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

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
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
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
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
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
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

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:

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

VIDEO

How To Unleash Innovation: 8. How will you create momentum and ownership?

Dan Quinn
Dan Quinn explains why your innovation lives and dies by how it is rolled out and how to create the right incentives to drive momentum, ownership and autonomy.

VIDEO

How To Unleash Innovation: 7. How will you prioritise and decide?

Joris Westerman
Joris Westerman talks us through how to decide which innovations to prioritise, introduces The Forge's DCV model and talks about the role of passion and excitement

VIDEO

How To Unleash Innovation: 6. How will you unlock creativity?

Elspeth Edwards
Elspeth Edwards shares how to fuel your innovation journey with creativity.

VIDEO

How To Unleash Innovation: 5. How tightly defined is your brief?

Joris Westerman
Joris Westerman explains the questions you need to answer to maximise the effectiveness of your innovation brief.

VIDEO

How To Unleash Innovation: 4. How well do you know your consumers?

Dan Quinn
Dan Quinn explains why consumer insight is critical to innovation success and where to look for it.

VIDEO

How To Unleash Innovation: 3. Where will your innovation fit in your portfolio?

Joris Westerman
Joris Westerman shares his perspective on innovation horizons one, two and three and the optimal mix for short-term gain and long-term upside.

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 influenceLearn the tactics, stories, and strategies that will help you become a more effective marketer and business leader.

Latest Episodes

PODCAST

Breaking through in innovation

Jane Buck, Global Head of Innovation, Cadbury
Jane is a seasoned expert in innovation with an extensive background at major brands including Mondelez and Unilever where she launched and scaled the €1BN+ personal care brand Love Beauty & Planet. Jane discusses her unique approach to brand development, explaining how she integrates consumer insights with visionary thinking to drive innovation, how she spots patterns and opportunities, and the importance of balancing short-term actions with long-term vision in corporate settings. The conversation also covers her time co-founding and launching natural skincare brand REN which Unilever eventually acquired.

PODCAST

Bringing modernity to iconic brands: Lessons from PepsiCo and Mondelēz

Nick Graham – ex-Global Head Insights & Analytics – Mondelēz
Nick shares his expertise on how iconic brands like Pepsi and Cadbury have adapted their strategies to stay relevant in a fast-changing world. They explore the power of nostalgia, storytelling, and emotional connection in creating meaningful campaigns that resonate with audiences.

PODCAST

Marketing a challenger brand

Katie Evans – CMO – Burger King UK
In this episode, CMO Katie Evans shares how Burger King UK behaves like a challenger brand to create maximum impact with its communications versus its competitors with much larger media budgets. And she reflects on Burger King UK’s latest campaign ‘Bundles of Joy' which featured mums eating Burger King after birth - where the online conversation took on a life of its own.

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