Marketing is often thought of as a creative rather than scientific endeavor. This document discusses how an FMCG company had Carpedia Consulting review its marketing campaign targeting lower-income consumers to optimize spending. Carpedia analyzed the campaign's goals and targeting, used market research data to identify high-potential areas, and helped refine messaging and placement to significantly increase efficiency and returns. The client benefited from thinking differently about marketing as a science requiring measurable goals and data-driven decisions.

1. Marketing is
Marketing spend that drives
often thought of value
as a creative
rather than a Werner Hess
scientific
endeavour. -We
think differently-
Marketing is a
science and
campaign
selection and
execution is all
about spending
the right money,
for the right
reasons in the
right places
Carpedia Consulting (Pty) Ltd – www.carpedia.co.za – Marketing spend that drives value

2. Introduction
Newcomers to the sales environment may perceive the sales
We recently had the privilege in working with a very successful FMCG company. Our brief
was to ensure marketing spend optimisation. The brief included campaign selection,
messaging and deployment. This particular campaign focused on the bottom end of the
market and specifically Living Standards Measures - levels 1-5.
The lower end of the market posed some specific challenges in terms of placement and
messaging.
The company had done extensive market research to define their actual consumer profiles
for the product group and had a significant data base available on specific consumer
segments. They also asked us to review and critique the campaign plans and to give them
an untainted no holds barred feedback on all aspects of the campaign.
Interestingly, the CEO of the company led this initiative and his objective wasn’t to prove
marketing wrong, or to decry the work that they had done in the past, but simply to review
and understand whether the marketing spend was carefully aligned with brand and sales
objectives. In fact, marketing welcomed the initiative as they felt that a constructive critique
of their thought processes and execution plans would be useful in terms of improvement
endeavours. In this paper, we share some of the approaches that were taken and results
that were achieved on behalf of this client.
An impartial analysis of key
marketing initiatives can go
a long way in terms of
making your marketing
initiatives more measurable,
creating an opportunity for
continuous improvement
Carpedia Consulting (Pty) Ltd – www.carpedia.co.za – Marketing spend that drives value

3. Goals and objectives – marketing plan review
We found that a really simple place to start a review would be to understand what the
marketing objectives of specific marketing initiatives were and how the marketing plan was
constructed to meet the goals of objectives.
While we did find clearly spelt out goals and objectives, the goals and objectives were
defined along the lines of what the company hoped to achieve with the marketing plan,
rather than what the campaign needed to drive. A goal of “ selling more product’, or
‘improving sales’ or even ‘increasing sales in an area’, was found to be vague and we had
the feeling that goals and objectives definition was more designed to appease management
of the noble objective of driving sales, rather than achieving something very specific.
In a workshop, we revisited the goals and objectives of the campaign and were able to get
consensus that a goal that pointed to something very specific that wasn’t being achieved,
would lead to better direction for the campaign. Something along the lines of “ influencing
and converting fringe populations” or “ becoming a more attractive option to brand
switchers” or “ penetrating specific under- represented segments’ would have given the
campaign more meaning and more importantly, would have directed thinking into the
marketing plan more effectively.
Which consumers are you targeting?
As a result of the weak definition of the goals of objectives of the campaign, specific
targeting was also poorly defined. In the absence of “who am I actually talking to in this
campaign?” lead to a universal statement of value, rather than a message aimed at specific
consumers, making it attractive to them to consider the offering. The specific groups of
consumers that we refer to are in fact the target market. Who is your target market? Can
you profile consumers that make up your target market, were questions worth asking?
Here we found that the company had done some really good research in terms of defining
their consumer profiles and the research had even gone as far as to point to specific
consumer profiles, not being current customers. This research pointed to possible target
segments that would switch brands under the right conditions. This segment was in fact
quantified by the research, enabling marketing to target specific groups with sniper-like
accuracy.
Carpedia Consulting (Pty) Ltd – www.carpedia.co.za – Marketing spend that drives value

4. A psychographic and demographic profiling exercise carried out by the research company
very accurately defined the opportunity for gaining more consumers. We even had a very
good view of who these potential consumers were and what their possible preferences
were. While there were some doubts from some of the marketing team as to the accuracy
of the profiling data, we found the data to be invaluable in terms of who potential
consumers were, and what they looked like. If you do at a point in time
embark on market research, you need to have confidence in the results,
despite the fact that the results won’t necessarily fall within your current
Market paradigms.
research is
often Where are the potential consumers?
essential.
This seems like “the million dollar’ question: If we had a fair idea of what the
The demographic and psychographic make –up of our potential consumers are
and we can correlate some life cycle and behavioural data of our target
challenge is market, then all we need to know is where they live, in order to reach them!
to separate It appears that the million dollar answer to the million dollar question is ; If
we could profile potential consumers, we need to know how many
current consumers live a specific area, or more accurately, live within our
beliefs geographical presence! What this means is that we should be able to tell
how many potential consumers live within a certain city or suburb, where
from through campaign activities, I‘ll be certain to reach them! Sounds
impossible!
market
research
Introducing Market Scope
findings.
The concept of geo-spatial marketing solutions is very well developed in the
USA. In fact, a geo=spatial view of a specific area forms part of the basic
research that every fast food retailer and certainly every service station undertakes to
determine the size and make-up of target market segments before they establish a new
outlet. Similarly, Market Scope is an excellent tool that companies can put to use to quantify
the number of consumers within a specific profile definition, that live in a specific city, town
or suburb.
Carpedia Consulting (Pty) Ltd – www.carpedia.co.za – Marketing spend that drives value

5. Market Scope is a software solution that incorporates demographic data sets within a
spatial environment (like a map) so that marketers can gain insight into the demographic
composition of a geographic area.
When we talk about “ where are the consumers” in the previous paragraph, this software
can help marketers pin point how many males with in an age group 16-25 live in Randburg.
Let’s say for argument sake the answer to the question is 120,000, Randburg would certainly
be a suburb where we would target our advertising and promotional activities, specifically
when we compare it to Marlboro, where the same demographic only represents a target
market population of 23,000.
This is where a scientific approach can help drive accuracy and return on investment.
Carpedia Consulting (Pty) Ltd – www.carpedia.co.za – Marketing spend that drives value

6. Getting practical
Back to campaigns and marketing spend. We
analysed a proposal from a marketing services
Exposure
vendor, who correctly identified a billboard strategy
to appeal to consumers who were not customers yet.
placement
The concept was that people who were likely to needs to be
change, needed to be converted by some means. One
of the most effective ways of reaching consumers in “designed.” By
the LSM 1- 5 segments, was to use billboards as a
medium. Billboards needed to be supplemented with simply placing
an additional medium, and it was decided that
community radio could be a strong support medium exposure where
for a largely visual outdoor campaign. We liked the
approach. However, we did not like the spend vendors have
proposal.
The spend proposal revolved around ”billboard
sights just isn’t
saturation” and 960 sites were selected in 2 major
cities. Needless to say, the campaign costs were
effective
heavy to say the least and we immediately
questioned the placement of billboards. What we
found was that the logic used by the vendor for
placement was entirely based on availability, rather
than exposure potential.
Market Scope came to rescue again, as we were able to reduce the billboard placement by
50% by placing billboards in areas of high target market population saturation. What this
basically means is that we launched 4 billboards in Randburg and reduced Marlboro from 6
to 1 billboard.
Carpedia Consulting (Pty) Ltd – www.carpedia.co.za – Marketing spend that drives value

7. Messaging
Our client supported 12 brands nationally. The challenge of exposing different brands that
were dominant in certain areas, were well met with a combination of billboards and local
community radio.
The messaging did however pose a problem of a totally different nature. How do develop a
message that attracts new customers, while at the same time keeping it relevant for existing
customers.
After leading a workshop to address this particular challenge, the concept of promoting the
intrinsic product muscles was found to be a way out .While wholesomeness and health
were specific and unique product attributes associated with the product, the relevance to
existing and new customers was universal.
Results
• What was significant about this project was that we were able to get the marketing
teams to think differently and to question the logic of what companies normally
perceive as standard procedure. All too often in our interaction with marketing and
advertising vendors, they would refer to “everyone does it that way” as the logic
applied to execution.
• The company further underwent a mindset change. While marketing teams are
usually thought of as being the ‘creatives” in the business, it became clear very
quickly that creative input is what you get from your advertising company.
Marketing teams are all about making decisions around where and how they need to
spend, and how they could possibly get a return on what’s invested.
• The billboard site selection exercise was exactly a case in point. Whereas the
advertising company identified 960 sites, we used Market Scope to calculate
deliberate target market exposure, and were able to deliver a more effective
placement solution. Billboard sites were contained at just over 400.
• While savings paid for the project, the client actually got what he paid for. Insight
processes and systems that managed to drive behavioural change within his
marketing team. Understanding that a scientific approach can help them achieve
their goals and objectives effectively.
Carpedia Consulting (Pty) Ltd – www.carpedia.co.za – Marketing spend that drives value

8. About Carpedia Consulting…
Carpedia Consulting is an internationally relevant management consultancy firm, dedicated
to assisting clients to improve sales and profits through the implementation of improvement
programs. Our approach is what makes us unique. The way we design, develop and execute
our programs is hands-on, solutions-based and excellence driven.
Our programs are customized to the needs of your organisation and are designed to ensure
significant and sustainable improvements are made both internally and externally – by the
sales team, for the customer.
www.carpedia.co.za
About Werner Hess…
Werner Hess has spent 20 years of his career in various sales, marketing and leadership
positions with Bayer, Triad Electronics, GE and GE Plastics before serving as managing
director of GE Plastics and Polymerland. Werner’s first experience in the world of consulting
came about when he joined Proudfoot Consulting as Director of Business Development,
which included several international assignments in Europe and the USA, leading sales
effectiveness projects for global clients. Werner’s current company, Carpedia Consulting is
a specialist niche consultancy focused on sales and profit improvement.
Werner’s latest book, The Science of Selling has just been published and reveals
approaches, systems and processes that can be implemented to create a successful sales
platform.
Werner can be reached on: whess@carpedia.co.za
Carpedia Consulting (Pty) Ltd – www.carpedia.co.za – Marketing spend that drives value

9. Carpedia Consulting (Pty) Ltd
PO Box 1701
GALLO Manor
2052
Building 2
Country Club Estates
Woodlands Drive
Woodmead
Sandton
South Africa
Tel: 27-11 – 258-8813
Fax: 27-11- 258-8511
Mob: 27-82-888-0228
Email: info@carpedia.co.za
www.carpedia.co.za
Carpedia Consulting (Pty) Ltd – www.carpedia.co.za – Marketing spend that drives value