Buyer Qualification

that in both situations the buyers:

• were the decision makers,
• had the financial ability to buy,
• had a need,
• saw Janine’s company as differentiated and the preferred solution, and
• understood the business impact of buying from Janine to be substantial.

GIVING A BRIEF TO A CREATIVE AGENCY

Creative Brief

If you want good creative work without going getting exhausted through a series of misunderstandings and iterations; please be clear about the following 11 points.   

1. Make an itemized list of what all needs to be worked upon by the agency
2. Explain why do you need this material in the first place. 
3. Area and Budget considerations
4. How is this activity linked to - and dependent on - other activities.
5. What is on offer 
6. Target audience we want to influence
7. Persona of the target audience 
8. What is the monitorable objective
9. What message/s we want to convey
10. What are the do's and dont's 
11. What is the support material
12. Time Table 
13. Who is giving the brief and who will answer the queries 

An Example of a Creative Brief in Practice

• WHAT NEEDS TO BE DEVELOPED : 2 versions of 100 cc press ad and 3 hoarding designs. 
• WHY IS THIS MATERIAL NEEDED : To make people aware of the Citibank's  new “CitiClick" service and to promote trial.  
• AREA AND BUDGET : The material will be used in western region in the months of June and July only. We estimate to spend Rs 50 Lakhs on media and Rs 5 Lakhs in development costs.
• RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER ACTIVITIES : Citiclick needs to penetrate to at least 100000 households in Mumbai and Pune to establish it as a distribution vehicle for the insurance business we want to launch before Diwali.
• WHAT IS THE PRODUCT : This is a free mobile application that works on all  operating platforms - from iPhone to Android – and makes online purchases easier and more secure. If used within 10 days, they get Domino Pizza at Rs 100 discount.  
• TARGET AUDIENCE : Existing Citibank customers in Mumbai and Pune. The primary target will be males and female, 20 to 35 years old, with at least one Citibank credit card. The target will be approximately 70% married, with a combined HH incomes of  Rs 120000 per month income.
• WHAT IS THE MONITORABLE OBJECTIVE : We want 50000 downloads in the first two weeks.
• TARGET AUDIENCE PERSONA : This audience is comfortable with new technology, and quick to test new smart phone apps that leverage their time. They like to be among the first to have the latest and greatest electronics, apps and especially phones. They make multiple online purchases monthly.
• POINTS TO CONVEY : The main point is to convey that CitiClick will simplify and speed all of your online purchases, while providing increased security irrespective of the device  you have. The secondary points you have are (a) It's free, from Citibank - your trusted financial partner (b)  Get a Domino pizza at Rs 100 discount - details come with the app (c) Backed with a 100% purchase / fraud protection guarantee (d) It has earned rave reviews from real users. (See attached quotes.) (e) takes just seconds to select from multiple pre-personalized download options via your online account.
• DOS AND DONTS : The logo and web address and help line number should be there except in hoardings. The font should be the standard Citibank font only. Please use existing photographs only : no new shoot is budgeted.
• SUPPORT MATERIAL : Attached herewith are (1) consumer insights (2) Brand positioning (3) Tag lines used recently (4) Terms of the Pizza offer.
• TIME TABLE : Roughs to send by May 15^th, approval of roughs by May 25^th, artworks ready May 31^st and releases by June 7^th.
• PERSON GIVING BRIEF : Aditya Sarin,  Assistant Manager in the marketing communications department of Citibank created this brief and takes responsibility for the information and for answering all queries. 

POSITIONING STRATEGY

WHAT IS STRATEGIC MARKET POSITIONING ABOUT ?

is about deciding, building and communicating your unique proposition to your target audience in everything you do. It comes useful at the time of creating your value chain as well as in making your marketing, sales and service efforts.

• How it helps your customers : Your consistency reinforces them to remember you when the trigger situation / application comes up.
• How it helps you : it helps you to think - at all stages of setting up, running and communicating - why a customer would want to do business with you, what do you offer that the other producers don't and what needs of the customer you wish to serve

THREE COMPONENTS OF A POSITIONING STATEMENT ?

You have a positioning statement when all 3 components as below are put together

1. What are your strengths and competitive advantages ?
   What significant difference does it make to your customers?
2. Who is your target customer and their needs?
   What significant difference can they make to you?
3. How are you different from your competitors ?
   What significant difference does it create that your customers will value greatly?
   In other words, what is your unique selling proposition? Your competitive advantage?

HOW ARE POSITIONING STRATEGY STATEMENTS USED ?

• Basis for all marketing plans, marketing messaging, websites, recruiting, training, sales conversations. It also helps create branding at the corporate level.
• It helps create an important asset of the business : strong relationship / referral customers which are necessary to build our reputation.  Customers who trust us to serve their needs and who defend us. For them to do that, they need to know what we stand for. They had a good experience with us, but time passes. They forget. But if they see our messages, our positioning and our actions, they remember and are pleased to do business with us, again and again.
• Positioning may appear as a sentence, paragraph, or a page but think of it as a seed – it is very small but it ultimately determines everything about the tree that will come out of it. But it succinctly defines who is the target customer, their ‘pain points’ that we need to address, the category in which the company competes, the specific competitors we must address, their differentiated benefits,  what the company must do to ‘prove’ those differentiated benefits to the customers.

Positioning is undoubtedly one of the simplest and most useful tools to marketers. After segmenting a market and then targeting a consumer, you would proceed to position a product within that market. Positioning is all about 'perception'. As perception differs from person to person, so do the results of the positioning map e.g what you perceive as quality, value for money

WITHOUT POSITIONING YOU CANNOT

1. Search for your competitive advantage
2. Have a basis for creating focused strategies
3. Have a basis for selecting or rejecting long term capital / manpower budgets 
4. Distinguish your offer from its competitors
5. Conduct internal, market & competitor analysis
6. Plot competitive strategies

POSITIONING MAP

Products or services are 'mapped' together on a 'positioning map'. This allows them to be compared and contrasted in relation to each other.

Make a 2x2 map and decide a label for each axis : they could be price (variable one) and quality (variable two), or Comfort (variable one) and price (variable two). The individual products are then mapped out next to each other Any gaps could be regarded as possible areas for new products. Trout and Ries suggest a six-step question framework for successful positioning:

1. What position do you currently own?
2. what position do you want to own?
3. Whom you have to defeat to own the position you want?
4. Do you have the resources to do it?
5. Can you persist until you get there?
6. Is your long term value chain and short term tactics support this positioning?

Brand Key

BRAND KEY tells us why we exist, what is our world view, what we should do. It is different from BRAND PRISM which sets the context for how the identity should be conveyed.

BRAND KEY

1. WHAT GIVES US THE RIGHT TO BE IN THIS BUSINESS : What made us come into this business? What makes us to continue to stay in this business? What insight do we have that others may not have ?
2. THE ROOT STRENGTHS :  The basic / original attributes / values /  benefits we want to build on and be known for
3. TARGET CUSTOMER / APPLICATION :
   The description of the customer not only in terms of demographics but also in terms of attitudes and values for whom, our offering will always be the best choice
4. HOW DO WE STACK UP AGAINST COMPETITION : What is the choice of alternatives as seen by such target customers and where do we stack against them
   from the target customer’s point of view
5. BENEFITS :
   What motivates our customers to choose us & also see us better than competitors in terms of functional, emotional, sensory and experiential benefits
6. PERSONA : what values the brand upholds and what assumptions about the world it makes and what kind of a person the brand would be if it was to come alive?
7. PRODUCT  PHILOSOPHY : What philosophy do we use to develop our range of products? On what criteria we choose our products? In terms of features, packs, prices, experience ... etc
8. REASON TO BELIEVE / PROOF : What proof we offer to substantiate the benefits and brand experience
9. DIFFERENTIATORS : The single – or a maximum of 3 - compelling reasons  for the target customer to choose us over the competition
10. PROMISES : The single – or a maximum of 3 – core expressions that distil what we offer

Marketing Template - Marketing Strategy

LOCATING TARGET MARKETS 
If any "channel" is involved then mention channel also as a target market
If any strong influencer is involved then mention the influencer also as target market
If B2B then define the DMU and answer this issue 

• Define customers 
• Estimate their numbers
• Classify them in the most relevant way 
• Figure out relative attractiveness of these segments
• Select the primary and secondary target segments 

POSITIONING US IN THESE TARGET MARKETS

For each target market work out

• who are the target customers?
  whom do we want to serve?
  who is the hero of our stories ?
• what is the application?
  the battle arena
• what is the payoff the customers want?
  What brings tension relief?
  what do the target customers want to achieve / fix / avoid ?
• Readiness of our target customers?
  Do they have a plan, budget, criteria. mission, organization
• what are they doing now ?
  who are we competing against ?
• How relevant / important is the role of we offer to our customers?
  Or the role of the solution provider is bigger?
• are we market developers or market fighters?
  we sell category or product?
• what is our offer?
  what weapons are we using? what is our marketing mix?
• How is our offer better than others?
  how our mix is better than those competing for the same customer / application

ROUTE TO MARKET

What "search paradigm" have we assumed for which segment

• If "searching" for customers directly or through partners answer
• how will we identify prospects
• how will we reach and engage prospects
• how will we communicate and convince
• how will we close and invoice
• how will we deliver and collect
• how will we train and handhold
• how will we support 
• how will we be there whenever there is a need or an opportunity

• If the customer "searches" for us
• where will they come from
• criteria for their selection
• what will be their job description
• how will we motivate and compensate them

• Number of  people and organization needed to achieve the above

Marketing Template 1 : Situation Analysis : 5 Cs

5Cs ANALYSIS

COMPANY

• What % of the company sales / profits come from the market ? 
• How important is it to expand (defend) this revenue for the company? 
• Is the product crucial to the vendor network of the company?
• Is the product crucial to the sales network of the company? 
• Does this product absorb a lot of the fixed cost (capacity) of the company's facility?
• Is this product pivotal to the company - and in what respect ?
• How this product impacted by (and impacting) other products of the company?
• How important is this product to the branding and pride of the company?

CUSTOMER

• Number of Industry customers and product customers
• Geographical concentration of these customers
• Description of who (Decision Making Unit) decides 
• Search behavior / extent / habits / purchase steps of the customers 
• Need status (latent, surfaced, active )
• Whether Budget and Mission exists 
• Consideration set of these customers
• Bias if any of these customers
• How accessible are these customers
• Demographic / Lifestyle / Media Usage Profile of Industry/Product customers

COMPETITORS

• Different strategic groups in the same industry
• who are your primary and secondary customers
• Current and future competitors
• For each major competitor assess likelihood of a strong reaction
• What % of the company sales / profits come from the product ? 
• How important is it to expand (defend) this revenue for the company? 
• Is the product crucial to the vendor or sales network of the company?
• Does the product absorb a lot of the company's capacity?
• Is this product pivotal to the company ?
• How this product impacted by (and impacting) other products of the company?
• How important is this product to the branding and pride of the company? 

COLLABORATORS

• Different collaborator groups in the industry
• who are the primary and secondary collaborators
• Current and future collaborators
• For each collaborators assess the likelihood of drafting them 
• what % of the sales /profits come from the product under question?
• How important is it to expand (defend) this revenue from the company?
• Is the product crucial to the sales network of the company? 
• Does this product absorb a lot of the fixed capacity of the company's facility?
• Is this product pivotal to the company - and in what respect ?
• How this product impacted by (and impacting) other products of the company?
• How important is this product to the branding and pride of the company?

CONTEXT 

• PESTEL factors that will increase / reduce customers 
• PESTEL factors that will increase / reduce competitors
• PESTEL factors that will increase / reduce collaborators
• PESTEL that will increase / decrease value of assets
• PESTEL that will increase / decrease the value of liabilities

How good Business Development People handle initial conversations

Best Business Developers treat initial interactions with a prospective client as fact-finding missions rather than a pitch.They focus conversation on 5 things

What is your company's mission? Ask why they do what they do. What value does the company seek to deliver to its customers? If its mission statement doesn't define these important points, help them craft a better one.

 What are your customers' needs? Think emotional needs as opposed to rational needs, to help formulate better marketing campaigns. For every emotional need, Teitelbaum explains, there is a message that will encourage customers to take action.

Who are your top competitors and why? Defining the competition helps companies better define themselves—and determine how to distinguish themselves in the marketplace.

What are the unique ways your business can satisfy your customers' needs? Building on the last question, companies can further define their "unique DNA" by focusing on the ways they alone can meet their customers' demands.

How will we know if we're successful? Make sure there is a mechanism in place for measuring results for every campaign. If it can't be measured, Teitelbaum concludes, "it's not worth doing."