The Arc
The direction.
The signals around a business—customers, competitors, the market, and the business itself—help reveal where the opportunity may be.
About Arc & Anthem
Marketing decisions should have a reason behind them.
Arc & Anthem is a research-led marketing consultancy helping businesses understand what is happening around them, decide what deserves attention, and turn that direction into marketing people can actually experience.
We bring together customer insight, strategy, digital experience, and implementation—without assuming that every business needs the same answer.
Why Arc & Anthem Exists
Good marketing starts before the tactic.
A new website, more content, a different message, or another technology may be part of the answer.
But first, it helps to understand the customer, the market, the business, and the problem worth solving.
Arc & Anthem was built around that belief:use evidence to find the direction, then build what the direction actually calls for.
The Name
The direction. The expression.
The Anthem
The expression.
Positioning, story, digital experience, content, and marketing systems make that direction visible to the people the business wants to reach.
Evidence helps shape the Arc.The Anthem brings it to life.
Founded by Karen M. Blackwell
Strategy informed by research. Grounded in years of marketing experience.
Karen M. Blackwell brings together years of marketing strategy and business experience with rigorous doctoral training in marketing research at Virginia Tech.
Her doctoral study has deepened the way she approaches customer and market questions—building research from the fundamentals, examining evidence critically, and translating what the data reveals into decisions businesses can actually use.
Her work spans the questions businesses often face at moments of growth or change: understanding customers, clarifying positioning, strengthening digital experiences, and determining how new technologies can support the work without replacing human judgment.
Through Arc & Anthem, clients work directly with Karen, with AI and digital systems supporting the work behind the scenes.
Marketing Strategist · Researcher · Educator · Former Healthcare Executive · Doctoral Student
Learn more about KarenWhat Guides the Work
Three principles behind how we think.
01
Evidence before assumption.
We look for what the situation is actually telling us.
02
Fit before formula.
The right answer depends on the business, customer, and moment.
03
Technology with judgment.
Tools can increase what is possible. Human judgment determines what is worth doing.
Who We Work Best With
For businesses that want to understand before they act.
Arc & Anthem works best with business owners and leaders who know something needs attention—even if they have not yet defined exactly what the solution should be.
You may be building something new, rethinking what already exists, trying to understand your customers more clearly, or deciding where your marketing effort should go next.
You do not need to arrive with a finished brief. You do need to be open to looking at the evidence, questioning assumptions, and building around what the business actually needs.
Have a business question you are trying to work through?
Start there.
Tell us what is happening, where you are uncertain, or what you are trying to move forward.