Client Category – Consumer Goods – Customer Relationship Management
Challenging problem:
An Australian Brand Marketing Manager was questioning the value of a CRM strategy as recommended by an external specialist agency.
The challenge was how to identify whether the Marketer would receive value for what the agency was offering, and whether the solution was in fact appropriate for their brand.
Creative solution:
The proposed CRM approach offered the Marketer a method for building a direct customer relationship in a category that is typically low on product margin.
The agency solution, whilst solid, was equally light on detail on how the CRM strategy was in fact relevant to this Marketer.
The Marketer also felt it was too general and engaged TrinityP3 to:
- assess the level and type of CRM services and resources being proposed to build the direction of the program.
- benchmark the head hour rates proposed against TrinityP3 industry benchmarks
- assess how the approach would deliver on the desired outputs: increasing loyalty, improving revenue, and plug product usage churn moments.
Process:
To provide this independent assessment and benchmark, TrinityP3 implemented a 4-stage approach:
- Define the scope of the project and agree the background to the CRM project, as well as confirm expectations and desired outputs with the Marketer
- Clarification of the proposal, resources and costs with the Agency
- Undertake the assessment and rate card benchmarking.
- Provide a top-line written assessment report
Timeline:
The assessment and benchmarking was completed within 3 weeks, allowing the Marketer to maintain momentum, while implementing recommendations without hindering the current CRM project milestones.
Result and feedback:
The assessment unearthed some major challenges. The key challenge being that the CRM proposal was quite theoretical and had not been specifically tailored to the Marketer. It assumed deep CRM knowledge that unfortunately the Marketer did not have.
The CRM proposal was indicative only and did not outline key go/no-go points subject to data findings and ROI calculations. There was limited explanation of what data analysis would deliver and how it would impact stages of developing the program. There was also no draft ROI calculation to identify the volumes and required projections in terms of customer acquisition, sales conversions, and incremental marginal contribution.
There was also no clear definition of what CRM meant for the Marketer and what type of CRM activity would be most relevant to this Marketer.
This is a common challenge with many so called ‘CRM projects’. Both parties fail to agree the extent of approaches or territories that are relevant and blindly travel down data assessment pathways without a clear roadmap.
Given the low product margins for this Marketer, and focus on one product line only, it was evident that a simpler CRM approach was required. One that was focussed more on specific lifecycle moments and usage occasions rather than building a complex data-driven and high cost CRM program.
The end result, was that our report was used to bring clarity to the project. Allowing the Marketer to gain a deeper understanding of the key aspects of a CRM project. And engaging the agency in a more transparent and valuable discussion with the Marketer to ultimately tailor their approach.
If you are running a CRM, Loyalty or data-driven program and need an independent assessment, than we’d love to hear from you and bring some clarity and defined value to the activity for you.
To find our how TrinityP3 Marketing Management Consultants can help you further with this, click here.
