a market assessment to identify direct and adjacent competitors and pricing. We designed new pricing models and reshaped the product portfolio to better target different user segments and to encourage the right purchase behaviour. We also helped to identify operational changes that would be necessary and identified where the company could apply different depreciation approaches to improve profitability.​
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Building a go-to-market strategy for a world leading AI verification tool for high tech microchip development.
Certiqo is a world leading AI-driven verification tool for FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) development. FPGAs are reprogrammable chips used in complex technologies such as satellites, aircraft and medical devices.
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Backed by founding funding from the European Space Agency, Certiqo checks that the code written for field programmable gate arrays actually delivers the requirements it was built from, with no missing functionality and no undeclared extras. It runs entirely on the client's own infrastructure, so sensitive IP never leaves the network.
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Certiqo came to us with very strong technology and an open question: Who should we sell to, and how? We ran a Value Lab workshop with the founding team, working through the ten areas from problem definition to cost drivers, informed by stakeholder interviews, structured pre-work and a competitor review.
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The output was a clear 'now, next and later' strategy: a prioritised target market in space and aerospace, a value proposition leading with security and sovereignty, differentiation mapped against the competitive landscape, and the commercial decisions to resolve before the first sales conversation.
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"“I was exceptionally happy with the a few good people team, their approach was structured, and the team knowledgeable as we worked with them to help understand how we should take our product to market. I would highly recommend them and have done so already to several organisations”
- Adam Taylor, Founder, Certiqo
Transforming technology service strategy to deliver higher value and better margin
VML is one of the world's leading customer experience and creative agencies. The company offers deep expertise in experience design and experience technology and operates several technical centres of excellence globally.​
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VML Guatemala specialises in software development for client solutions using the Adobe Experience Cloud. We helped them to develop a new business plan for growth, which involved redefining their software development service offering to reposition the business from providing specialised technical services, to building an end-to-end capability to design, develop, and manage complete martech solutions for clients. We helped VML Guatemala to write a new business plan and strategy, identify key programmes of work needed for transformation, and to build a three year roadmap for change. We also supported their business leaders to build their own transformations plans, coordinated as a team. The result was a significant leap in business revenue and profitability.
Evaluating a global marketing technology stack and designing changes in technology and marketing operating model
Norton Rose Fulbright is a leading international Magic Circle law firm. With offices in over 50 offices on five continents, the business had amassed over 140 pieces of marketing technology but had a low perception of value from their marketing investments.
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We helped Norton Rose Fulbright to assess their key technologies and define a vision for marketing within the business that partners could buy into. We identified the key marketing activities that should be focused on, recommended the key technologies required and designed a new operating model that allowed for consistency of global messaging, while allowing local flexibility. We designed a roadmap for change to bring greater consistency and value from marketing.
Productising marketing strategy services
MSQ Index offers a well developed framework for undertaking marketing strategy design and execution, backed by a technology platform that helps clients evaluate their performance, and provides training for their agency partners. MSQ Index enables agencies to deliver marketing outcomes that are aligned to client business goals.
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We completed a value lab with MSQ to validate the product concept and identify areas of value that the MSQ would deliver to their agency clients. We helped to break the MSQ offer down into productisable elements and identify new areas of value that could be used to increase the value of the by up to five times.
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“If you’re a business with a brilliant product idea but struggling to define and refine it, we can’t recommend AFGP highly enough. Go have a conversation with them—you won’t regret it!”
Debbie Richardson, Founder & CEO, MSQ Index
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Identifying new sources of value for a globally successful marketing agency
Oliver is a hugely successful multinational marketing agency specialising in creating in-house capabilities for its clients. It's part of the Brandtech Group, which specialises in applying technology to the world of marketing.
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We helped Oliver to recognise the value of their technology, unifying sales, client and product teams behind one vision. We helped them to develop a new packaging and pricing structure for their technology offers and developed new marketing materials to ensure a consistent proposition is sold to new and existing clients. We identified over £9 million in new business value.
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“The team at AFGP was super helpful to Oliver helping turn our very talented technologists into true product managers by introducing frameworks and spearheading the repackaging, repositioning and repricing of our core technology product, the Oliver Marketing Gateway.”
Jason Bailis, Global COO, Oliver
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Building a common business vision and purpose for acquired companies
Brave Bison is a successful agency group that has grown both organically, and through acquisition. With new acquisitions come new opportunities to cross sell services, but this requires a unified proposition
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We helped the Brave Bison leadership team to build a common understanding for how the acquired businesses could come together under a shared vision. This included developing a common proposition and a strategy for cross selling services. We designed a revised operating model and incentive structure to improve operational alignment.​
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