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We are an insight‑driven strategy

and innovation consultancy.

We are an

insight‑driven

strategy and

innovation

consultancy

Organisations partner with us to create Future Consumer Value

Get in touch

The Forge is an award-winning strategy and innovation consultancy. We translate what people will care about in the future into commercial returns for businesses.

Questions We Answer

Where are the most lucrative future value pools in our market?
What is our greatest financial opportunity over the next 3 years?
How will changing consumer behaviour affect our category?
How do we create a long-term innovation pipeline built on what our customers care about most?
How should we deploy our portfolio of brands to capture incremental value?
How do we credibly stretch our brands into adjacent value spaces?

Our Services

1

Category
development
 

Drive growth with actionable strategies to increase penetration, frequency and loyalty, and influence behaviour.

Projects include:

  • Customer Acquisition Strategy
  • Customer Journey Mapping
  • Customer Experience Development
  • Behaviour Change Strategies
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2

Brand
strategy
 

Leverage the power of brands to form more meaningful and profitable relationships with consumers and customers.

Projects include:

  • Brand Positioning
  • Brand Architecture
  • Portfolio Strategy
  • Brand Creation & Development
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3

Innovation
 
 

Accelerate customer growth through the evolution of your existing products and services and accessing white space with category innovation.

Projects include:

  • Innovation Strategy
  • Innovation Platform Development
  • Foresight-driven innovation
  • Business model innovation
  • Idea and Concept Development
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4

Demand spaces, analytics,
segmentation

Understand and quantify what drives choice in a market to reveal the largest commercial opportunities for growth.

Projects include:

  • Demand Spaces
  • Customer Segmentation
  • Attitudinal Segmentation
  • Market Sizing
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5

Future
human
insight

Make sense of your most complex customer and consumer questions to provide clarity, inspiration and clear direction.

Projects include:

  • Digital Shadowing
  • Semiotics
  • Qualitative Exploration
  • Quantitative Methodologies
  • Expert & Leading-edge Studies
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6

Future
visioning,
foresight

At a market, category and brand-portfolio level, we create robust, demand-focussed, board-level models that outline opportunities for future growth.

Areas of application include:

  • Transformation Strategy
  • Category Growth Strategy
  • The Big Framework for Growth
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Our Director Only Model

We have a unique director only business model.

We bring deep reserves of experience, wisdom and practicality, and each of us has a proven track record of successfully delivering and embedding growth strategies across a diverse range of categories and organisations.

Importantly, we’ve all made the decision to remain hands-on, to use our experience and innate curiosity to help large and complex organisations move faster and accelerate the delivery of value to customers.

This means you benefit from:

Meet Our Directors

A clear focus on commercial returns

We are outcome driven and always focused on how we can unlock true future value. Nearly all our work involves understanding how we can positively change or shape behaviour, so that we can influence how and where people choose to spend their money.

Hypothesis-led, helping you make more of what you already know

We always start with what you already know and use that to build a hypothesised solution. We then use fresh research to efficiently fill any gaps and test the hypothesis. This enables us to move at speed and develop agile solutions.

Landing actionable solutions in complex environments

We understand how to effectively collaborate with senior stakeholders, and how to secure buy-in across large and complex organisations.

Flexing to your working style

We don’t have a mandatory process, and neither are we wedded to a specific set of tools. We are confident flexing our approach to fit the challenge and your organisational culture and working style.

Delivering impact across a diverse range of sectors

We have developed a deep understanding of how to understand and influence behaviour across a wide range of business sectors, and we apply this to every engagement.

 

We build the solution with you

We act as a true partner to your business rather than a ‘black box’ solution provider. We bring you on the journey and transfer ownership at completion. 

Thinking

ARTICLE

Brands must break the shrinkflation cycle and earn back consumer trust

Dan Quinn
In the face of the cost of living crisis shrinkflation has become so pervasive it’s an issue of national debate. There’s hardly an FMCG category that is untouched. But there are better ways for brands to maintain margins without destroying consumer value and risking reputational damage. 
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ARTICLE

Why retailers are the new innovators and what FMCG brands can do about it.

Dan Quinn
Supermarket brands are becoming more innovative and exciting for consumers. They are actively redefining value across a whole range of categories. What is holding FMCG brands back and what can they do about ?
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ARTICLE

What is the future for human insight in the age of AI?

Lee Manning-Craik
AI has already demonstrated immense value across the insight, strategy and innovation value chain. From generating insights territories to creating innovation platforms and bringing creative ideas to life, AI's capabilities continue to expand. Despite these advancements, we believe that there are still some areas where human input will continue to create value for businesses and brands.
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ARTICLE

Have FMCG brands forgotten how to innovate?

Dan Quinn
In our work with large FMCG companies, We've noticed a recurring theme. Many brands are no longer effectively innovating. In response to current economic pressures brands are overly conservative, are too tactical and are failing to make the necessary long-term bets on the future.
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ARTICLE

Demand Spaces: a tool for C-Suite decision making

Joe Catling
The most successful projects are those where Demand Space work is used to support board-level decisions such as growth strategies, capital investments, mergers and acquisitions but they don’t always make it this far up the company. This is how to get them there.
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ARTICLE

How to survive the creator economy

Dan Quinn
Influencers and content creators who have successfully monetised their audiences via content and merchandising, are now moving into FMCG spaces, with enviable returns. Rather that seeing this market disruption as alarming, brands should learn from the creator economy to power up their own innovation.
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The Persuasion Game Podcast

Discover the secrets of persuasion and how it shapes consumer behaviour, fuels business growth, and sharpens marketing skills.

Join Laura Halliday and Simon Garnett from The Forge in each episode as they chat with those who have mastered the art of influence. Learn the tactics, stories, and strategies that will help you become a more effective marketer and business leader.

Latest Episodes

PODCAST

Unlocking your potential

Alex O’Rourke – LockSmith
Simon and Laura are joined by Alex O'Rourke, co-founder of Locksmith and experienced marketer. Together, they explore the challenges and strategies of self-promotion and navigating societal barriers as a woman in the workplace. Alex shares her knowledge as a transformational life coach and delves into issues including the importance of creating a personal narrative. 
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PODCAST

Marketing premium spirits

Paul Thomas – Suntory International
Simon and Laura are joined by Paul Thomas, International Insight Director and Global Head of Shopper Insight at Suntory who shares insights on the evolving premium spirits category and the consumer motivations behind alcohol purchasing decisions. Paul also shares insights on consumer planning, luxury goods spending, and brand marketing strategies. 
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But Don't Take Our Word For It

The Forge stand out from any other Insights Agency. They are true strategic partners, quite simply an extension of the team. What started out as a Wild Card agency in a four-way pitch back in early 2018 has blossomed into The Forge being our most trusted Strategic Insights partner across multiple categories and brands. Because everyone at The Forge is a Senior Director, everyone we work with is really good, there’s great ROI on share of mind for share of spend. You don’t just get one good person working on your brief, you get 2-4 and better answers faster. The speed at which they work is remarkable – applause raising bespoke Quant + Qual in under 7 working days.
Marketing Insights Lead, Global Leader in Food & Beverages
We commissioned The Forge to help us anticipate consumers’ future needs in APAC. They delivered a thought provoking and nuanced suite of demand spaces - these were attuned to local culture, whilst inspiring us to ‘think big’ about regional opportunities. Their agile and strategic approach ensured the spaces had impact and provided inspiration for teams across the business. We’d recommend The Forge to any business looking for smart, commercially driven thinking on any knotty problems they have.
Strategy Director, Top 3 Global Consumer Healthcare Business
The Forge have been an instrumental strategic partner in the shaping of our future marketing and portfolio strategy. Their expertise, commercial acumen and flexible stakeholder approach have enabled the successful delivery and integration of this critical insight project. We are delighted with the outputs and very happy to recommend them.
Group Marketing Director, UK Beverages Manufacturer
Massive thanks to The Forge for an amazing partnership and strategic insight yet again. Their work makes a significant difference to our strategy and innovations and is invaluable to our research and marketing teams. Amazing, thank you!
Global CMI Director, Top 5 Global FMCG Business
When we partnered with The Forge, we’d just completed an expansive piece of trends work with a partner agency. We asked The Forge to turn it into something commercial and practical that could be easily digested and actioned by the business. Working closely with the category leadership team, The Forge created a clear and compelling vision as well as opportunity framework. This has proven invaluable in shaping our global category strategy, building out innovation pipelines, and bringing thought leadership to key retailers. The Forge has a unique ability to translate big, inspirational ideas into practical solutions, earning praise as having “head in the clouds but feet on the ground.” Throughout the process, they demonstrated adaptability and worked closely with us, ensuring that the outputs precisely met our needs and were always willing to pivot when necessary. They truly acted as partners, looking out for our best interests. I have no hesitation in recommending them to others who are looking for a strategic partner.
Global CMI Director, Top 5 Global FMCG Business

THE FORGE, IT'S IN OUR NAME:

  • 1.   To create something strong, enduring and successful
  • 2.   To move ahead with increased speed and effectiveness
  • 3.   To bring into being through concentrated effort
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