FAQ
What CEOs, sales, and marketing leaders ask before working with Strategiwave.
Jump to About · How We Work · Market Intelligence · Brand Strategy · AI Visibility · Getting Started
Strategiwave is a growth consultancy for CEOs, sales, and marketing leaders. We help companies understand the two forces that drive growth, their market and their buyers, through three services: Market Intelligence, Brand Strategy, and AI Visibility.
CEOs, founders, and sales and marketing leaders at any company that wants to grow, or keep growing, and needs insights and strategies on where to compete, how to position, and how to win buyers.
You get the same caliber of thinking without the layers, the long timelines, or the junior teams. Chris Scotte, who spent twenty years leading brand intelligence and research at FleishmanHillard, Material, and GfK, leads every engagement personally. When a project calls for it, Chris also brings in senior consultants with many years of experience.
Technology, financial services, energy, media, logistics, automotive, entertainment, health, transportation, and many other industries.
Yes. Strategiwave works with companies in the US and internationally, and can facilitate research in multiple languages.
Strategiwave is based in St. Louis, Missouri, and works with clients across the US and internationally.
Strategiwave delivers work in days and weeks. Speed is built into how we work, because market decisions can’t wait for a six-month study.
Strategiwave delivers clear findings, insights, and a growth strategy with a ranked action plan, written so working teams and executives can act on them right away.
Strategiwave uses a variety of sources, depending on the question. Past work has included surveys of nearly 1,500 people, expert interviews, website and competitor audits, earned media analysis, search behavior, and the analysis of more than 114,000 online buyer comments.
Yes. Strategiwave often works with internal teams and agencies, providing the intelligence and strategy they build from.
Yes. Working with Strategiwave means client data and findings stay private, and case studies are published only with the client’s permission. We’re happy to sign an NDA before any work begins.
Chris Scotte, Strategiwave’s founder. He leads every engagement personally, from the first call to the final recommendations. You won’t be handed off to a junior team.
Every Strategiwave engagement starts by agreeing on the question it needs to answer and the decisions it should inform. Success is measured against those, whether that’s a clear market entry decision, growth with existing or new customers, sharper brand positioning, or more AI recommendations. Past clients have seen measurable results; see the Case Studies page.
Market intelligence is a clear picture of what’s changing in your market: what competitors are doing, what the press, analysts, and industry voices are saying, and where the open ground is. It tells you where to compete and the best way to grow your business.
Market research usually answers one question with one survey. Market intelligence pulls together competitors, media coverage, buyer conversations, and published data to show how the whole market is moving and what it means for your growth.
An Opportunity Map shows the ground no competitor owns and what you need to do to move into that position. It’s especially useful when designing strategy, developing new products, or deciding what resources you need to own that position.
Competitive intelligence is the study of what your competitors are doing and saying: how they position themselves, where they’re winning attention, and where they’re exposed. At Strategiwave, it’s part of Market Intelligence, alongside media coverage and market trends. It provides a clear picture of where your industry is going, and which competitors are best placed to win as it changes.
You can, and many teams do. The difference is time, objectivity, and method. Internal teams tend to see competitors through their own assumptions. Strategiwave brings an outside view and proven research methods, and delivers in weeks without pulling your team away from their day jobs. An outside perspective also carries more weight when you’re making the case to peers and leadership for decisions that affect your team.
No. Strategiwave keeps every engagement confidential and never discloses who commissioned the work.
Start by hearing it from buyers and the market, not only from your sales team. Strategiwave combines competitor analysis, buyer interviews or surveys, and online buyer conversations to show where competitors are winning and why, then ranks what to fix first.
Brand strategy defines how buyers see you, why they choose you or someone else, and what you can own that makes you different and relevant in the marketplace. It turns into clear positioning, messaging, and thought leadership.
Usually when growth stalls, the market shifts, you enter a new market, or buyers describe you differently from how you describe yourself. A brand evaluation shows whether you need a full rebrand or a sharper position.
Thought leadership is original research and ideas that make buyers see you as the expert in your category. Done well, it becomes a flagship asset that sales teams use for years.
Repositioning changes what your company stands for in buyers’ minds: who you serve, what you’re known for, and why you’re chosen. Rebranding changes how you look and sound, such as your name, logo, and visual identity. Many companies need repositioning, not a new logo. A Strategiwave brand evaluation shows which one you need.
Usually not on its own. If buyers don’t understand why to choose you, a new logo won’t change that. Pipeline problems are often positioning problems, which is why Strategiwave starts with how buyers and the market see you before recommending any visual change.
Ask them, and listen where they talk when you’re not in the room. Strategiwave uses buyer interviews, surveys, online conversations, and media and AI analysis to show how buyers describe you, and where that differs from how you describe yourself.
Yes. AI assistants describe companies based on what’s written about them across the web. A clear, consistent position, repeated on your website and in third-party sources, makes it far more likely that AI describes you accurately and recommends you for the right things.
AI Visibility shows whether AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Copilot recommend your company when buyers ask for help. We test the questions your buyers ask, find out why you’re included or left out, and give you a ranked plan to fix it.
Buyers increasingly ask AI assistants which companies to consider before they ever visit a website. If AI doesn’t name you, you’re left out of the shortlist without knowing it.
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, Grok, and DeepSeek, using the real questions your buyers ask.
Usually because the sources AI relies on, such as directories, databases, reviews, and other websites, have your name, facts, or locations wrong, or don’t mention you at all. The Strategiwave Source Audit finds those gaps and shows exactly how to fix them.
Some fixes, like correcting directory listings and website content, can show up within weeks. Others, like building third-party mentions, take longer, so the action plan ranks every fix by impact and speed.
ChatGPT recommends companies it finds clearly and consistently described in trusted sources. That means accurate directory listings, a website that answers buyers’ questions directly, third-party mentions, and original research that others cite. Strategiwave’s AI Visibility service tests what ChatGPT says about you today and ranks the fixes.
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the practice of making your company more likely to appear in answers from AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Copilot. Strategiwave’s AI Visibility service applies GEO, starting with research into the questions your buyers actually ask.
No, though they overlap. SEO helps your pages rank in results on traditional search engines like Google and Bing. AI visibility determines whether AI assistants name you in their answers, which depends more on how consistently trusted sources describe you. A company can rank well on Google and still be left out of AI answers.
Not necessarily. One industry study of nearly 174,000 pages found that about two-thirds of Google AI Overview citations came from pages outside the top 10 search results. Strong Google rankings help, but they don’t guarantee that AI recommends you.
Yes. Strategiwave’s Prompt Audit records how often each AI assistant recommends you for your buyers’ real questions. Repeating the audit after fixes are made shows whether your visibility is improving.
No. Every engagement is custom, built around the question you need answered and the decisions you need to make.
Book a call with Chris. You’ll talk through where your growth is stuck and whether market intelligence, brand strategy, or AI visibility is the right place to start.