Does Paying Highly Guarantee Quality Strategic or Marketing Analysis?

GrowThink have recently completed several strategic and market analysis scopes. The starting point for all of these was analysis of what each company had as existing studies. The varied quality of these, and in many instances the eye-watering prices paid, prompted this blog post. Read on if you want to ensure value for money.

Background

You can pay top-tier fees for a strategic or marketing study and still end up with something that looks impressive, but doesn’t actually move the needle for your business. This happens more often than many leadership teams like to admit, especially when they default to the biggest name in the room.

When Big-Brand Strategy Isn't Built for You

One of the most common problems with large consultancies is that their methodologies are optimised for repeatability, not for the specifics of your market, customers, or constraints. You’re often buying a very polished machine that needs to run at scale to stay profitable, which means your brief is likely to be pushed through a familiar framework whether or not it’s the right one.

That’s how you can end up with a thick “strategic” deck that tells you what you already know, dressed up in new language, and still walk away unclear on what to do differently on Monday morning. If your business is mid-market, niche, or in an industry with quirks that don’t fit neat category definitions, the risk of being misdiagnosed goes up fast.

The Illusion of Value in Expensive Studies

Price is an easy proxy for quality, and big firms often lean into that. High day rates, impressive credentials, and global logos create a sense that you’re reducing risk simply by choosing the “safe” pair of hands. But much of what you’re paying for is overhead: layers of management, internal meetings, and the cost of maintaining a global brand.

The work itself may be carried out by relatively junior teams who are capable, but still learning your sector as they go — often within a compressed timeframe and under pressure to stay within a template. That’s when you see generic customer journeys, boilerplate market dynamics, and recommendations that could apply to half a dozen other clients with minimal editing.

From the studies we've read recently there is also a lot of "AI padding" creeping in. This isn't always bad but when it leads to volume rather than clear recommendations it can make a generic study even harder to action. It can also introduce some worrying assumptions into market models or data sets - we've seen several examples where it'd appear AI recommendations haven't been properly triangulated.

Red Flags to Watch Out For

If you’re considering commissioning a strategic or marketing study, there are a few red flags that should make you pause. None of these on their own prove you’ll get poor value, but together they’re a strong signal that you may not get what you’re paying for.

• Vague scope and outcomes: Lots of language about “strategic clarity” and “insightful recommendations,” but little specificity on the decisions the work will actually inform.

• Heavy emphasis on process, light emphasis on judgement: Detailed descriptions of workshops, stakeholder interviews, and frameworks, but little discussion of how these will lead to sharper choices or measurable impact.

• One-size-fits-all methodology: The same set of tools and deliverables regardless of your size, sector, or commercial reality, often treated as non-negotiable.

• Limited commercial grounding: Lots of customer personas and “brand territories,” but not enough modelling of revenue, margin, or payback periods — so it’s hard to link recommendations to P&L outcomes.

• Lack of transparency on fees: Bundled pricing, vaguely described “strategy phases,” or pass-through costs with healthy markups buried in the small print. As an example we recently saw a 80 page market study which we estimate would have taken a maximum of 15 days to complete being charged a 6 figure sum. Many of the outcomes were generic and the assumptions made throughout were questionable at best.

A quick test: if you cannot explain in a couple of sentences what you expect to be able to decide differently as a result of the study, you’re probably about to buy something decorative rather than decisive.

Why Many Studies Fail to Deliver ROI

Even when intentions are good, there are structural reasons why strategic and marketing studies often under-deliver. Research is clear that a high proportion of companies make poor or sub‑optimal strategic decisions because they are working with incomplete, generic, or outdated data. That problem is compounded when your chosen partner is more focused on producing a beautiful artefact than on the messy, iterative work of connecting analysis to action.

Another common issue is an obsession with the wrong metrics. Studies can lean heavily on vanity indicators — awareness scores, social media engagement, or broad “consideration” numbers — that look positive but don’t correlate well with profit or cash. Without a firm grasp of customer lifetime value, acquisition cost, and the specific levers that drive your economics, it’s very hard for any strategy to earn its keep.

Where Smaller, Focused Agencies Can Frequently Do Better

This is where a smaller, focused agency can quietly outperform the big brands. With leaner structures and fewer internal layers, smaller firms can afford to spend more of each fee pound on actual thinking and less on overhead. You tend to work directly with experienced practitioners rather than watching senior partners appear for the pitch and final presentation only.

Smaller teams are also more agile. They can adjust the approach as they learn about your business, rather than forcing your question into a pre-defined methodology just because it aligns with an internal playbook. That flexibility means the work is more likely to reflect the realities of your market, your sales channels, and your resource constraints — not a theoretical “best practice” that assumes a Fortune 500 budget.

For organisations that want sharp, commercially grounded answers rather than a trophy deck, this difference in focus matters. A smaller partner can concentrate on the real job: clarifying where you can win, what to stop doing, and how to deploy limited resources for maximum effect.

A Quiet Word About GrowThink Solutions

If you recognise some of the patterns above from work you’ve already commissioned, you’re not alone. Many of GrowThink Solutions’ clients come to them after a high-profile study that felt impressive at the time, but didn’t change what the sales team did next quarter or how capital was allocated.

Because they are a smaller, specialist consultancy, GrowThink Solutions is able to keep the work tightly aligned to the decisions you actually need to make: which markets to prioritise, which propositions to back, and which channels or segments are genuinely worth pursuing. You work directly with the people doing the analysis and the thinking, not a rotating cast of juniors, and the output is built with implementation in mind from day one.

If you’re considering another expensive strategic or marketing study and want to ensure this one pays its way, it may be worth having an informal conversation first. A focused, right‑sized engagement with a smaller partner can often deliver more clarity, more actionable insight, and ultimately more value — for a fraction of the cost of the usual suspects.

We're just a phone call or an email away. Just mail us at robin@growthinksolutions.com or give us a call on +44 (0)7770 325 252.

We're also aware trying a new partner in this space needs diligence. We're happy to provide references and sample work scopes to make it easy for you to say yes.