The Market Intelligence Blog

Getting back into the blogging after a hiatus to catch up on the consulting backlog …

This post is a repeat of one from just before my hiatus, about working with an independent consultant.  

Every day, marketing and management consultants are leading businesses large and small to faster growth, more effective customer acquisition, greater profits, and a more productive long term direction.  But, unfortunately, nearly every day, other companies suffer disappointment and frustration in their dealing with consultants.

Here is some solid advice – from someone who has earned a living on both sides of the consultant / client relationship – about what consultants can and can’t accomplish for you.

A consultant is an independent expert who you engage to tackle valuable tasks that you can’t conveniently or efficiently accomplish with your own employees.

– Does your staff have sufficient ‘bandwidth’ to tackle a new, perhaps unfamiliar task?

– Do they have the special skills, the insider contacts and knowledge about a new industry you aim to enter?

– Does your study need anonymity to avoid tipping off competitors?

– Would an outsider’s viewpoint and mediation be valuable in resolving tough internal issues?

Your consultant will work with you to customize a plan – and then bring you the results – that accomplish your unique business objectives.  Here are some examples of questions that consultants are especially well equipped to help their clients answer:

– Will customers like my new product?  How much would it be worth to them?  How are customers and competitors likely to respond to my new product offering?

– What do my customers like about my company / product / service?  Why have some potential customers decided not to buy from me?  How do I compare to my competitors?

– How is my marketplace likely to grow and change over the coming 5-10 years?  What should I do to prepare for, and prosper in that future?

– What is the optimum organizational structure for the future my company faces, and what is the optimum pathway to reach that future?

Consultants have the experience, skills and focus to address these questions methodically and objectively, and to provide honest, unbiased analysis and recommendations.

Finally, remember that as good and diligent as most consultants are, nobody’s crystal ball is perfect.  Marketing is often as much about ‘soft data’ – about the motivations, intentions and preconceptions of your potential customers and competitors – as it is about the facts and figures of the marketplace.

Next week … Some of the ‘nuts and bolts’ of finding and working with a quality consultant who’s suited to your needs.

Over the past few weeks, the consulting project work here at Marketing Intelligence & Strategy Assoc has been very exciting – helping clients by identifying and evaluating  opportunities for new products, by helping them navigate a tough competitive environment, and by bringing them new insights into what turns their customer on.

We’ll be back soon with more posts here at The Market Intelligence Blog.

Every day, marketing and management consultants are leading businesses large and small to faster growth, more effective customer acquisition, greater profits, and a more productive long term direction.  But, unfortunately, nearly every day, other companies suffer disappointment and frustration in their dealing with consultants.

Here is some solid advice – from someone who has earned a living on both sides of the consultant / client relationship – about what consultants can and can’t accomplish for you.

A consultant is an independent expert who you engage to tackle valuable tasks that you can’t conveniently or efficiently accomplish with your own employees.

– Does your staff have sufficient ‘bandwidth’ to tackle a new, perhaps unfamiliar task?

– Do they have the special skills, the insider contacts and knowledge about a new industry you aim to enter?

– Does your study need anonymity to avoid tipping off competitors?

– Would an outsider’s viewpoint and mediation be valuable in resolving tough internal issues?

Your consultant will work with you to customize a plan – and then bring you the results – that accomplish your unique business objectives.  Here are some examples of questions that consultants are especially well equipped to help their clients answer:

– Will customers like my new product?  How much would it be worth to them?  How are customers and competitors likely to respond to my new product offering?

– What do my customers like about my company / product / service?  Why have some potential customers decided not to buy from me?  How do I compare to my competitors?

– How is my marketplace likely to grow and change over the coming 5-10 years?  What should I do to prepare for, and prosper in that future?

– What is the optimum organizational structure for the future my company faces, and what is the optimum pathway to reach that future?

Consultants have the experience, skills and focus to address these questions methodically and objectively, and to provide honest, unbiased analysis and recommendations.

Finally, remember that as good and diligent as most consultants are, nobody’s crystal ball is perfect.  Marketing is often as much about ‘soft data’ – about the motivations, intentions and preconceptions of your potential customers and competitors – as it is about the facts and figures of the marketplace.

Next week … Some of the ‘nuts and bolts’ of finding and working with a quality consultant who’s suited to your needs.

Last week, I wrote about getting your advertising or marketing communication program off on the right foot (Advertising and Marketing Communications:  Why Bother?)   The first steps build a solid rationale and business goal by clearly defining:

> The business benefits and advantages that your ad or mar-comm program will create

> The actions that you want people to take, so that you achieve the business goal of your communication.

Today, we’ll explore how to put together an ad or mar-comm program that creates great value for your business.

Once you’ve decided what actions you want people to take – buy more of your services, recognize and appreciate the environmental benefits of your product, learn more about your new company or offerings – you need to figure out:

1. WHO are the key people who must see – and be motivated by – your ad or mar-comm piece?  Who , exactly, is your intended audience?

Sometimes the right answer isn’t so obvious.  Going beyond your direct customers – by reaching out to people who don’t already buy from you, or to the people who influence your customers’ buying decisions – is often the best route to selling more of your stuff.  Or, a piece educating consumer advocates, ‘green’ bloggers, and the environmental science community may be the best strategy for enhancing your reputation for environmentally friendly products and services.    

A little marketing research – talking with your customers (and especially with the people who have chosen NOT to buy from you), suppliers, community leaders, etc – can help you identify who influences customers’ decisions to spend their money with you – or with your competitor. 

“Influence the influencers, and the $$$ will flow to you.”

2. WHERE are they most likely to encounter – and to respond to – your message?  What is the best communication vehicle to give your piece maximum visibility and credibility among your target audience?

You probably have a pretty good idea of how to get your message in front of your direct customers. But it’s not so obvious if you need to reach people who’ve never heard of your company or seen your products.  Or, what if you want to introduce your new environmentally friendly offering to ‘green’ bloggers, consumer advocates, or regulatory scientists? 

The key question:  Where does your target audience turn for the sort of information your message will convey?  Those sources might be totally distinct from the communications vehicles you and your competitors traditionally use to reach your customers.

A bit more marketing research, building a profile of the groups that influence your customers’ buying decisions, will help you identify where they turn for information – and where your should invest your communications $$$.  

“Get your message in front of your intended audience.

Don’t expect them to search for you.”

3. WHAT is the critical content of your message – and how should it be presented – to cement the attention of your intended audience and motivate them to act?

Facts and figures, graphics, and your call-to-action are the heart of your message, but the impressions and emotions that their presentation creates are its soul.  Make sure that the tone of your message – its ‘look and feel’ – match the intent of your message – and the expectations and sensibilities of your intended audience.

Again, some marketing research will sharpen the focus and the appeal of your message, bringing you more ‘bang for your communications buck’.

“Make communicating easy – match message and medium to your audience.”

Knitted all together, these 5 steps will assure that your investment in advertising and marketing communication will earn you a healthy ROI.

———-  //  ———-

You can accomplish important marketing research yourself.  If you need help tackling bigger, more complex questions, or if you simply need an ‘extra pair of hands’ to help out with some marketing tasks, consider an independent business consultant like Marketing Intelligence & Strategy Assoc.  (512 769-2030 or bob@market-intel.com)

‘Vampire’ marketers are sucking the lifeblood out of more and more traditional businesses. Is your brick-and-mortar business in danger of becoming just another showroom for aggressive on-line marketers?

On-line retailers enjoy some significant advantages – breadth of selection, shop-from-home convenience, and sometimes lower prices – our VAMPIRE MARKETING 1 talked about several of the most problematic ones for brick-and-mortar marketers.  Yes, there’s a challenge …

So, what can you do if you’re one of those businesses in danger of losing customers to on-line retailers?  What if you’re already, like Best Buys, feeling the pinch, if your brick-and-mortar store is beginning to feel like a showroom for Amazon?  The short and simple answer is “Provide something that customers really like, that the on-line competitors can’t provide.”  Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Buyers of expensive or complex products or services often value expert advice, explanation, and comparison of alternatives.  Make sure that your employees have the training, experience and personal skills to educate your customers more comfortably and effectively than customers can educate themselves.

2. Many standardized products or service (like computers, home entertainment systems or personal car insurance) can be enhanced (and valued up!) with options and accessories that on-line shoppers may overlook.  In-store ‘lookers’ are less likely to walk away and become internet buyers, if your employees can intelligently advise them and assemble a customized package of attractive features.

3. Court those customers who will always prefer to pay by cash or check, or who are reluctant to commit their personal information to the internet.  If your policies and procedures make it difficult for potential customers to hand their cash or check to you, they’re likely to find another place to spend their $$$.

4. Make sure that customer who prefer to shop the internet have an attractive option for shopping with you.  Seamlessly integrate your web and brick-and-mortar presence.  If your business is only brick-and-mortar – or only internet – you’re ignoring a large segment of the buying public that prefers the other.

5. Indulge internet buyers’ urge for ‘instant gratification’ by offering personalization – like on-line or telephone chat and in-store pick up of on-line orders.

Finally, recognize that some products and service categories are natural fits for web commerce, and no amount of ingenuity or effort can reverse the migration from brick-and-mortar business to the internet.  If that’s the future you face, the earlier you think through your options and formulate a plan, the more likely you are to thrive by managing the modernization of your business on your own schedule, not that dictated by your competitors.

1.  Evolve your business toward products and services with high customization and personal attention content.  Adopt an unsentimental willingness to phase out your traditional offerings and introduce new offerings to your customers.

2. Focus on and cater to the small but high value niche of customers who will continue to demand – and pay for – customized, personal service and hands-on shopping.

Need help getting started?  Contact an independent consultant like Marketing Intelligence & Strategy Assoc.

Vampire Marketing – Part I

‘Vampire’ marketers are sucking the lifeblood out of more and more traditional businesses. Is your brick-and-mortar business in danger of becoming just another showroom for aggressive on-line marketers?

http://market-intel.com/blog/?p=520

 Problems and Opportunities

Where to spend my never-quite-enough time, resources, and money?

http://market-intel.com/blog/?p=532

Better Marketing, Starting Today

Most companies, large and small, can quickly make their business more relevant and appealing to potential customers by addressing 3 areas:

http://market-intel.com/blog/?p=515

ASSURING THE SUCCESS OF YOUR NEW VENTURE

Along with technical excellence and solid finance, attending to these market-facing factors will assure that customers are waiting, $$$ in hand, when you launch.

http://market-intel.com/blog/?p=506

Marketing Is More Effective When Targeted to Personality Profiles

A recent study proves that incorporating customers’ personality traits into your market segmentation scheme can improve the effectiveness of your advertising and communications.

http://market-intel.com/blog/?p=489

POWERBALL’s Marketing Strategy

The POWERBALL multi-state lottery recently doubled the basic ticket price.  Like theirs, your customers’ buying decisions are driven by a thicket of motivations – motivations that are at the same time rational and emotional, occasionally conflicting.  Understanding what’s important to your customer – accounting-wise and in her deep psychology – gives you a better chance of winning the big jackpot in your marketplace.

http://market-intel.com/blog/?p=476

Not Exactly Marketing, but …

I’m continually amazed by my grandparents’ generation, born in the 1880s and 1890s …

http://market-intel.com/blog/?p=480

Another Plastics from Bio-Mass Discovery

A new discovery at University of Massachusetts Amherst may someday lead to a practical bio- alternative to one of the world’s largest volume consumer plastics.

http://market-intel.com/blog/?p=468

Maximize Your Research ROI

Here are 5 Rules of Research Strategy that will assure you get a handsome ROI from your research investment, whether you’re in the lab or studying your marketplace.

http://market-intel.com/blog/?p=464

Marketing on the Web

http://market-intel.com/blog/?p=452

 Web Businesses Don’t Need Marketing?

I more than occasionally hear or read that modern web-based commerce makes marketing and brand building irrelevant, even obsolete.   Another opinion …

http://market-intel.com/blog/?p=448

Fundamentals of Marketing and Sales

Deep down, the fundamentals of marketing and selling are just that – fundamental – regardless of the product or service you’re selling.

http://market-intel.com/blog/?p=445

Greener Materials and the Markets that Use Them

We hear a lot about concepts like ‘sustainable’, ‘renewable’, ‘green’ and ‘environmentally friendly’, but it’s often not clear what those terms actually mean.

http://market-intel.com/blog/?p=437

Sunshine, Blue Skies … At Home with Wind and Solar Energy:  Taking the Mystery Out of America’s Energy Options

http://market-intel.com/blog/?p=431

Four Things You Must Know to Brand Your Way to Success

Your “brand” is the sum of everything that people think, feel, believe and ‘know’ about you, your product and service, and your company

http://market-intel.com/blog/?p=427

Marketing for Entrepreneurs and Small Business

Under-staffed and under-resourced?  Some things every business, entrepreneur and startup should be doing to assure that the customers will be there when you open for business …

http://market-intel.com/blog/?p=320

Design your business (your product or service plus all the other ways your customers interact with you) to best help your customers address the opportunities or problems they face.  These days, the ‘better mousetrap’ is often not the mousetrap itself but the training, services, support, and friendly accessibility that surround it.

Much that passes for marketing advice – get in tune with your customers’ likes and dislikes, address their un-met needs, build your brand equity – sounds overly esoteric and open-ended to an overworked small business owner or busy operations exec.  Good advice, perhaps, but not very actionable.

Most companies, large and small, can quickly make their business more relevant and appealing to potential customers by addressing 3 areas:

1. Take an outsider’s look at the ways your customers can connect with you.  Make sure you’re not discouraging customers before they even walk through your electronic or bricks-and-mortar door.  Does your signage and website make it clear what your business offers, where to find you, when you’re open or closed?  Are your phone and e-communications systems easy to use?  How well do you respond to incoming calls and messages?

Remember – Every point of contact is an opportunity to impress – or to piss off – a potential customer.  If an eager buyer can’t get in touch with you, more than likely, she’ll place her business with your competitor.

2. Are your sales and marketing efforts targeting the people whose decisions make or break your success? Who is most likely to enjoy the benefits of what you’re offering – whose problems can you solve – and who controls the checkbook from which you’ll be paid?  Purchasing agents rarely identify the need for a new product or service, and IT directors rarely detect the business problem that begs a new software solution.

Figure out who suffers most acutely from the problem that your offering is designed to address, and enlist their support in convincing the decision makers of the value of your solution.

3. Learn the terminology and jargon that customers use when they talk about products and services like yours.  Then, make sure that your sales presentations, your advertising, and your website focus on the issues that are especially important to the decision makers, in language that is most likely to resonate with them.  Your customer’s warehouse manager wants to know how your new software will solve his inventory control problem, not how seamlessly it integrates with ERP systems.

Learn to speak your customers’ language instead of expecting them to adapt to yours.

How to do it?  First, talk with the people who know your customers best – your sales people and, perhaps even more important, your customer service representatives and technical service experts.

Then, if you have any doubts about what you’re hearing, or how to make use of it, call a competent, objective consultant like Marketing Intelligence & Strategy Assoc