Grow Your Business - David Reid Group Perth - Strategy, Marketing, Sales, People, Technology, Consulting and Coaching

Tash Sheldrick

Tash has held senior positions with some of the world’s largest and most well-known companies, including Nestle, Kraft Foods and Walt Disney Television International. She has worked in sales and brand management and helped these multi-nationals build and maintain their brand in the market. She has an economics degree and post graduate studies in marketing.

In this DRG snapshot, Tash discusses the value of strategic marketing.

What are the implications for not spending your marketing dollar strategically?

Many businesses, especially those that have been around for a while, seem to spend their marketing funds based on trial and error i.e. what has worked or not worked in the past. That past experience is incredibly valuable, but these businesses tend to exist in a very competitive market place with new entrants and changing consumer trends and attitudes. So it is important to re-visit your decisions by doing an audit of the current situation and ensure that you have the right strategies in place. Some companies don’t even have strategies –they just seem to make ad hoc decisions on what to do based on such things as which outside marketing expert approaches them or what their competitors do. Marketing funds are usually very tight in these companies, so it’s really important that they are spending it in the right areas to achieve their objectives.

Where should you spend your money?

Marketing wise there are so many different options. You can produce brochures, conduct email marketing, develop a website, improve your corporate id, undertake consumer research, run TV and radio advertising, use direct mail, run customer loyalty initiatives, develop corporate gifts and so on. Having so many options means it’s very difficult to decide where to best spend your money. If you do not have clear objectives, and clear strategies to achieve those objectives, the money you do spend is likely to be wasted.

One of the best areas to invest in, before anything else is implemented, is to position your brand. Marketing funds will be wasted if your activities do not clearly communicate what your brand stands for, to whom, when, where and why. A brands’ positioning differentiates the brand from its’ competitors, provides creative direction, endures over time (and product changes including competitive advantages) and is the ultimate demonstration of having an insight into your consumer. You don’t want to just use your marketing materials to build brand awareness you also want them to communicate the positioning of your brand.

Can you talk about your experiences working with Nestle, Kraft Foods and Disney and the processes you had in place to ensure you made the right marketing decisions?

Nestle, Kraft Foods and Disney all have a really strong planning element to their marketing. All of these companies would never spend a cent without doing a full marketing plan the year before. This is a key reason why these companies are very successful. These multinational companies spend a lot of time on their market planning and getting their budgets approved well before the year starts. At the same time, you still need to remain adaptable, because things do change during the year. So you need to have a plan in place, but it can be fluid and can always be changed if external or internal events require it to be so but at least you have a strong framework to start with.

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