Summary
A leading UK reseller of IT hardware and software with a strong presence in the UK public sector wanted to overhaul its brand strategy to enter the UK non-public sector.
Challenge
Besides measuring its strength on different rungs of the brand funnel, from awareness to loyalty, the client wanted to:
- Understand brand imagery perceptions, vis-a-vis key competitors
- Identify key focus areas for branding and marketing communications
- Identify sales and marketing communication channels for maximum reach
- Identify industry sectors presenting the greatest opportunity for the client
Approach
Phronesis Partners proposed an initial qualitative phase of a limited number of interviews followed by a larger quantitative survey phase
Phronesis-Partners designed the Discussion Guide and Quant Survey questionnaire in consultation with the client
- TG for both the IDIs were decision-makers or influencers
- A total of 10 qualitative interviews were carried out
- 303 surveys among IT and Procurement Personnel in the UK with firms across a range of industries and employee sizes of 100 – 1,000 employees
- Annual revenues – between GBP 100M and GBP 1B
- Number of Public sector firms was capped at 15%
Delivery- 1
Phronesis-Partners provided cleaned and coded data in MS Excel after quality checks
Qualitative IDI data were analyzed thematically to provide insights into the search and bid evaluation process of firms, the best ways for a new reseller to approach and enter the consideration set, parameters on which currently used resellers are evaluated and pain points with currently used resellers.
The Quantitative survey data analysis provided insights into around:
- Current perceived brand equity of the client brand and a select list of pre-identified leading brands. A brand equity score was calculated for each brand. Top-3 players and 3 closest competitors were identified
Delivery- 2
Brand Imagery: Phronesis Partners had developed a list of 27 brand imagery attributes measuring 5 broad brand imagery factors: Quality, Customer Centricity, Tech Leadership, ESG, and Business Performance
- We identified the top-3 firms with the strongest brand imagery associations and the 3 closest competitors to Boxxe based on overall positive brand imagery perceptions
- A Machine Learning algorithm was used for a key driver analysis of consideration based on these 27 brand imagery attributes
- An importance-performance mapping was carried out for Boxxe based on its relative performance (compared to the average over the competitors) and the attribute importance obtained
- This helped us identify brand imagery attributes the client could focus on with the highest impact and attributes where urgent improvement in brand perceptions was required.
Delivery- 3
Way to establish contact with buyers, the Frequency of Customer Need Gaps:
Besides imagery perceptions, we also zeroed in on 8 operational parameters on which users assessed their average level of satisfaction with the IT resellers they had used. This analysis by industry provided the client with useful feedback on the pain points by industry sectors.
- Customer Need gaps were also looked at the size of buyers as volumes and hence, pain points could be different for smaller as opposed to larger buying firms
- Reseller Selection Criteria: We looked at the self-reported importance of 14 reseller selection criteria to further firm up the insights obtained from the qualitative research. The analysis was conducted at the level of industry sectors to obtain inputs on positioning by sector while simultaneously matching against current capabilities.
- Our research also provided additional inputs on the opportunities open to resellers to offer more advanced IT-managed services
- Since the qualitative research had pointed toward participation at IT events as a potentially fruitful attendance over a large number of IT industry events were obtained, and the top events suggested for future participation by the client
Impact
- Phronesis-Partners presented the results of the study to senior executives of the client firm, including the CEO and CMO, and the client’s brand management team
- Post this, we had a round of discussions with the marketing agency that the client was working with to develop and implement their new marketing plan
- Insights from the importance-performance matrix analysis and customer need gaps laid out a solid foundation for the new marketing communications messaging strategy by highlighting selling points as well as attributes where poor perceptions had to be managed
- Competitor insights were found valuable in redefining the competitor landscape in line with new data and determining the target competition in the sectors that the client was likely to see the greatest traction
- Tactical information was also obtained around:
- Sector-wise importance of references in the bidding process
- Sector-wise likelihood of considering a new reseller without sector presence
- IT events that the client should attend every year to create contacts
