5 weeks marketing and sales action plan for downturn (forte consultancy group)

© 2006 Forte Consulting. All Rights Protected and Reserved.

Viewpoint

Making Most Out of Economic Downturn

5 Weeks Marketing and Sales Action PlanNovember, 2008

© 2008 Forte Consultancy Group. All Rights Protected and Reserved. 2Forte Consultancy Group

Financial crises should be considered cycles within business world, with five key stages with different action priorities

No Crisis

Pre-Crisis

Beginning of Crisis

Mid-Crisis

Post-Crisis

Build Trust

Steal from Competition

Win-Back

Get Commitment

Avoid Loss

Financial Crisis Cycle & Priorities

Current stages of focus


Refine targets and strategies for achieving them under new conditions

Revise proposition mix based on changing customer needs and demand

Reallocate operational resources based on changing transactional demand

Cater for channel motivation and retention

Closely monitor profile changes and interact with customers

Towards reaching crisis stages, companies need to adapt their marketing and sales activities to turn downturn into an opportunity

Strategies

Propositions

Operations

Channels

Customers

Area Adaptation


Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5

We recommend a 5-weeks action plan to fine-tune marketing and sales activities as well as channels in order to make most out of an economic downturn

Motivating and Reassuring Employees

Launching Retention Operations

Revising Targets and Objectives

Developing Retainer Promotions and Programs

Analyzing Customer Value, Behavior and Risk in Downturn

Aligning Product and Media Mix

Attacking Weak Spots

This is an aggressive plan since no time should be wasted in times of financial crisis. Companies should take a highly pragmatic

approach in these actions and dedicate enough resources.


Revision of targets and objectives is necessary due to drastic changes in market risks, opportunities demand and competitive landscape

Revision of strategic objectives and key targets (e.g. sales volume, customer retention) assessing and

forecasting impact of economic downturn

Description

Realigning organization towards new goals under new conditions

Avoiding organizational frustration due to now invalid targets during market distress

Resetting focus on business areas with more opportunities during economic downturn

Objectives

Assessment of actualizations to date

Analysis of downturn impact on market

Analysis of changing competitor practices

Revision of SWOT under new conditions

Revision of strategic priorities and objectives

Revision of targets based on new facts

Reallocation of targets across organization

Key Tasks

Revising Targets and ObjectivesAction


For companies who do not have a good understanding of its customers, it is time for taking actions, and for those with in-depth insights, changing market conditions could make them obsolete

Modeling of customer value, segments and churn risks which change due to economic downturn and

require new analysis

Description

Understanding changing profile and preferences of customers

Adjusting customer analytics models which became obsolete due to drastic changes in the market

Gaining ability to focus limited resources on the most valuable and high churn risk customers

Objectives

Downturn Customer Valuation

Definition of customer value

Evaluation of value of all customers

Value change analysis

Downturn Customer Behavior Analysis

Definition of behavior important

Evaluation of behavior of all customers Changes and migrations

New segments and niches identification

Downturn Churn Risk Prediction

Analysis of new factors and churner profiles

Development of predictive models

Evaluation of churn risk of all customers

Key Tasks

Analyzing Customer Value, Behavior and Risk in DownturnAction


Retention and win-back operations are already critical for any business, but with increasing churn risk, they become vital during an economic downturn

Developing and launching operations to retain customers requesting or is expected to churn

Description

Decreasing amount of customers lost during downturn with effective offers and operations

Sustaining relations with customers during economic downturn, who can create further value afterwards

Preparing for future win-back, collecting the right information from churners

Objectives

Re-active retention offer development

Retention processes design

Retention organization set-up

Information needs definition for future win-back

Workaround systems development

Key Tasks

Launching Retention OperationsAction


Tailored promotions and programs increase ability to retain customers during downturn, serving their changing needs and expectations

Designing and developing promotions and marketing programs to retain high risk and valuable customers

Description

Decreasing risk of churn providing better value for money during downturn

Building long term customer commitment ensuring long-time revenue stream

Addressing challenges customers facing with during downturn to serve changing needs and increase loyalty

Objectives

Assessment of churn factors and customer needs

Definition of key guidelines for offers

Design of campaign offers for retention

Design of long-term commitment programs

Design of offers addressing financial distress

Development and targeted launch of offers

Key Tasks

Developing Retainer Promotions and ProgramsAction


Economic downturn creates challenges for all players in the market, which create opportunities to attack competitors less prepared or trusted

Developing propositions and communications in order to acquire customers from competition by

leveraging their weaknesses

Description

Growing size of customer portfolio for immediate and future customer value

Increasing market share with targeted messages and communications

Decreasing power of competitors during economic downturn to benefit during and afterwards

Objectives

Analysis of competitor weaknesses

Development of offensive crisis strategies

Design of offensive value propositions

Development and launch of propositions

Identification of weaker competitor customers

Identification of customers lost to weaker earlier

Targeted communications to identified customers

Key Tasks

Attacking Weak SpotsAction


As demand shifts towards more affordable products, companies need to realign their product investments while increasing efficiency of media mix used for their promotion

Revisiting product portfolio across channels and media utilized to ensure alignment with changing

customer needs and budgetary constraints

Description

Creating better and faster response rates using less media budget

Decreasing cost of inventory and increasing shelf-space effectiveness as well as return from product investments

Aligning product portfolio with the changing market demand and customer needs

Objectives

Product Mix

Prioritization of products for new market needs

Readjustment of channel inventory (if applicable)

Realignment of product marketing for priorities

Minor revisions on products (if necessary)

Quick new product launches (if necessary)

Media mix

Media investment and impact analysis

Reallocation of media budget based on insights

Restructuring of media & communications plan

Refinement of marketing messages

Key Tasks

Aligning Product and Media MixAction


Economic downturn has substantial impact on lives of employees as well, with possible implications for their motivation, which can effect quality of service if not handled effectively

Communicating effectively with employees in order to avoid possible fears and loss of motivation

Description

Ensuring retention of high performing employees during economic downturn

Minimizing risk of decreased service quality due to demoralized customer facing employees

Decreasing risk of negative word of mouth within organization on unfounded grounds

Objectives

Understanding of employee moral and needs

Identification of target internal audience

Definition of key messages to be communicated

Preparation of internal communications plan

Development of communications materials

Definition of responsibilities for motivation

Execution of communications activities

Key Tasks

Motivating and Reassuring EmployeesAction


Companies need a special financial crisis management task force for these adaptation activities in sales and marketing areas

Forte can assist you in this adaptation process, allocating experts in each of these activities and collaborating with your internal resources in execution.

Please contact [email protected] for more information on these activities and how we can provide our support.

Human Resources, ChannelsMotivating and Reassuring Employees

Marketing, Merchandising (if applicable)Aligning Product and Media Mix

Marketing, SalesAttacking the Weaker

MarketingDeveloping Retainer Promotions and Programs

Marketing, Channels, ITLaunching Retention and Win-Back Operations

Business Intelligence, MarketingAnalyzing Customer Value, Behavior and Risk in Downturn

Strategic Planning, Marketing, SalesRevising Targets and Objectives

Key Parties to be InvolvedAction


Forte Consultancy Group is a fact-driven consulting company, with consultants specializing in customer strategies and actions withextensive experience in loyalty programs

Global Experience of Team

Forte Consultancy Group provides its functional expertise to companies across industries, including authorities in different industries as subject matter experts in

its projects.

Turkey Office

UAE Office


Forte can provide end to end solutions during adaptation, with fact-based and executable designs, which aim balanced impact in both short and long term

Voice of the Market Voice of the Customer Voice of the Business Voice of the Employee

“We talk the language of analysis, we

measure success with numbers”

“We value short term accelerated benefits while heading towards full impact results”

“We create solutions to be implemented,

we engage for it”

Data Driven

Design for Execution

Balanced Impact

Forte Consultancy Group | Istanbul Office

Dereboyu Sok. Sun Plaza Kat:13 Maslak, Istanbul - Turkey

@ [email protected]

+90 212 366 02 66

The information contained in this document, much of which is confidential to Forte Consultancy Group, is for the sole use of the intended recipients. No part of this document may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Forte Consultancy Group.

5 weeks marketing and sales action plan for downturn (forte consultancy group)

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