Site icon InlandEmpire.us

Turn-Around Is Possible In Tough Economy

Dismal news can dampen the business spirit, but some success stories do exist.

Such is the story of a dairy where the milkman still delivers milk, right to the door step.

With many thousands of customers dropping the service in 2009, and the price of milk dropping dramatically due to the global recession, competing with grocery store milk at less than half the delivered price created a sudden and serious challenge.

Fortunately the company works from a strong marketing plan, with carefully crafted branding and had just completed a comprehensive customer study that provided the key information that allowed tactical shifts to retain customers and find thousands of new customers to retain the old ones.

The key information: a complete understanding of the lifestyles and buying motivations so tactics could speak directly to customer segments in language they could relate to.

Forming a growth team to coordinate existing customer service and the sales team with the marketing team and consultant, they fought back with new retention materials, reemphasized value using their newsletter, and concentrated on neighborhoods where their best customer profiles lived. They re-built the website with a new sales emphasis and re-built the online customer order center all in a span of about 14 months.

Today even at the bottom of the recession they have replaced thousands of customers and will hit a new record number of customers any day now. This remarkable success during a down turn is inspiration for other struggling companies as we look for signs of recovery. But it does not come easily. Very specific marketing tools used by seasoned marketing pros and strong outsourcing partners are almost always necessary to supplement most smaller companies through such a crisis.

The American Marketing Association, Inland Empire, will share this case study with members and visitors Thursday Sept 16th at the Victoria Club in Riverside.

You can hear lead consultant Ron Burgess of Redlands, walk through the details: the crisis, emergency team building, strategy review, changes in tactics and execution.

He will illustrate the use of data, GIS mapping and award winning materials that came out of the growth team, and share the key elements necessary for your company to apply the principals used.

Few companies can show much growth in today economic environment, let alone completely reverse the trends, but companies that have a grasp of the correct intelligence, and grit can prepare the company and fight back to growth.

Exit mobile version