big fish® Strategy HQ · 01
Connecting people with farms. Connecting farmers with each other. — the working idea from the brief. The sections below are the template; the strategy is written into them with AI.
How this page works
Every section below says what it will hold. Nothing here is about a specific brand yet. When the draft is done, each grey explanation is replaced by the real thing, and anything we don’t know is marked as a gap rather than filled with guesses.
The decision gate
The central opportunity
One sentence on the prize: the market we are really in, and why we can win a share of it.
Working direction
The route we are backing for now, and the two we have set aside and why.
Commercial ambition
What success looks like in twelve months, in the founders’ own words.
02 · Category, culture and competition
A map of the category and the adjacent ones we recruit from; the signals that matter and what they do not prove; the brands people buy instead today.
The organising thought
One line that names the real market and the differentiator inside it.Market map
The segments around us: mass, premium, functional, alternative. Where the growth is and where we sit.
Signals — and what they do not prove
Numbers and trends from supplied research, each with the caveat that stops us over-reading it.
Competitive set
A table of the brands to displace: format, positioning, price, and the benchmark we must beat.
SWOT and publicity moments
Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in a line each; the moments the category has had in the press.03 · How this makes money
The routes considered, the one we are backing, an honest scale illustration, and the investment case in one line.
Routes considered
Two or three ways to market, with the working lead marked and the others kept for the record.
Scale illustration — not a forecast
A back-of-envelope: retail sales ÷ price per unit = units a year. Labelled as arithmetic, not a plan.
Investment case in one line
What we are asking anyone to fund, and what evidence must exist before they do.
04 · Who it is for
Need-based audience hypotheses, the evidence behind each, the clarity we owe people, and the research still to do.
Priority audience
The first people to win, described by need and occasion rather than demographics.
Non-negotiable clarity
The plain truths the brand must state so nobody is misled.
Research needed
Three to five questions that must be answered by testing before launch.
05 · The developing strategic platform
Working positioning, the territories considered, and the language we can use now versus the language that needs evidence.
Working positioning
Consumer problem · brand benefit · belief · reason to believe, each in a line.Territories considered
The lead territory, the one to test, the one on hold.
Language we can explore
Words and claims that are safe today.
Language that needs evidence
Words and claims that wait for the recipe, the data or the regulator.
06 · The brief
Who made it, what it is, why buy it; the brand’s character; the questions the work must answer; and the single criterion every piece is judged on.
Who made it? · What is it? · Why buy it?
Three answers in a sentence each. Gaps are marked, not filled.
We are · We are not
The character in three words each side.
We will always · We will never
The promises that keep the work honest.
Judge every piece of work on one question
The one criterion, written as a question a founder would ask when they see the work.07 · Going to market
Launch and sampling, content and social, partnerships and community, referral and loyalty. Trial first, education second, hype last.
Discover
How the first thousand people find and taste it.
Desire
What makes it irresistible to look at and talk about.
Decide
The partnerships, channels or moments that turn interest into purchase. Ideas are marked as hypotheses until tested.
08 · The second purchase
Mechanics to test, and the questions we cannot answer until we have repeat data.
Mechanics to test
Formats, routines, rewards and reminders worth trying.
Open questions
Frequency, channel, subscription or not: decided by evidence, later.
What repeat depends on
Usually the recipe. Say so if it is.
09 · What must be true behind the brand
Product, supply, production and economics, each with what is known and what is needed.
Product
Recipe, format, nutrition, shelf life.
Supply and production
Source, seasonality, capacity, partner, minimum run, QA.
Economics
Cost of goods, retailer margin, logistics, contribution per unit.
10 · A proof-led roadmap
A sequence from now to a year out. Each step has an action, an owner and the proof that lets us take the next one.
ActionWhat gets done
OwnerWho
ProofWhat must exist to move on
ActionWhat gets done
OwnerWho
ProofWhat must exist to move on
ActionWhat gets done
OwnerWho
ProofWhat must exist to move on
ActionWhat gets done
OwnerWho
ProofWhat must exist to move on
ActionWhat gets done
OwnerWho
ProofWhat must exist to move on
ActionWhat gets done
OwnerWho
ProofWhat must exist to move on
ActionWhat gets done
OwnerWho
ProofWhat must exist to move on
11 · One source. Clear status.
Every supplied document and every missing one, by area, so nobody has to ask.
Current
Documents that exist, with links.
Needed
Documents that must be produced, with an owner.
Live
Dashboards, trends and data sources we watch.
12 · Keep the memory. Mark the gaps.
A dated record of conversations, decisions and actions, newest first, plus the big fish view in thirty seconds.
Date · Meeting or steer
Participants · subject · decisions · actions · open questions.
Decisions log
Every decision in a line, dated, so the strategy has a memory.
Open questions
What nobody has answered yet.
The big fish® view · Thirty-second version
The whole strategy in three sentences: why this brand should exist, what must be true, and what we would not do.Back to summary ↑