GooseTalk

30 years in marketing. Still asking questions.

Cat Strawson is the founder of GooseTalk and a senior marketing consultant and strategist with almost 30 years’ experience spanning brand, marketing and communications.

Her career has taken her from hands-on marketing and freelance consultancy to UK marketing leadership, global brand strategy and the C-suite, working across B2B and B2C businesses of almost every shape and size.

Along the way, she’s led major rebrands, built marketing teams and capabilities, managed multi-million-pound budgets and helped shape brands operating around the world. Today, she brings that experience to growing businesses that need senior thinking without necessarily needing all the infrastructure that traditionally comes with it.

“I’ve managed big teams, big brands and big budgets. I’ve also worked directly with founders and small businesses where there’s no marketing department, the budget definitely isn’t enormous, and somebody just needs to work out what on earth to do next.

And, truthfully? I enjoy both, because whether you’re managing a global brand across 80 countries or building an ambitious business around a kitchen table, the fundamentals aren’t that different.”

From kitchen tables to global brands, and back again

Cat started her marketing career in the mid-1990s and has since worked across an unusually broad mix of businesses and industries, from growing SMEs and technology businesses to major international organisations.

Her early career included senior marketing roles in technology, IT services and data centres, followed by UK marketing leadership for one of the world’s largest fire and security businesses.

She went on to spend more than eight years leading global brand and marketing communications within a FTSE 50 business services group, with responsibility spanning multiple international brands, markets and teams. Most recently, as a Chief Marketing Officer within the technology consultancy sector, she led positioning, brand and marketing strategy to support the business’s next stage of growth.

Across those roles, Cat has worked at just about every level of marketing – from writing copy and building campaigns to managing teams, agencies, multi-million-pound budgets, major rebrands, global brand systems and long-term marketing strategy.

GooseTalk brings all of that experience back to where Cat started: working directly with businesses, getting close to the challenge and helping turn good thinking into something useful.

What all that taught her about marketing

Bigger doesn’t automatically mean better

Brand only works if people can actually use it

Cat has worked with substantial marketing budgets, large teams, global agencies and complex international operations. She’s also seen what small, focused teams can achieve when they have the right strategy, structure and tools behind them. At one global organisation, building stronger capability in-house reduced reliance on external agencies from 100% to 5%, saving £1.5m annually. The lesson wasn’t that bigger teams or agencies are bad. It was that more resource isn’t automatically the answer. Sometimes the biggest difference comes from making what you already have work better.

Brand only works if people can actually use it

Managing brands across countries, businesses and teams taught Cat that a brand strategy sitting beautifully in a presentation isn’t much use if nobody knows what to do with it. Good foundations need to translate into messaging, content, tools, templates and ways of working that help people make better decisions every day.

Marketing has to understand the business

Good strategy has to survive contact with everyday life

Good marketing doesn’t start with LinkedIn, email, SEO or whatever the latest must-have happens to be. It starts with understanding what the business is trying to achieve, who its customers are, where the opportunity lies and what marketing genuinely needs to do to support it.

Good strategy has to survive contact with everyday life

Cat has spent her career moving between strategy and execution, and firmly believes the two belong together. A strategy only becomes valuable when somebody can actually use it. That means turning good thinking into clear priorities, useful frameworks and practical actions that work in the real world.

You never stop learning

Sometimes, the biggest blocker is at the top

Marketing has changed enormously over three decades, and it continues to change. New channels, technologies and generative AI have created extraordinary possibilities, but the principle remains the same: understand what the tool is good at, give it the right foundations to work from and use it where it genuinely adds value.

Sometimes, the biggest blocker is at the top

One of the things Cat has learned from working with businesses of all sizes is that marketing problems aren’t always marketing problems. Sometimes the biggest barrier to progress is the founder, owner or senior leader at the top. Not because they don’t care. Usually, it’s the opposite. They know the business inside out, they’ve built it, shaped it and often been involved in almost every decision along the way. Letting go, making choices or seeing the business through someone else’s eyes can be surprisingly difficult. That can show up as constant changes of direction, difficulty delegating, trying to speak to everyone, holding onto propositions that no longer fit, or marketing that never quite makes it out of the door. Part of good consultancy is being prepared to recognise that – and having the confidence to say it. Sometimes moving the marketing forward starts with helping the people at the top get out of its way.

Meet Cat

30 years in marketing. Still asking questions.

From kitchen tables to global brands, and back again

What all that taught her about marketing

Bigger doesn’t automatically mean better

Brand only works if people can actually use it

Brand only works if people can actually use it

Brand only works if people can actually use it

Brand only works if people can actually use it

Brand only works if people can actually use it

Marketing has to understand the business

Good strategy has to survive contact with everyday life

Good strategy has to survive contact with everyday life

Good strategy has to survive contact with everyday life

Good strategy has to survive contact with everyday life

Good strategy has to survive contact with everyday life

You never stop learning

Sometimes, the biggest blocker is at the top

Sometimes, the biggest blocker is at the top

Sometimes, the biggest blocker is at the top

Sometimes, the biggest blocker is at the top

Sometimes, the biggest blocker is at the top

YOUR BRAND. OUR BUSINESS.

Arrange a conversation

Meet Cat

30 years in marketing. Still asking questions.

From kitchen tables to global brands, and back again

What all that taught her about marketing

Bigger doesn’t automatically mean better

Brand only works if people can actually use it

Brand only works if people can actually use it

Brand only works if people can actually use it

Brand only works if people can actually use it

Brand only works if people can actually use it

Marketing has to understand the business

Good strategy has to survive contact with everyday life

Good strategy has to survive contact with everyday life

Good strategy has to survive contact with everyday life

Good strategy has to survive contact with everyday life

Good strategy has to survive contact with everyday life

You never stop learning

Sometimes, the biggest blocker is at the top

Sometimes, the biggest blocker is at the top

Sometimes, the biggest blocker is at the top

Sometimes, the biggest blocker is at the top

Sometimes, the biggest blocker is at the top

YOUR BRAND. OUR BUSINESS.

Arrange a conversation

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