About me

From Disney to Target, Intel to Instacart, I collaborate with founders, executives, and teams to create customer experiences that are meaningful to the people you want to connect with. Generally, my clients are large-scale consumer brands, tech-driven startups, and digital/creative agencies.

Some clients reach out to me for audience insights, brand positioning, and customer engagement strategy. For others, I guide digital transformation teams to design and launch new properties and brand experiences that are forward-thinking, useful, and market-ready.

My approach is human-centered and business-focused. First I study your internal capabilities and external landscapes. Next I share insights that reveal the untapped potential of your brand or initiative. Then I make decisive recommendations supported by a roadmap to success.

My journey
Thirteen years ago, I was binge-watching The Wire when one of the detectives said to his commander, "I don’t want to make rank. I want to work cases. Good cases.” There and then, after many years working as a digital agency VP, I decided to strike out on my own. As an independent brand strategist, I'm free to choose my own projects and devote all my attention to simplifying the complex.

Today, I feel very fortunate to have partnered with brands who shape our culture, drive economic growth, and maintain a high standard for social impact and environmental sustainability.

> What I do best

  Interim leadership
  Customer insights
  Ideation & future vision
  Product-market fit
  Executive consensus building
  Segmentation & personas
  Customer journeys
  Product roadmaps
  Brand strategy / positioning
  Brand architecture / platforms
  Brand narratives / key messages
  Brand activation brainstorms
  Brand & product launch plans
  360 customer engagement
  Targeted brand experiences

Services

ACTIONABLE INSIGHT

I dig deep to understand your most important customers—and recommend new ways to engage them through content, experiences, services, and community.

TEAM WORKSHOPS

I host innovation and ideation sessions with cross-functional groups, where we envision customer-facing experiences that create value and drive growth.

INTERIM LEADERSHIP

I dive in, set direction, and build momentum among key stakeholders such as executive leaders, business customers, pitch teams, and delivery teams.

Welcome II
Representative Work
Selected Projects

(swipe)

(swipe)

Esurance V4
Image is not available
Image is not available
RAPID PROTOTYPING

I worked with DeutschLA to envision fun and helpful ways for consumers to shop and manage insurance policies.

A true collaboration between strategy, research, UX, design and copywriting, we explored concepts spanning the customer’s lifetime relationship with the brand across all touchpoints.

This culminated in interactive prototypes that we tested with actual shoppers and policyholders. From there, we prioritized a concise set of future-facing initiatives to launch in a two-year timeframe.

Instacart v4
Image is not available
Image is not available
BUILDING A BRAND LEGACY

Instacart is a same-day delivery service that lets customers order their groceries online or through the app. Their entire focus is to make grocery shopping effortless.

I worked with the company's founders to craft an employee-facing manifesto that expresses the good created in the world when Instacart achieves its mission.

The purpose of the manifesto is to make everyone at Instacart feel personally vested in shaping the brand's legacy.

Intel V4
Image is not available
Image is not available
UNIFIED BRAND EXPERIENCE

I worked with Intel’s Global Marketing Team to help form a Digital Strategy Office. This new internal team is tasked with ensuring a familiar and seamless brand experience to customers as they journey across multiple lines of business. My key deliverables included:

A vision, mission, and roadmap to support collaboration between sales, marketing, and IT

Interdisciplinary planning tools (e.g. personas and customer journeys)

A set of customer-facing pilots to test the new model

KPI's and success metrics

Danone V4
Image is not available
Image is not available
NEW CENTER OF EXCELLENCE

Working on assignment in Paris for Possible, Inc., I partnered with the Dairy Division of Groupe Danone to establish a new Digital Center of Excellence, co-financed by the division’s Global Marketing Team and participating geographic regions.

In six months, we quickly moved from a non-existent team to a high-performing supplier of digital marketing education and martech infrastructure available to all international units.

Disney V4
Image is not available
Image is not available
ALIGNING NEW STAKEHOLDERS

Walt Disney Studios invited Fox, Universal, SONY, and Warner Bros. to be distribution partners in a scaled-up version of the cloud-based streaming service, Movies Anywhere.

As Interim VP of Marketing, I built a coalition among the five home entertainment marketing heads. I streamlined the efforts of a multidisciplinary marketing team and hired a global branding agency for identity design. I also led the gathering of feature requirements to ensure improvements to the service following launch.

Horizon Media V4
Image is not available
Image is not available
MINING FOR INSIGHT

Working with Horizon Media's consumer research group, I developed target audience insights for Jack in the Box, Constellation Brands, Tillamook, Guitar Center, and Focus Features.

For each client we presented key opportunities surrounding: Moms, Millennials, Latinos, and African Americans.

Best Buy V4
Image is not available
Image is not available
ADVANCED MOBILE SHOPPING

I worked as lead strategist with Sequence, a digital design and UX agency (subsequently acquired by Salesforce), to envision a forward-thinking shopping experience for Best Buy customers.

First, we explored how consumers use mobile technology in-store, on-the-go, and at home. Then we recommended pilots and new technologies Best Buy should test and implement within the next 18 months.

Image is not available
Almond Board V4
Image is not available
Image is not available
GLOBAL DIGITAL PLATFORM

The Almond Board of California promotes the consumption of California almonds worldwide. I worked with DeutschLA on a website relaunch strategy to address the information needs of almond producers, almond processors, food professionals, and consumers.

Our competitive analysis, user research, and insight development yielded a detailed strategy to 1) help a diverse set of international stakeholders quickly find useful and actionable information and 2) integrate exciting new agtech that enables unprecedented access to real-time data and market insight.

previous arrow
next arrow

Clients

——————

Get in touch

timarmitage@gmail.com
(310) 488-8875

...or use this form