Reality check: Developing a marketing strategy for a very special target group

We took a close look at the market participants and market trends. It was exciting and challenging to decide where to draw the line: Do you also look at international competitors? Do we consider relevant start-ups? To what extent does a mayor of a Bavarian municipality with 10,000 inhabitants validate a new solution from Hamburg? Pragmatism and experience from past projects help to quickly gain a clear insight into the market.

During the interviews, it soon became clear how the target group enters the buying process and which criteria are relevant: Recommendations from other municipalities, the company's references and, above all, the simplicity of the products. To map these criteria and position the products even better, we sharpened the Unique Selling Point (USP). A challenging process, as the products are hardly differentiating in their functionality, but rather by the holistic nature of the modules, the cooperation with the company and further consulting services provided by the client.

So how do you position products "without" a visible USP for an "unknown" company on the market? That was the core question in the second part of the project. Over two workshop days, we dived deep into the details of branding strategies. How do we want to be perceived? What tone of voice and what impressions do we want to leave with potential customers. A few heated and constructive discussions later, we decided on the brand archetype of the "Creator": a tonality that is used by brands such as LEGO (more information on brand archetypes can be found here). This decision had an impact on many project outcomes, such as pitch presentations or website presence.

Next, we needed product names, a clear framework for corporate design, a new logo and exciting content for the social media channels. Decisions for or against a certain appearance were - as so often - subjective and quite emotional. But above all, this shows that the teams truly care about their products.

The next step was preparing the implementation of our strategy: What should a sales roadmap for this year look like? Which trade fairs should we consider and why? How do we target which customers? How do we design our content plan for the channels?

We had to decide whether we wanted to focus on brand awareness or audience behaviour (convincing the target group of products). The interviews had shown that personal conversations with the target group work best. Therefore, the decision was clear: we build brand awareness via social media and coverage but focus primarily on direct contacts in the network and at trade fairs. To measure the success of our efforts, we defined new target values.

So now we are at this crucial moment: How can the strategy and the first tests be transferred into reality and the daily work of the client team? Will all the tools, templates, and processes work? Certainly not. Still: The first contacts have already been made, the weekly sales and marketing checkpoints are running successfully, and the customer approach has been sharpened. We will of course follow along – and we’re sure that the team will do a great job!