A new marketing vision
August 11th, 2008 by john
From a state of nothingness we will create a company that is acknowledged as the best marketer of business services.
An insight that will drive the strategy will be that today’s affluent young managers are bored by business and its repetitive self centred focus. Instead these business people want to be stimulated entertained engaged recognised, given their time in the limelight, they want to learn so that they feel their options are opening not being closed down, they want to be a part of the greater good and make the world a better place. The want their lives to have meaning and relevance. These are the people we want to deliver to.
Most of their employers cannot deliver this however outside companies have an opening to do so.
What if Colmar Brunton and its sister companies could be part of this. What if the rational reasons for choosing business services were increasingly less potent as each supplier were offering largely similar services. What if clients saw competitors claiming to be different but they saw them all to be much the same. What if we more motivated by the enjoyment they had when dealing with different suppliers. Is this not the reality
What I am seeing is a way of working with our clients that is a cross between learning entertainment and informing that is underpinned by activities that make a difference.
Lets look at an example. Let us remember that our fundamental remit is to bring the client close to the customer so that the client makes decisions that customers accept. What if on every project we were include a component that added to the corporate customer intelligence of that client. Like a building block or the first step in switching from project to programmes. What if that were to involve making a movie that starred the client and in the course of that process we were to train the client on how to speak to camera. What if instead of the predicable Powerpoint presentation there was a movie or on the client intranet.
What if there were many movies that were accessible by software like You-tube. What if we became good actors and communicators via video. What if we were to show the consumer and their life in reality.
So how might we market this?
We might create “Colmar Stories” told in many ways. video pictorials that we sell to the media and we put up on our intranet. The might be about all sorts of things from customer experiences to specific needs that they can never satisfy
We would tell our own stories as well. We would make heroes of our people, who they are, what they do and why they are passionate about that, and what they love about working at Colmar. We would advertise these in industry mags and put them on our intranet.
We might develop “Colmar Ambassadors” like Jennifer Weller, David Mallinson, Tamal Roy and others..( you tell me) who love our work and what we stand for. We would advertise them and their message as well.
We would make much of our involvement with H4H and Oxfam and ask our clients to participate in many ways.
We would acknowledge the individuality and uniqueness of all of our clients on their birthday. We would keep our gifting programme but we would send them a letter letting them know how they are unique and the strengths they bring to our relationship.
The clients would be open, have a quest for delivering what their customers want, prepared to put the outcome before the process and want to continually learn. They would see the value in longer term relationships and be prepared to pay fairly.
Our brand values would include integrity the pursuit of insight and knowledge, creativity and fun.
The brand personality would be loyal, feminine, finger on the pulse, energetic and contemporary.
The brand celebrity would we someone like, Teresa Rien, Rove McMannus.
The brand wardrobe would be casual stylish, practical, modern, enviromentally friendly, accessible, The textures natural, the colours orange white teal of natural hues, the aroma warm inviting and seductive.
The brand essence will be “enlightenment”.
What if the proposals the web site the written material and the client experience and the Colmar people were to be a reflection of this.
I am seeing maybe a shortening of the name to Colmar, a new visual design, a relaunch, a series of CEO letters, a press media campaign, a more comprehensive range of products. I am seeing a focus on the Colmar Group and fitting in the sub brands of TRA, Your Source and the Advantage Group.
I am seeing a period (say 2 months) of planning, internal discussion and research followed by refinement of the direction and activation. There would be clear KPIs and measurement.
What a journey. Are you up for it?
John
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