Case

Marketing in 5 Part Harmony by CYL, Inc. Marketing in 5 Part Harmony" is a boutique style social marketing and change management agency offered by CYL, Inc. since 2008. The agency's focus is on providing entrepreneurs, small business owners and educators who are influencers of social change an active approach to understanding and leading positive change through a healthy change methodology. The company services include Interactive Consulting, Keynotes, and Professional Development Seminars. There are available in both online (virtual) and live formats along with a wide variety of free educational resources. They have relied primarily on referrals and presenting at industry conferences for acquiring new customers The leadership of Marketing in 5 Part Harmony realized they needed to make some changes to their marketing mix (four Ps) in order to develop a more relevant and clarified marketing plan for customizing the client experience and increasing the perceived value of the product. They conducted extensive marketing research to better understand the current industry and segment needs. Product From the research they learned that their ideal target segment includes social change business owners and entrepreneurs with more unique needs than typical business owners. They found that these owners have tremendous knowledge and skills related to their own area of expertise, and a deep personal commitment to help others. Despite the skills and dedication to social change, these owners/entrepreneurs frequently had a gap in knowledge when marketing their own services, and typically felt a disconnect when promoting themselves. As a result, Marketing in 5 Part Harmony found a need to redesign a product that would provide educational and actionable aspects related to social, healthy change and entrepreneur marketing. The product would need to be more interactive to overcome the knowledge-to-action gap found in the segment. An "edutainment" style Certificate product was re-purposed to meet the increasing needs of this segment. The certificate training was tested and refined with a local focus group and then created digitally.

Place Previously, the Marketing in 5 Part Harmony team used location-oriented channels to reach a broad audience. The primary channel focused on presenting at various industry conferences. Another portion of clients came from a word-of-mouth channel resulting from networking activities with subject matter experts. The company's market research recently determined that the ideal market segment had been seeking information more from industry resources online and from fellow owners/practitioners indicating a need for digital versions of the educational product as well as more workshop style programs to fill in the knowledge gap

Promotion Marketing in 5 Part Harmony team has traditionally emphasized more in the direct contact with the target segment, from the thought that to "get what we do, you need to experience our product." The current social change business owner/entrepreneur is more involved in the digital marketing arena so the team found a need to feature the lifestyle and healthy behavior change aspects and direction of its target market. To increase brand awareness and visibility in the digital marketing realm, the team developed a "edutainment" style campaign to highlight the unique nature of impacting healthy behavior change. The edutainment campaign would be geared toward emphasizing the social and healthy change aspect in the promotions to connect with the specific needs of the segment Price To ensure effective strategies for value pricing that factor in the product's actual cost in relation to the perceived value of the product, the team would need to find a price point that makes the product appealing to the segment, as well as profitable the Harmony team. The price would need to reflect similar costs already being incurred by this segment for similar products and how it will meet their needs. Since the product will address the segment's lack of marketing expertise and personnel, as well as their potential misconception of marketing as an effective activity for them the price needs to reflect a stronger value for the money.

The question is/The Marketing Mix in the scenario turned out to be a very successful campaign for the Marketing in 5 Part Harmony group and as a result gained many new customers. While completing the Certificate program, the clients expressed interest in consulting service to get more traction for their business. The agency is considering whether to develop a live or a webinar style consulting service. Based on the previous description of the company and the mix, share your suggestions for developing a consulting practice for this segment, considering the 4 Ps.