The Entry Point
A clinical diagnostic of exactly where your brand has drifted, how much it's costing you in real revenue terms, and the sequenced treatment plan for getting it back.
This is not a marketing assessment. It is an executive-level brand autopsy — conducted personally by the Principal Architect, presented to your leadership team, and designed to produce a decision before the readout ends.
What This Is
Most brand audits are designed to sell the next engagement. They identify problems selectively and frame recommendations around the agency's service menu. The Pothos Brand Neglect Audit is built differently: it is a diagnostic first, with no predetermined output.
The audit is conducted by the Principal Architect personally. It examines the brand across all three of our core pillars — Strategic Architecture, Subscription Health, and Channel Balance — and produces a frank, unvarnished picture of where the brand stands and what it will take to restore it.
The audit can stand alone as a standalone deliverable. It can also serve as the first phase of a full Pothos engagement. Either way, it is the foundation. Nothing else starts without it.
The Methodology
01
The audit opens with a high-level reckoning: a Mission Alignment Score (1–10), a quantified estimate of the Neglect Premium — the revenue currently being forfeited due to identity drift — and the Principal's Assessment: a direct, three-paragraph summary of the brand's most critical failure point.
02
Where the brand's core story has been starved to accommodate retail logistics. A visual incoherence map across channels and partners. An analysis of where the brand is making decisions based on short-term retail survival rather than long-term heritage growth — what the practice calls the Legacy vs. Logic tension.
03
A root-cause analysis of subscriber churn that moves beyond data to explain why customers are leaving — and what brand-level conditions are driving it. The LTV ceiling analysis identifies exactly where customer value plateaus because the brand no longer justifies a premium. A direct assessment of whether the brand is building a community or processing transactions.
04
Where retail partners are cannibalizing the brand story for shelf velocity. A side-by-side comparison of how the brand speaks on its own properties versus how it is presented in third-party environments. An inventory of the silent channels — the brand surfaces the practice controls entirely but is currently leaving dark: packaging, unboxing, post-purchase.
05
An honest assessment of whether the current team is capable of implementing a revival, or whether the internal culture is too focused on execution to lead strategic recovery. An analysis of where capital is being misallocated — specifically, where media investment is being applied to a brand that is fundamentally broken at the identity level and therefore cannot convert.
The Deliverables
Most audits deliver findings and leave. Ours deliver a verdict and a prescription — two documents that function as a complete clinical intervention, not a slide deck.
The Diagnostic
A formal, executive-grade diagnostic document structured across all five audit lenses. It names exactly where the brand is hemorrhaging identity, momentum, and revenue — with scored metrics, a quantified Neglect Premium, and the Principal's written assessment. It does not hedge. It does not soften findings to protect the relationship. It tells the truth about the brand's current condition.
Mission Alignment Score (1–10) with methodology
The Neglect Premium: annual revenue impact, quantified
Section-by-section autopsy across all three pillars
Revival Readiness Score — internal capacity assessment
Principal's Assessment — three paragraphs, no euphemisms
The Treatment Plan
Where the Leakage Report is the diagnosis, the Revival Roadmap is the treatment plan — a sequenced, 12–18 month intervention brief built directly from the audit findings. It does not offer options or alternatives. It prescribes the specific structural interventions, in the correct sequence, with defined specialist deployments and measurable milestones at each phase.
The three phases — Triage & Stabilization, Narrative & Exclusivity, and Retention Engine — are designed to build on each other. Skipping the sequence does not accelerate recovery. It compromises it.
Phase 01 (Months 1–3): Triage & Stabilization
Phase 02 (Months 4–9): Narrative & Exclusivity
Phase 03 (Months 10–18): Retention Engine
Specialist deployment brief — who, when, and why
Phase-level success metrics tied to Leakage Report baselines
Executive Readout Included
Both documents are presented in a live session with the Principal Architect and your leadership team. The Leakage Report is presented first — findings, scores, Neglect Premium estimate. The Revival Roadmap follows immediately. The session is structured to end with a decision, not a follow-up email.
The Right Fit
Revenue: $5M – $500M
Established enough to have real brand equity to restore. Not so large that the bureaucracy prevents movement.
Founder-led or founder-associated
There is still a person — or a living memory of a person — whose point of view built this brand. That's the identity we're restoring.
Retail presence with stalled DTC or subscription growth
The retail expansion happened. The brand identity didn't scale with it. The gap is now showing up in the numbers.
Veterans, Apparel, or CPG sectors
These are the categories where the practice has built its deepest diagnostic capability and specialist network.
Leadership willing to hear the hard version
The audit will tell you things your current partners haven't. You need to be ready for that.
You're looking for a report that validates decisions already made.
You need a media plan or a channel execution partner. The audit will surface those needs — but Pothos does not fulfill them.
Your leadership team isn't aligned on the need for structural brand work. The audit requires decision-making authority in the room.
You are pre-revenue or in the early growth phase. The audit is designed for brands that have something to restore, not brands still building their original foundation.
You want a fast, light-touch engagement. The audit takes three weeks and requires real access to your business. There is no shortcut version.
After the Audit
Take the Leakage Report and Revival Roadmap and implement internally or with your existing team. The documents are written to be actionable without Pothos in the room.
The audit becomes Phase One of the full Pothos engagement — with the Principal Architect and the Collective deployed to execute the Revival Roadmap across all three pillars.
Begin with the highest-priority pillar — typically Strategic Architecture — and expand the engagement as the first phase delivers results. The roadmap is designed to support phased activation.
Request the Audit
The audit takes three weeks from kickoff. We'll review your submission, confirm fit, and schedule an intake call before any engagement begins. We respond to every submission within 48 hours.
Submit your request
We review every submission personally. No automated responses.
Intake call with the Principal Architect
A 45-minute conversation to confirm fit and establish access requirements.
Audit begins
Three weeks of diagnostic work. Deliverables presented in a live readout session.
We review every submission and respond within 48 hours.
Or reach us directly at Grow@pothos.com