Alta Persona helps founder-led businesses build strategically positioned brands that create sustainable commercial growth.
Built for
The strategy gap
Your team is busy. Content goes out. Campaigns run. And still, nobody can say with confidence why a customer chooses you over the competitor down the road.
That is not a marketing problem. It is a strategy problem — and strategy is fixable.
Businesses that grow with intention didn't spend more. They got clearer on where to compete, who to serve, and what to say — before they spent anything at all.
What is actually holding growth back
One of these will feel uncomfortably familiar.
You built it on instinct. Instinct doesn't scale.
The positioning that won your first ten clients rarely explains the next hundred. What feels obvious internally reads as generic externally — and nobody on your team can say it the same way twice.
→ Book a discovery callEvery campaign is a fresh guess.
Without a documented strategy, marketing restarts from zero every quarter. Budget gets spent, some of it works, and nobody can defend which parts or why — so next quarter starts from zero again.
→ Book a discovery callYou're easy to substitute in your market.
Competitors are easy to swap for one another when nobody has done the work to differentiate. Customers default to price — the one place a founder-led business can't afford to compete.
→ Book a discovery callHow we work
Six phases, taken in order. Skipping one is how strategy turns back into guesswork.
Establishing a complete understanding of your business, objectives, challenges, and market position.
Building the evidence base — brand audit, competitor analysis, consumer insight, market intelligence.
Transforming research findings into strategic understanding: what the evidence actually means.
Converting insight into strategic direction — positioning, messaging, and the case for change.
Converting strategic recommendations into a practical action plan and KPI framework.
Ongoing review to keep the strategy effective as your market moves.
What is included
The evidence base every later decision rests on — business review, brand audit, competitor analysis, consumer insight, market intelligence and priority recommendations.
A specific place in the market, not a mood board — competitive position map, audience definition, value proposition and a positioning statement your team can repeat.
Positioning translated into words people actually use — brand narrative, messaging pillars, audience-specific messaging and tone of voice guidance.
An integrated, evidence-based programme connecting objectives, audience, channels, content and measurement — with a KPI framework and implementation roadmap.
A six-phase process and the SOPs behind it, so quality never depends on one person's memory.
Ongoing strategic partnership once the foundation work is done — not a report left on a shelf.
Inside each engagement
The evidence base every later decision rests on.
Built to last beyond one billable hour
Your path through the work
| Service | Duration | Core Outcome | Natural Next Step |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand Intelligence Report | 2–4 weeks | Evidence-based understanding of brand, market and opportunity | Positioning Strategy |
| Brand Strategy Sprint | 2–3 weeks | Leadership alignment and a practical roadmap — accelerated entry point | Positioning Strategy or Messaging Framework |
| Positioning Strategy | 2–3 weeks | A clear, differentiated, commercially valuable market position | Messaging Framework |
| Messaging Framework | 2–3 weeks | A complete communication system built on your positioning | Marketing Strategy |
| Marketing Strategy | 3–6 weeks | An integrated, measurable programme of activity | Advisory Retainer |
The client promise
Commitment 01 · Evidence first
Recommendations are never based on assumptions, trends, or personal preference. We begin with research, every time.
Commitment 02 · Commercial outcomes
A brand is a business tool. Every recommendation has to earn its place by answering one question: what growth will this influence?
The Alta Persona standard
Is it based on insight?
Is it commercially valuable?
Is it actionable?
Meet Emma
I'm Emma Dagless — founder and lead consultant at Alta Persona. We are a founder-led consultancy based in Oxford, serving founders and leadership teams at ambitious SMEs who want strategic clarity, not just creative output. We are independent by design and intend to stay that way.
Before taking on a first client, I built the infrastructure most consultancies spend years improvising — a documented six-phase methodology, twelve supporting SOPs, and five fully specified services. Every engagement follows the same research-led process, not whatever's remembered from the last one.
Every engagement is led personally by the founder — no juniors, no account layers, no learning on your time. Strategy work deserves attention, not volume.
6 phases · 12 SOPs · 5 services
Is this you
Before you book
Alta Persona is newly launched. Current engagements are priced at a launch rate specifically because of that — you get senior, hands-on strategic work at a lower fee while the portfolio builds, with no drop in rigour or process.
How it works
A discovery call first. Every engagement is scoped to your business, not a template.
A conversation about where you are, where you want to be known, and whether this is the right fit — both ways.
A scoped proposal within 48 hours, naming the specific service, deliverables, timeline and price.
On signature, your engagement begins immediately with the first phase of the Strategic Framework.
Book a discovery call
Share a few details and we'll send times. It's a real conversation about your business, your market, and whether this is the right fit.