Integrated Marketing Strategies

Objective Critiques

Idea Generation

Integrated Marketing is an evolution from the original Category Management processes largely driven by retailers, into a supplier led, holistic approach, to driving durable competitive advantage and sustainable category growth.

Integrated Marketing Strategies target, and competitively leverage, category level growth drivers reflecting key consumer, shopper, and trade needs and wants, and proactively stimulate behaviours that will constructively develop the size, shape, and direction of the market.

The Integrated Marketing Strategies are translatable into aligned and mutually supportive Brand, Channel, and Customer Plans designed to maximise impact in the market place, and financial ROI.

Our Integrated Marketing Strategy programme follows a structured, multi-functional, business planning process that integrates consumer, shopper, trade, and competitor knowledge, into aligned cross-functional objectives and strategies that build on one another to maximise competitive advantage, growth impact, and return on marketing and sales investment.

The preparation of annual functional strategies is often undertaken as a routine task squeezed into the last few months of the year, with the outputs invariably lacking meaningful stretch or new thinking. 

Certainly, in many cases such functional plans are produced independently of one another, with very little cross pollination of knowledge, ideas, or direction, ultimately resulting in disjointed and potentially conflicting initiatives.

We undertake rigorous Objective Critiques of Brand, Channel, and Customer Strategies, Plans, and Activities to assess their completeness, alignment, and impact in driving competitive advantage, profitability, and growth.

These objective critiques will highlight key areas of strength and weakness, and provide recommendations on where and how they, and the underlying planning process, can be enhanced.

Once probortunities have been identified and defined, and objectives have been set – the task of coming up with ideas and activities to deliver against them needs to be undertaken. This is often easier said than done, especially when you aspire to really make an impact, really make a difference.

It is difficult to think innovatively, outside of the box, and come up with ideas that will step change performance, and possibly even the way customers think about the market and your offering.

We design and facilitate Idea Generation workshops around specific opportunities or challenges to generate a multitude of ideas as a platform for solution design and strategy.

We customise brainstorming techniques, use creative thinkers as facilitators, and run the sessions in venues that open the mind, in order to stimulate new, break-through thinking.

Category Scoping and Structure Design

Customised Shopper Marketing

Store Floor Walk

One key to unlocking growth is to re-examine the market definition that you use. If it is too narrow, it will surely limit your scope for growth. Similarly, if it is too expansive, it will be difficult to build a cohesive offering that hangs together well and makes sense to your target audience.

Certainly, a market map should accurately reflect consumer and shopper needs, wants, and behaviours, and not be defined by the company’s areas of participation, strength, or capability.

Our approach to Category Scope and Structure Design is holistic, needs, wants, and solutions based, and visionary in that it takes into consideration partially met, or unmet needs, and non-participative consumers and/or shoppers.

Participation mapping against such a Category Scope and Structure Design unlocks meaningful, real, forward competitive advantage and growth opportunities.

Tailoring of customer management initiatives and marketing activities to attract target shoppers, and stimulate growth driving purchasing behaviours, through effectively identifying and leveraging customer specific opportunities.

Translation of shopper marketing opportunities into creative ‘through-the-line’ activations.

Retailers and wholesalers operate in a fiercely competitive environment chasing turnover daily. They are increasingly defining and fine tuning their unique market positionings in order to give their shoppers a reason to stay loyal and committed. Without such differentiation, they would have to rely solely on hard core price discounting which creates a downward value spiral in the market. This move to differentiated trade positionings provides branded goods suppliers with opportunities to leverage common brand space to mutual benefit.

Certainly, not all customers perform equally in the category or by brand, nor do they typically face the same growth opportunities. Distinct potential exists for each customer, and as such they require distinct business development initiatives.   

Generic trade marketing can not deliver maximised returns. The introduction of Customised Shopper Marketing, targeting specific shoppers in specific stores, to make specific purchasing decisions, significantly enhances the impact and effectiveness of trade spend. While the costs incurred are likely to increase, so too will the ROI realised through improved relevance, trade support, and impact.

Our Customised Shopper Marketing programmes involve the tailoring of trade marketing initiatives to attract and engage target shoppers, and stimulate growth driving purchasing behaviours, through effectively identifying and leveraging customer specific opportunities

Critical point of purchase assessments.

Most appreciate the value of spending time at the rock face – but few manage to do so regularly. And when they do get into stores, many focus exclusively on their own operational issues, and tend to miss the richness of information presented there about the customer, the shoppers, the category, and the competitors.

We have developed a variety of Store Walk programmes designed to build knowledge about what is going on at the Point of Purchase, and to develop skills to purposefully extract and assimilate valuable information on store visits.

These Store Walk programmes are equally relevant for Brand Managers, Key Account Managers, Sales Managers, and Category Managers, even Board Directors! Our material is designed specifically for each audience.

Customer Joint Working

Shelf Optimisation

High levels of distrust and frustration still exist in trading relationships, as partners battle to find common ground, particularly on strategic, business development, projects.

Our extensive experience in working with the trade enables us to provide clients with invaluable assistance in the development of customer proposals and presentations, and objective facilitation of Customer Joint Working initiatives.

We undertake critical assessments of trade marketing documents and materials – such as trade presenters and category reviews – to ensure that they are relevant and compelling.

Increasing range clutter and the high costs of stock holding have raised the profile of Shelf Optimisation programmes as a means to maximising range and space productivity. 

Limited trade capabilities in shelf planning and extent of category knowledge, mean that suppliers most often play the leadership role in this area. Such leadership is often grudgingly accepted by the trade due to a deep seated concern that brand agendas will distort the outputs, and limit the benefits realised by the customer. In many cases such concern is unfortunately well founded!

Having been involved in the design of retailer business practices in Shelf Optimisation, we are well placed to assist suppliers in the development of ranging recommendations, and the design of shelf layouts.

We run Shelf Optimisation training sessions, and conduct critical assessments of range recommendations and shelf layouts.

Actionable Insights

Research Library

Rigorous interrogation of research findings and performance data, the extraction and consolidation of meaningful insights into actionable opportunities for competitive advantage and growth.

Assistance in the preparation of Research Briefs and Performance Scorecards to maximise the quality and usefulness of information derived. 

Implications and Action Planning Workshops designed to turn research findings into meaningful action, with the necessary level of ownership and responsibility within the management teams involved.

The ability to turn data into information, and then to extract meaningful, actionable insights is a critical step in business planning. Certainly it is also fundamental to maximising the value of market research and performance scorecards.

Many businesses lack these specialised analytical skills and as a result run the risk of missing opportunities, not anticipating threats, and potentially making poor business decisions as a result.

We provide analytical services to marketing, channel, sales, and category management teams and pride ourselves in delivering meaningful, actionable insights.

We conduct rigorous interrogation of multi-source data including market data, research findings, and performance scorecards, extract and consolidate findings into meaningful insights, and prepare recommendations on actions that can be taken to leverage the knowledge for competitive advantage and growth. We then workshop the insights and recommendations to deliver formal action plans ready for implementation, with the necessary level of ownership and responsibility within the management teams involved.

We can also provide assistance in the preparation of Research Briefs and Performance Scorecards to maximise the quality and usefulness of information derived, and run independent Implications and Action Planning Workshops to assist businesses to turn research and scorecard findings into meaningful action plans.

Building of a single repository for all research undertaken in an organisation structured in an easy to search and access manner. 

Consolidation of findings delivered by multiple research projects into multi-dimensional, holistic, and progressive insights.

Research is undertaken by multiple people within the organisation, with each project having a specific purpose.

Research findings and subsequent application are typically limited to the associated agenda. Once that agenda has been satisfied, the material is often forgotten and lies dormant, its existence known only to a select few.

Most Research projects provide a wealth of information that extends further than the original purpose, and which would be beneficial to a wider audience. Broader sharing and value extraction of Research Findings is infrequently undertaken, and so the impact of such work, and its ROI is not maximised.

Cross referencing of information from multiple research projects provides additional perspectives, and often greater clarity on issues and opportunities. Such integration of findings is seldom undertaken, and as a result businesses lose the benefit of multi-dimensional insights.

We consolidate research findings into a Research Library, a single repository for all research work undertaken in an organisation, structured in an easy to search and access manner.

We then consolidate the findings into multi-dimensional, holistic, and progressive insights, in order to maximise the scope and depth of knowledge provided.

Competency Development

Individual and Team Coaching

We provide customised Competency Development programmes, to meet client specific needs in Integrated Marketing, Category Scope and Structure Design, Customised Shopper Marketing, Actionable Insights Generation, Customer Joint Working, and Shelf Optimisation.

We provide Individual and Team Coaching in all areas of marketing, sales, and category management, involving one on one mentoring, analytical support, and critical reviews of proposals and activities in category and shopper marketing, customer management, and shelf optimisation.