A key factor to success in today's market place is finding subtle differences to give the business a marketing edge. A business that targets specialty markets will promote its products more effectively than a business aiming at the "average" customer. What makes the business unique? How can these unique features be promoted to "targeted" customers?

Market Segments

Marketing opportunities increase when customer groups with varying needs and wants are recognized. A business must analyze the needs and wants of different market segments before determining its niche.

Market segmentation is dividing a larger market into submarkets based upon different needs or product preferences. A key factor in competitive success is focusing on little differences that give a marketing edge and are important to customers. Market segmentation matches consumer differences with potential or actual buying behavior. It may prove more profitable to develop smaller market segments into a target segment.

Undifferentiated Marketing

Some businesses treat the market as a whole, focusing on what is common to the needs of customers, rather than on what is different. Often called undifferentiated marketing, this technique relies on mass advertising and is implemented on the basis of cost savings to the business. Undifferentiated marketing is successful when the competition is scarce or the product has mass appeal.

Differentiated Marketing

Differentiated marketing builds greater loyalty and repeat purchasing by considering customer needs and wants. Differentiated marketing creates more total sales with a concentrated marketing effort in selected areas. Concentrated or target marketing gains market position with specialized market segments. Target marketing of products or services reduces the cost of production, distribution, and promotion.

COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE

In-depth Understanding of your Competitors, Strengths and Weaknesses

Competitive Intelligence has the rich, the resources and the expertise to offer a whole set of tools aimed at positioning your company ahead of your competitors.

Strategic use of business intelligence strengthens your competitive advantage, enhances the basis for all strategic decision making and improves your business decisions themselves. Comprehensive knowledge about your competitors creates a strategic advantage and puts your business ahead.

Key Benefits

Using Competitive Intelligence Services, you will:

• Learn about new strategies, products and your competitors ways of thinking

• Acquire specific knowledge and expertise that will improve your future competitive positioning and strategic decision making process.

• Perceive, contrast and analyze your market position versus that of your competitors and alert your senior management in advance of any threats or opportunities.

• Better understand your relative core competency strengths and weakness.

• Gain crucial competitive information to the point where you can make a decision, e.g on mergers and acquisitions

• Detect future market niches or business opportunities in advance of the competition

• Anticipate change rather than react to it and make your move before the market does

We provide our services in the following packages;

•  Competitive Quick Facts

With basic competitive landscape profiles

• Competitive Analysis

Ad-hoc desk research results verified by expert interviews

• Continuous Competitor Monitoring

Tracking of competitor activities and trends

We include customers feedback information into our competitive intelligence services to give  our clients the advantage when they develop their business and product strategies that are next to none In any emerging markets,

 It is important to note that no company operates in isolation;

• They release information for promotional, image, and regulatory purposes.

• They may share customers, dealers, and suppliers who can be interviewed.

• And of course, don’t forget that every company has many needy employees with loose lips.

BUSINESS FEASIBILITY STUDY.

A feasibility study is a controlled process for;

•  Identifying problems and opportunities,

• Determining objectives,

• Describing situations,

• Defining successful outcomes and assessing the range of cost and

• Benefits associated with several alternatives for solving a problem.

Our feasibility reports will help identify any major roadblocks on their road to business success and determine the true viability of the Business Concept. The reports discuss the viability of the proposed business venture in terms of;

• Market Viability

• Technical Viability

• Business Model Viability

• Management Model Viability

• Economic and Financial Model Viability

• Exit Strategy Viability

Although the business and market analysis will contribute considerably to the Business Feasibility Study, however, our considerations will be based on traditional business analysis techniques such as SWOT, Porters Five Forces and PEST to provide information to the proposed business model, and as a starting point for future analysis.

RETAIL AUDIT

Retail-audits aims to gather information on a brand's sales volume, sales trends, stock levels, effectiveness of in-store display and promotion efforts, and other associated aspects.

WHAT GETS Measured

The measures covered in the Retail Tracking reports are the following:

• Retail Sales in volume (i.e. litres, kilograms, pieces etc.) purchased by consumers.

• Retail Sales in value (local currency or other international currency).

• Brand Shares (volume & value).

• Retail Purchases (unit volumes purchased by the retail trade).

• Retail Handling (% of outlets handling a product/brand during the period, numeric and weighted).

• Retail Stocking (% of outlets with product/brand stocked at the end of the period, numeric and weighted).

• Size of Stock (volume of stock held by the retailers at the end of the period).

• Stock Coverage in days (volume of stock divided by average daily sales).

• Retail Out of Stock (% of outlets with product/brand out of stock at the end of the period, numeric and VW).

• Average Shelf Price.

• Average Sales per Outlet Handling (sales volume divided by the numeric handling; it shows the average sales of a certain brand within the outlets handling that brand during the audit period).

• Observation of in store displays

Additional measures can be implemented upon request.

We have extensive experience in conducting retail surveys, from measuring the total universe, to designing various retail samples. It must be noted that there is no readily available retail universe data in Botswana (trust no one!).

Footfall Research

Footfall provide specialist marketing services to any business or organisation wanting to increase visitor numbers or improve the quality of its marketing. We have a specialism in the tourism business including:

• Shopping Malls

• Recreational Centers

• Visitor Attractions

• Museums and Galleries

• Trade Shows and Annual Events

• Heritage Sites

• National Parks and public Gardens

Footfall provide expertise helping to achieve the simple things such as creating a brochure, but also know how to simplify the complicated ones like writing an effective, achievable and practical marketing strategy.

• We make the effort to discover what you want to achieve.

• We help to bring shape to your objectives and focus on how to fulfill them.

• We help you priorities and use your budget wisely.

• Above all we know how to help you attract more business.

Footfall research is best run by people who have been in your shoes. We know how tight budgets can be and we have worked with the pressures of delivering ever more, with shrinking resources. We understand how you always need to justify your spend. That is why we help create practical, achievable, measurable and realistic programmers.

Marketing Health Check Premium

• A day of consultancy where we ask you lots of questions about what you do to attract visitors, followed up with a written report and recommendations for future plans.

• This is a day that should involve all the people who have an input or are effected by your marketing including members of trustee boards, curatorial, education, finance and front of house teams if you are a museum.

• What you will get out of it is: a comprehensive review of your marketing strategy and tactics, a positive, enjoyable, team building exercise and a report suggesting opportunities and strategies for the future including quick wins and longer term initiatives.

Marketing Health Check Basic

• If you and your team can not take a full day out of your schedule we can still complete a health check. Just two hours with the person responsible for marketing gives us the opportunity to complete a comprehensive questionnaire.

• With this information we will obtain an excellent overview of your marketing strategy and tactics and can write a report offering opportunities and suggestions to help you achieve your objectives.

 

MYSTERY SHOPPING

 Mystery Shopping is the practice of using trained shoppers to anonymously evaluate customer service, operations, employee integrity, merchandising, and product quality and knowledge

When location, pricing, and product assortment are no longer unique, service is often the key to success or failure. It costs 10 times more to get a new customer than to keep an existing one. One unhappy customer will tell 5 other people of their bad experience with your service

What Are The Benefits of a Mystery Shopping Program?

• Monitors and measures service performance

• Improves customer retention

• Makes employees aware of what is important in serving customers

•  Reinforces positive employee/management actions with incentive-based reward systems

• Provides feedback from front line operations

• Monitors facility conditions - asset protection

• Ensures product/service delivery quality.

• Supports promotional programs

•  Audits pricing & merchandising compliance

• Allows for competitive analyses

• Compliments marketing research data

• Identifies training needs and sales opportunities

• Educational tool for training & development

• Ensures positive customer relationships on the front line

• Enforces employee integrity.

 

Who Uses Mystery Shopping?

•  Hotels

• Restaurants

• Movie Theatres

• Recreation parks

• Transportation systems

• Fitness/health centers

• Property management firms

• Freight/courier services

• And many more.

• Banks

• Retailers

• Manufacturers

• Call Centers

• E-Commerce services

• Government agencies

• Hospitals

• Associations

• Franchise operations

• Promotions agencies

How is Mystery Shopping Different From any other Research?

• Mystery shopping is a “cousin” to marketing research (related, but not the same)

• Mystery shopping is typically more operational in nature than marketing research and is most often used for training and incentive purposes

• Marketing research involves determining real customer and prospect opinions, perceptions, needs, and wants

• Mystery shopping fills in a gap of information between operations and marketing.

• Mystery shoppers are not real customers - they know what to evaluate before entering the store

• they may not typically visit the store they are evaluating

• Mystery shopping should not be used alone to determine customer satisfaction, it can compliment, but not replace, satisfaction research

• Mystery shopping is not predictive of every customer’s experience unless sufficient samples are taken and data analyzed in aggregate.

SATISFACTION SURVEYS

Satisfaction and Loyalty Studies

Companies use customer satisfaction studies to gauge the extent to which consumers of their products or services are satisfied, not only in general terms but also with the ways in which products or services are designed, marketed, packaged, delivered, and priced.

Businesses and organizations in all industries also use satisfaction and loyalty studies as a critical strategy for reducing costs -- it takes many fewer resources to retain a good employee or keep a satisfied customer coming back than it does to recruit new ones.