I am now consulting a company on its brand strategies which is the key success factor in getting them awarded Brand Promotion Grant up to RM 2 mil. How could i consult a company without understanding its business, market and customers? Thus, most time is allocated to facts finding. I would just like to share where can we get cost effective resourceful info and statistics.
Access to Economic reports & statistics
For businesses which are exporting, i highly recommend for you to visit MATRADE library located at 2nd floor of Menara MATRADE, Jalan Duta. In the library, you can have access to market reports and country business profiles both printed and database. For example, you can get reports done by Euro Monitor International which cost you hundred or even thousands or USD to get a single report. Over here, define your search, get help from their friendly customer service and you are minutes away in getting critical information to support your business decisions. You can look for information by countries, by products, by industry and more. There are also many periodic agazine available. The best thing is that it is free. You just need to photocopy the selected pages with a nominal fee. So what are you waiting for?
Today i have managed to get some profiles on electrical appliances which could help me determine the demographic, market share and consumer behaviors.
Getting cost effective consumer feedback via forum and blog
Economic reports and statistics are secondary data. What about primary data or direct responses from the consumers? conduct a focus group? Interview? email or face to facce survey? Well, most of the above methods are in controlled environment. In addition, not every client has the budget especially SMEs. So what are we going to do? Thanks to advancement of technology . First there is online forum and now Blog. Tanks to web 2.0. Online users express their thoughts freely in the internet. The question is not about whther is it good or bad content. Most important MOSTLY are genuine content. By searching with some keywords, yesterday i found out so many interesting comments from online user pertaining their experience in using my client's product. These comments, compliments, complaints serves as important information for us to improve ourselves and to advance ourselves. Hehee! Well, it makes my job easier, more relevant and cost effective. so have you try to search on the net to see how others are perceiving your brand or product? If not yet, I think you better start now. Word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool but it can be the most powerful weapon to kill our business too.
Lesson learned / points to note
- Support your proposal with facts! no matter you are a consultant, marketing manager or just an executive
- Be resourceful in the mnost cost effective way. You do not always have to have high budget. Well, having low budget doesnt mean you can do any branding.
