Solution two of two!

A Competitor intelligence service

– an individually tailored, cost-effective, monthly market intelligence reporting service.

After many years spending time in organisations of all shapes and sizes, monitoring competitive activity appears to be a haphazard activity for many of us! We are often clear about what is happening within our organisation and also what are customers needs are but somehow it seems that who are key competitors are and what they are doing is not seen as so important.

This service is aimed at those organisations who know they need to monitor what is going on from a competitive perspective but don’t have the time or people to do it!

A clear monthly report gives an overview of market and competitive activity and a set of recommendations for actions to be taken, where appropriate.

Don’t be overtaken by your competitors - keep your eyes on their activities with this service so you can stay ahead or overtake them!

For more detail download the presentation below…

Competitive Intelligence Service

To find out more call Steve on 01223 864011 or send an enquiry here

One of two core marketing solutions

Marketing Action Planning – A 3 step, cost effective, way to effectively match a given organisation’s capabilities to its marketplace(s)

Bax Interaction continues to focus on services that make client organisations’ marketing work.

These include:-

• Diagnostic marketing research. Depth interviews and focus groups to deliver actionable insight.
• Creating strategic marketing, corporate and internal communications plans and advising on implementation
• In-house, marketing training programmes
• Marketing and business advice on an ongoing basis to client organisations. This often includes assisting with recruitment and selection, one to one mentoring and recommending new approaches and agencies.

Now BIL has honed its offering into two core solutions to meet the needs of most organisations in understanding how to make marketing work for them!

There are two, scalable, core solutions for organisations of all shapes and sizes. These have been developed from market feedback and can be tailored to match the exact needs of a given organisation.

The first is a 3 step marketing action planning solution.

Step 1 Provides an analysis of the current situation
Step 2 Marketing research to provide insight on any knowledge gaps
Step 3 A marketing plan to address the agreed, identified priorities

Many clients will take Step 1 to inform their thinking and then review their overall aims prior to embarking on steps 2 and 3.
A presentation showing the features and benefits of each step can be downloaded and viewed here…

BIMAP - Bax Interaction Marketing Action Planning

To find out more now - call Steve on 01223 864011 or complete the enquiry form here

April Fool?

The Market Research Society Code of Conduct changes come into effect today.

It will be interesting to see what impact the changes made to the use of incentives will have especially.

It is no longer acceptable for organisations to use their own products or services as incentives for participation in research.

The reasons for this change are well documented by the Society and were needed to keep the distinction between research and direct marketing clear.

There are those who would argue, however, that those participating in research are not stupid and recognise that providing an incentive that is at cost to an organisation is both sensible from a budgetary perspective and a way of building a relationship with an existing or prospective customer.

The counter to this of course is the nasty taste of selling under the guise of research or ’sugging’ as it is known.

The jury is out. Will the perception of the research industry be further impacted by this change?

We will see.

Making the most of your time. Achieving more…

Steve delivered a talk on ‘How to achieve more in your work and personal life’ at a CIM branch workshop on personal effectiveness in March 2010.

The interactive session covered; How we spend our time each day, common problems with managing our time, the importance of planning and prioritising our activities, some top tips for being more effective at work, how to manage your ‘desk’ or workspace, how to deal with the ‘time wasters’, when to do those ‘minor’ tasks and some top tips for better use of your personal time.

Steve stressed that time is our most precious commodity - we can’t buy more of it and once it is gone we can’t get it back! So, we need to make the most of it!

He concluded with the quote that was recently pulled out of the cobwebs earlier this year by Chris Evans on Radio 2 - “If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got!”

Perhaps you need to do things differently!

Time - making the most of it

Marketing Planning That Works!

Bax Interaction’s MD, Steve

Bax, spoke at The Very Early Lunch Club in Bury St Edmunds recently.

The audience were asked who had a current

marketing plan and only 2 of the 26 attendees actually did! Of these just one had been communicated to all in the

organisation and this was because it was an OMB (Owner Managed Business)!

As Steve commented, this is not at all

surprising and the very reason that he was talking on this subject!!

Steve talked through the reasons why so many

fall at the first hurdle of creating a marketing plan, the process involved, the key things to audit, how to generate an

effective SWOT analysis, examples of objectives, the strategy and the promotional mix and finally the control and review

process.

He summarised with the following words of advice:-

1. There is a need for CREATIVITY to make sure

you are heard

2. Don’t be ‘woolly’ – be focused – ensure that you are clear about where you are going so

that you can communicate this internally and THEN to the outside world!

3. Don’t forget the needs of ALL customers

– i.e. Personnel, shareholders, stakeholders, customers, potential customers

4. Have some sort of plan – even a

side of A4 is better than no plan at all!

5. Don’t get hung up on the marketing speak or the models and theories.

Planning works as long as you keep its limitations in perspective!

6. Avoid ‘follow the leader strategies’ –

look for the gaps and go for them!

7. Work your plan – it is not for decoration – there are no academic marks

for effort! It should ‘live’

8. Ensure that you get the ‘buy in’ from all your stakeholders – this comes from

INVOLVING them in the process – measuring performance and recognising/ rewarding their and your successes!

9.

Know your competitors – know your competitors – know your competitors

10. Do regular ‘reality checks’ on

what your customers and market REALLY think about you – Do you ASSUME!

Don’t be afraid to fail – if at

first etc. It works for other successful organisations – with a little bit of encouragement and time it can work for you

too!

For a full transcript please contact BIL on

info@baxinteraction.co.uk or leave a comment below!

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BIL MD to talk at Very Early Lunch Club on 17th May

 Steve

Bax, the MD of BIL, will give a talk entitled “Marketing Planning that works!” at the Very Early Lunch Club in Bury St

Edmunds later this month.

 The venue is the Angel Hotel and the start time is 7.45am.

Steve will present

some tips on marketing planning that attendees can take away and apply within their own organisation immediately.

To

find out more and to book your place please visit http://www.memltd.com/?pageid=event&eventid=525

New Marketing Management category

 This category will

feature articles and news on the ever changing world of marketing management

If you would like to post any comments

or articles of interest here please do!