Strategy & marketing advisory

From strategy to execution that delivers result.

A senior advisory firm for brands that need to move the market - not another slide deck. We diagnose, decide and deliver, from the boardroom to the shelf.

Approach

Operators, not observers.

The Breakthrough is a boutique advisory built by senior commercial leaders with two decades inside global FMCG, consumer health and digital platforms. You work directly with the people who have run the brands - not a pyramid of juniors billing hours.

We bring the outside market view and the inside reality of getting things executed - pricing, portfolio, go-to-market, media and shelf. Big-firm rigour, without the big-firm distance or overhead. Every engagement is judged on one thing: the result it moves.

Boards & ownersCMOs & commercial directorsChallenger brandsPE-backed businessesGlobal corporates
What we solve

Four walls we help you crash.

Brand Wargame · Brand X-Ray

Strategy & diagnosis

Where the brand really stands, where it is losing, and the strategy to build a position competitors can't easily take back.

Pricemore · Cashstream

Pricing & marketing finance

Pricing architecture and portfolio P&L that stop the profit leaking, fix the mix, and find where margin can grow.

Shopperology · Plan-to-Win

Go-to-market & shopper

Route to market, category and shopper plans that win the battle where it is decided - at the point of sale.

Ad Best · Cut-Thru-Media · Digit It

Consumer connection

Distinctive communication and media that cut through - built on the right brief, spent on the right plan, online and offline.

When to call us

If any of these sound familiar, we should talk.

01

The brand is losing share and no one agrees on why.

02

A price war is eroding margin and discounting isn't a way out.

03

The innovation pipeline is busy, but nothing actually lands.

04

Two portfolios just merged and the P&L is a maze.

05

You're entering a new market or channel and can't afford to learn it the hard way.

06

A launch has one shot - and it has to be right.

Track record

Results, not references.

#7  #4
brand moved up its market
brand profit after re-launch
+50%
growth after re-launch
Silver Effie
2019 · new-brand launch
Our partners have led brands at
Coca-ColaUnileverDanoneNestléCarlsbergGSK / HaleonBoehringer IngelheimUSP ZdrowieEurosportPGNiGGoodvalleyTikTok
Partners

Senior partners on every engagement.

Bartosz Grodny, Managing Partner of The Breakthrough
Bartosz Grodny
Managing Partner

Twenty-five years building and turning around consumer brands with full P&L ownership - across global FMCG and consumer health (Carlsberg, GlaxoSmithKline / Haleon, Boehringer Ingelheim, USP Zdrowie) and, most recently, digital: a TikTok executive who scaled one of Europe's fastest-growing businesses across 13 markets. He launches brands from a blank page, brings declining icons back to growth, and turns attention into commercial results. A Silver Effie winner (2019) and an Effie Awards Poland juror.

LinkedIn →
Wiktor Urban, Chief Strategy Partner of The Breakthrough
Wiktor Urban
Chief Strategy Partner

Twenty years across strategy, corporate finance, market research, marketing and innovation - for global corporations and local champions alike (Eurosport, The Coca-Cola Company, Unilever, Carlsberg, PGNiG, Goodvalley). He builds brand and portfolio strategy on hard analysis, then pressure-tests it against what technology, production, logistics and sales can actually deliver.

LinkedIn →
Case studies

Four walls, crashed.

New-brand launch · Beer

The #1 Czech beer in Poland, built from a blank page.

A flat mainstream segment with no room to out-spend the leaders. We found the value in provenance and created a Czech-beer concept priced for the mainstream shopper.

#1 Czech beer in Poland within 3 months · largest beer launch in 8 years · Silver Effie 2019.

Brand X-Ray · Pricemore
Turnaround · Heritage brand

A 170-year-old brand, brought back from delisting.

A declining icon on the delisting list. We rebuilt the whole brand mix around its authentic heritage and re-earned a mainstream price.

Net revenue and brand contribution doubled in two years · "Brand of the Year" · a global gold benchmark for relaunch inside the group.

Brand X-Ray · Plan-to-Win
Commercial scaling · Digital platform

A regional commercial vertical, scaled past its target.

A fast-moving digital platform needed a repeatable regional sales strategy for its largest FMCG, pharma and retail advertisers.

+165% year on year · 110% of target · among the fastest-growing verticals in the region.

Shopperology · Cut-Thru-Media
Repositioning · Consumer health

A flagship OTC brand turned into the market's #1 growth driver.

A flagship vitamin-C brand plateauing in a crowded OTC market. We repositioned it and shifted trade from push to pull.

+3pp value share · #1 in growth value in the entire Polish OTC market · highest share in six years.

Brand X-Ray · Insight Booster
Ways to work with us

Sized to the problem, not the invoice.

01

Diagnostic sprint

2-4 weeks · Brand X-Ray

A fast, senior read on where you stand and the three moves that matter most. Low commitment, high clarity.

02

Strategy project

Brand Wargame · Plan-to-Win

The full strategy and marketing plan - pressure-tested against competitors and built to be executed, not filed.

03

Interim leadership

Hands on the wheel

When you need the strategy run, not just written, we step in and lead the function until it holds.

04

Advisory retainer

On call for your team

A senior sounding board for the CMO and the team - on the decisions between the big projects.

How we work

A firm sized to the problem.

01

Senior-led, always

You get the people who have carried the P&L and the launch - from first diagnosis to final decision.

02

Team assembled per project

We build the right expert team around your problem - no fixed overhead, no bench you pay to keep warm.

03

Boardroom to shelf

Strategy on paper is half the job. We can stay on to implement - including interim leadership - until it works.

Contact

Have a wall worth crashing?

Book a 30-minute call. We'll tell you straight whether we can move the result - and how we'd start.

The Breakthrough
[email protected]
Warsaw, Poland · LinkedIn