The commercial strategy consultancy for consumer product brands.

We work with ambitious business leaders to identify, build and deliver profitable growth strategies.

JDS were pivotal in building our growth strategy for a recent acquisition. Significant in-depth market research was undertaken and the strategy, and their recommendations were backed up with detailed data. The team now has an accelerated understanding of the marketplace and where the opportunities for growth are.

Alex Monk - Chief Executive Officer

It's fair to say that myself and the team absolutely loved working with Jack. He's sharp and has a great agility to be big picture focused but then swiftly drill down to the detail, if required, to get the results he's looking for. He is extremely focused on the commercial success and highly strategic in delivering the numbers effectively.

Lawrence Collis - Executive Director

Jack's leadership, drive, creativity, and ability to learn quickly is incredible.

Nigel Scott - Business Development Director

Talented with incredible attention to detail. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Jack and his expertise to any brand.

Matt Steel - Business Director

Jack is an ambitious and dynamic marketeer with excellent all-round knowledge (including all media channels), strategic brand vision and strong leadership skills. I’ve valued his honest and engaging approach and his willingness to be challenged.

Stuart Whitehead - Client Director

An astute strategist, efficient executor and inspirational leader. It's rare that you find someone in business that possesses all three of these qualities, and even more rare that you get to work for them.

Phil Power - Marketing Communication’s Manager

He was always supportive but raised important strategic questions and challenged us to face into issues that others were happy to side-step.

John Callender - Management Consultant

Jack is fantastic leader and businessman, with exceptional knowledge in both sales and marketing. He consistently delivered clear direction and built a strategy that the team and the business believed in.

David Ayers - Category Manager

Why work with us

15:1 Return on Investment

Our pre-proposal process identifies value of at least 15x your fee.

Proven Expertise

A decade of successful big brand experience across marketing & sales.

Your Priorities, Delivered

We provide the dedicated, agile resource to do what needs to be done.

Strong Network

Established network of retailers, agencies and tactical specialists.

What we do

Business & Brand Strategy

Identify and implement long-term growth initiatives.

Direct-to-Consumer Strategy

Create and develop an online D2C channel.

Sales Channel Strategy

Increase market share in a specific sales channel.

Product Go-to-Market Strategy

Launch a new product or develop an existing category.

Marketing Communications Strategy

Deliver impactful communications across the customer journey.

How we do it

Our approach is built on 3 core principles:

cross Customer-Centric

cross Insight-Driven

cross Profit-Focused

We use our Strategic Strength™ ‘thinking and action’ system to guide the process (see right).

This results in effective, efficient marketing & sales activity that delivers against your business objective and maximises the return on your efforts.

Our Thoughts

PLAN ON A PAGE FRAMEWORK

Use your Commercial Strategy framework to structure your thoughts, then create your 'plan on a page'. One page that captures the crucial elements of your strategy to keep you keep you focussed and on track.

MAP YOUR MARKET FRAMEWORK

Use this framework to gather the data and insights you need to start building your strategy.

Strategic Strength Wheel

Let's walk the wheel . . .

WHAT IS STRATEGY?

Try answering this question, in one sentence: What is Strategy? Not so easy.

THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF RETAIL AND IT'S IMPACT ON ROUTE TO MARKET - VIDEO

‘Online’ has been shot in to hyperdrive, so how are traditional retailers responding? Most importantly, how should you, the brand owner, support and respond

Stop trying to predict the future. Instead? Start again.

The end is nigh . . . well perhaps not completely but we are edging ever closer to that tantalising taste of freedom. And with that brands are inevitably shifting from reactive ‘What now?’ decisions, to a more proactive ‘What next?’ stance.

PLANNING - HOW TO GET STARTED

Planning is the fundamental basis of management functions, and yet not as simple as it might first appear. It involves looking ahead, relating current events with future opportunities - not an easy

3 KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR YOUR ECOMMERCE STRATEGY

Planning a D2C proposition? Here we condense down your key considerations to 3. All 3 need to work together to successfully sustain growth

COMMERCIAL STRATEGY FRAMEWORK

From 'objective' through to 'performance' this will help you identify and deploy the right tactics to win.

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK

You certainly don't want to be obsessed with competitor activity . . . but you certainly do need to be aware of it.

Consultant? Strategist? Or something new . . .

From the outset we have stayed true to our vision - true strategic partnership with business owners of up and coming consumer durable brands. Interestingly though it raised the question of how we classify what we actually do.

D-2-C Strategy Framework

Use this helpful framework to start the Direct to Consumer planning process.

JDS Strategists - The Origins

I am Jack Sweeney, founder of JDS Strategists Ltd. I would like to tell you a little more about myself and the creation of JDS.

MANAGING POTENTIAL D2C CONFLICT

Spoiler alert - your retail partners are NOT going to be overly thrilled with the news you are either exploring or expanding a Direct-to-Consumer offering. However they will understand it, especially if you follow these crucial steps.

Debunking Digital Transformation - Video

Digital Transformation has long been heralded as the change requirement for brands of all types, accelerated 10-fold by Coronavirus over the last 12 months.But when it comes to marketing, what does it

Direct-to-Consumer: The 5 fundamental questions asked and answered.

Direct-to-Consumer (“D2C”) is the practice of brands selling their products directly to their end customers, without distributors or retailers. It’s not a particularly new model...

Growth Opportunities Through Data - Video

How to use data for effective commercial planning. JDS walk through the strategic planning process; from where to find the data, how to piece it together to discover insights, and then turning those

How to Build a Commercial Strategy - Video

In this short webinar, we define commercial strategy and explore why it's paramount to business growth.

Direct-to-Consumer for Retail Distributed Brands - Video

How do you create and sustainably grow the channel? How do you ensure incremental growth and avoid upsetting existing retailer relationships? 20 minute webinar.

Strategic Strength™ Insights

Sector specific observations, resources and news stories, designed to equip you with actionable insights for strengthening and growing your business.

Exclusively for consumer product business leaders, delivered directly to your inbox every month.