Success Case: MBI

‘Santa Ifigenia action’, building add value information

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Background

‘Santa Ifigenia action’ has been developed for the Multinational Microprocessor designer and manufacturer - from now on called the Client- , by Market and Business Intelligence (MBI) unit at Marco Brazil.

In a chat with Roberto Sleiman, in charge of this Program and of part of the team of MBI, he commented: “The project has had as its main objective to improve and increase specific information regarding Santa Ifigenia and Infocentro: considered the main IT commercial area, located in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, respectively. The idea was to provide essential information for the client’s decision making process”.

‘Santa Ifigenia action’ was composed a mix of the MBI unit services, Data tools and trackers plus Market Research. The former involved a product price tracking, while the latter comprised different market research studies.

The project was launched in mid 2004 when our client’s needs were detected regarding to its limited brand presence in Santa Ifigenia and Infocentro, where are located specialized stores, which selling computer parts and PC Components. It is also worth to emphasize that both zone s are well-known for computer part and PC component sales poles, attracting as well a large volume of illegal trade in both hardware and software

As a result, our client presented, on the one hand, an uncertain product coverage in these areas; and on the other hand, they did not have access to updated information, which would have added value about what was going on in those zones regarding: prices and positioning, competitors’ status, information about illegal sales or gray market, among others.

Getting to know Santa Ifigenia and Infocentro markets

As a result of the lack of information, our client’s brand support to the Reseller Channel turned to be low for the Reseller Channel (in charge of selling the client’s products to these and the PC assembling stores) during final sales process.

According to Roberto, “For the first step; the MBI Team developed a price tracking tool in order to get detailed information about products offered to end-consumer in those selected areas. The price tracking included: products features, PC components and motherboard prices. The objective was no other than to learn about this market and then, to develop a DashBoard based on all the collected information ".

Roberto commented: “The Dashboard is a report which includes the most important information about the analyzed pool, such as: detailed product sales and market segmentation, among others”. As a result, MBI will be able to forecast purchase trends, based on handling this information. Thanks to the Dashboard, MBI will be able to develop different evaluations and finally, to suggest those strategic operations the Client should implement to best promote and position its products in these areas.

Actions to generate demand for the client’s product

As for the second step, according to Roberto “Santa Ifigenia action had as its main objective to increase client’s market share at these point of sales and also to improve the client’s product exhibition”.

Given this scenario; MBI designed different strategies in order to generate demand for the client’s products.
The program included several actions, such as: market research studies, based on primary sources; tracking and initial mapping; point of sales coverage and finally, the development of promotional and sales incentive activities. For the latter, MBI worked side by side with the Marketing Development Group (MDG) unit, responsible for elaborating and carrying out creative ideas, such as: incentive campaigns, different events and championships, among others.

MBI also included the role of Coordinator, in charge of visiting selected stores and areas. According to Roberto, “The Coordinator’s role is positioned as brand representative at the point of sales; on the one hand, he is responsible for improving the display of the client’s products a at the different stores (installing POP material); and on the other hand, he has to improve the client’s relationship with Reseller and PC Assembler Channel”.

The Coordinator was able to develop different reports through this format, based on the information collected during his daily work. The needs and problems regarding the brand and its products (those were detected at the point of sales) were detailed in these reports.

After that, MBI would systematically process and validate all this information to generate the ‘Data tools and trackers’ Reports, in order to distribute tasks and preview future conflicts with the Reseller Channel. All these reporters would be finally send to the Client by MBI.

MBI also used Mystery Shoppers for the ‘Santa Ifigenia action’. According to Roberto: “This method turns out to be the best one, the one which best fits our project requirements perfectly; to improve Channel customer relationship and to learn more about this segment; as well as to measure the rate of recommendation of the Client’s brand”.

‘Santa Ifigenia action’ not only aspired to strengthen the relationship between the Client and its Resellers and Integrators, but also to add other new benefits for the Client, such as: the opportunity to reach the target too, through computer demonstrations carried out at those selected stores.

In this way, the Project’s development included a number of different processes: to generate market intelligence regarding the Santa Ifigenia and Infocentro cluster (areas in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, respectively) and based on that information, carry out specific marketing actions to improve and increase market share.