Branding
Your customers are already having a “brand experience” when they interact with you or your product. We at Strategism know that consumers buy "the brand" instead of the product. Our clients want to differentiate their marketing offer from their rivals and increase their market share and profitability in a fragmented market. By developing a Branding strategy for Strategism clients we help a client to focus in one area or create an appeal in the mind of their target customer segment that will help customers identify with the company and recall favorably during a purchase decision.
Strategism helps clients develop a Brand identity and a Brand Image. Brand identity relates to how the brand owner wants the consumer to perceive the brand. On the other hand, Brand image is the symbolic construct created within the minds of people about your product or company. The brand owner will seek to bridge the gap between the brand image and the brand identity. Brand identity is fundamental to consumer recognition and symbolizes the brand's differentiation from competitors. Clients have to evolve an effective brand promise like that of BMW’s. It’s stated right in the company’s tagline: “The Ultimate Driving Machine”. By creating Brand Identity and Brand Image for our clients, we are able to conduct Brand positioning for our valued clients. Brand positioning is a very important tool in order to cater to the specific market segment and acquire brand recognition in the minds of the customer.
How to get out of the “marketing clutter” and create a brand is a major challenge for major firms. Some of the suggestions Strategism have for clients is to have a brand strategy that makes you very compelling, attractive and unique among competitive offerings. Branding is “everything you do”- receiving calls, website, office set up, employee behavior, tissue paper in the toilet, leaky cooler, product packaging, and anything that you can think of. What brand you want to create should be clearly spelt out in your mission statement to avoid confusion and adherence to core values of the organization. There also has to be clarity on the brand’s strengths and weaknesses, the target audience, and the competition. If possible, branding research should also be done on the brand’s industry, its history, the status of the market and possibilities for future expansion.
Strategism does an industry study to develop a branding strategy based on existing literature on branding from many established researchers such as Balasubramanian, Karrh, & Patwardhan, 2006; Karrh, 1998 and others. Strategism also utilizes pragmatic knowledge of how some big brands such as BMW, Nike, Coca Cola have been able to establish themselves in the marketplace. A strong brand strategy can increase the awareness of a company and its offerings in such a way that establishes strong feelings and reactions and a favorable view towards the company as a whole. To create this sort of “brand awareness” in your market, it takes an adept Brand Strategy. Strategism can help clients build Brand equity in customer’s hearts and develop a Brand personality for their firm and offers by which clients can lock customers into an everlasting relationship.
Customer research
It is the most essential activity to understand your consumer’s mind. How customer thinks and feels decides what he will buy or not buy. Whether it is a demographic study, a customer profile analysis, or it is lifestyle study, Strategism can help you in better understanding your customer and getting closer to him. Strategism analyst will help you with customer satisfaction survey, customer image survey, and product preference study. Buyer behavior studies can be taken to extend CRM Tools and enhance customer relationship through cross-sell and up-sell opportunities. Strategism helps you win an everlasting lifelong customer through Customer Lifecycle Management (CLM).
Product Launch competitor Analyses
Customer desires, competitor offer, and market factors shape the demand for new products. Timing is a very important factor in new product launch and Strategism Analyst will solve this Rubik’s cube with diverse choices- changing customer preference, competitor offer, and demand pattern to analyze what type and timing will be best for your product offer. Strategism can help you identify the key differentiators of your new product or service, create the value proposition for your target markets, and plan an introduction as well as media strategy for you. Strategism analyst will let you know your position status in the market place compared to your competitors. This includes service intelligence, pricing, customer perception, and brand recognition. Strategism is ready to research your competition and provide a complete analysis with market share estimates and market surveys that will keep you on top of your competition
Channel management
Dell computers created a new channel strategy to enter the computer market. The strategy was not to have any middlemen and save dealer commissions to pass on that benefit to the customer. The strategy paid off well and Dell gained market share when competitors had to file for bankruptcy. We at Strategism help Clients decide which channel for distribution to choose to increase market share—from direct, to the web, to the whole seller, to the traditional retail environment. Therefore, finding innovative ways to distribute and sell your product or service can be essential to increasing your market share. Initiating strategic marketing agreements with key industry players may be an effective way to add additional channels to your sales pipeline. Clients can choose Intensive distribution (majority resellers stock the 'product'), selective distribution, or exclusive distribution depending on their core competence and competitive position. Strategism will work with you to find these industry relationships that will create valuable channels of revenue to improve the bottom line.
Pricing Strategy
There are various pricing strategies adopted by marketing firms, as per existing literature. Strategism consultants help you decide the best strategy for you depending on constraints, demand curve, price elasticity of demand, break- even point, and the stage in product life cycle. Some examples of pricing followed in the industry are Value pricing (intense competition-McDonald value meal), Geographical pricing (depends on relative income of area and linkages to global supply chain),Product Bulk pricing (bulk packaging to reduce cost-Ex- Tissue Paper),Captive Producer Pricing (Brother Printer cheap but cartridges are expensive),Optional pricing (adding product features at higher price- Mercedes Car Accessories),Product line pricing (the more line products you buy the more you pay-Car Wash),Psychological pricing (To make emotional impact on customer Ex-$299),Price skimming (initial higher price then lower it as volumes gain mindshare-Apple I phone introduced $400 and then reduced to $199),Premium pricing-charge higher prices as you have distinct competitive advantage (BMW car),Penetration pricing- (initially reduce pricing to gain market share then increase it- Toyota Prius), and Economy pricing- no frills strategy, Southwest airlines. At Strategism we know different pricing strategies and help clients choose the right one for them based on their unique position in the industry.
Media Strategy
Strategism will help you plan the right Media Strategy for your current ‘marketing-offer’. We will help plan the message content, look at your advertising budget, and develop media copy for you. The Stretegism media approach will depend on the ‘Push- Pull strategy’ in the specific domain and your competitive stage in the marketplace. Strategism utilizes the concept of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) in designing the right strategy for you. Depending on the FRI-Frequency, Reach, & Impact of media type for your industry and your position in that industry cluster, Strategism will recommend the right type of media-mix-TV, Magazine, Newspaper, Radio, Internet advertising, cultural media, social media, networking, blogs, and public relations, etc. for maximizing value from your dollar spend and increasing your bottom line.
Go- to- market strategies
Strategism provides a practical and literature embedded approach for taking products and services to market! Drawing on dozens of examples and best-practices across a variety of industries, Strategism’s 'Go To Market Strategy' lays out a clear and actionable blueprint for building a winning go-to-market plan - one that will enable you to do more business, with more customers, more often, and more profitably. Strategism analysts will tell you all of the techniques and tools you need to answer today's crucial go-to-market questions: – Which markets offer the best opportunities for profitable growth? – What do my target customers need? How can I do a lot more business with them? – What mix of channels and partners will help me reach and sell to the most customers at the lowest possible cost? – Do I have the right product or solution? How can I create broader customer interest in my offerings? – Do I have a winning value proposition? What would make the 'message' more compelling - and drive more purchasing activity? 'Go To Market Strategy' is not about incremental change, at Strategism we know that and help our clients transition and adopt radical change.
