Codarity · market briefing

Market briefing for Reaction Management

Prepared for Kathi Healy. This is research about your market and where your firm sits in it, ending in a path. It is not a proposal.

What you do: Corporate experiential event production specialising in brand and product launches, dealer/distributor events, conferences, and luxury incentive programmes, primarily serving automotive, powersports, and hospitality brands.
Prepared: 23 August 2026

02 · what you told us

Your answers

You answered four questions. They are here first because everything after this reads differently depending on them.

No answers on this record. This render uses the research only, which is how the report reads before the four questions are submitted.

03 · your market

How your buyers decide

Before anything specific to your firm, one thing about how your buyers behave, because it explains most of what follows.

5 actively looking now12 forming a view quietly83 not looking yet

5 in every 100 of your buyers are actively looking right now. 12 are forming a view without talking to anyone. 83 are not looking at all and will be at some point. Almost all marketing in this market is built for the first group. The work that compounds is built for the second.

04 · your buyers

Who is actually in the room

A decision about corporate event contracts is almost never one person's. It is five seats, and on a small team one person holds two of them. Over 221 days each seat arrives at its own conclusion, mostly without talking to you.

Most firms in this market write their website, their proposals and their whole pitch for one of these five: the seat that runs the event. It is the seat they meet, so it is the seat they answer. The other four decide anyway.

The one whose neck is out

CEO · Managing Director · Chief Marketing Officer · VP Marketing

Wants: a result they can point at in a board meeting. The event is a means to something they have already promised upwards.
Afraid of: spending a large number and having nothing defensible to show for it. Not failure exactly, ambiguity.
Actually asks: “If I am asked in six months whether this was worth it, what do I say?”
Settled by: a supplier who talks about outcomes and measurement before they talk about production values.

The one who has to run it

Head of Events · Events Director · Events Manager · Event Marketing Manager

Wants: a delivery that does not consume them. They have done this before and they know exactly which parts go wrong.
Afraid of: a supplier who is impressive in the pitch and unreachable in week six. They have been burned and they remember it.
Actually asks: “When something goes wrong at 6pm the night before, who actually answers the phone?”
Settled by: specifics about process, escalation and named people, rather than a showreel.

The one guarding how it looks

Head of Brand · Brand Director · Head of Communications · Creative Director

Wants: something that feels like them and lands with their audience, not a generic event with their logo on it.
Afraid of: cheapness. A stand, a stage or a room that undercuts everything else they have spent the year building.
Actually asks: “Will this look like us, or like an event company's idea of us?”
Settled by: evidence the supplier understands their market and their audience, not just their sector.

The one who signs it

usually leads in industrial manufacturing

Finance Director · CFO · Head of Procurement · Commercial Director

Wants: predictability. A number that does not move and a process that survives an audit.
Afraid of: scope creep, and being the person who approved the thing that overran.
Actually asks: “What is the number, what changes it, and what happens if we cut it by twenty per cent?”
Settled by: commercial clarity offered early and unprompted, rather than extracted during negotiation.

The one who has to live with it

Head of Sales · Sales Director · Head of Product · Head of People

Wants: the event doing the job they need it to do: pipeline, a launch that lands, a team that comes back motivated.
Afraid of: an event that is beautiful and useless. Lots of photographs, no conversations that went anywhere.
Actually asks: “What do I get out of this on the Monday after?”
Settled by: a supplier who asks what happens after the event before they ask about the venue.

Specific to industrial manufacturing

Exhibition programmes are recurring line items, so the finance seat has history with the number and a view on it.

Read the four “afraid of” lines together and the pattern is hard to miss. Not one of them is afraid you cannot do the work. They are afraid of ambiguity, of being unreachable, of looking cheap, of overrunning, and of spending a great deal on something that changes nothing on the Monday. A portfolio of beautiful past events answers none of that.

05 · your buyers

The 221 days before they call you

Everything after this hangs off one number. In B2B event services the gap between a buyer starting to look and a buyer making contact averages 221 days. Nearly eight months of deciding, almost all of it in private, and almost all of it before anybody picks up a phone.

Start with what is already begun, because it is further than it feels. Reaction Management has made a start on being found on the questions they search months earlier. None of that is nothing. It is the difference between building on something and starting from scratch, and it is why the rest of this is a sequencing question rather than a standing start.

Now the part that is harder to see from inside. A buyer in this market spends 221 days researching before they make contact. Across the 10 places we can actually check, Reaction Management is present at 0 of them and absent from 90 per cent. Every gap sits early: being findable when a buyer asks an AI assistant, publishing a point of view where they already read, appearing somewhere that is not your own website and reaching the right accounts before they are looking.

before they are looking

asks an AI assistant who the credible suppliers arecontent an AI can find, cite and summarise: not yet; no substantive content surface, so there is nothing for an assistant to cite
searches the problem, months before searching for a supplierpages that answer the question behind the search: partly; a blog exists but the site reads as thin, so it answers few real questions
reads their feed and forms a view of who understands this workfounder-led publishing on LinkedIn: not yet; no publishing activity found
sees the name somewhere that is not the supplier's own websitedigital PR, earned mentions, speaking: not yet; the research found no press, awards or third-party features to point at
never comes looking, because they already have someonenamed-account outreach and DMs: cannot tell from outside; nothing outside your business can show this. It is the first thing worth asking about

researching in private

is not looking yet, and needs to have heard of you before they areLinkedIn brand and thought-leader ads to the right accounts: not yet; no LinkedIn advertising
disappears for four months mid-cycle, then comes backretargeting that keeps you present without nagging: not yet; no retargeting, so a buyer who leaves mid-cycle is gone
wants the thinking without having to talk to a salesperson yetsomething worth an email address: not yet; nothing to exchange for an email address, so interest arrives anonymous or not at all
is 221 days from enquiring and will forget you in 30a nurture sequence that stays useful, not a mailshot: not yet; no route to stay in contact between briefs

building a shortlist

types a buying-intent search once the brief is realGoogle Ads on the terms that carry intent: not yet; no paid search

choosing

checks you can actually do the work, once you are on the listcase studies and named clients: not yet; the delivery record is not readable by anyone who has not worked with you
(not a buyer touchpoint: whether you can see any of the above)first-party tracking across a 221-day cycle: cannot tell from outside; nothing outside your business can show this. Over 221 days it is the difference between knowing and guessing

90%

of the buyer research journey we can see, you are absent from. Present at 0 of 10.

Two things on that list we have deliberately not scored, and they are the same two on every briefing we produce. Whether you are approaching named accounts directly, and whether you can see which of these actually produces work. Nothing outside your business reveals either, so guessing would be worse than useless. They are the first two questions worth asking on a call, and between them they usually explain more than the rest of the list.

That is the whole of it. Not a pitching problem, not a pricing problem. For roughly 221 days a buyer is forming a shortlist you are not on, and by the time they enquire they have already chosen. The work you lose this way never appears as a loss, because you were never invited to bid for it. It looks like a quiet quarter.

What closes that gap is not doing more of what you already do well. It is being demonstrably the firm that understands corporate event contracts better than anyone else, in the places your buyers are already looking, for the whole of those 221 days. That is what the rest of this is.

07 · your market

Your buyer market

This is the size of the reachable buying side of your market at the seniority that signs off event work. It is not a list of prospects. It is the ceiling on how large the always-on layer can usefully get before targeting has to narrow.

177

people at the seniority that signs off event work, in industrial manufacturing, reachable today.

08 · your market

What your competition is doing

This is what the firms you are up against are actually doing to get found, taken from our own research rather than a survey. Most of them are in the same position you are: strong on proof, absent from everything before it. Where a bar is short, that is room nobody is competing for.

you already do thisnot something you do todayDenominator is 54 researched firms of this type.

09 · the hinge

What that means for you

The research reads a firm whose reputation lives in the rooms it has worked in rather than anywhere a buyer can reach on their own. Two things in the research point the same way: no active acquisition surface yet and delivery evidence not published.

That works while the network holds. It stops working the moment you want more than the network can carry, because there is nothing a buyer who has never met you can act on.

The fastest change available to Reaction Management is not a bigger effort across everything. It is published proof, because it is the one thing every other move depends on and the one thing currently absent. Buyers who are shortlisting quietly get something to shortlist you on. It also gives every other module something credible to point at. Being findable when buyers search follows it directly, and the rest of the board is ordered behind those two.

What the research found

Reaction Management is a Flagstaff, AZ-based experiential agency founded in 1997 that designs, builds, and manages corporate brand and product launch events across live, virtual, and hybrid formats. The company also delivers customised incentive programmes and corporate gifting solutions. With approximately 8-10 employees and over 300 events delivered, RMI serves major corporate clients including Toyota/Lexus, Polaris, Indian Motorcycle, and Ryman Hospitality. The firm holds WBENC certification as a Women's Business Enterprise, positioning it for supplier-diversity procurement opportunities.

10 · the path

The full board

This is the whole system, not a proposal. Four pillars, and within each one the two modules that would do the most for Reaction Management given what the research found. Two are lit for the first quarter. One is marked as deliberately not yet. Everything grey is real work that is simply not the next work.

first quarteron your path, later quartersdeliberately not yetreal work, not your next work

Deliberately not yet

One move in Attraction is held back on purpose. Paid search is the obvious lever and the wrong first one. It buys clicks into a site with nothing to convert them, so the spend leaves no residue. Worth revisiting once there is proof and a capture path.

11 · the path

Authority

Authority is whether a buyer can satisfy themselves that you are credible without speaking to you. It is the pillar everything else borrows from.

Published proof

First quarter

Turning work you have already delivered into evidence a buyer can read before they ever speak to you.

Why it is here: This is the first move, because the delivery record is strong and almost none of it is readable by someone who has not worked with you. The research is unambiguous on it: delivery evidence not published. Everything in the quarters after this one assumes it is in place.
What changes: Buyers who are shortlisting quietly get something to shortlist you on. It also gives every other module something credible to point at.
First move: Pick three delivered events, one per buyer type, and write each up as a short account of the brief, the constraint and the outcome.
You will know because: Enquiries start arriving that reference a specific piece of work rather than asking what you do.

What this looks like · positions you as the production partner whose delivery record can be read and checked before anyone picks up the phone

Article on your site
Who answers the phone at six in the evening the night before a dealer launch, and what happens in the ninety minutes after that
for the one who has to run it
Article on your site
What a product launch is meant to leave behind once the photographs are filed, and how to tell in the week afterwards whether it did
for the one who has to live with it
PR angle
A trade press piece for automotive and powersports editors on the production decisions that decide whether a launch looks like the brand or looks borrowed
for the one guarding how it looks

Being findable when buyers search

First quarter

A small set of pages that answer the questions your buyers put into a search bar before they have a shortlist.

Why it is here: This runs directly behind the first move, because there is no content surface for a buyer to find you on before they have a shortlist. On a buying cycle measured in quarters, the two together are worth more than either alone.
What changes: You become discoverable to people who are not yet in a buying process, which is when a shortlist is actually formed.
First move: List the ten questions you get asked most in a first call. Each one is a page.
You will know because: Search starts to appear as a source on new enquiries.

What this looks like · positions you as the people who explain how launches are costed and run, long before a brief exists

Article on your site
How to brief an experiential production partner for a dealer or distributor launch, and the questions the person running it should ask before anything is signed
for the one who has to run it
Article on your site
What a corporate product launch actually costs, line by line, from venue and A/V to freight, on-site staffing, registration and contingency
for the one whose neck is out
Article on your site
How brand standards hold up across live, virtual and hybrid formats when three suppliers are each building part of the same room
for the one guarding how it looks

12 · the path

Attraction

Attraction is how interest reaches you and what happens to the interest that is not ready to become an enquiry.

Somewhere for interest to land

Quarter 2

A path for the visitor who is interested but not ready to send an enquiry, so their interest is not lost.

Why it is here: On the board for Reaction Management because interest that is not ready to become an enquiry currently has nowhere to go.
What changes: The majority of your traffic that is researching quietly becomes a known contact instead of an anonymous visit.
First move: One thing worth an email address, built from the proof you already hold, behind a form that asks for very little.
You will know because: A list that grows every month without paid support.

What this looks like · positions you as worth an email address months before you are worth a meeting

Lead magnet
A one page justification sheet for a launch budget, written so it still makes sense when it is forwarded to someone who was not in the room
for the one whose neck is out
Lead magnet
A scope and change order worksheet showing where launch budgets usually move, and what to settle in the contract before they do
for the one who signs it
Lead magnet
A pre-brief worksheet for deciding which conversations the event has to produce, useful whoever ends up building it
for the one who has to live with it

Turning up where buyers already are

Quarter 3

Deliberate presence in the places your buyers gather, rather than waiting to be found.

Why it is here: On the board for Reaction Management because you are findable by anyone already looking and invisible to everyone who is not.
What changes: Feeds the top of the funnel so the layer underneath has something to work on.
First move: Pick the two places your buyers actually spend time and show up there weekly for a quarter.
You will know because: Enquiries from people you have never met, naming where they saw you.

What this looks like · positions you as known to the brand and dealer teams who will write next year's launch brief

Brand campaign
A standing campaign on the small production decisions that make a launch look like the brand, running through the months when next year's plans are set
for the one guarding how it looks
Brand campaign
A campaign on the difference between an event that photographs well and one that leaves a dealer network able to sell, aimed a year before any brief
for the one who has to live with it
LinkedIn post
Kathi on one call made on a live product launch, the option she turned down, and what the client only found out about it afterwards
for the one who has to run it

13 · the path

Automation

Automation here means giving you the hours back, not taking the people out. The conversations stay yours. What goes is the repetitive work stacked around them.

Staying useful between briefs

Quarter 2

A regular, genuinely useful contact with people who are interested but not buying yet.

Why it is here: On the board for Reaction Management because the buying cycle here runs in quarters and there is nothing keeping you useful across it.
What changes: On a buying cycle measured in quarters, this is what makes you the name they already know when the brief lands.
First move: A monthly note to everyone who ever raised a hand. Short, and about them.
You will know because: Replies from people who went quiet eighteen months ago.

What this looks like · positions you as still worth reading nine months after they first found you

Nurture branch
For the sponsor who will be asked in six months whether the launch was worth it, a short series on agreeing the measures before the build starts
for the one whose neck is out
Nurture branch
For the brand lead trying to win internal agreement on how the room should look, a series on defending quality when the budget conversation opens
for the one guarding how it looks
Nurture branch
For the contact with no brief yet, a slow series on what to fix in the twelve months before the next dealer or distributor launch
for the one who has to live with it

The same first steps, every time

Quarter 4

The tedious sequence every new opportunity goes through, held as tasks and checklists rather than in somebody's head: the questionnaire, the RFP review, the internal sign-offs.

Why it is here: On the board for Reaction Management because the same set of steps runs on every new opportunity and none of it is written down.
What changes: The boring work stops depending on who picked it up and how busy they were. You get the hours back and the process stops varying.
First move: Write down what actually has to happen between an enquiry arriving and a proposal going out. That list is the workflow.
You will know because: Nothing stalls because one person was on site all week.

What this looks like · positions you as holding the same standard in a bad week as in a good one

Workflow
One written definition of a live opportunity, so a small dealer event enquiry and a full product launch brief are never logged the same way
for the one who has to run it
Workflow
The handover from won to delivery on paper, so the client never has to explain the same requirement twice
for the one whose neck is out
Workflow
The first hour after a Friday afternoon enquiry, decided in advance, including who reads it and what a person sends back before Monday
for the one guarding how it looks

14 · the path

Architecture

Architecture is the plumbing. Unglamorous, and the reason the other three either compound or leak.

Crediting the first touch, not the last

Quarter 3

Recording what a buyer had already seen before they made contact, not just the click that carried them in.

Why it is here: On the board for Reaction Management because the long half of the buying cycle is invisible in what gets recorded, so the work that starts decisions cannot be defended at budget time.
What changes: On a decision that takes 221 days the last touch is the doorway, not the reason. Crediting only the doorway defunds everything that did the work.
First move: One question on the enquiry form: where had you come across us before today?
You will know because: The channels you were about to cut turn out to be the ones being mentioned.

What this looks like · positions you as able to prove which of this started the conversation, not just which one closed it

What to measure
Which of this starts a corporate experiential event production conversation
for the one who has to run it
What to measure
Every touchpoint scored by distance from a signature
for the one whose neck is out

One pipeline, agreed stages

Quarter 4

Every live opportunity in one place, with stages everyone reads the same way.

Why it is here: On the board for Reaction Management because there is no single place that answers what is actually coming.
What changes: You can see what is actually coming, which is the difference between forecasting and guessing.
First move: Agree five stage names, then move every open opportunity into them.
You will know because: The pipeline answers questions instead of raising them.

What this looks like · positions you as able to see what is coming twelve months out instead of guessing

Workflow
A reusable answer bank for supplier questionnaires, WBENC documentation and insurance requests, so an RFP response takes an hour rather than a day
for the one who has to run it
What to measure
Record when each opportunity first made contact and what stage it sat in each month, so a cycle measured in quarters can be read back later
for the one whose neck is out

15 · the path

Sequence roadmap

Four quarters, in dependency order. This is not a proposal for four quarters of work. It is the order the modules have to happen in if they are going to hold, so that if you only ever do the first quarter it still stands on its own. Arrows mark where one module needs another in place first.

Dotted arrows mark a dependency: the module at the point needs the one at the tail in place first.

16 · the system

What sits underneath

Under each of those four pillars sits roughly a hundred smaller moves. Nobody needs all of them, and nobody should try. It is here so the eight modules on your board read as a choice made from the whole picture rather than the whole picture itself.

Roughly ninety moves sit under the four pillars. Eight are on your board. The fog is the point: nobody needs all of it.

17 · the system

What it becomes

Compounding is the part that is hard to picture from the first quarter, because the first quarter mostly looks like effort. Eclipse Global has been running this system for eight years. Their published account is at codarity.com/results/eclipse-global.

The shape of it is worth saying plainly. Nothing on your board pays for itself in the quarter it is built. Published proof earns nothing the month it goes live. A list of people who are not ready to buy looks like a cost until the year it becomes the reason you are already on the shortlist.

That is the whole argument for sequencing rather than intensity. Each quarter makes the next one cheaper, because the thing you built last quarter is still working while you build the next one. Eight years of that is a different business, not a better marketing function.

Year by year figures for the Eclipse Global curve are held back until they can be stated exactly. The published case study carries the account in full.

18 · if it is useful

Next step

The obvious next step is a conversation about the first quarter, not the board and not the roadmap. If the next twelve months are meant to come from corporate event contracts, the first quarter is where that starts, and it is small enough to be worth talking about properly.

Codarity is a growth partner for firms that deliver B2B events. We build the system on the board above, one quarter at a time, and we are equally happy being useful on one module of it. If the first quarter is the only part that is ever relevant to Reaction Management, that is a good outcome and not a failed one.

The Event Engine Programme is the version of this where we build and run the whole board over time. It is one option for the first quarter, not the only shape it can take.