Case Study: Marketing program and investment restructuring

The opportunity: A business needed to invest in brand building and product development, but much of its marketing spend went to cover co-op program overages.  Analysis of co-op spending showed a significant part of the spend was on "trinkets" done at year-end.

The paths:

1. Simplified program structure, replacing error-prone detailed after-the-fact coding of spending with an agreement negotiated at the beginning of the year.
2. This simplified the computer tracking program, which for the first time provided contemporaneous reporting of account balances to customer, salesperson, and marketing.
3. The upfront discussions enabled proactive creation of business building programs for distributors rather than reactive spending on "trinkets" and "tchotchkes".
   

The results:  Customers and salespeople were much less frustrated by the inability to know what their co-op balance was, improving customer relations.  Marketing participated in customer program discussions, both improving marketing knowledge of customers and the market as well as improving the strategic impact of programs.  Savings from eliminating overages and from spending not agreed to by all parties help support significant reinvestment in websites, other communication tools, and new product launches.

See the potential benefits WisePath Strategy can help you achieve improving marketing capability.