Who is this built for?+
Founder-led consumer and CPG brands with a product already in market, meaningful activity, and active growth ambitions — food and beverage, wellness, personal care, beauty, fragrance, and adjacent categories. Typically DTC, ecommerce, Amazon, specialty or independent retail, or emerging wholesale, with a lean team where decisions stay concentrated with the founder.
When is it too early?+
When there's nothing yet to diagnose. Pre-launch concepts, no established product, little market evidence, or no consequential decision on the table. The condition is enough evidence to diagnose plus enough uncertainty to require clarity — a purely conceptual brand has neither. At concept stage, a Gravity Scan is the right first read.
When is it too late?+
When the organization is highly institutionalized, with a large internal strategy function and sophisticated decision systems already running. The strongest fit is a company with real product, real activity, and real ambition — but an unresolved decision about what happens next.
How is this different from a Gravity Scan?+
A Gravity Scan is a fast, system-generated read on a product concept — minutes, eight scored dimensions. Strategic Diagnosis is a human-led engagement on a company's next consequential decision. Gravity intelligence is one evidence input; AP Consulting leads the analysis and synthesis. Different question, different depth, different timeline.
What does the engagement look like?+
Activation and intake first — confirming the decision context and the questions that should guide the work. Then diagnosis and evidence development, with a weekly client check-in. A midpoint strategic review at Day 21 presents the emerging diagnosis. Synthesis follows, and the completed Strategic Decision Brief is delivered and presented at Day 45.
Do you execute the strategy afterward?+
No — deliberately. It doesn't include creator outreach, content production, paid media, social management, or implementation. It ends with a white-glove transition to the execution partner best suited to the direction, who now has a clear strategic brief. Further work is separately scoped.
What does it cost?+
Confirmed in the qualifying conversation, once the decision and its scope are clear. This is built for decisions that carry far more financial consequence than the diagnosis does — which is the test worth applying before starting.
What if the diagnosis says our plan is wrong?+
That's a useful outcome. The move is treated as a hypothesis, not a conclusion. The five readings are commit, refine, sequence, prove, or pause — and learning that a direction should be resequenced or proven first is exactly the value.
Who owns what in the partnership?+
AP Consulting is the client-facing party and leads the diagnosis, the interpretation, and the final synthesis. Gravity and Aterra Studio supply the market intelligence, the CPG frameworks, and the commercial interpretation. The founder contracts with AP Consulting and receives one integrated brief.
Is our information confidential?+
Yes. Materials you share are used only to conduct your diagnosis. They are not published, shared with other clients, or added to any public signal set.
Does this include legal, regulatory, or financial advice?+
No. It produces market readings and strategic guidance. Label compliance, FDA requirements, import rules, securities, and tax all need specialist counsel — the diagnosis helps you arrive at those conversations with a sharper read.
How do I refer a client?+
Email Amber at consultingamberpierre@gmail.com with the company, the strategic trigger, the decision they're approaching, and where the uncertainty sits. The conversation starts from whether the decision warrants diagnosis — not from whether the company fits a service.
