Building brands for people

At They Marketing, we build brands that make people happy — inspired by the people who buy and use them.

We help you create a strong foundation for your brand, products, and communication through workshops, research, and straightforward advice. As your partner, we stand beside you to make success happen — together.

Brand Positioning

Every strong brand starts with a clear strategy. We help you define what makes you special, what people need, and how to stand out — building a brand people truly love.

Our approach for brand positioning

1. Explore

We start by understanding the people you serve — their emotions, needs, and perceptions. Through research among customers and stakeholders, we uncover how your brand is seen and where opportunities lie within the category.

2. Position

Together, we define your emotional brand positioning — what makes you unique, where your strengths lie, and how your brand can meet real needs and make a positive impact.

3. create

We capture the essence in a clear brand key and core message — a concise, practical foundation for your brand strategy you can easily work with. Because a brand only comes alive in action.

4. optimize

We test, refine, and improve with input from your audience and stakeholders to ensure the brand truly adds value — ready for implementation and growth.

Innovation

Successful innovations start with real understanding of the needs and frictions of your target audience. We help you develop products people want in the early stages of innovation — through insight and guidance.

Our approach to innovation

1. DESK reseARCH

We start by uncovering what’s already known. Through desk research, we identify existing insights and possible blind spots. If information is missing, we complement it with targeted market research.

2. explore

To truly understand people’s needs and frictions, we conduct exploratory research. Depending on your goals, we design a custom program that gets to the heart of your audience.

3. co-creation workshop

With the right insights in hand, we bring people together. In co-creation sessions, a mix of internal and external experts develop ideas and shape them into concepts — together.

4. TEST AND REFINE

We test the concepts to measure their potential, using qualitative or quantitative research. Based on feedback, we improve and test again if needed. The result: validated concepts ready to grow into real products.

We can guide you through the entire early-stage innovation process — or simply support you where you need it.

Campaigns

Brands that advertise grow faster — especially when campaigns move people and build emotional meaning. A strong campaign starts with a human truth and a message that fits the brand. We help brands and agencies create clear briefs and strong foundations so ideas can truly connect.

Our approach to campaigns support

1. HUMAN TRUTH

Every great campaign starts with understanding people. We uncover the human truth through smart market research to support the creative strategy.

2. TEST & LEARN

Testing early helps creative ideas grow stronger. We test creative routes, visuals, and storyboards throughout the process — refining them step by step to ensure they resonate.

3. insight support

From first idea to final film, we act as a strategic partner for marketers and agencies — helping make creative choices, test effectively, and save time. With over a decade of experience in creative testing, we’re here to help you succeed.

4. DIVERSITY & Inclusion

Inclusive campaigns reach more people and create stronger connections. We bring our experience in diversity and inclusion research and help brands and creators make their campaigns both inclusive and effective.

Also offering

You can also contact us for:

  • Qualitative research
  • Market research support
  • Brand, innovation & co-creation workshops

We are a small organization and offer professional service for a competitive price. All our services are tailor made to serve your needs. Please contact us to discuss what we can do for you.

About us

They Marketing is a marketing consultancy that goes beyond presentations and consultancy. We help you build a winning brand strategy, innovations and creative campaigns. Using our experience and market research expertise, we strengthen brands through close collaboration and a pragmatic, flexible approach. Being small makes us fast and adaptable to your needs.

We work with trusted professionals who have been creating value for clients for many years.

Founder

They Marketing was founded by Niki Schroeder, who spent 15 years as Director of Innovation, Branding, Communications, and Qualitative Research at Kantar (and its predecessors Millward Brown, TNS NIPO, and Research International).

In 2023, Niki started THEY Marketing to help brands grow through insight and creativity. She has worked for clients such as Perfetti van Melle, AkzoNobel, FrieslandCampina, Achmea, Booking.com, and Rabobank.

Niki still gets surprised and inspired by people every day. She likes to stimulate her customers by showing a different perspective. Always based on theoretical knowledge and inspired by the people you serve.

“Even after more than 15 years of market research, people keep surprising me. They are an infinitive source of inspiration. And I love to share that experience with others.”  

– Niki Schroeder