Note:  All of the topics below can be presentations, seminars/workshops, or a combination of both. Depending on format, audience participation is encouraged for maximum learning and subsequent application.  Based on input from the client, each presentation is individually designed for the specific audience.  Presentations can be scheduled from two hours to one full day or more, especially with the addition of audience interaction and breakout work sessions.

A.  Growth Through New Markets, New Usage, Line               Extensions, and New Products

Business has leveled and growth is harder to achieve.   Competition is making significant inroads and share is slipping.  Your product mix may be dated or missing the target needs.  What to do?  How do you achieve the growth expectations of management and stockholders?  Is more spending, smarter spending, or less spending appropriate?   This seminar presents the options available to address the needs of meeting goals in today’s constantly changing and challenging market.

B.  The Mature Market:  An Enormous Market Potential       Requiring Segment-Specific Strategies and Execution

Do your marketers know who was president during World War II?  Do they know what it means to get up and have joints hurt?  Seniors and Boomers are unique, demanding, and need to be addressed on their own terms.  Session content includes the magnitude of the demographic tidal surge, the uniqueness of the senior market perspective, the subgroups based on age/health/wealth/family, the importance of the 55+ segment across most products and services, special marketing opportunities, and how to reach and then really communicate with seniors through word, program, and picture.  The 55+ segment offers a unique opportunity for companies to grow their volume and profit efficiently in an under-marketed major segment.

 
C.  Marketing Plans:  Dust Collectors or The Key to Success?

Is the marketing plan obsolete?  Does its inherent development work make it an inefficient business tool?  Is it too restrictive to allow for the rapidly changing market of today? OR - Is the marketing plan essential to know where you want to go?  What is its role in communications within the firm?  How does it serve both the manager and management?  What should be in the plan and how is the information developed:  Timelines?  Budgets?  Sales Forecasts? Product Positioning?  Product Mix? Spending Plans?  Research?  Yup … all and much more!

 
D.  The Positioning Statement:  What Is It, Why Is It Pivotal       To Success, and How Does One Develop It Effectively?

Session focus lies on the pivotal importance of the Positioning Statement for all businesses: what it is, how it is developed, how it is used, what goes into it, and why it is essential for effective marketing plans.  The critical four elements of the Positioning Statement are explored; discussion covers how these elements are generated, and how the Positioning Statement is then integrated with the resources and goals of the company. —– A sound Positioning Statement enables a business to be sustained profitably over time.

 
E.  Focus Groups:  Maligned and Misused, but Still a Critical      Path to Success

I have been “the client” for 900 groups; I have been the moderator for more than 2,000 groups.  These experiences provide a unique dual perspective from both sides of the one-way mirror.  This presentation defines the role of qualitative research versus quantitative, the actual design and execution of focus groups, what to expect and how to optimize the learning stage, what to do next, how to listen and maximize your learning, what not to do with what you saw and heard.   Focus groups are widely used and widely abused.  This presentation is designed to assure that funds spent in this format bring the best value.