The Marketing Toolkit^SM

The Marketing “War-Room”

Effective business planning requires a Pervasive Marketplace Awareness based on reliable data. To obtain this marketplace intelligence, many firms undertake quantitative marketing research studies designed for specific narrow problems, examined once and discarded. At best, the information obtained is presented as fixed historical knowledge then relegated to the marketing manager’s book-shelf, never to be seen again. Marketplace and competitive intelligence is far too valuable not to be integrated into the planning process. From ancient times, governments and the military establishments fully understood the importance of the utilizing intelligence and competitive assessments for both strategic and operational planning, businesses on the other hand have tended squandered these assets

		Marketing Toolkits perform the same general function as the Whitehouse “Situation Room” or the “Fire-Control Center” aboard ships-of-war. They bring together the critical information to facilitate effective direction of action. The Marketing Toolkits provide the “Pervasive Marketplace Awareness” and facilitate customer information driven business development based on affordable quantitative marketing research. The toolkits are design to provide the “hands-on” testing of ideas. They are intended to help business management teams to fully utilize market information. It is a kind of “Marketing War-Room” providing the market perspective into the evaluation of potential business actions.
The components in the toolkit consist of graphs, charts, simulators, models and tables driven off of market and business data. These are not all new concepts, but enhanced methods that have been used effectively throughout business and industry. What the toolkit provides is an ensemble of these tools in a useful effective way driven from a common knowledge-base and in a standardized format. It should be viewed as a key part of a learning organization. The intent is to allow the business team to become wiser by fully utilizing the knowledge and information available.
		The toolkit is not an end-point creation. It grows, it is customized and it changes to meet the varying needs and distinction of businesses and their competitive situations. While the “look and feel” of the toolkits is intended to remain consistent, the set of tools and the information sources will vary. Because the toolkit is central to the total business planning and control effort, the specific applications for them vary widely from the early planning and evaluation of new products to the more complex issues of planning a product launch and the repositioning of existing products and businesses.

The toolkits are designed around well structured market research methods and data. Relatively simple methods can be used with modest numbers of respondents for exploratory issues such as the assessment of a new product concept. However for more involved business problems more complex customer measurement and analyses are needed. The toolkits are designed to be modified to allow these additional sources of information to be integrated.

Applications of the Marketing Toolkit

· Overall

· The Marketing War Room

· Business Assessment

· Product Design

· Offering Design

· Product Pricing

· Segmentation

· Marketing Six Sigma

· Branding

· Customer Satisfaction

· Reseller Analysis

· Innovation

CDS	For more information on developing Marketing Toolkits: Eugene B. Lieb Custom Decision Support, LLC genelieb@lieb.com http://www.lieb.com (831) 854-2256