Strategic Marketing Leadership

Marketing that moves businesses forward

Senior marketing leadership for ambitious organisations — from brand strategy and innovation to go-to-market execution and AI-powered capability building.

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30+
Years brand & marketing leadership
4×
Revenue growth delivered at Ego UK — £2M to £8M in 3 years
16
Countries across multinational marketing roles
£260M
P&L scope across career leadership roles

What We Do

Two ways to engage

Whether you need embedded senior leadership or a focused growth programme, Stratmar brings the same calibre of strategic thinking to every engagement.

Strategic Engagements

Senior leadership, embedded in your business

For larger organisations that need experienced marketing leadership — whether to fill a gap, lead a transformation, or provide a senior perspective alongside existing teams.

  • Fractional CMO
  • Interim Marketing Director
  • Commercial transformation programmes
  • Digital & e-commerce transformation
  • Global marketing function build-out
Growth Programmes

Focused projects that deliver fast

Structured engagements designed for growing businesses that want senior-quality thinking on a defined scope — brand, launch, go-to-market, or capability building.

  • Brand strategy & positioning
  • Go-to-market planning
  • Innovation sprints & NPD
  • International market entry
  • AI marketing capability building

Service clusters

Brand & Strategy
  • Brand strategy & positioning
  • Positioning workshops
  • Brand planning processes
  • Portfolio architecture
Insight & Innovation
  • Consumer insight generation
  • Comms brief workshops
  • Ideation & NPD facilitation
  • Research programme design
Growth & GTM
  • Go-to-market planning
  • International expansion
  • E-commerce strategy
  • Channel & distribution planning
Capability Building
  • Marketing team training
  • AI integration for marketers
  • Insight capability development
  • Marketing process design

About Derek Murphy

The experience behind the strategy

Derek Murphy
Derek Murphy — Founder, Stratmar Consulting

Derek Murphy is a senior marketing leader with more than 30 years of experience across FMCG, pharmaceuticals, and consumer health — spanning ANZ, Asia, the Middle East, and the UK.

His career spans blue-chip multinational environments including Kraft Foods, Novartis Consumer Health, and Fonterra, before a decade-long leadership journey at Ego Pharmaceuticals — culminating as Country Manager UK, where he grew the business from £3M to £15M in three years while building a 32-person team and lifting staff engagement from 70% to 88%.

Derek brings a rare combination of global strategic thinking and hands-on market execution — having set strategy across 16 countries, led digital transformation programmes, built and trained global marketing teams, and delivered consistent double-digit commercial growth across some of the world's most competitive consumer markets.

Stratmar Consulting is built on that depth of experience — bringing the same calibre of thinking that drives large multinationals to organisations of every size.

Key Credentials
London School of Economics — Achieving Leadership Excellence (2023)
EMEA High Performing Team of the Year (2023)
Oxford Strategic Marketing Programme
Novartis Senior Management Programme (M2)
RAW Innovation Facilitators Certification
Fellow, Australian Marketing Institute (FAMI)
Bachelor of Business Studies (Marketing), Massey University
ASMI Best Self-Care Campaign Award
Markets & Geographies
UK & Ireland Australia New Zealand Singapore Malaysia Hong Kong UAE & Saudi Taiwan Japan Korea South Africa

Client Work

From stalled idea to board-ready business case

A recent engagement that illustrates the Stratmar approach — moving fast, working across functions, and delivering a commercially credible result.

Client
Acrux Pharmaceuticals
Engagement
6-week embed
Sector
Consumer Health
The Challenge

Acrux had a promising concept for a new OTC medical device — but limited go-to-market expertise internally to take it forward. The project had stalled. With a board deadline approaching, they needed an experienced commercial lead to take an early-stage idea and rapidly build out a full business case.

The Approach

Embedded as commercial lead for six weeks, working directly with the Acrux team to structure and pressure-test the opportunity from every angle — market, product, channel, and financial.

Delivered in 6 Weeks
→Full go-to-market plan for Australia
→Pricing strategy & channel design
→Distribution & logistics costings
→Product formulation recommendations
→Packaging concepts & brand direction
→Demo mobile app concept
The Outcome

A complete, board-ready feasibility business case — built in six weeks from a standing start. The Acrux team moved from a conceptual idea with no commercial structure to a fully costed, market-ready plan with enough detail for board approval.

What gets done in 6 weeks of embedded senior expertise often takes organisations 12–18 months internally — or never gets done at all.
Client Testimonial

"We brought Derek in at a point where we had a strong concept but no clear commercial path forward. In six weeks he transformed that into a fully costed, board-ready business case — complete with a go-to-market plan, pricing strategy, channel approach, packaging direction and distribution model. The pace and quality of output was genuinely impressive. Derek thinks like a seasoned commercial director, not a consultant. He got stuck in with our team from day one and delivered something we could actually take to the board with confidence."

JW
John Warmbrunn
CEO, Acrux Pharmaceuticals

AI in Action

See how AI can work for your brand

AI integration is one of the fastest-growing capability gaps in marketing teams today. Ask a real marketing question below and see how AI-augmented thinking works in practice.

Stratmar AI Marketing Advisor — Live Demo

Try asking a real marketing question. The AI has been briefed as a senior marketing strategist — think of this as a preview of what AI-augmented marketing support could look like for your team.

Try one of these:

Stratmar AI Response

This demo uses the Anthropic Claude API. Responses are generated by AI and are for illustrative purposes. For tailored strategic advice, get in touch with Derek directly.

Get in Touch

Ready to talk strategy?

Whether you're looking for senior marketing leadership, a focused growth project, or want to explore how AI can transform your marketing capability — let's have a conversation.

Email [email protected]
Phone +44 (0)7510 385 298
Based Cheshire, UK — available globally