DEFINING A STRATEGIC MARKETING PLAN ASSA ABLOY

DEFINING A STRATEGIC MARKETING PLAN


Working in the industrial B2B space for over 25 years, HeavyDuty Branding has helped hundreds of brands deliver a range of different products and services. But for as many differences that exist between the companies we serve, we have found one clear commonality; there is a divide between the sales and marketing departments for many manufacturers, distributors and service providers, and many lack a clear strategy and tactical plan to go to market effectively.

THE SITUATION

In many cases, the absence of a formal strategic marketing plan or SMP comes from the lack of resources dedicated to this capability. Within the machine protection division of ASSA ABLOY, this situation most certainly appeared to be the case. The HeavyDuty team helped fill that gap and helped the North American team determine and develop its vision with a marketing plan that would help the sales team sell more automatic doors across industries and selling seasons.
Developing a full strategic marketing plan lets us fully get to know our clients, their strengths, weaknesses and major opportunities for marketing across media channels. And because we offer interactive marketing, creative services and technology services, we can handle both the planning and the execution to best reach sales and marketing goals, if needed.

THE PROCESS

The first step in building our strategic marketing plan for ASSA ABLOY began with a kick off meeting between key team members from both teams. This meeting clearly outlined the details of the entire project, scheduled future meetings, and identified the data meant to determine website analytics, sales and lead statistics and assist in creating a well-rounded plan. After the kick off meeting, HeavyDuty Branding addressed the time period for the executional phase of the plan. After reviewing best practices, we determined twelve months to be the appropriate length of time to effectively roll out and track proposed marketing tactics. Once agreed upon, our research and discovery team began evaluating the company’s machine protection door division and all facets of this division.
During this key phase, we worked closely with the team 
at ASSA ABLOY to conduct discovery research, identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in a “S.W.O.T.” analysis and performed a brand audit which looked at all their marketing activity including clarifying factors such as assets, neutrals and liabilities. We used surveys and questionnaires to gain internal employee feedback about the machine protection unit as well.
The next phase of the project included cataloging all the accelerators, or the assets that could be used to jumpstart the executional elements within the plan. We also defined and segmented the audiences, created Buyer Personas for their clients, and re-evaluated their mission statements. With this foundational work in place, the team could then establish new marketing goals and coordinate them with budgets and expectations. 
It was here where we also identified key performance indicators (KPIs) based on those goals. And establishing a “scorecard” helped to monitor performance as milestones were reached going forward.

Working closely together with the marketing and sales team at ASSA ABLOY, HeavyDuty Branding used this research to begin the discussion, debate, and building of the components of the marketing strategy in order to outline and define the key foundational projects that could begin once the plan was approved.

THE ACTION

HeavyDuty Branding scheduled a meeting to share its preliminary findings following the research and discovery phases of the SMP. Here, initial results were shared based upon the assessments, surveys, research and data collected. In this early meeting, the team identified clear trends, obvious opportunities for marketing machine protection doors and the key channels where to focus marketing efforts.
Directly coming out of the preliminary findings meeting, the team at HeavyDuty prepared an Executive Summary Overview which was a summary presentation of the project, the outcome of the research, and the overall recommended strategy to achieve ASSA ABLOY’s goals during the 12-month time period.
Next to deliver was the Tactical Game Plan. This workbook provided the door protection marketing team with a living document that could constantly be reviewed and revised as needed. Categorized by marketing channel, it outlined all
of the proposed tactics, all in one place. ASSA ABLOY could then get a big picture of its projects, stay on top of timelines and milestones, and change priorities within the marketing plan. It also defined and segmented audiences, cataloged accelerators, outlined milestones, provided more of a description for the campaigns, and clarified those suggested projects.
Finally, the last deliverable HeavyDuty Branding provided to the machine protection team was the Big Marketing Calendar. This tool encapsulated all of the marketing activities with easy-to-read visuals inside an actual calendar. Each of these pieces were designed to work with each other.

THE SOLUTION

As with every SMP that HeavyDuty Branding creates, once the work was completed for ASSA ABLOY the onus was on them to actually enact the strategic marketing plan. However, being that HeavyDuty Branding is a full agency focused on business-to-business marketing industrial companies we reminded them of our unique perspective and ability to provide effective marketing within the space.
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