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Archive for the ‘Strategic Marketing’ Category

Marketing Campaign

Wednesday, November 16th, 2011

We are currently working on an exciting marketing campaign for a local environment / charitable organisation, in partnership with Wirral Council. Studiowide was selected from a number of companies to provide a 4 month marketing campaign, aimed at raising awareness of a Government grant, free home insulation scheme.

The project is a complete single sourced campaign encompassing; micro website, video production, PR, logo design, posters, direct mail pieces, digital marketing – including online and offline response devices.

The Warmer Wirral campaign is one of those exciting projects which we love to get involved with where we have 100% responsibility for all marketing and creative activities – this is where we shine.

Our campaign angle was to create a strong creative visual to which we could anchor the original idea of a Polar Bear mascot. Our client had originally been running this programme without external help, and now felt that professional assistance would bring the additional exposure that was needed. Our overall objective for the marketing campaign was to increase online applications for the free loft and cavity wall insulation scheme.

First off we needed a good logo. The previous company logo had been used in the campaign materials prior to the revamp. We felt that this didn’t present a uniform identity and was contributing to an overall confusing message.

The new Warmer Wirral logo was created along with a main graphic. At first glance, the graphic appears to be an iceberg, supported with the tagline ‘Heating Bills are the Tip of the Iceberg’. On a folded page the top of the iceberg is visible, then, by unfolding the piece the revealed iceberg is actually a roof top. Below the roof top lays the lower two thirds of a house.

When we presented this idea to our client they immediately liked the ‘houseberg’ concept. Having such a quick approval of the logo and visuals meant we could get on with creating the basic assets required for the four individual videos and the website.

Once the visuals and logos had been ‘tweaked’, we transferred this across all pieces, including poster and postcards. The direct mail was designed to be shown folded, which could then be pulled open to reveal the ice/houseberg concept.

We finished the direct mail letters and leaflets following additional briefing and review meetings. This part of the approval process was critical and involved senior representatives from Wirral Council and Energy Projects Plus.

Whilst working on our offline materials we were simultaneously creating our online assets. For the Warmer Wirral website we utilised a JQuery slider function to create the ice/ houseberg effect – this worked really well and provided the perfect landing page, bridging off-line communications with the on-line environment.

In addition to the website we wanted to add a greater visual element to the campaign – video lends itself perfectly to this project. All footage was filmed onsite over a number of days and culminated in short videos which were based on the customer journey. This included; the campaign mascot, Lofty the Polar Bear, including survey, installation and testimonials.

We’re extremely excited about the Warmer Wirral campaign being launched this week. We’re now beginning our promotional activities and hope to report back some exciting results in the coming months!

Testimonial;

“The strength of this company is its creative visual talent. We have gone from our own homemade look to a completely re-branded look that is totally professional, topical, fresh and, well, just plain gorgeous. We have seen an immediate increase in web traffic. Nothing has been too much trouble for these guys to do. Thank you.” Sandra Manning. Energy Projects Plus. Wirral.

Tags: marketing campaign
Posted in Marketing, Strategic Marketing | No Comments »

Emotional branding

Thursday, June 16th, 2011

Written by Carl Da-Costa-Greaves

In this 9 minutes video the Mast brothers capture the essence of what emotional branding is all about. The two brothers live and breathe provenance, artisan and personality, through their love of chocolate making.

I really love this video because of its simplicity. Yes, it is professionally shot and edited but it doesn’t feel like a ‘block buster’- It feels very personal and, well, really quite cool.

An amazing story unfolds, driven by their curiosity for the simplest things. The Mast brothers go back to basics with hand crafting and using original and restored old machinery in place of advanced, modern and less ‘personal’ equipment.

The video evokes feelings of times-gone-by and you can almost smell the chocolate. You can imagine their small shop with old machinery plugging away in the background. And along with the rest of their hand-crafted, artisan characteristics you quickly get their story and connect with what’s important to these producers – driving our senses into emotional branding overload!

Their business isn’t about large corporate profits and shareholder value; this is all about personal values. For me, in its simplest terms, this is the display of true emotional branding. They bring together all of the right attributes. This humanises their brand and immediately strikes a connection – all from their love of what they do.

Everything which is presented to the consumer reflects the values and aims of this business. This demonstrates the fundamental idea of upholding an image. Even down to employing and supporting local communities. It is the consistency of their core idea that makes up the company, driving it and showing what it stands for.

I think what makes the emotional branding connection even greater is the timing of this story. Is this clever planning or just coincidence? And would this small time mentality win-over consumers prior to the huge economic shift that we are going through – probably not.

However, the fact remains that they are exactly right in their positioning and the market is absolutely prime for back-to-basics products and services.

Tags: brand identity, emotional branding, image
Posted in Strategic Marketing, Videos | No Comments »

Setting objectives

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

Corporate objectives form the foundation of your marketing plan and also create the metrics for future control and evaluation. These objectives contain the detail that lies behind the forever vague corporate mission statement.

Once objectives have been determined they can be further broken down into multi-level objectives such as; corporate level objectives that concern the business as a whole; divisional objectives that focus on specific areas or departments within the company; functional objectives such as marketing mix objectives and lastly, campaign objectives.

Examples of Multilevel Objectives

Corporate objectives (derived from vision or mission):

Market standing – total sales or market share
Innovation – targets for product or service development, cost reduction, financing, operational Performance, human resource and management information
Physical and financial resources – acquisition and use of resources
Profitability – increase earnings per share or return on equity
Manager performance and development
Employee performance and attitude
Public responsibility

Divisional objectives;

Increase new customers by 10%
Increase retention levels from 50% to 75% within 18 months
Acquire 15 new customers every month within 12 months.

Marketing Mix Objectives;

Increase market share by 10%
Aim to achieve 75% customer awareness of our brand in our target markets
Improve profitability by 5%

Campaign Objectives;

Generate 1,000 new leads for sales team
Increase direct mail response rates by 10% through creative tests

When setting objectives you must also consider the micro and macro influences that can have an overall effect on your mission and objectives – such influences are sometimes overlooked in the planning and objectives stage.

Environmental factors;

PESTLE
Micro
Corporate social responsibility
Globalisation

Nature of the business:

Market situation
Products
Technology

Organisational culture;

History and age
Leadership and management styles
Structure and systems
Mission and vision
Culture

Stakeholders;

Who do you server?
Balance of power and influence of various Stakeholders
Governance and accountability

And last but not least, don’t forget that all objectives need to be SMART;

Specific
Measurable and expressed in quantifiable terms
Acceptable to stakeholders
Realistic and achievable
Time bound

Tags: campaign objectives, corporate objectives, marketing plan
Posted in How To Do..., Marketing, Strategic Marketing | No Comments »

Mind mapping for situational analysis

Friday, February 25th, 2011

What is it?
I think it’s safe to say that we’re all familiar with the process of mind maps. Recently we’ve been using this highly organised system of planning and note taking more and more to help us in our client situational analysis and briefing work.

Mind mapping is the easiest way to put information into your brain and to take information out of your brain – it’s a creative and effective means of note taking that literally maps out your thoughts.

Situation analysis is the marketing tool commonly used when auditing an organisational marketing strategy – finding out point A of a company in order to move them to point B. When Studiowide begins working with a new client we like to undertake some form of analysis to understand their current segmentation, targeting and positioning – this allows us to provide work that integrates seamlessly with their current communications and strategies.

As a creative company underpinned by the Chartered Institute of Marketing professional codes of conduct, we have created what we like to think as a unique way of conducting a formal situational analysis using mind mapping.

Case Study:
Company A requested for Studiowide to provide them with a corporate brochure. Following our initial briefing meeting it was agreed that in order to create the exact communications we needed to understand more about the organisation; products, services, markets and competitors. In order to obtain this information in a creative and visually engaging way we employed the use of a mind map (above).

The map began with the company at the centre and then all of the information that will make up the current situation branches out from the centre – starting with market orientation at number 1 and ending up with marketing strategy at number 7. Each route then has second and third level branches associated with that topic.

The event covered a 4 hour morning and was conducted to 10 key decision makers within the organisation. We utilised a white board to draw the map on, which remained front of view for the whole event. We also used a flip chart which allowed us to tear off the sheets and blue tack them around the room.

This format proved to be highly engaging and allowed the group to arrive at the key deliverables which are marked on the map with ‘Key’ symbols.

The event was of real benefit to our client not only because it provided current information to allow us to produce the corporate brochure, but by focussing the morning on the current marketing strategy some issues where flagged up for further investigation by the company.

Why not give this format a try at your next planning meeting. It doesn’t have to be presented to a room of delegates on a flip chart and whiteboard, it can quite easily be done one-on-one with an A3 sketch pad, and will leave a lasting memory both for you and other participants.

Tags: market orientation, marketing strategy, mind maps, segmentation targeting and positioning, situation analysis
Posted in Digital Marketing Planning, How To Do..., Strategic Marketing | 2 Comments »

Marketing Environment – Macro

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

What is the macro marketing environment?

The macro marketing environment takes into account all factors that can influence an organisation, but are outside of their control. There are six major macro marketing environment forces to deal with (PESTLE): political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, legal and environmental.

• The political environment includes all laws, government agencies and lobbying groups that influence or restrict individuals or organisations.

• The economic environment consists of all factors-such as salary levels, credit trends and pricing patterns that affect consumer spending habits and purchasing power.

• The socio-cultural environment includes institutions and other forces that affect the basic values, behaviours, and preferences of the society-all of which have an effect on consumer marketing decisions.

• The technological environment consists of those forces that affect the technology with which can create new products, new markets and new marketing opportunities.

• The legal environment also affects an organisation – even though a company cannot directly influence any laws – lobbying or becoming part of a trade organisation is widely accepted in helping to ‘shape’ particular legal decisions.

Marketing environments are continuously changing and businesses operating in such turbulent environments need to be flexible. Globalisation and lower barriers to entry now mean that there is an even greater threat of substitute products and new entrants to market.

Even though the marketer has no direct control over the macro external environment, a greater understanding and awareness of these changing market conditions can be achieved through external analysis. External analysis will help identify future events, uncover possible threats and realise potential opportunities.

Key steps in environmental analysis of the macro marketing environment;

1) Audit of environmental influences
2) Assessment of the nature of the environment
3) Identification of the key environmental forces
4) Identification of the competitive position
5) Identification of the principal opportunities and threats (SWOT)
6) Strategic position as a result

Tags: macro marketing, macro marketing environment, marketing environment, marketing environments, new marketing opportunities
Posted in How To Do..., Marketing, Strategic Marketing, knowledge | No Comments »