Davis & Associates - Strategic marketing

Item 1: Brand Storm – Welcome addition to Brand Literature

A considerable amount has been written about brands and branding in the last five years (with much of it covering very similar territory and constituting variations on a theme).

However, in Brand Storm, UK business strategist, Will Murray, presents a fresh and challenging perspective on brand and the inter-relationship with customer focus.

Murray views brand holistically, defining it as:

“ …everything connected to the essence of a company. The directors, all the people, the products, the company itself, its logo, its physical visual presence, its voice, its reputation, its associations and endorsements, its customer perception, and the sum total of the company’s communication. It means every incarnation, and every living, breathing second of the organisation’s life”.

Brand Storm is an especially useful aide for marketers because it includes a range of practical tools for assessing / auditing the status of your organisation’s brand / brand culture and customer focus (e.g. checklists, benchmarking / assessment tools, conceptual frameworks, thought starters / question sets).

Taking just one example - two question sets (which both include a formal measurement / rating system) for assessing internal perceptions and knowledge of your brand power in the marketplace, and the customer focus and spirit within your brand. Sample questions you can ask of your own organisation, include:

Is your brand incredibly well-known?
Are you the most desired brand in your class?
Is your brand perceived as outstanding value in its class?
Does your brand have loyal, regular clients / customers?
Does your brand flourish outside your own core business?
Is your brand seen as having integrity?
Are your brands easy to get hold of?
Are your products and brand really innovative?
Do your customers/ clients promote your brand to their friends and colleagues?
Is your brand part of your customer’s / client’s lives?
Are your customers involved in setting your brand performance measures?
Do you encourage and trust customer feedback and take brand action on it?
Do you benchmark customer/client reaction to competitor brands?
Is everyone encouraged to understand your organisation’s brand performance information?
Are all staff rewarded on customer satisfaction and brand performance?

In addition, the layout of the book is visually refreshing and accessible – landscape format, with effective interplay of different fonts and visuals and plenty of white space

Brand Storm is available from Dymocks bookstores.

Item 2: Launching a CRM Initiative: Seven Key Success Factors

Based on extensive cross-industry analysis, CRM specialists, Peppers and Rogers, have identified seven common characteristics underlying successful CRM intiatives:

The organisation is obsessed with delivering value to customers (e.g. improving customer satisfaction, paying close attention to customer feedback and attitudes, establishing customer advisory boards to capture data/insights)
The organisation is comfortable with long-term business results: (the executives understand that a meaningful CRM transition cannot happen overnight)
CRM initiatives are directly sponsored by senior executives
The organisation demonstrates a deep commitment to CRM initiatives by communicating the launch plan (both internally and externally); and as the initiative takes hold, regularly reporting on progress and communicating successes to build momentum
The organisation assigns relevant (and sometimes new) metrics to assess the initiative’s progress and success
The organisation actively invests in training employees
The organisation identifies internal stakeholders who act as key disseminators of the CRM vision, and actively work to build support within internal and external stakeholder groups.

Item 3: Bringing Retail Shareholders and CRM Together

Investor Relations (“IR”) functions in Australia have a strong institutional investor focus, viewing retail shareholders in effect as secondary customers.

Moreover, retail shareholders are treated by companies and their IR functions as essentially an amorphous mass – and are typically communicated with via a “one size fits all” strategy. For instance, investor sections of Australian public company websites and investor documentation, allow for little, if any, customisation of information based on user preferences, the value / size of a shareholding, frequency of share purchase or an individual’s overall relationship with the company.

Not surprisingly, IR functions do not appear to be significantly engaged in their company’s CRM strategies - which would have a focus on high value segments (i.e customers who are also significant shareholders) and potential high value segments (i.e. retail shareholders with significant holdings who are not customers).

In response, Davis and Associates, in conjunction with IR communications specialists, has developed a proprietary framework – InvestBuild.

InvestBuild includes a model for segmenting a company’s retail shareholder base (using ASX shareholder research), and a topline marketing/communications strategy relevant to each major segment.

This framework can be mapped against a company’s existing customer segmentation model and systems, thereby, leveraging existing CRM investment and bringing the shareholder dimension fully into a total customer equation.

For more information on InvestBuild, email us at
info@davismarketing.com.au

Item 4: Buying Marketing Services – Avoiding the Pitfalls

A significant percentage of buyers of marketing services are not marketing professionals (especially the case in medium-small organisations); or if they are marketing professionals, they can lack sufficient expertise in specialist areas to select appropriate external suppliers with confidence.

This leads to a situation of the “buyer” being unclear about what he/she actually requires, the scope of work involved, the resources needed and the most appropriate supplier to undertake the work. It can also result in disenchanted customers receiving an end product that fails to meet expectations and/or deliver against specifications.

This is further compounded by a highly competitive market where a range of marketing suppliers will all claim expertise in a given area (e.g. branding is a good example – PR, design, market research and advertising agencies, as well as management consultancies, will all assert they can undertake strategic brand work for organisations).

But how is a buyer – especially one who is unable to readily see past a slick presentation and smart jargon – able to determine who truly has relevant expertise and the ability to deliver desired outcomes and value for money.

Some suggestions:

Engage an independent broker/expert to help you: scope your requirements; identify potential suppliers; scope the project-contract; and assess bids using robust evaluation criteria
As valuable input, source templates for Request For Tender documentation from other areas in your organisation where tendering is common(e.g. IT, corporate sourcing)
Seek advice and information from marketing professionals in comparable industry sectors who have engaged external suppliers for similar projects (e.g. what did they learn, opportunities and pitfalls, what evaluation tools and templates did they use)
As part of the bid process,ask potential suppliers to provide relevant case study/ies; and/or ask them to complete a small task which enables you to get a sense of their approach, strategic thinking and service delivery
Seek testimonials from a suppliers’ clients.

Item 5: Sydney City Office

In July, Davis and Associates established a city office at Level 9, 17 Bridge Street, Sydney 2000. Our Bridge St number is (02) 9252 3172. Our main business number (02) 9660 6045 remains unchanged.

This will enable us to host a range of meetings and workshops for our clients and associates in the heart of the Sydney CBD.

Item 6: New Business Wins:

In June-July, new business wins included

Advertising and brand positioning research for Australia’s largest mortgage broker, Mortgage Choice
Appointment as a strategic marketing counsel for listed recruitment group, Recruitment Solutions
Engagement by Multiple Sclerosis Australia (MSA) to develop a detailed national brand and marketing implementation plan (this appointment is on the back of a major brand research project Davis and Associates conducted for MSA in April-June 2002)
Strategic advice on implementing brand values and brand metrics for a key business division of Baxter Healthcare.

Item 7: In the News / On the Hustings

Dianne Davis was quoted in the Australian Financial Review (24 June) in relation to the Chief Marketing Officers Forum, and marketing at the CEO and boardroom-levels; and again in the Australian Financial Review (19 July) in relation to the re-branding of Deloitte Consulting.

On 23 July, Dianne presented at a luncheon seminar in Sydney on marketing outsourcing and related marketing models to an audience of senior corporate and marketing executives. The luncheon was sponsored by the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce.

Next Issue:
Market Research–Applying the Results

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