Last week, Corona launched the beta version of Co-Strategy, a digital collaboratory designed exclusively for nonprofit agency executives to think and act strategically. We celebrated this milestone with a special breakfast and invited a few dozen nonprofit agency executives to participate in our beta test of the platform.

Click here to learn more about Co-Strategy. Stay tuned for pictures of the launch event and more on Co-Strategy this summer.

In order for the Internal Assessment process to be relevant to a marketing executive and the marketing planning process, we view the assessment as taking place both at the macro-company level as well as at the marketing organization level (see previous blog post).

One key piece of the macro-company level assessment for a marketing executive has to do with understanding the company’s strategic planning (i.e. Mission, Vision, Values, Goals, etc.) so that the marketing organization’s own planning and strategy can naturally follow suit and stay in-line.

A not-so-obvious, yet critically important, piece of macro-company planning is its expressed Strategy related to achieving its company vision and goals.  We particularly like the article entitled, “Can You Say What Your Strategy Is?” by David J. Collis and Michael G. Rukstad in the April, 2008, Harvard Business Review.  In this article, the authors purport the value of a succinct statement to summarize company strategy.  They further espouse that an effective strategy statement will have three key components including:  Objective (or “Ends”); Scope (or “Domain”); and Advantage (or “Means”).  We believe that, while the company’s strategic objective and its unique sustainable advantage are certainly critical for a marketing executive in the Internal Situation Assessment, the scope provided in its strategy (statement) is also highly critical as a key component of understanding the External Situation.

The authors break down elements of scope along three dimensions:  customer or offering; geographic location; and vertical integration.  This has the effect of establishing important boundaries for internal decision making, but also for external markets to be explored and served.  These are the boundaries needed to further explore the Industry-Market level of the company’s External Situation.  It sounds simple, but merely reinforcing that our company is in the residential plumbing supply and distribution business for retail stores in the Northwest U.S. region goes a long way in showing us what not to focus on.

And for our Industry-Market analysis, this scope now allows us to not only define our market in more detail (market size, growth, etc.), but also to place more definition and understanding around three of our “5Cs”- Customers; Competitors; and Collaborators.  Data-driven insights from market research and other analytical techniques within these boundaries will shed light on these factors and how these play into overall market attractiveness.

So, we know a data- and information-driven Internal and External Situation Assessment, as partially summarized in some of my previous posts, will provide two main bodies of information: 1) output related to internal business unit strategic strengths and competencies; and 2) a picture of the attractiveness of current (and possibly potential) markets.  This then empowers a marketing executive to conduct a portfolio analysis to decide the best market opportunities to pursue.

While there are many possible scenarios, let’s pick a particularly rosy one just for illustrative purposes.  Let’s say that our portfolio analysis tells us we’re currently in an attractive market, with internal business unit strengths that align and serve the market very well. Furthermore, prospects for growth appear to be good due to the market being in its growth phase of the lifecycle.  Rosy, indeed.

At this point in the marketing planning process, high-level marketing objectives (likely revenue- or profit-driven) are set, and then strategies to achieve these objectives must be considered.  And this is where use of the Ansoff Matrix (below) enters.

Given our rosy scenario presented above, it is logical that we’ll likely remain playing in the current market/current product box (i.e. Market Penetration) in order to achieve objectives.  This then begs the question as to how we will go about market penetration.  We have several strategic options to consider, including but not limited to:  sell more per transaction to existing customers, sell more frequently to existing customers, sell to customers currently purchasing from our competitors, etc.  But which option is best? Market research and data-driven insights will help us choose among these.

Let’s say we choose the latter (selling to prospects) as at least one primary strategy, given that we see an opportunity to increase market share.  Now we know that we need to seek those potential customers who currently purchase from competitors but may be “low hanging fruit.” So, market segmentation research and data analysis done with prospective customers may assist.  We might examine and identify key descriptors of such an audience that is found to be “likely to switch.”  Ultimately, we can proceed in our planning to further understand this consumer segment and most effectively target selected subpopulations or niches with communications, distribution, etc. in our marketing execution.

So, to answer the title question above, the Ansoff Matrix comes into play by providing a valuable link between strategic objectives and market segmentation or market studies that ultimately guide marketing execution.

One final question as food for thought:  Is your current market segmentation clearly linked to your overarching marketing objectives and product-market strategies?

*Market Growth Matrix adapted from Igor Ansoff, “Strategies for Diversification,” Harvard Business Review, Sept.-Oct. 1957, pg. 114

Marketing managers and executives: What would you do if you were asked to take several of the most common strategy tools and organize them to show how they interrelate for marketing planning and strategic decision making?  (No peeking below!)  The tools and frameworks to be considered, in no particular order, are:  PEST, SWOT, the “5 Cs” (Customer, Competitor, Company, Collaborators, and Context), Porter’s 5 Forces Industry Analysis, External Situation Analysis, and Internal Situation Analysis.

At this point, you may be saying, “Stop already, stop!  All of these strategy tools get thrown at us all of the time and it’s hard to know how they interrelate in the big picture! It’s difficult to understand how to make the resulting analysis actionable. What am I supposed to DO with it?”

We first propose the following table to make some sense and order out of these six frameworks or tools.  (All variables from frameworks above are in blue).  We start at the very top level by dividing out Internal and External Situation analyses.  Then, we do a little of our own categorization within each of these and break out “macro” and “micro” components.

Now, we can add in all of our variables from the strategic frameworks. For the 5 Cs, the “C” for “Company” becomes one in the same with Internal Situation Analysis.  The “C” for “Context” becomes one in the same with the Macro Environment section of the External Situation Analysis.   PEST is then listed as an environmental scanning tool within the Macro Environment/External Situation Analysis.  Our other three “Cs” all fall under the Industry/Market section of the External Situation Analysis.  Each of these is naturally dependent on at least some definition or parameters of the market you’re playing in.

Finally we’d be remiss if we didn’t address the SWOT variables.  First off, we recognize that SW and OT are sometimes described as being outputs of Internal and External Situation Analyses, respectively.  We choose to consider these as lying within these Analyses.  A comprehensive situation analysis will naturally uncover strengths and weaknesses on the Internal Situation (see our prior post on Marketing Audit for the Marketing Organization as one reason why) and an External Situation Analysis (through tools such as PEST, Porter’s 5 Forces, etc) will uncover threats.  And while opportunities will also certainly be uncovered, we like to think of opportunities separately as a big part of the next step in marketing planning and strategy.

This leads us to summarize with what to DO with the output from the analysis framework above.  We think a major output from holistic analyses will be Opportunities that are revealed.  Strategic variables, such as “business strength” (from internal) and “market attractiveness” (from external) allow for further analysis such as that through the GE-McKinsey framework (as discussed in my prior blog post) and other frameworks for strategic decision making that show the importance of the intersection of our now-defined and well-understood components of Company, Customer, and Competitors.  Clarity around these allows marketing goals to be logically established.

To learn more about how Corona Insights’ can assist you with your strategic marketing visit our Insights for Strategic Marketing page or contact us.

Simple enough to interpret.  A combined high market attractiveness and high business unit strength is a place a company wants to be, and even more so if the market size is relatively large and its market share is high.  Ultimately, where a business unit stands on this matrix influences an “invest” or “divest”-type decision in the larger context of a company’s business portfolio management.  This is a tough decision, with significant implications.  So you want to be right.

The questions that naturally arise have to do with how to rate the attractiveness of a market or the strength of a business unit in this context.  It is up to a company’s discretion as to what factors are used and the weighting they are given based on relative importance level.  Regardless, some typical factors that go into “market attractiveness” might include market size, market growth rate, competitive intensity, entry barriers, etc.  Note that these and others typically used are all factors that are naturally uncovered by a proper External Situation Assessment.  On the other hand, common factors that go into determining “business unit strength” many times include brand strength, management strength, market share, market share growth, product quality, marketing capability, etc.  Note that these and other similar factors are most effectively and definitively determined through an Internal Situation Assessment.

Granted, not all companies are conglomerates with different business lines like GE.  However, it is safe to say that all companies have finite resources and many possible uses of these resources.  Even if a company only has one business line, decisions about pursuing potential new markets or offering new products or services must still be informed by an analysis of its current market attractiveness and business unit strengths.  In either case, a big investment (or divestment) decision requires doing some homework and due diligence to make sure you get it right.

Stay tuned for a future white paper from Corona’s Insights for Strategic Marketing on data- and information-driven Internal and External Situation analysis and how marketing goals and strategy are ultimately dependent on this type of analysis.

To learn more about how Corona Insights’ can assist you with your strategic marketing visit our Insights for Strategic Marketing page or contact us.

Findings of marketing audits commonly show that organizations typically lack a truly strategic approach in their marketing.  The 1989 reprint and review of the original article (The Marketing Audit Comes of Age, Philip Kotler, William T. Gregor, and William H. Rodgers III) shows the top 10 findings of marketing audits, but below are a selected few, backing up the commonly known hunch that we tend to fall back to natural tendencies of jumping to tactics without having the foundation of a real compass.  While the world has changed drastically since this article, it’s amazing how these findings still ring true, even today.  Just a few include:

• Lack of a marketing planning process
• Failing to invest in the future, particularly in human resources
• An organizational structure that is incompatible with the marketing strategy
• Tendency to view marketing as only advertising or sales
• Narrow, short-term view of advertising and promotion

While the word “audit” may have some negative connotations thanks to the IRS, don’t be afraid. In this case, the goals are to step back, look at your marketing organization as a whole, and make better decisions thanks to the process.

So where do you begin?

An internal assessment is one of the very first high-level steps in the marketing planning process, a step that shouldn’t be taken for granted and should be periodically readdressed given the underlying assumption that organizations constantly change just as markets do.

For a marketing executive, an audit of the macro-organization (e.g. financial status, strategic plan, key initiatives, other functional department goals, etc.) as it affects the internal marketing organization’s planning and decision making is certainly an important part of the assessment.

But what do we do with the marketing organization itself as part of our internal assessment?

Why not perform a marketing organization audit – a relatively little-known, little-espoused tool?  This is a tool for conducting a broad evaluation that helps understand not only performance, but also yields key insights for future planning.  Of course, resulting insights are information- and data-driven, and it is largely a qualitative assessment.  Particular areas of interest examined include:  marketing objectives and strategy; marketing organization (structure and people); marketing systems (processes, procedures, etc.); and marketing performance … Doesn’t this sound at least a little like the classic management functions of planning, organizing and controlling?  In addition, individual marketing mix functions are examined to ensure objectives are aligned with both internal strategy and external market needs, and that all variables work effectively, interrelated to each other.

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So, let’s begin to think strategically and consider a marketing organization audit – one of the first steps to actually being strategic.  Some literature shows there are some types of organizations that are especially in need of such an audit.  Is yours one?

Watch To Receive Welfare, Should Drug Test Be Required? on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

In 2009-2010, Corona Insights facilitated CWEE’s strategic planning process. The cornerstone of their strategy was the concept of moving people along “an employment highway.”  More specifically,  to “move a broader array of individuals in selected metro Denver counties from chronic or episodic unemployment to economically self-supporting through customized, job-focused programs. ”

We’re happy to see this Corona customer take a leading role on behalf of their constituents. It’s clear that this potential legislation would affect getting people on the on-ramp of that highway to self-sufficiency.

If you were to make this comment in front of our company’s principals, they’d likely collide with one another in a mad dash to reach their soapbox – and rightfully so. While we do carry out research to guide clients’ very important tactical decisions, one of the most powerful uses of research is in its ability to help guide strategy. You know, the big-picture stuff that makes some of us shudder as others among us delight in its breadth.

Make the leap!

It isn’t unusual for a market researcher to have examples aplenty of clients who called hoping to have research results by tomorrow – or yesterday – to make a decision about a product or a campaign.

That’s fair enough. The business world doesn’t have life without tactical decisions, and people who are expert at thinking tactically. They’re the people our research team might work with to use focus groups to test ad concepts, for example, or gather opinions via an issue-specific survey. These thinkers help make decisions on the important details that can make or break a product, campaign, or idea.

But there’s also thinking that takes place on a different, strategic scale, and this thinking needs to be informed, too. It’s this thinking that provides a base-camp for those tactical decisions. This is the kind of work for which we might be more likely to conduct research in order to learn in which direction to steer an entire organization. Maybe it’s reaching out internally to staff and board members, in addition to a particular customer or membership group, in order to make vital decisions related to the future purpose or focus of an organization. Perhaps it’s stepping out to the macro level and gathering industry-level information – research that provides a pictures of the overall environment in which you’re operating. All of these can help you learn who you are – organizationally speaking – and who you need to be.

So don’t forget about the use of research in making these larger-scale decisions about how to proceed – to help you steer your proverbial ship. It helps staff and customers alike feel included and on-board with any changes that might be coming…and it helps you tap in to all of the brain power and important opinions that the stakeholders of your organization have tucked away, just waiting for you to ask.*

<Blogger steps down from her own soapbox>

I’m declaring this myth TROUNCED! Research has its place in all dimensions of decision-making.

*Want to learn more about moving beyond tactics and into the realm of strategy? We welcome you to visit our website and enlighten yourself to Corona’s Synergistic Business Model as a framework for unlocking potential you may never recognized. Learn more about our crusade to shed light on strategic marketing efforts too, to make informed, proactive decisions related to your products, services, and campaigns.

The vortex of anxiety is powerful in its ability to consume significant amounts of time, energy and emotion.  One becomes preoccupied with the negative pull and is ineffective at driving change for the organization.  Keep a lookout for the vortex and dampen its power.  What’s required?  The realization that courageous leadership and action – perhaps a few key steps or a revitalized approach – are all that’s needed to replace the vortex with a positive force.

Vortex – a whirling mass of water, especially one in which a force of suction operates, as a whirlpool; drawing into its current everything that surrounds it

As a consultant, I strive to do more than advise, provide expertise or facilitate decision making.  I want to inspire my customers to believe they can do and be more than they are today.  Not only do I intend to provoke an emotional response – I want to inspire action.  I aim to engage their collective heads and hearts.

During last Friday’s Social Venture Partners Denver Workshop on Next Era Nonprofits I was thrilled to hear a Denver Foundation Vice President share that the Colorado Nonprofit Association was inspired by my strategic consulting.  I facilitated a conversation at their annual strategy retreat about foresights for the sector.   My goal?  To stimulate thinking about the Association’s future possibilities.  After all, this is the most dynamic period of change the sector has seen in 20 to 30 years.  What can and should it mean to lead an association in this next era and model the way forward?

Thank you to everyone who attended Friday’s workshop. You keep me inspired to share our insights with the community and take our work to the next level.