CONSULTING STRATEGY

Our strategy involves analysis of the organization's internal environment (Strengths & weaknesses) and its external environment (opportunities & threats).  To achieve sustained growth in profits and value, Bizoost focuses primarily on "customer-centric marketing communications". Which anticipates and address constantly shifting customer priorities. Although there is no single design which fits all organization objectives. We believe the most effective plan starts with customers needs.

Our marketing efforts incorporate the "marketing mix" and SWOT Analysis. Promotional activities include advertising outlets, sales promotion, and personal selling activities. It also includes Internet marketing, sponsorship marketing, direct marketing, database marketing and public relations. Integration of all these promotional tools, along with other components of marketing mix, is a way to gain an edge over a competitor.

Without a complete plan there is no integration or harmony between client and customers. The goal of an organization is to create and maintain communication throughout its own employees and throughout its customers.

Integrated marketing is based on a master marketing plan. This plan should coordinate efforts in all components of the marketing mix. A marketing plan consists on the following steps:

SITUATION ANALYSIS

Not PRODUCT, but CONSUMER

You have to understand what consumer's wants and needs are. Times have changed and you can no longer sell whatever you can make. The product characteristics have to match the specifics of what someone wants to buy. And part of what the consumer is buying is the personal "buying experience."

Not PRICE, but COST

Understand the consumer's cost to satisfy the want or need. The product price may be only one part of the consumer's cost structure. Often it is the cost of time to drive somewhere, the cost of conscience of what you buy, the cost of guilt for not treating the kids, the investment a consumer is willing to make to avoid risk, etc.

Not PLACE, but CONVENIENCE

As above, turn the standard logic around. Think convenience of the buying experience and then relate that to a delivery mechanism. Consider all possible definitions of "convenience" as it relates to satisfying the consumer's wants and needs. Convenience may include aspects of the physical or virtual location, access ease, transaction service time, and hours of availability.

Not PROMOTION, but COMMUNICATION

Communicate, many mediums working together to present a unified message with a feedback mechanism to make the communication two-way. And be sure to include an understanding of non-traditional mediums, such as word of mouth and how it can influence your position in the consumer's mind. How many ways can a customer hear (or see) the same message through the course of the day, each message reinforcing the earlier images?

MARKETING OBJECTIVES

The marketing objectives are determined by problems the target or product category may encounter and any market opportunities the product has to solve to overcome these problems.

• Inform- This objective is intended to create and stimulate interest and awareness, that is, to let targeted consumers know your product or service offering and where to find them. For example, if your target market teenagers or young adults, then your message must be interesting, current and trendy, you may choose to reach your market through social media networks such as facebook or twitter and this group spends a lot of time online, so e-mail marketing and banner advertising will work best. Alternatively if your aim is to reach the elderly, the message must be clear, concise, informative and easy to read, because this will help to ensure that this group understands your offering. You may choose to distribute pamphlets in doctors’ offices or put ads in the newspaper to reach this target audience.

• Persuade- This goal aims to convince your customers, that your product or service will provide the best value to your customers, compared to the competition. This can be done by giving competitive pricing, money-back guarantees and flexible return policies.  You may also want to create urgency by giving limited time offers and time specific free shipping discounts.  

• Take Action- Once you have made your message interesting and persuasive, then your last objective will be to remind your customers to take action, i.e. to purchase your products - often. It’s important to stay visible to your customers, the more they are reminded of your existence, the higher the chance of buying from you the next time they need something that you offer.  

Remember, the clearer, the more interesting, and the more convincing your communication is, the more influence it will have on your customers to take positive action, which will positively affect your revenue.

SMART Objectives

Specific - not vague statements.

Measurable - quantitative and verifiable.

Agreed - with those concerned.

Realistic - and achievable.

Time related - to be achieved within a specific period of time

MARKETING BUDGET

The procedure for creating a realistic advertising budget from scratch is complex. The budgeter begins by determining a reasonable approximation based on assumptions about spending norms within the industry.

Next, he determines the level of communication activity that will be necessary to achieve success in influencing the marketplace. Then a list of marketing communication options is created and compared. Finally, as financial resources allow, the options are assembled into a plan from which the budget flows. 

There are dozens of ways to calculate necessary marketing budgets.  When estimating, marketers should aim to arrive at a budget with a reasonable level of confidence, as efficiently as possible.  When we estimate for our clients, we triangulate a two to three different methods.  Some of the more common methods we incorporate are outlined below.  Which ones we recommend for a particular client depends on each company’s specific circumstances including industry segment, market maturity, marketing channel complexity, ease of obtaining metrics, etc.

Typical Budget Setting Methods

• Target Sizing Approach

We begin by calculating the number of potential target prospects in the designated geographic footprint for the business.  Then, we set an impression goal based on reaching an agreed upon percentage of that audience with the message at effective levels.  Typical/average CPMs are applied to generate the recommended advertising budget. 

• Sales Goal Approach

This approach starts with a specific sales goal and backs into the number of prospect “touches” that must be generated.  Luminosity does this by mapping the conversion process (ex:  aware–interest–purchase–repeat).  We apply costs & conversion rates to each layer to generate the budget.

• Share of Voice Approach

Here, the spending estimate based on achieving an equivalent (or superior) communications presence to competitive brands.  We use combination of data such as syndicated sources (TNS, Nielsen), mail tracking, press/press releases, as well as investigative calls to media sales reps. The key to successful use of this method is incorporation of intuitive analysis to account for underreporting by syndicated sources.

• Advertising/Sales Ratio Approach

Advertising/Sales Ratio examines the industry benchmark or marketing costs per dollar of revenue.  This is done by examining annual reports and other investor/analyst documents for public companies or through industry reports for private companies.  Often, figures can be compared with syndicated media spending sources to fill in any information gaps.

• Share of Market Approach

Share-of-Market combines share of voice and advertising/sales ratios by assuming that a company should spend at an A/S level equivalent to the share of market they wish to achieve, as opposed to their current level.

• Task-Based Approach

The Task-Based method involves developing prototypical costs for marketing elements to create a “menu” of costs.  This is most typically used by marketers in developing their budgets.  We recommend that this methodology always be benchmarked against other calculations to verify that the budget will be sufficient and not unreasonable based on actual in-market marketing costs.

MARKETING PLANNING

Market information should include anything you need to know in order to formulate strategy and make business decisions. Information in the form of statistical economic and demographic data. Additionally we carry out "customer-centric" research through customer feed-back, surveys, questionnaires and focus groups.

   - Customer profile and mix
    -Product mix
    -Demographic issues and trends
    -Technical scalability
    -Future regulatory and legal effects
    -Prices and values, and customer perceptions in these areas
    -Competitor activities
    -Competitor strengths and weaknesses
    -Customer service perceptions, priorities and needs

 From the bare beginnings of the project, use brainstorming, to help gather points and issues and to explore innovations and ideas. Thereafter it's a question of putting the issues in the right order, and establishing relationships and links between each issue. Complex projects will have a number of activities running in parallel. Some parts of the project will need other parts of the project to be completed before they can begin or progress. Such 'interdependent' parts of a project need particularly careful consideration and planning. Some projects will require a feasibility stage before the completion of a detailed plan. Gantt Charts and Critical Path Analysis Flow Diagrams are commonly used for detailed project management planning, enabling scheduling, costing and budgeting and other financials, and project management and reporting. 

1.   CAMPAIGN LAUNCH

Measure twice, cut once. Better yet, we measure thrice. Making certain that your early campaign audience will have the best experience possible. Timing is everything and sometimes timing a launch can mean all the difference in the world.  This can be especially true if you launch your products on a global scale.  The timing of your launch event may be predetermined by a key industry trade show, competitor events, Holidays other major event. Whatever the case, as we go through your launch planning process, identify the times and locations that afford maximum leverage.  A Kick-off meeting is held before the launch of your campaign is launched. As incomplete project details only discourages first-time viewers about your product or service.

 Training: Whoever will be participate in the marketing campaign efforts needs to be trained and briefed on the campaign technical details. There is nothing worse then grabbing potential customer’s interest and having them meet a brick wall when they contact you.  By providing training before a launch, we enable customer service to help close the deal with better communications.

CAMPAIGN TRACKING

The final stage of any marketing planning process is to establish targets (or standards) so that progress can be monitored. Changes in the environment mean that the forecasts often have to be changed. Along with these, the related plans may well also need to be changed. Continuous monitoring of performance, against predetermined targets, represents a most important aspect of this. However, perhaps even more important is the enforced discipline of a regular formal review. Again, as with forecasts, in many cases the best (most realistic) planning cycle will revolve around a quarterly review. Best of all, at least in terms of the quantifiable aspects of the plans, if not the wealth of backing detail, is probably a quarterly rolling review — planning one full year ahead each new quarter. Of course, this does absorb more planning resource; but it also ensures that the plans embody the latest information, and — with attention focused on them so regularly — forces both the plans and their implementation to be realistic.

Plans only have validity if they are actually used to control the progress of a company: their success lies in their implementation, not in the writing'.