DBA Business Briefing Marketing and Promotion

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DBA Business Briefing Marketing and
Promotion

• London
• March 3rd 2008

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Peers de Trensé

• Biography
• Mentor and advisor to design consultancies -
  structure, growth, business development and
  placement
• Member of the DBA Panel of Experts
• Member of Brilliant Heroes
• Previously
• Marketing Director of Conran Design Group
• Founder director Results Business Consultancy
• Director of Worthington Company
• Chairman of INTIN

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Today

• The position of your company in the market place
  - pitching your stall
• Your marketing strategy and plan - growing your
  business
• Raising your business profile - becoming famous
• Getting your foot in the door - going for it
• Being promotion ready - walking out the door

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The key ingredients for a business plan

• Competitor positioning
• Management and resource capabilities/structure
• Client relationships
• Marketing and new business approach
• Financial information and internal controls

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• All conversations start or lead back to
  marketing. Business owners are responsible for
  driving growth and fostering talent to enable
  that growth
• Sarah Essex, Prophet

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Business strategy300,000 with proposed growth
of 10 to 330,000
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Marketing Strategy

• Grow income from existing client base
• Attract new clients

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165,000 from existing clients

• Project based industry
• Good at converting to long term
• Inevitable fall out

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Shortfall of 165,00010 growth suddenly
becomes 100 growth
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Aim for the stars and you might hit the ceiling,
aim for the ceiling and youll never get off the
ground!
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Growing existing business
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Internal review

• Meet with the team
• Understand the strength of the business
• Agree next years billings
• Allocate responsibility

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Client 2007 2008

• Existing Forecast
• Grey 20000 15000
• Green 50000 -
• Blue 10000 70000
• Pink 65000 15000
• Red 40000 -
• Black 5000 -
• Mauve 15000 10000
• Yellow 5000 5000
• Purple 40000 25000
• Olive 15000 -
• White 25000 15000
• Drab 15000 10000
• 300,000 165,000

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Client review

• Issues and potential work
• Budgets
• Forthcoming projects
• Feedback on current and just completed projects,
• Client relationship
• Agency update
• Exposure to other parts of your business

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Additional revenue streams

• Workshops
• Audits
• Special products - research models

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New business
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New business is the lifeblood of every service
company

• Too busy working on existing business to
• worry about new business
• Everyone is responsible for new business

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New business

• 165,000 to get in the door

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165,000 made easier!

• 1 project _at_ 50,000 50,000
• 2 projects _at_ 20,000 40,000
• 1 project _at_ 35,000 25,000
• 2 projects _at_ 15,000 30,000
• 2 projects _at_ 10,000 20,000
• 165,000

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How do we do it? - the ingredients

• Four critical ingredients
• People, planning and resources
• Identify potential revenue sources
• Decide on contact routes
• Develop materials - content

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1. People, planning and resources

• Put someone in charge
• Make a 12 month plan
• Work out who you are going to target
• What you are going to say to them
• Which tools you are going to use
• And how often
• What studio resources you need
• and dont be too ambitious
• Heres the checklist of what needs doing

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How do we do it? - the ingredients

• Four critical ingredients
• People, planning and resources
• Identify potential revenue sources
• Decide on contact routes
• Develop materials - content

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2. Revenue sources - database

• Existing and previous clients
• Sector clients
• Use bubble principle to expand these
• Add wish list clients
• make sure its accurate and up to date

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Bubble principle
Local Estate agency
Edinburgh Law firm
Local College
Killick and Willick
Local Accountancy firm
Local architect
Local corporate finance
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2. Revenue sources - opportunism

• Recession proof clients - food retailers,
• fmcg, luxury, health and beauty,
• professional services

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2. Revenue sources - feedback

• consultancies that take the trouble to ask for
  feedback and act on what is said are head and
  shoulders above those that dont seek an opinion
• Jan Casey
• Use client quotes as referrals

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2. Revenue sources - head office

• Network with existing clients parent
• companies other divisions
• Use the client, or independently

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2. Revenue sources - career tracking

• Virtually all of Elmwoods expansion has
• been by keeping in touch with ex clients

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2. Revenue sources - friends of

• Make sure you acknowledge and
• motivate those who hold your best
• interests at heart

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2. Revenue sources - tenders

• National and local government is recession proof
• More and more private companies using the process
• Attend the PQQ sessions run by the DBA

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2. Revenue sources - marketintelligence

• Ammo
• Artemis
• Intelligencia
• Hoovers
• Lexis Nexus
• Pearlfinders
• Performance Research Centre
• TeamData

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How do we do it? - the ingredients

• Four critical ingredients
• People, planning and resources
• Identify potential revenue sources
• Decide on contact routes
• Develop materials - content

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3. Contact routes - intelligence

• Make time to read the press, the
• Economist, FT and sector trade press.
• Put two and two together before other
• people do.

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3. Contact routes - telephone

• most effective
• personal
• level of interest
• control
• telesales course

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Cold calling

• By understanding how people like to speak and
  be spoken to, and then applying this to an
  introductory phone call, you can remove those
  barriers instinctively put in place by the
  individual

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Use the 3 Fs - Feel, Felt, Found

• I know how you feel, John Banks
• Marketing Director at 02 felt the same way.
• But what he found was that because we are
• a small agency we were very hands on with
• his project, as opposed to a larger agency
• where he only ever saw the founders during
• the pitch and then never again.

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Cold calling

• Research undertaken by RSW, indicates that 75
  of prospects with an active brief are unwilling
  to admit to such until after they have met with
  prospective suppliers.

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3. Contact routes - mail shots

• Relevant
• Personal
• Intriguing and memorable
• Useful to recipient

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3. Contact routes - email

• use sparingly
• short and pithy
• memorable
• action proof

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3. Contact routes - seminars

• Negotiate/volunteer to speak at industry/sector
  sponsored events

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3. Contact routes - events

• Client get togethers - summer/winter
• parties

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3. Contact routes - networking

• Make sure everyone can sell the
• company in 30 seconds
• Ask them about vision, proposition and best
  achievements

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3. Contact routes - associations

• Join and use to best advantage - both industry
  ones and client sector associations

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3. Contact routes - p.r.

• Do it!
• Yourself or get someone in
• Not just Design Week but sector press, national
  press

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3. Contact routes - TRAPPER

• Target - brands in trouble
• Research - desk
• Audit - sector/competitor analysis
• Proposal - fix meeting
• Project - from first meeting
• Evaluation - of your project
• Re-employment - on a longer term

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How do we do it? - the ingredients

• Four critical ingredients
• People, planning and resources
• Identify potential revenue sources
• Decide on contact routes
• Develop materials - content

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4. Materials - case studies

• Tell a good story
• Make then relevant to target - their job is to
  increase sales - demonstrate how youve done that

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Fairview Travel

• 15 years ago, Fairview Travel asked us to work
  with them to build their visual brand. Working as
  an extension of a very busy Marketing Department
  on relatively short lead times and challenging
  budgets, we developed all elements of the
  marketing mix to build Fairview Travel into the
  student and youth brand leader that it is today -
  and managed to scoop a fair few creative awards
  along the way too.

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Why Fairview Travel goes from strength to
strength

• In the last fifteen years turnover at Fairview
  Travel has increased from 11 million to 190
  million. During this period Fairview Travel chose
  Design Creative to be its strategic brand and
  design partner.
• Fairview Travel has long been a great believer
  in the power of brand positioning and the need to
  gain and maintain its place as the market leader
  in a rapidly changing market.
• The task for Design Creative was to help them
  win and then maintain this hard fought position.
• How did we do it? We started with research and
  audits to give us feedback and insights from our
  customers.

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4. Materials - web site

• Keep it simple if you use flash have a very
  good reason for doing so
• Show case studies that have made a difference to
  a brand most notably to the bottom line
• People are your most important asset chemistry
  is critical and your web site gives you the
  chance to show the interesting people you have
  working with you
• Dont try too hard it always shows
• Talk about what you can do for client not about
  design per se.

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4. Materials - credentials

• Less is more
• Structure
• Show the commercial results of your projects
• Tailor for each meeting

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4. Materials - insights

• Very much the buzz word
• Clients will always be interested to hear
• a new angle on their market
• Insights equal dialogue, dialogue equals
• opportunity, opportunity equals project

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4. Materials - articles

• Press releases, articles, speeches
• Highlight relevant passages
• Order reprints

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4. Materials - talking points

• We believe the world would be a better
• place if
• Try this on on your own business and on your
• clients.
• Great brands are founded not just on ideas
• but ideals look at Apple, Virgin.

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The pitch process

• These are some tips from the AAR
• Everyone who attends from the agency speaks and
  gets involved
• Come over as a very democratic organisation
• Use a monitor to show work do not black the room
  out
• Spend more time speaking about the client and the
  sector in which the client operates
• Be very specific about what you show less is
  more problem solution result