Marketing and Commercial Strategy
Great marketing ought to be simple. Just understand your customers and then put the right messages in front of them. But it is rarely that easy in practice.
Getting inside your customers' minds is difficult in any business. You need to start be acknowledging that they are in a very different place to you, not really concerned with the way your business operates. To get your messages across, you need to base it on how they buy – not on how you sell.
Profit can be elusive. We have put the profit of tens of businesses under the microscope, looking for which parts are truly profitable and which are not. The results can be surprising, sometimes beyond the often quoted '80/20' rule. For a services business, we found 20% of the customers contributed 95% the profit and 10% lost money.
We are specialists in the commercial side of market strategy. Getting the pricing, margins and incentives right at each stage of the distribution chain, so your distribution partners are keen to work with you and bring high value customers.
Going to Market
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"The result, thanks to Red Kite's ability to see the essence of value so quickly and clearly, is that we now have a proposition which our people own and understand, and it is in language the customer identifies with. This is a very clear differentiator."
– CEO, Business Services firm
What really matters to your customers?
Business value starts with customers, and understanding customers is the most vital ingredient for any successful business. We can help you to see the world from their point-of-view, working with specialist researchers if necessary.
This enables you to understand their needs, their attitudes, and hence what they are likely to buy and how much they might be willing to pay.
How do they buy?
Understanding your customers' buying processes is another vital ingredient.
Different customers buy in different ways, but too many businesses focus on their own selling process, not on how customers prefer to buy.
Map out how they learn about products and services, how they develop preferences, and how they eventually choose which to purchase.
And don't forget to understand their repeat purchases or the recommendations they make to others.
Where can you profit?
We can help you to un-pick your revenues and costs, to get away from averages and understand exactly how much each sale contributes to profit.
We call this 'segmented profitability'. Very often, we uncover insights on where a change in focus – by product or channel for example – can deliver a massive improvement in profit.
How should we go to market?
We can help you define your marketing strategy, identifying the most effective messages to get to potential customers, and the most efficient methods to get them noticed.
We can also guide your distribution strategy. Should you sell direct, or via partners? Which partners will work with you and what deal should you strike?
Pricing, both for consumer and business markets is a speciality. What structure of prices and offers will maximise long-term profitability?
