Marketing Strategy Anyone!?

padjo5

Anyone here ever taken part in a 'Clarity Workshop' with a marketing consultant in order to determine marketing strategy of an existing business, or indeed a new business.....be interested to hear your feedback and pointers, for someone looking to determine a clear marketing strategy.

FlickBean

Is a "Clarity Workshop" a particular type of workshop or just a general marketing strategy workshop?

padjo5

Yes general but with purpose of getting clarity of message and direction.

antoinolachtnai

I have done loads of this stuff over the years.

I am telling you now, the most important thing for this work is talent. Not everyone can do this. Next most important is application. Experience helps too. The work looks very simple, but it is very intellectual and pretty hard work. The answer, if it is good, will be very simple and straightforward. But that is what you will pay the big money for.

I presume you are in a service industry. Service is a lot more difficult than product.

padjo5

Thanks Antoin. Yes it is service. Any recommendations or advice on who/ how to approach?

antoinolachtnai

Golly. That is a big question. Usually you get this thing as part of a bigger package, perhaps as part of sorting out the brand identity or as part of doing work on an advertising campaign. You can also find experts in relation to various sectors. My own experience is working with one of the branding agencies (as a consultant).

Generally, people find agencies from people they know. The pattern is often that marketing managers move from job to job, and have their own favoured agencies which they bring with them.

Where you go really depends on your ambition and what you are in a position to spend, and that will depend on your anticipated overall investment in marketing activities over the next few years. There are all sorts of people out there. You can get the guy who did Terminal 5 and the Heathrow Express, or you can get someone experienced in your geographical area or sector from the local print and design firm. Some of the accounting firms would be good to help too. If online marketing is a big thing in your business, I think there would be people from that sector who can also help.

I would suggest you approach the job mainly by getting interviews done, rather than relying on figuring out everything in a workshop. The workshop usually comes near the end. Workshops are cheap for the consultant to do, but expensive for the company to marshal everybody together for (and they only get to speak for a few minutes each).

If you PM me with a few more details about your business (sector, size in terms of employees/turnover) and I will try to help a bit more.