A decade making marketing prove itself.
I am Charlie Barrett. Ten years inside a global manufacturer, a director role at a UK garden products manufacturer, and consultancy for industrial and technical businesses. Everywhere, the same gap between activity and results. CBC exists to close it.
I spent ten years inside a global manufacturer and now work alongside founder-led industrial and technical businesses. The same frustration followed me everywhere: marketing that could not match its actions to results.
That is the problem I have set out to fix, in every full-time role and every freelance project. I work with people, not around them, to build marketing processes that actually work and connect directly to commercial activity. I understand what drives value in a business and build the system around that. No wasted effort. No wasted spend. Agreed actions that solve a real problem.
The businesses I work best with know there is scope to grow but do not always have the answers to support it. That is where I come in. I help you understand what is holding you back, then I deliver the fix with you, so the capability stays in your business.
Outside client work I have guest lectured in digital marketing at the University of Worcester, which is where the habit of explaining the why, not just the what, comes from. I live in Worcestershire with my family. If I am not at Sixways for a home game, I am probably somewhere abroad with a rucksack.
Four principles I do not compromise on.
Systems over heroics
Growth that depends on one person burning out is not growth. It is a risk. I build for repeatability.
Measure what compounds
Vanity metrics are noise. I anchor every engagement to the numbers that move the business.
Advise, then install
Advice you cannot act on is worthless. I stay long enough to build the thing, not just recommend it.
Clarity before spend
Most teams do not have a budget problem. They have a focus problem. We fix that first.
Where I have done this before.
Charlie Barrett Consulting
Marketing leadership and freelance projects for industrial and technical businesses, run alongside and beyond my in-house roles. Delivered for Fils, Luxury Modules, Rubix MEP and Rock Plumbing & Heating.
Director of Growth · Forest Garden
Senior leadership across marketing and commercial growth at a UK garden products manufacturer, connecting marketing, ecommerce and sales into one engine.
Digital Marketing and Ecommerce Lead · Southco
Six years leading digital marketing and ecommerce for a global manufacturer of engineered access hardware: a $30M+ ecommerce platform, nine languages and a team of ten across the UK, US and India.
Marketing Specialist · Southco
Learned the craft on the inside: campaigns, digital channels and the measurement that connects actions to outcomes.