Marketing and Customer Service Strategy Practice

Are you seeking a marketing strategy consultant to help grow your business? Identifying and filling customer needs is key to marketing success. The most effective strategic marketers use deep customer insight to drive segmentation, targeting, positioning and offering development.  This ensures that marketing plan development is grounded in the realities of the marketplace to best meet customer needs.

CTPD Management Consultants’ marketing strategy consultant services include market assessment, “STP” framework development (i.e., Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning), and marketing plan development. Our services include the following:

(1). MARKET ASSESSMENT

CTPD Management Consultants use market assessment and competitive analysis to provide critical input to business and brand strategy formulation. CTPD Management Consultants focus on assessing the three C’s – Customer, Competitor and Company-to uncover brand and business-related growth opportunities.

• Market Assessment Issues

• What are customers’ needs and buying processes?
• How do customers perceive the brand relative to key competitors?
• What are the company’s relative strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?
• What opportunities exist for improving the company’s market position?

• Market Assessment Approach

Competitive profiling, market research, in-depth interviews, focus groups and ethnographic research are just some of the methods we employ to gain market and competitive insight. Whether fielded in-house or through one of our preferred market research vendors, we provide the necessary fact-base to support strategic marketing decision making. Our marketing consultants use market assessment findings to confirm the issues to address in subsequent marketing consulting project steps. 

(2). MARKET SEGMENTATION

Market segmentation flows from the perspective that not all customers are alike and individual customer groups will seek out different products and brands for different reasons.  Our marketing consultants have deep expertise in applying market research to develop customer frameworks as the platform for marketing strategy development.

Quantifying a customer segmentation framework gives companies a clear understanding of the most attractive segments, including their size, profitability and growth potential. From this, resources can be better aligned to meet customer needs, both today and in the future.

• Market Segmentation Issues

• What are the underlying motivational differences or factors across customer segments? How might these factors align with potential, hypothesized targets?
• What is the overall segmentation framework for the category? On what basis such as attitudes, behaviours or demographics, etc. do customer groups align?
• What is the optimal segmentation solution? What are the implications for target selection?

• Market Segmentation Consulting Approach

Drawing on the market assessment, our marketing consultants then conduct exploratory research to help identify customer perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes regarding the category and available offerings.  An in-depth market research questionnaire is developed and fielded, with statistical analysis used to determine the optimal segmentation solution as a key input to strategic decision making.

(3). TARGET MARKETING

Target marketing is one of the most important, though often overlooked, components in marketing strategy development.  Targeting recognizes that most companies have limited resources and therefore need to “place their bets” where they will yield the highest return.

Many companies are reluctant to select a core target, fearing that excluding certain groups will decrease an important source of volume.  In turn, companies try to serve all customer groups equally, which can result in a diffused offering, that no one group finds appealing.

Our marketing consultants understand the key difference between (a) the narrower “target market”; and (b) the broader “consumption market” that falls outside of the core, though often finds the offering appealing.  Targeting, then, becomes an issue of prioritization vs. necessarily excluding customer groups.

• Target Marketing Issues
• Which are the most attractive targets for the business, in terms of market size, profitability, brand-fit and long-term attractiveness?
• What drives purchase and decision making? What attributes and benefits are most important to the target?
• Should current offerings be realigned or new offerings introduced to better meet the needs of the target?

• Target Marketing Consulting Approach

The customer framework and target selection criteria are used to inform and narrow in on the core target.  Guided by our marketing consultants, a target selection workshop can be held, assessing each target across each criterion.  Obtaining internal agreement to the selected target(s) is critical, as strategic positioning and downstream marketing activities will stem from this important input.

(4). STRATEGIC POSITIONING

Strategic positioning plays a key role in bringing focus and clarity to both upstream and downstream marketing activities. Every decision that is made regarding the brand should be judged by how well it supports and aligns with the positioning. Our marketing consultants have broad and deep expertise in developing relevant and distinctive positioning for a broad array of clients.

• Strategic Positioning Issues

Strategic positioning development should address the following four key questions (Strategic Positioning Issues):

• Who is the target customer?
• What is the category frame-of-reference?
• What key driving benefit or set of benefits are desired by important customers?
• What proof points or reasons-to-believe are necessary to deliver the positioning?

• Strategic Positioning Consulting Approach

Pending segmentation and targeting, positioning development is performed, including preparing a benefit hierarchy to demonstrate alternative positioning areas.  From this, alternative value proposition and positioning concepts are developed and optimized internally and with end-customers.  Internal working sessions are then facilitated by our strategic marketing consultants to assess performance and close gaps in delivering on the positioning.

(5). MARKETING PLAN DEVELOPMENT

Marketing plan development should extend directly from market assessment and positioning development activities.  Our marketing plan consultants synthesize key strategic marketing elements, to direct downstream marketing efforts including marketing mix definition (4 P’s), branding, advertising and social media integration.

CTPD Management Consultants offer marketing plan consulting services, resulting in strategic, actionable plans to drive growth.

• Marketing Plan Consulting Issues
• What are the primary marketing objectives, strategic initiatives and plans, drawing on prior step inputs?
• What elements of the marketing mix – Product, Price, Promotion and Place – provide the greatest leverage?
• Can marketing resources be realigned to improve efficiency and effectiveness?
• Are there opportunities to improve marketing and sales planning, through redesigned systems, processes or organizational structure?

• Marketing Plan Consulting Approach

Market plan development requires clearly defining marketing plan objectives, goals and tactics, including market mix decisions. Our marketing plan consultants consider the importance of awareness generation vs. other communication objectives.

• Should the marketing plan emphasize customer acquisition or retention?
• What is the optimal media strategy, plan and budget?
• What is the specific marketing action plan to enact including cost, timing and budgetary parameters?

These issues are considered, drawing on internal workshops and CTPD Management Consultants ’s expertise in working across similar client challenges.

Why hire a marketing plan consultant?

As marketing strategy consultants specializing in marketing plan creation, we work across a variety of client situations and are able to efficiently and effectively diagnose key issues to address through marketing strategy and plan development. We build marketing strategies, plans and tactics designed to drive growth with a track-record of success across a variety of categories.