Client Case Studies
Brand Ubiquity has helped many organizations improve the efficiency of their marketing organizations and drive higher impact results. The following success stories will help you to understand what Brand Ubiquity can do for organizations facing a wide variety of marketing and business challenges.
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Large IT service provider facing declining sales and inefficient marketing effort
Business Challenge: A well-established division ($180M in annual sales) of large IT provider selling print products to 90% of company’s customers had seen sales declining 7-10% per year for the past 3 years. Sales targets were determined based on covering all customers in defined geographies. The division had been hiring representatives to put greater pressure against their entire client base, thus accelerating short-term profit erosion in the business.
Source of Inefficiency: While there were opportunities in several of the Five I areas, the greatest short-term results could be realized in the area of collecting and deploying relevant customer INFORMATION.
Solution:
- Analyzed customer buying trends (amount, frequency) and determined share of wallet across the customer base.
- Identified 15% of customer base that were below average in purchasing volume. Raising just these accounts to average would result in $28M in incremental revenue annually.
- Worked with business unit leadership to develop a targeted campaign focused on driving sales of high-value items in specific customers.
Results: Shortly after campaign initiation, division leadership reduced sales force enrollment. Tactical redeployment of sales resources against more targeted, high-potential accounts allowed division to increase their ROI for the first time in 3 years.
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Traditional financial services company expanding business into new, highly competitive market
Business Challenge: A large financial services company was developing a set of services targeting high net worth customers which were outside its normal customer base. They were looking for help in targeting and positioning this new business.
Source of Inefficiency: While there were opportunities in several Five I areas, the greatest short-term results could be realized by developing greater INSIGHT into their new potential customers to help drive launch campaign development.
Solution:
- BU developed and implemented a research plan to understand customer needs and market differentiators vs. key national and regional competitors.
- BU identified insights that included who would be the most productive target audience to pursue and what services/positioning would be most relevant to that audience vs. competitor offers.
Results:
- Successful launch of service portfolio drove new business to #3 ranking in its market within one year. Sustained growth through Year 2.
- Insights into how to reach customer base resulted in numerous infrastructure changes to further enhance customer service and build a more sustainable competitive advantage.
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Global pharmaceutical company needed to improve customer insight development skills
Business Challenge: Top 5 global pharmaceutical marketer identified the need to increase the organization’s focus on identifying and using customer and consumer insights to help accelerate company growth. Needed expertise to help develop an internal Marketing College program to align the process and internalize best practice standards.
Source of Inefficiency: Client had performed its own internal assessment to identify key training focus areas. Subsequent BU assessment resulted in identifying additional skill training needs in the areas of linking INSIGHT development to brand development and marketing mix execution. BU also helped client prioritize training development needs.
Solution:
- BU helped establish internal college curriculum and prioritize development resources to address greatest needs.
- BU identified and supervised course developers in designing training – ensuring alignment with internal company processes and linking course content to ensure an integrated training experience.
- BU developed and implemented several core training courses, on time and under budget, to enhance organizational expertise in developing/using insights to drive competitive advantage in pharmaceutical industry.
Results:
- BU was designated the primary trainer for over 2000 marketers across all global regions on these courses. Has continued working with client for 6+ years.
- Several new responsibilities and programs have been added based on superior training results.
- Marketing College program recognized by the company’s senior management at annual leadership meeting as one of the year’s most exciting new initiatives to improve marketing proficiency and focus.
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Market leading Construction firm needs to drive growth within core business
Business Challenge: Largest US commercial construction firm was looking for way to drive growth within its core construction business. Relatively small and highly fragmented marketing resources allocated to the business.
Source of Inefficiency: While there were opportunities in all Five I areas, the greatest short-term results could be realized in the area of INNOVATION.
Solution:
- BU reviewed building industry trends and opportunities within existing market structure.
- BU identified sustainable (green) construction as one high potential area for profitable, immediate sales growth.
- BU developed business case to reallocate resources and focus on gaining leadership in this specialized, untapped market opportunity.
Results:
- In Sep ’04, CEO announced major market segment initiative (sustainable construction) at industry conference with specific goals.
- Market segment saw explosive media interest and growth in following 18 months.
- Company has been recognized within building industry and by influential NGOs as a leader of change in the industry.
- In 2005, company was awarded nearly $2.0Bn in new projects in this segment versus a target of $750M.
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Small healthcare company facing significant competitive launch in a key category
Business Challenge: Small pharmaceutical company had established leadership within therapy market area for a specific disease. Largest global pharmaceutical competitor was launching second generation therapy targeting this disease with significantly higher sales, marketing, and research resources.
Source of Inefficiency: While there were opportunities in all Five I areas, the greatest short-term results could be realized in the area of INTEGRATION.
Solution:
- Developed a highly integrated, customer-focused defense plan utilizing all key elements of the marketing mix.
- Helped company implement plan 6 months prior to eventual competitive launch.
Results:
- Competitive launch only achieved 60% of competitor’s previously announced introductory goal and sales leveled off within 8 months – most of competitor’s leadership team ‘reassigned’ by end of year.
- Company’s share of the market grew from 34% to over 45% within 18 months after the competitive launch.
- Initiative payback was achieved within 1 year.
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Multi-national, B2B IT-services company must reposition due to divestiture of a core business
Business Challenge: A successful information technology company with $1Bn in annual sales needed to reposition itself in the market due to pending divestiture of one of its core businesses. Investors, customers, and employees needed to understand and support this change in direction for the company.
Source of Inefficiency: While there were opportunities in all Five I areas, the most significant impact could be realized in the area of INSPIRATION.
Solution:
- Performed an in-depth study of the customer and potential needs.
- Evaluated the remaining portfolio of products and services, and how they could best be positioned, which led to implementation of a new branding strategy
- Revised existing 2-page vision/mission/values statement to a more focused, two sentence statement, that could then be used as a core element in all communication.
Results: Despite serious declines in the IT business environment and without any new product introductions, the company increased sales revenue +5%, profit +10%, customer loyalty +20% and, share price +30% (NASDAQ decreased by 60+% during the same period of time).
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Healthcare brand needing to maintain growth despite 50% budget reduction
Business Challenge: A mature, prescription pharmaceutical product with a 6% market share in a very large, competitive category was growing revenue at 3-4% per year. Marketing management was faced with continued revenue growth expectations during the next fiscal year, while planning with a 50% reduction in the brand’s budget.
Source of Inefficiency: An assessment was performed for this client and it was determined that while there were opportunities in all Five I areas, the greatest results initially could be realized in the area of INSPIRATION.
Solution:
- Analyzed key market drivers, customer habits, and segmentation/positioning opportunities.
- Worked with the company to reposition the brand with more clearly defined core equity and a more targeted, influential audience.
Results:
- Despite promised reductions in brand budgets; the brand delivered year 1 sales increases of +32%.
- Continued emphasis on “on-brand, on-strategy” equity building programs enabled growth of 30+% for the next 2 years.
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Company needed to increase impact of marketing with a limited budget
Business Challenge: A healthcare provider recently launched into an underserved market was disappointed with the number of new patients being admitted. Senior executives were concerned that marketing was not creating the impact needed and wanted to expand consumer awareness using mass media and direct mail campaigns. BU was asked to assess the marketing efforts and recommend improvements to increase the number of patients.
Source of Inefficiency: An assessment was performed for this client and it was determined that while there were opportunities in all Five I areas, the greatest results initially could be realized in the area of INTEGRATION.
Solution:
- The assessment indicated that marketing efficiency could be improved with clearer communication objectives and by shifting the targeting resources away from consumers toward relevant medical professionals. The biggest business barrier by far, however, was poor integration between marketing, the IT department, and customer service operations which caused a significant portion of those seeking help to be turned away without help.
- BU worked with the marketing, IT and customer service teams to streamline the process for handling enquires and improve the tracking and recording of outcomes to measure marketing effectiveness.
- BU also convinced the company to shift targeting priorities to medical professionals and developed a cross-company program to engage the entire staff in the marketing effort.
Results: The number of referrals and admitted patients increased significantly due to the targeted program. Using employees to execute the program reduced the marketing spend required.